Since 1997, Steve Jobs has led the MacWorld Keynote event, addressing the Apple flock with pride and power. From a majestic, seemingly mystical pulpit set atop a wide, dramatically lit stage, he has regaled stockholders, software developers, and enthusiastic consumers, numbering in the millions, with Apple’s plans for the coming year. His intimidating sense of control has afforded him the kind of command over this ever-growing audience that seldom belongs to individuals who don’t draw their power from Government or God.
It is easy to understand why every product launch, press release, news leak, or any one of a countless list of maneuvers can cause measurable, even drastic, shifts in the stock market. With great power comes great liability. Steve Jobs is indeed the core of Apple Inc., and with so much vested in this great company, the big question is obvious: What happens to an apple when it loses its core? The 2009 Mac World Keynote Event marked the day when the devoted members of the Church of Apple got to see that Steve Jobs bleeds like everyone else. His broken posture and slow, weakened movements were daunting.
The dead silence of the audience as all the attendees hung on every word that Jobs offered was indeed reminiscent of his earlier grandeur. Yet, this time, this silence was as much a result of the shock felt equally by all as it was the usual mark of respect. As always, when Steve makes a move, the Universe responds. Uncountable reactions flooded the net. Articles depicted Jobs’ approaching demise. Smarmy opportunists launched
viral games inviting users to bet when he would die, what disease he had when the company would fall, and innumerable others. Nothing, however, was as powerful as the moment that Steve Jobs relieved himself from the keynote address, deferring to Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, to address the Apple Nation as the voice of god. At the same time, he watched from the side on a stool.
Stock prices immediately fell when the dismal rumors of Steve Jobs’ health found confirmation at the Mac World Key Note Event. Apple Inc. faced a moment of ugly and unavoidable truth. Jobs is Apple, which might be the one job in this country that cannot be outsourced. Moreover, even if another man, or a group of men, could be wrangled, trained, incentivized, and passionate to relieve Steve Jobs from his post successfully, would the fellow citizens be willing to give themselves to a new king?
Jobs is responsible for generating the intuitive operating system that uses iconography instead of code to represent actions on the personal computer platform. Positions are accountable for beautifying the casing of the systems so that they can stand almost like art in one’s home. Appointments made possible the animation capacity necessary for the digital masterpieces that keep coming out of Pixar. He saved the music business by conceiving a platform that could monetize a database of media files.
He positioned this marketplace on hundreds of millions of computers around the globe and, more recently, in the pocket of almost a hundred million men and women in the United States. He has erected temples to Apple’s greatness in major cities Worldwide. His awesome presence evokes imagery of high priests and virgins surrounded by platinum chalices spilling over with grapes on the vine. Everything that Apple means to the World is a direct extension of Steve Jobs’ very soul.
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