In 1986, Jobs acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. Consequently he became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.

I did not know he shared a birthday with my eldest daughter and was born 10 days before me. Wonder if we are related? *writes begging letter*

to work at Apple. She was thrilled. She's a top notch IT person and for her it's a dream come true. So good for her.

I don't know why anyone would think Apple were evil.

...any of that, Martin. My experience mirrors yours in almost every respect. The iMac is great and very reliable. OS X Lion is OK - the most painless OS upgrade I have ever undertaken. My iPod holds all my music; my iPod Touch is my PDA and, through wifi, keeps me connected for longer. My life is simpler. The big difference I notice is that there is just much less hassle with Apple stuff compared to when I was a PC. I'm no fanboi, but I do recognise and appreciate beneficial impacts when they affect me.

For me Jobs was a game changer and you have to respect that. You don't have to like him, but you have to acknowledge that he has given the consumer what he/she wanted - as the figures demonstrate.

I too wish him well in whatever he goes on to do next.

...which will be the 3rd Mac I have bought since 2006. I don't have an i-Phone or anything else.

I use Garageband, and for that alone I like Apple.

Apple are smart. I will have spent the equivalent of one weeks wages per year on Mac's alone in the last 5 years, and I'm probably at the low end of the technology scale. There is a lot of pressure to keep up with all the new products, and I reckon my annual tithe to Apple will not be uncommon and may even be on the small side.

I have a Mac Air and iPad. GLW has an iPhone which she doesn't use to anything like it's full potential and the children have iPod touch. The Air is great but a very expensive netbook essentially. My Blackberry is very efficient for email and calendar, plays music and receives the Word podcast via wifi, has a better battery life and is a better phone than the iPhone. The iPod touch is a great device for the children but, again, expensive. iPad is an toy that I bought because I wanted it. It is just starting to become useful in a work environment but not, for me, in a way that other devices couldn't be used.
What I think Jobs has done is understand what people want for their home life in a way that Bill Gates never could have done.

I've used all of them since the early 90s and have always been happy with them (with maybe the exception of the late 90s; before the second-coming of Steve).

However, I've never ever bought one with my own money. Basically I'm quite techie and there's hardly anything I can't do on a PC that I can do on a Mac.

I also like to go under the hood sometimes; unfortunately Apple goes to sometimes absurd lengths to stop you modifying their machines – I read recently that the RAM in the new MacBook Airs is soldered to the motherboard. Christ almighty.

I can see the attractions though. But the fanboi-ism is intensely irritating. It's only a computer for god's sake.

from various quarters, be it hobbyists and tweekers who want to tinker with the machine or contrarians who just don't like Big Biz or naysayers who'll point at the occasional flops or mistakes. But what they have achieved with the "walled garden" is to create a usually very effective "it just works" environment. Compare that to Motorola who recently said that way over 75% of the large number of Android phones returned as "broken" have in fact been kyboshed by either malicious or plain badly written Apps.

You can arguably buy a better computer, a better phone, a better MP3 player etc than the Apple version. But noone has had the vision and determination to put them together for the home consumer market in well designed hardware that runs pretty intuitive software and is sold through a well managed e-tail and retail environment.

I hope on a personal level that Steve Jobs' health is holding up and congratulate him on creating one of, if not the, premier consumer electronic businesses in the world. I also happen to think that there is enough stellar talent in Apple, along with an established culture, for it to carry on very well with him taking a background role and, ultimately, when he quits for good.

I switched to an iMac about 10 years ago when we had kids - before that I used to "tinker" with PC's but decided that I simply did not have the time for that anymore and just wanted to get things done. Since switching at home, I very quickly changed my work notebook to a Mac.

I wouldn't class myself as a fanboy, I don't buy everything they make (I update every 3 or 4 years) but I like the fact that they give me what I want (quality and ease of use). They are not perfect and certainly Steve Jobs has his critics, but at the end of the day he has built a company that has an ability to design computers / consumer electronics that "just work" and give the consumer what they want.

It looks like he'll still be there in the background and I don't suspect that Apple will change that much. I do hope that his stepping down is due to him not being able to give 100% and not due to a major deterioration in his health. I suspect, it being Apple, that the timing has been precisely managed - just enough time for the dust to settle before the major new product launches.

Very high respect for the man - remember he is also responsible for Pixar, which is enough of an achievement for any one person.

