By now if you don’t know who Steve Jobs is, you clearly haven’t been paying attention.  Don’t dismay, however, I am here to guide you out of the cave you’ve been living in and into the light!

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple - the oh-so-popular technology giant that has emerged in so many of our lives - died on Oct. 5^th, leaving behind a company that owes him its success and a legacy of innovation and progress.

The list of technology Jobs has brought us could go on and on – here are just a few examples:

-       MacBooks

-       iPods

-       iPhones

-       iPads

Before Apple and Steve Jobs, we couldn’t even dream of being where our society is today, technologically speaking. If not for Jobs, we might still be in the dark ages of giant computers with black screens and green type, which seems like ages ago considering how far we’ve come, but put in perspective, it really hasn’t been that long at all.  Jobs truly changed the face of technology in an impressively short amount of time, the way we view it, and also the way we sell it.

Steve Jobs brought Apple back to life – before his return to the company, Apple was in a downward spiral but Jobs was able to turn business around, doing an amazing job at marketing his products and giving them an edge that no other company can replicate – and believe me, they’ve tried.

The use of witty commercials set Apple up as the “cool” brand, the one that everyone wants to be a part of – the popular kids in high school that everyone wants to be friends with – that’s Apple.  And if Apple is the popular group, then Steve Jobs is the quarterback – the most popular guy on campus (in our John Hughes high school setting).

Jobs’ technology, combined with Apple’s clean-cut look and the marketing strategy for the products joined as the perfect storm to give Jobs and his products a special place in the hearts of all that use them; they’ve generated a very loyal following.

Most Apple consumers swear by their product of choice and would never consider switching back.  After all, as those clever Apple commercials teach us, PC users are slow, outdated and old fashioned – or at least that’s what Apple wants you to think.  Lets be honest, no one wants to be portrayed as a boring old PC user, and lets face it – the term has a bit of a stigma now.  People are proud to show off their new MacBook Pro or iPhone but tell someone you have a Dell laptop and there seems to almost be a bit of underlying shame to the confession – that’s when you know your company has done its job and your marketing strategy has worked – people are embarrassed not to have your product.

Jobs made computers and technology cool; it is no longer only for the computer nerds and the brainy geeks – everyone is immersed in technology. That, I believe, is the way Steve Jobs wanted it – I only wonder if he had any inkling of how much his technology and products would change the way we live our lives forever.

And the fact that countless people found out about Jobs’ death on a device that he created – well that’s just the ironic cherry on the sundae.