What we lost with Jobs

I've been a yearly iPhone upgrader as long as there was an iPhone. Every year we pass them down through our family and sell the oldest unused iPhone for cash to an auntie or uncle sitting outside of the Apple Store Causeway Bay. Today, was my upgrade day. I went to the Causeway Bay Apple Store, like the Apple lemming I am and stood in line for 10 minutes for the chance to buy a phone that looks exactly like the phone I've already owned for a year. Apple was on my mind.

As I was driving home this evening, I passed under the IFC Mall Apple Store in Central, Hong Kong. As you drive under the Apple Store, you see the giant white Apple logo glowing above you. The same giant glowing white Apple logo that was briefly extinguished on October 6, 2011, the day after Steve Jobs passed away. It got me thinking about what we lost when Jobs left us.

This year was a different year for those of us who dutifully upgrade our iPhones every year. We had an actual choice between the normal iPhone and the new folding iPhone. The new phone was very polarizing because of the different set of tradeoffs that are made in its design. One can't but help but wonder, as one does about every Apple decision and product, what would Steve Jobs have said or done?

Jobs was famous and remains famous after his death not only for the businesses he built and the products they sold, but because of the countless interviews and talks that he gave over the course of his lifetime. He had an opinion on everything related to his businesses, products and life and he never hesitated to share it. That transparency, insight and inspiration is what we've lost. Apple today is a well-oiled machine that prints both money and generally very good products. But the people that lead it provide us with much less insight into business and life. And, compared to Jobs, they're not very inspirational.