To Steve straight from my heart !!!

Dear Steve,

Its been two years you left us and went for a journey after life. Honestly we really really miss you a lot  though Tim is managing the show and giving his best however many Apple geeks will agree with me we don’t see the same Apple the way it was while you were at the helm of the affairs.

I still remember when the news was broken to me of your demise and how I walked to the nearest Apple Store with a rose in my hand and tears in my eyes thinking how stupid I would look in this composure however when I reached there I was not alone there were others who were thinking the same. We all waited there for a while, speaking none remembering all what you have done for your customers for the humanity at large.

The grief lasted for days till it subdued eventually and then I got my hands on your ‘Autobiography’, written by Walter Isaacson, I could’t resist myself till I get the hard copy so I downloaded the Kindle version as well as Audible audiobook at the same time and started reading and listening to your life as written by Walter and narrated by Dylan Baker. I kept on reinventing you in every page in every chapter, your struggle to accept how and why you were put up for adoption, your passion to take technology to every home by providing people with a desktop computer they can use, your sad ouster from Apple, your failure at Next, how you tasted success at Pixar, your reincarnation at Apple, your digital hub strategy, how you changed one listens to music and many more such interesting triumphs and failures.

Each day I started reflecting on your philosophy behind your products, your passion about the perfection and design, your struggle to keep them simple away from clutter. Your core philosophy of understanding customer’s needs even before they realise what they need. Your ‘Digital Hub’, strategy was an excellent case study for any business to learn how one can reinvent the business with the same set of resources. All the other companies like Sony, Microsoft had equal access to the problems of the music industry such as piracy in digital downloads and had equal access to resources however how only you could pull off the iTunes and iPod and the whole eco system of online and downloadable music. You did the same again when you reinvented the smartphone marketplace by introducing iPhone and an App Store. By doing this you created an army of thousands of application developers and enriched their life. iPad a totally new category created by you in handheld device category seen the same level of success. Today the whole eco system of iPhone-iPad-App Store and iTunes is enriching life of millions of customers every day.

Sometime back someone asked me what exactly have you gained by using Apple products ? and when I started thinking I realised how have you changed my life by your products and your thinking about how technology can be a big empowerment for people. Personally I feel I am more productive when I work on my Macbook as not single minute is wasted on buggy operating system and solving issues related to the hung machine. everyday when I open my Macbook it provokes me to something creative. I am kind of creative guy and love to sit and reflect for hours together when I am working on my ideas, thoughts, almost 10 Hours battery life of my Macbook Air liberates me and allows me to sit anywhere and work rather than hunting for places where I can find power plugs. My iPhone and huge amount of music, e Books, Podcasts, magazines I have there keeps me entertained and enthused when I am travelling. I have downloaded some 150+ Apps which help me keeping my work as well as my personal things organised and neatly arranged for me. As you have said somewhere in your book ‘People today and busy in doing what they love to do my job is to give them simple devices which will lessen their burden of making choices for them’, As a hard core Macofied guy I keep on picking fights with MS and Android bozos and I tell all of them that I am really happy in the gated community you have created for me and there is no free lunch in this world.

I have now accepted your perpetual absence from this world and have adjusted myself with the new Apple leadership. As I said earlier Tim, Johnny,Phil and Scot all of them are amazing people and they are trying to add to the legacy created by you however sometime it really hurts when they suddenly decide to remove Google Maps and don’t provide equally good solution to me. Sometime I feel that innovation engine at Apple is slowing down, there is nothing exciting there as it was during your reign, I still watch WWDC keynote first thing in the early morning when its updated in the archived events but I don’t see the same passion to excite the consumer in Tim.

I thought let me just write this straight to you that we haven’t forgotten you and we still miss your vigour, passion, charisma and how you always had put your consumer first. Let me also take a pledge on this day and let me assure you that I shall also try to change the world may be in a very limited way but I guess if I could do this it would be a real lasting tribute to you. I would never forget your famous convocation speech in which you said ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’.

Amen !!!

Yours,

iUser