Here’s a true story. A couple of months ago I had to make a trip to one of our new stores to help train the sales staff. I loaded the store’s address into my GPS so I could get to the store quickly and efficiently. I had a couple of new albums that I’d purchased so I transferred them onto my MP3 player.
Knowing this would be an overnight stay, I took a couple of novels on my eBook reader, in case I had some downtime in the evening. I was a few levels through a new game on my portable gaming device as well, so I made sure that was packed for the trip to for some mindless fun in case I wasn’t in the mood to read.
The training went well, and because of the amount of people involved in the sales training, we used one of the display 55 inch plasmas to display the presentation I’d created. During lunchtime I was able to catch up on my emails and make a few return phone calls that I’d missed during training. I made sure I took some shots of the staff and the store on my digital still camera to share back at work.
Once the session was over and we’d had a (somewhat) quiet night out with the staff, I retired back to the hotel and decided to watch a TV episode I’d missed a couple of weeks ago. I still managed to squeeze in a couple of chapters of my book and cleared even more emails.
On the way back to Sydney, I was really in the mood from for a dedicated rock music channel, so I tuned into an internet radio station and enjoyed a channel pumped through my car speakers directly from the States.
I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. There have been many tributes and reflections this week for Steve Jobs, as news of his resignation as CEO of Apple spread. My “day in the life” story above has been replicated millions of times over around the world.
The iPhone and iPad had a part to play in all of the activities mentioned above, where it would have taken many more devices and a lot more complication to achieve without them. You can replace the words “GPS/camera/ebook reader/gaming/email/TV” with either of the two iDevices I had with me that day. Was convergence ever so apparent before now?
I could go on, from the rich educational apps that have my kids play, to the touch-enabled magazines and newspapers I probably read more than ever due to the ease of use and instant accessibility.
As the next chapter is to be written soon with the release of the next major OS update and cloud services from Apple, we’ll have an opportunity to see where these new offers take the Apple brand and further impact our social, leisure and working lives. And in amongst it, there will have been the guiding hand of Steve Jobs.
As Jobs is still an active member of Apple through his Chairman position, his influence is sure to be felt for a while yet. From nearly bankrupt to the most valuable company in the world, under Jobs’ stewardship Apple’s products, ecosystem and content delivery have truly changed the way we work, play and communicate. As an observer and participant in this industry, I can’t think of a better legacy to leave behind.
Has Apple’s products made a difference to the way you work? Do you think Apple will continue to lead the market with Steve Jobs removing himself from the helm? Feel free to comment below.
