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Oct072011 | Steve O'Donnell

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

I mourn the loss of Steve Jobs.

If it wasn’t for him, well, I’m not sure if we’d still be using DOS, but I think it’s safe to say that technology wouldn’t be where it is now.

If he retired with the stack of money he had following his ouster from Apple in the mid-80s, I doubt we’d be at the point where I can hand a device to my 4-year old or to my mom, and have both people intuitively know how to use it without a long explanatory demonstration. Also, without his influence, technology would still be ugly. He realized there wasn’t a good reason tech had to be beige and that it could form the aesthetic centerpiece of a desk, office, or even living room.

Steve Jobs was also a prolific inventor and realized that patents were vital to business, especially to a company whose strength lies in innovation. He is listed as an inventor on 317 patents that range from computers and peripherals to OS innovations, and even to staircases. I’m not going to list them all, especially since the New York Times already has here. Take a few minutes to look through their list to get an appreciation of the depth of Steve’s influence.

The Times list, of course, doesn’t contain applications that haven’t yet issued as patents. I don’t know how many of those are pending, but I know we’ll be seeing Steve Jobs’ influence for years to come.

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Oct072011 | Steve O'Donnell

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

I mourn the loss of Steve Jobs.

If it wasn’t for him, well, I’m not sure if we’d still be using DOS, but I think it’s safe to say that technology wouldn’t be where it is now.

If he retired with the stack of money he had following his ouster from Apple in the mid-80s, I doubt we’d be at the point where I can hand a device to my 4-year old or to my mom, and have both people intuitively know how to use it without a long explanatory demonstration. Also, without his influence, technology would still be ugly. He realized there wasn’t a good reason tech had to be beige and that it could form the aesthetic centerpiece of a desk, office, or even living room.

Steve Jobs was also a prolific inventor and realized that patents were vital to business, especially to a company whose strength lies in innovation. He is listed as an inventor on 317 patents that range from computers and peripherals to OS innovations, and even to staircases. I’m not going to list them all, especially since the New York Times already has here. Take a few minutes to look through their list to get an appreciation of the depth of Steve’s influence.

The Times list, of course, doesn’t contain applications that haven’t yet issued as patents. I don’t know how many of those are pending, but I know we’ll be seeing Steve Jobs’ influence for years to come.

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