RIP Steve Jobs

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by cpayne5

I agree with saden.

The problem I have with the Jobs/Edison comparison is that while Edison invented things, Jobs took what already existed, made it look cool by painting it white, and then sold a ton of them.

Everyone wants to say that the iPod was a great invention. It wasn't an invention. It was a well marketed digital media player (not the first!) whose timing was right.

If he is the closest we have to Edison for our generation, then our generation has failed miserably, IMO.

Jobs definitely deserves a lot of credit for all that he accomplished, but he is no Edison. Not even close.

The real success story coming out this re-imagining of Apple during the time you mentioned was not actually the iPod but iTunes. iTunes was basically the first accepted and legit place to purchase music. It drove everything. Jobs was a marketer...not an inventor. And he was an ass who ran a company that built it's empire on the backs of Chinese child sweatsshops, killed Apple's philanthropic efforts and created a market environment in which creativity and free expression (ideas that the Apple brand was supposed to represent) were strictly controlled. He was not the Jesus of the consumer product market like many want to believe. He was a successful business man who ran a company that makes pretty cool stuff. He was a good idea man and an even better showman.

Imagine if Danny boy had his hands in businesses that did stuff like Apple. He'd be getting killed over just the sweatshops alone.