Steve Jobs has died.

First of all, condolences to his family, friends and company.

My vision of him being an innovator differs from nearly everyone I've talked to, if you want to know about it without reading everything, read the last section/paragraph. This post is not intended to belittle him, Apple or SJ's accomplishments.

Steve Jobs was a great visionary but it's my personal belief that he's not even close to being the greatest of innovators. I disagree about how he's comparable to Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, etc.

For example when you think about how electricity impacted society, Apple doesn't even come close. What about Henry Ford, you didn't have to own a Ford vehicle to benefit from his innovation.

So let's take a look at Apple's innovation through Steve Jobs.

Am I really that much better off because I can hold a month's worth of music in my hand instead of 1 hour's worth of music? Not really.

Apple pushed the technology of smart phones maybe 5 years ahead of what they would be without the iPhone.

Tablets wouldn't be so popular, but has the tablet really made the world a better place compared to the Netbook? Probably not.

The real talent of Jobs was that he got people to love his products; and I mean really love, with dying dedication love. And that's the reason his death is so significant.

The tragedy of his death speaks for itself. The thing that I can't seem to stop thinking about is the fact that he just stepped down from the helm.

For him, or anyone for that matter, to go thru life adding so much to so many lives. To work since the age of 15 and pretty much not enjoying the success that comes from that is very sad. He really had no time to enjoy his success and to just sit back and relax. That is the saddest part to me. You go go go all your life and once you stop and would like to smell the roses you knock off. I guess the Lord has a bigger, better plan for him.

Sad? Yes.

Shocking? Not at all. He knew his fate years ago, and so did we. Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst.

Bad for Apple? Not really. He has not been running the ship for quite some time, even before he officially stepped down. Apple will go on without him.

From what I have seen of Steve Jobs he was a good speaker. My condolences go out to all those close to him.

No disrespect meant toward Jobs but I somewhat don't understand the massive hype surrounding this. I've been in field of computers and electronics for some 25 years and have never used an Apple or Mac for anything. I understand that the I-Phone was a pretty big deal but cell phones were moving in that direction anyways and I just can't say I would be interested in anything that doesn't have a real keyboard such as an I-Pad. I would like an I-Pod though as those seem pretty kool. My point being Apple and Mac has by in large seemed like a propped up market share for a long time. I think Apple was actually going to go under at one point not so long ago until Microsoft bought a bunch of share in the company to keep it a float so MS wouldn't be seen as a monopoly and forced to split by the government. It seemed for a long time like Apple was just fake competition for MS.

I still don't entire understand the whole 'I'm a Mac. I'm a PC.' To me it's kinda like apples and oranges (no pun intended). Mac makes hardware and operating systems while MS only makes operating systems. Mac OS is nothing other then a proprietary form of Linux anyways and in recent years you can't couldn't even tell the difference between a Mac and a PC to the point that they had to have firmware installed so the OS could check to see if it was being installed on a genuine Mac or not (Hackintosh).

I suppose Mac was good for people who wanted a one size fits all kind proprietary simplicity at an exorbitant price hike but its not like Macs haven't had there own share of problems.

As stated, sorry for the lose and no disrespect but all those Mac 'innovations' where basically stolen ideas from Zenith. I personally think the programming community deserves much more credit for the growth of both the PC, Mac and internet as honestly what good is an OS if there are no good applications for it.

Just my 2 cents. Hope I don't set anyone off, but you know how the internet is.

I like how he laced into his commencement speech (being quoted everywhere) how it took MS ten years to copy his OS.

No mention however that he took a huge investment from MS to save the company when it was on the skids.

Perhaps the final tribute is that all the college students returned here to Boston now seem to have Apples. It's def a status symbol.

RIP Steve China Jobs, the modern Edison.