The Crazy Ones

"They change things. They push the human race forward." This is how Apple once described "the crazy ones" in a famous television commercial. Love him or hate him, and honestly, both are probably too extreme. He was another business man. Well known for being a jerk to his employees, firing people at will over silly reasons, and not reuniting with his birth father; Steve Jobs was also the co-founder of a company that changed the way people interact with technology.

There were MP3 players before the iPod. But they, quite frankly, sucked. The iPod was revolutionary. It had a 5GB hard drive in it. In the days of cheap, readily available flash memory, that may seem like nothing. But a decade ago it was incredible. Unheard of in a portable device. It was small (ish), portable, lasted a full work day on battery, and held a massive amount of music. The $399 price tag was very high, but you got a product that could finally do the things people imagined being able to do - easily carry their music library with them, anywhere.

There were computers before the Mac, but you had to learn how to use them. The Mac brought the familiar "desktop" model every major platform uses today. This allowed people to relate to their computer in a way that made sense and connected with people's pre-existing knowledge of real-world objects.

There were touchscreen phones before the iPhone. They didn't even suck. They worked pretty darn well, and did a lot more than the iPhone did on launch day. But they were confusing, difficult to use, and geared towards professionals. The iPhone brought a user interface that made sense to "every man", and a fashionable product people wanted to carry with them.

Did Steve Jobs invent these products? Nope, not really. His staff did, especially Jonathan Ive in recent years. But Steve Jobs knew how to bring revolutionary products to market. Products that changed the way people interact with their world. That picture above? I took it on my iPhone 4. Unedited, straight off the phone. Absolutely stunning, because Apple (usually) knows how to get products right. In the little ways that don't show up on spec sheets, but make all the difference in the world to real users.

What can companies learn from Apple? Quit worrying about spec sheets. Only geeks care, because they're so smart they're idiots and don't pay attention to how the product works. Design beautiful products that work well. Don't load your computers with garbage and adware that makes them slow and barely functional out of the box. Create a product you want to use. Something you'd open and start using yourself. Something you could live with every day. Then sell it to everyone else :) That's what Jobs knew how to do. Hire the right guy to design the products he would use himself, then sell them to everyone else. Revolutionary? Yes. Only one who can do it? Absolutely not.