Kibbles & Bytes Blog

Small Dog employees are sharing our tributes to Steve Jobs on our blog.

“*Click here*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/in-memoriam-steve-jobs/ to read our reflections on Jobs’ life and legacy and please feel free to share your own in the comments.

When I started writing this article, the dust had settled somewhat on Tuesday’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” event and the world had not yet become aware of Steve’s passing. I had been ruminating on why there was a collective letdown surrounding the announcement of the iPhone 4S, and I wanted to break down why.

So, it wasn’t the much-rumored iPhone 5. But it wasn’t that simple.

The 4S has amazing features–among them, a “blazingly fast” dual-core A5 chip, an 8 megapixel camera with advanced optics (including a much-improved light sensor), full 1080p HD resolution video recording, Siri, a “personal assistant” that interacts via voice commands __and__ a completely redesigned antenna (remember Antennagate?)–but people were expecting more. Something was missing…one more thing.

Steve Jobs had a unique brand of showmanship–an understated flair for the dramatic. He wasn’t bombastic or showy in the traditional sense, but he had an amazing passion for his products that directly translated to the user. He’d delight fans when he’d all but close a keynote by saying, “Oh, and there’s one more thing.” Then, something amazing would appear and we’d all decide we needed it immediately.

Accustomed to so many groundbreaking products that ultimately proved to be “gamechangers,” people clamored to find out what would be unveiled at these events beforehand, and thus, the rumor mills started churning. Steve changed everyone’s expectations–he raised the bar and let everyone know what they needed before they even knew they needed it.

The iPhone 4S is essentially an iPhone 5, but in a familiar package. However, we were expecting the unfamiliar, though the irony is that we were convinced we already knew what it would look like and what it would have.

So, we got what we didn’t expect; Steve was absent from the event, but ultimately, his presence was felt.

I, for one, think the iPhone 4S (along with iOS 5 and other features) looks great, and I’m excited to upgrade when I can. Though the mood was different (and a bit somber, looking back), Tim, Phil and Scott did a great job (and will continue to do a great job) in Steve’s absence.

Oh, but there’s one more thing: Thank you, Steve, for settings our standards high and creating a vision that we can be proud to represent.

_Dear Friends,_

It is with a tremendous sense of loss but also a tremendous feeling of admiration that we mourn the passing of Steve Jobs. Small Dog Electronics would not exist without Steve Jobs. Sixty people work here and gain their inspiration from the work and vision of one man who celebrated the “crazy ones”:

bq. __Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.__

I was in Cupertino at Apple headquarters in 1997 when Steve Jobs addressed a small group of independent Apple resellers and introduced the Think Different campaign. That was a day I will never forget as I sat there mesmerized as Steve showed incredible photos of many of my heroes and role models, from Mahatma Gandhi to John Lennon to Martin Luther King, Jr. to Rosa Parks. I remember thinking that who else but Apple, who else but Steve Jobs could trot out the people that I had learned so much from and admired so greatly in an advertising campaign that celebrated diversity, innovation and craziness. Steve Jobs is in that pantheon of world-changing genius.

Steve Jobs also had a remarkable approach to life itself. His 2005 commencement address at Stanford University is one of the most moving and inspiring speeches I have heard. He talked about life and death but his message was remarkably universal and directed at the young graduates. It rang very true for this old man, too:

bq. __Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.__

“*Click here to see the whole speech.*”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/steve-jobs-stanford-commencement-address-05/

We are going to miss Steve Jobs but his impact, legacy and the company he took from the brink of bankruptcy to become the most valuable company on the planet will survive. Our very lives have been changed so much due to Steve’s vision. He gave us a gift that is perhaps the most precious of all: time. He gave us tools to make our work faster, more accurate and more fun. Tools that give us more time to live our lives. Steve Jobs will live on at Apple but also at Small Dog Electronics and in each of us.