Not because I slavishly avoid Apple, but simply because the reliance on iTunes freaks me out a bit. The number of people I know who have ended up losing music collections or unable to access them because of some aspect of iTunes seems ridiculous. Also, unless I'm misinformed they make it very hard for you to share a music collection, as my wife and I do. I like the ease with which I can just drop tunes onto my mp3 player and that's it; if I want them on another machine I can simply download them again. Another thing: people with ipods seem to replace them every year or two. My mp3 player (creative zen vision) has been going for 6 years, has taken some hefty knocks and is fine (on the downside, it is twice the thickness of a new ipod).

I've no doubt that the Apple environment is excellent and easy to use, unlike a lot of my PC stuff. And I'm no techie, so that has great appeal. But I can't help but be put off by the nightmare stories.

I'm open to being persuaded otherwise though: after all, they all look so nice...

and I was very impressed. I'm not that techie, so I sit bemusedly on the fence when fanbois argue the toss with the evil Apple brigade. I think Apple have made some great products and like I would for anyone, I just hope Mr Jobs remains with us for a long time to come. it seems like he's one of the innovators. We need them now, more than ever.

I've used both platforms since the mid 80s. In simple terms, the former for DTP and the latter for databases. In our software development work we have to be platform neutral but what I'm particularly greatful for to Jobs and to Apple is the way they have completely revolutionised the way ordinary - i.e. non-technical - people think about computers, the Internet and computer-aided devices. For nearly 2 decades I have tried to pull people away from ICT infrastructures that just don't link the people who need the data to the people who are custodians of it. Computer empires have been built that do not serve the end users and have cost the earth to maintain. The old classic cartoon of the large tank of water and the dripping tap at one end has always been the best analogy.

But Apple - not only them but they are the most significant in terms of hardware - have really delivered computers for everyday, for people who wouldn't normally use them and this has totally transformed the markets I work in. They've made computers accessible in a way that Microsoft/PC never did when they had a stranglehold on the marketplace 10 years ago. They've moved the debate away from the status quo of static network systems to mobile flexible systems and multiple delivery channels.

I can do without all the spin and hype that surrounds Apple - and I must confess the whole love-in and "It's better than a PC. No it's not" arguments are boring beyond belief to someone who has used both for over 25 years - but the underlying argument that computers should be easy and accessible to anyone is profoundly important on many levels.

Made the switch myself to Mac about 8 years ago for the usual suspects of reasons that everyone else does. Love the gear and recommend to any pals buying new machines to give it a try. iMac, Macbook, Ipad, iPod Touch, even my 8 year old Powerbook is still going as a boombox in our utility room.

Nevertheless, the zealotry that some Apple fanbois display is frankly embarrasing, the moment anyone puts up even the mildest of critiques about the company or Jobs himself they descend like some techy Taliban - even some of pals are like this. You read the letters pages of any UK Mac magazine? The Star Letter in the main UK one, most months, usually goes 'made the switch to Mac from PC .... never going back .... your mag is great, keep up the good work!' Urk.

As for the Apple Store I bought my iMac from, Jesus Jones, the service was terrible - there were a seethe of us all waiting to be served for an absolute age as we watched the numerous salesstaff there showing more interest in frankly showing off to punters, spending an age giving some kind of tech support about how to use Safari or iTunes, rather than doing anything as tawdry as selling the actual bleeding equipment!

Apple can and do make mistakes, as much as the next tech company - for example, I wanted to change from my current ISP-given mail addresses so set up a MobileMe account; went smooth as silk, great service too, but when I went to change my iTunes account username (which is a mail address) it wouldn't let me do it; seems that when a MM account is opened, Apple creates an iTunes account to with your new MM address, and you can't change it. The sum result is that I have to keep my old mail address extant which kinda defeats the purpose; caveat emptor I spose, but still, baffling.

Even Super Stevie drops the odd bollock - like Uncle Clive Sinclair, he was always dismissive of the whole ouevre of video games, though has become silent on the matter in recent times since they started selling a shit-ton of Angry Birds et al on the App store.

I do wonder how long is can all last for Apple - they look bulletproof, constantly developing and iterating with excellence, but entropy will have its way in the consumerist arena as much as it will with the cosmos. I worked for Nokia in the mid-90s and there wasn't a week that went by without some bash at work to celebrate the latest multi-million Euro deal with some operator in Germany, or India, or some former collapsed Eastern European oligarchy. Every phone was a must-have sales smash yet look at the position they are in now. And if Apple rather gets superceded in the public consciousness, then by whom? - an existing manufacturer like Samsung who just seem to get better and better in all fields they operate in, or would it be by a brand new Chinese company who appear outta nowhere.

