Steve Jobs: 2011 Person of the Year

He does not deserve the honor.  Steve Jobs is the reason ALL of us pay more for our music, movies, and e-books.  He is the reason we all pay more for our mobile phones and devices (think patent litigation is cheap?)!  He is the reason we still continue to struggle with DRM on movies.  There are many things to admire about Steve, but his attitudes and policies to his own customer base isnt one of them!

The guy was not a nice person…it took him years to even acknowledge his illegitimate child.  He returns to Apple…and immediately cancels all of the company’s charitable programs.  He died a MULTI-BILLIONAIRE!  What good is all of that cash doing him now?  Or anyone else for that matter?

I am reminded of a great quote by Andrew Carnegie, “He who dies rich, dies in disgrace.”

There is no doubt he was a VERY successful businessman, sadly, he was far less successful as a human being.  Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs, I, for one, will not miss you.

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie deserves more of the honor.  He died a week after Jobs. Dennis died w/o the “fanfare”, but was more instrumental to the world of computing then Jobs.  Just my $0.03 and this coming from a MAC guy

We weren’t going for the most popular guy, and this is not necessarily an “honor”—just the person that we feel had the biggest impact on the custom electronics industry this year.

All of those ‘ripped off’ stolen iPods, that increased sales of more iPods. They had the technology to track or at least identify via iTunes downloads. I personally believe that Jobs did more to ruin the music industry, and the quality of the recreation of the original recordings. Jobs and his partner Wozniac were however incredible visionaries.

Oh dear Lord, here we go again. The guy was a visionary, yes, but after his death, the truth came out about how ruthless and terrible this guy was to work for. People keep treating him like he was their best friend, worked to solve world hunger, developed a cure for cancer, etc. Heck, even the “evil” Bill Gates at least donated a ton of his money. We need to step off the bus, stop drinking the Kool Aid, and get a dash of reality here.

There have been some innovative products in the past, but they are usually overcome by competitors putting Apple into the game of catch up.  I mean, my Android phone has had a quality 8 MP camera since I got it in April 2010.  iPhone 4s finally gives Apple an 8 MP camera. Just one of dozens of examples. 
I do, however, realize that without the first iPhones, we all would probably still be thinking that BlackBerry devices and flips phones are where is it at.  It was those phones, years ago, that put a fire into the smartphone world.
What has really been ground breaking this year?  Nothing.  A “new” tablet that people owning the last year’s tablet say isn’t worth the price to upgrade?  No thanks.  Apple has fed off of its loyal followers for too long.  Telling them that they aren’t cool if they don’t have the latest Apple product.  Any they followed that mantra.  Blindly buying every latest Apple product every year, regardless of price or performance.  That is what made Mr. Jobs so rich…  His lack of caring about anyone or anything but his newest product and the marketing to try to convince people that for a mere $400ish more this year, that they can have something that is only marginally better than what they bought last year, and that the new product is better than anything else, even when it isn’t.

One of the most influential men of the decade, sure.  Influence doesn’t always mean positive…  But Person of the Year?  Give me a break!

Couldn’t agree with you more Julie. I recall a presentation former Myer-Emco CEO Gary Yacoubian made at a CEA retreat several years ago when he encouraged us all to embrace the iPod and use it to increase both our sales and influence in customers’ homes. Regardless of whether Steve Jobs was the greatest boss or most generous philanthropist in no way diminish the extraordinary impact his company and their products have had and will continue to have on our industry.

Steve Jobs made a tremendous impact not only on this relatively small industry, but on the personal computer, music, movies/tv, and retail industries as well. He may have been ruthless but the apparently it worked for him. His personal life is documented in his book, and I would ask if anyone here is perfectly happy with, or as open about, their own failings on that level.

The reason people buy/bought Apple products is because they are superior than the others. Their iconic branding is an advertising masterstroke, and I bet you all wish you could brand as effectively your own company - so don’t hate.
Spec-wise your POS Andriod might support more pixels or faster processor, but ultimately the experience far less compelling because of the little details (the scrolling is jerkey or the apps don’t quite work right). Jobs kept an eye on the user experience above all else and it paid off for Apple. I think CE pros could learn a thing or two about user experience. Frankly an iPhone or iPad is far more fun to use than any Cres/C4/Amx/Sav touchscreen on the market.

As for ‘ruining the music industry’ I think you are forgetting that Napster and Limewire gutted that greedy beast long before Apple provided a legal solution to the piracy problem. Quality may have been compromised for convenience in the early days but iTunes Match is poised to automatically up the sampling rate of all your songs as bandwidth expands across residential and cell equipment.

These are some of the dumbest comments I’ve ever read in my 43 years of being on this planet. 

I’m not an apple user myself, I use droid.  But I also know that if there wasn’t Apple, there wouldn’t be Droid. 