BR
FT

I am not a 'fanboy' either. My first professional experiences with computers were with Macs (since 1994), and I have stuck with them. I deliberated for ages over buying an iPad, and considered other non-Apple options, but I took the plunge a few weeks ago, and well, I'm certain that no other equivalent device (if there really is one) would suit me half as well. Long may Apple continue to lead and innovate, and long may Steve Jobs be involved.

I feel it's quite shocking that a company of that size does so little for charity. Jobs closed their Philanthropic Division in 1997 as a "temporary cost-cutting measure until profitability improved", but never reopened it. The UK Government has also, this year, tried to get Apple to reverse their block on charity donations through Phone Apps. Compare this with Microsoft.

With the technology itself, my main issue is the lack of freedom with their devices - having to use iTunes, lack of open source software, Phone-Application submission/approval system. iPhones also lack the flexibilty of other similar devices (expandable memory, changable battery etc).
I also don't like how they try and claim patent on everything and sue/block Android products, when they themselves stole from Nokia (loads of legal battles going on at present). They seem to be overpriced compared to similar products and I'm baffled why they have the status which they do.

I think Martin has pretty much nailed my views on Apple too. I think the products are very good at what they are designed to do and I find the user experience to be better, for me, than previous PC experiences.

Do I worry that Apple don't give money to charity? Not really in the same way that I wouldn't specifically by a product from a company that does. I will buy Apple products when I have a useful need for them and when I think they are reasonable value for money. Hench I have an iMac, a couple of iPods, some Apple TV devices and the Apple wireless kit. I don't have an iPad and I bought a HTC Desire HD largely because the iPad is too expensive for what I would do with it and the iPhone is too expensive compared to a HTC Desire HD.

I have a simplistic view that consumer led companies do well if they produce products that consumers value. Apple seem to doing this right and I don't understand why that people who don't like the products are so antagonised by the fact that some people do. Other products are available.

I got a Mac Book pro about 1 year ago, I do music on it (just for fun, I'm guff at music). It is absolutely fantastic for it, zero latency on all the virtual instruments in logic, it's great.

I'm also a software developer for a job (please kill me) and since Martin also works in I.T. I thought I would share my experience trying to develop an IPad app (It's going to be like an Omnichord but with extra bits and bobs). Btw any non i.T. person prepare to glaze over.

The Apple Development environment is XCode. It is without a doubt the singular worst IDE I have ever used. Multiple windows pop up all over the place, basic essential stuff like refactoring not working, Interface Builder is all over the place like a madman's piss and lets not mention the dog turd that is the Objective C language.

A crap development environment? There's an app for that.

It's a miracle there are so many apps when the dev experience is sooooo bad (apparently you just have to get used to it, cheers Apple!)

Ah, much better now.

made a three-minute film for work on my MacBookPro using iMovie, Photoshop, In Design, Garageband, iTunes and Safari (the last two for listening to music and running this blog in the background).

I remember the first time I did something like this it took six weeks and several trips to a video company. Today it took three hours and I didn't leave the sofa, except for the occasional iWee.

I had a point but I've forgotten what it was.

I'm sure the many plaudits to Steve Jobs are well warranted but the conceptual and design thinking behind most of the key Apple products belongs to Brit Jonathan Ive.
I converted to Apple about 6 years ago and wouldn't dream of moving back to PCs. My only quibble is pricing, ie the Apple premium. While I admire the iPad, it doesn't fit my lifestyle but I would like to upgrade my basic white MacBook to a MacBook Pro sometime if the price ( c. £1500 ) wasn't so eye-watering.

since 1985

end of.

But their zealots...

Mind you I still shudder at using a Mac with it's *one* mouse button and no eject button (drag the disk to the trash? WTF?)

However...

I love Pixar, and Steve deserves the pat on the back for his involvement (pouring gallons of cash down the drain in their early days).

iTunes for fucking Windows...

...towards Apple has changed. Traditionally patronising and condescending.. this opinion seems to have shifted over the last 5 years. Especially evident now with this (actually the 3rd) story of the health related departure of Jobs.

The last 5 years have seen more media people buying iphones and ipads, so they have for the first time seen what they are missing. This is what has caused the shift. Practical experience really for the first time.

It's been a truly bizarre to watch uphill struggle for Apple. A struggle against those employed in an industry that had nailed it's colours to the Microsoft mast. A position taken almost completely out of prejudice, and a lack of willingness to be told they are wrong.

What we have seen is probably 20 years of people voluntarily choosing to spend their hard earned cash to use inferior hardware running Windows. An Operating System with a kind of built-in obsolescence, built with a supine lack of imagination and consideration.

This has always been a total bloody disgrace. Am I overstating it? Is it true that these are 'just computers, get a life'? no - because of the amount of time that people spend using a computer as part of their lives, jobs and leisure time. That's why. These are not just hours, they are days and weeks. Valuable time.

There you go... crucify me

the furrowing of eyebrows at Word Towers...

That's probably my favourite.

Or maybe this:

Hope this helps.

*lights blue touchpaper and legs it*

me cat

But that article that's doing the rounds about him ringing an employee on a Sunday morning to discuss some piddling font issue that could have waited a day? It made him sound like a tyrant and a queeny buffoon. It's supposed to remind us of how awesome he is for, y'know, "caring", but it switched me from mild approval to deep visceral distaste.

The employee is a lapdog, I'm afraid:

http://www.maclife.com/article/news/google’s_vic_gundotra_my_favorite_steve_jobs_moment_sunday

Great products - love my MacBook and can't see myself going back to Windows (although I am very happy to have swapped my iPhone for an Android phone).

Horrible company. The charity issue has already been done, but how about their current lawsuit against Samsung, where (in a drastically abridged version) they photoshopped a Samsung tablet to make it look like an iPad, and then sought an injunction on the grounds that it, er, looked like an iPad? Or the people I've helped at work who have bought iPods from us, had them go wrong a few months after buying them and been refused help from Apple because according to them the twelve month warranty starts as soon as they sell it to the reseller, not when the customer buys it...

And Jobs is a brutal businessman. Having been seriously roughed up by his own company in the 80s he learned how to stop being a hippy and become a serious player. Apple is a brutal company. For about 30 seconds last week it became the biggest company in the world. Do you think they got that way by being nice? People, you don't have to answer that, it was a rhetorical question. Their marketing has always been brilliant: for a long time, before there were virals, Apple's viral was that to buy into Apple was to buy into a counter-culture of individualism and an antiIBM/Microsoft mindset. I certainly bought it. Over £1500 for a PC? Certainly, sir! That'll stick it to The Man! And so on.

Every company and industry that Apple has been involved with has found, to its cost, that the closer they work with Jobs, the tighter he has them by the balls. The iTunes store is the case in point and as a result Jobs is now universally loathed by the Music Business. Of course, he had saved their arses, but people have short memories.

I started using Apple in 1987 via work and at home, from 1996. The way that Jobs turned a busted flush around is little short of remarkable, and he is of course a remarkable man: I also happen to think he is seriously weird, but men (and women) like him usually are. As a seasoned Apple watcher, I've seen the way the Apple has wormed its way into the public consciousness; the early iPod ads signed off with the Apple Logo, "for Mac and PC". By the end, it was just the Apple logo. That's confidence for you: I bet they enjoyed that.

...is that people think it's odd and reprehensible that Jobs should be monomaniacal or hard-nosed. He's the driving force behind one of the world's biggest business, and people want him to be *nice*? You don't get there by being an easy-going sweetie, I'm afraid.

Oh, btw: I've been phoned about a work issue by my boss on the weekend. I'm a teacher. If I were a senior VP at Apple, frankly I'd be surprised to get a weekend in the first place.

From Horrible Histories

it gave me a bigger knob.

This excellent analysis - 5 ways Apple will never be the same without Jobs as CEO - arrived in my work inbox recently.

5. Who will ignore what the public wants?
4. Who will shame people into greatness?
3. Who will take the big risks?
2. Who will say no?
1. Who will conjure the 'magic'?

Rings true to me, particularly points 5 and 2, which are what has separated Apple from the myriad other me-too competitors.

Then again, the alternative scenario is that Apple continues on its relentless march towards perfection due to the momentum he has generated and the undoubted brilliance of the team he has put together over the years, notably Jonathan Ive. I sincerely hope it's the latter, but given Jobs' once-in-a-generation qualities, nobody should be too hard on the company if they revert to being merely very good.