Increasing the cost of music? How’s that? Tell me where you could purchase a single track of music legally before itunes?  When I was young I had to buy 12 tracks of music that I didn’t want to get to the 2 on the album that were of any value.

Did you walk through CEDIA this year? Everyone is trying to mimic the ipad, or just use it altogether. 

Bottomline, Steve Jobs changed the world and how we use technology on a daily basis. 

The majority of the people who are talking smack about him now don’t have the ability or vision to change their world, let alone the entire world.

1.There wouldn’t be an “app for that” if Steve Jobs didn’t think of it.
2. Would you like to buy a song for .99? Done. 
3.How about a nifty touch screen on your phone? alrighty.
4.How about I charge double or triple the amount for my computers that the other guys do, give excellent support, and a stable OS. That’ll never work, oh, yes it will.
5. How about every iteration of the Mac?
6. How about syncing my phone with my music?
7. Pixar
8. Made computers cool, sexy, communication devices.
9. Hey look, I’m watching something on my ipad, here I’ll press a button and send it to my TV.
10. I could go on and on.

It’s a great accomplishment if a person comes up with 1 thing that makes an impact on the entire world, Steve Jobs and his team churned them out over and over again. The same way Thomas Edison did.

I love when people talk smack about a guy after he’s dead.  I couldn’t care less if he was a “nice guy”, most people who are successful have had to step on a few necks to get to the top. 

This is without a doubt the easiest Person of 2011 ever.  In fact, I’d care to bet that every publication that does a “Person of The Year” will have Jobs on the cover.

Anyone in the CE industry that doesn’t believe he influenced the current market and the future of CE, can now retire. Let us, the generation raised on Apple and macs drive innovation. We’ll bring Simple to use and elegant User experience to clients. This entire business is his vision, no customer cares about the technology, they just want it to work. That’s what Steve brought to the masses.

Bravo! Steve Jobs had an intimate and innate understanding of what our clients want and need and the sea change products he helped bring to market are the ultimate proof of that pudding.

Well said Mr.Compton.

Steve Jobs did to computing what we are all trying to do with audio/video and automation. He took a bunch of pieces and brought them together in a way that allowed the average joe to use them. This is EXACTLY what every CI is (or should be) doing for their customers.

Another decade and he would have polished our industry completely. We wouldn’t have to look like toothless hillbillies when we try and explain why remote batteries for $1000 remotes only last 3 months or why $3000 touchpanels wont stay connected to the access point.

The iPad has sold more jobs in the last couple of years than any other AV/Automation product has in their history. And thank god for the iPod or we would still be trying to convince people to keep a CD jacket book on their coffee table.

This has got to be a joke. Please tell me you thought harder about this and didn’t just jump on the “Steve Jobs is a Saint” bandwagon.

Steve Jobs was one of the most unethical and thieving jerks to have ever held the reigns of a Fortune 500 company. He represents everything that is wrong with the corporate world and his business practices were borderline immoral. Knowingly driving out his competition and completely halting non-Apple innovation, cornering his market, setting high pricepoints for technology made for pennies by overworked suicidal employees in China, and then trapping his loyal customers in a propietary mess of Apple products that were only useable with other Apple products. He’s a nearly perfect clone of Thomas Edison… a hard-working business visionary, but a thief and a slave driver. Steve Jobs was nothing more than a really good PR guy who was great at killing competition, taking other people’s ideas without credit, treating his employees like dirt, outsourcing tech assembly jobs to China, brainwashing millions of consumers into being obssessed with mediocre products, and acting like a complete tool as a human.

Person of the Year indeed.

It certainly makes one wonder who Smee regards as his personal entrepreneurial hero(es)?

I think Smee may have read the directions on his medication incorrectly.

Smee must have forgotten what the “smart phone” looked like before the iPhone. he must have forgotten about the ridiculous “tablet” PC’s that existed before the iPad. He must have forgotten all of the hurdles involved in purchasing digital music and transferring it to a portable device.

Smee must like going to a computer companies website and finding 25 different laptops to choose from… With no clear indication as to which one is better and why.

6.6 billion Q4 2011 profit.I think Smee may be right. The only way to make that kind of money is to push overpriced garbage into the lives of sheep.

As for suicidal workers in China… Nothing we can do about their economy or their government. Hell we cant even stop ours from running this country (USA) into the ground. But… what does that have to do with anything? Everything is made in China. Where did you expect them to have their products built? Mexico? Mexicans wont work that cheap anymore. Nafta has given them a backbone.

“Unethical theiving jerk”. LOL Did he steal your highschool sweet heart?

With regards to those saying he was ” a ruthless and terrible guy to work for” I dont know first hand but found this article which puts apple 10th in best places to work voted on by the employees  
http://www.glassdoor.com/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm