Fifteen years ago, on October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died at the age of just 56. It still feels strange writing that it has been 15 years, particularly because so much of what Jobs helped create continues to influence the technology I use every single day. For me, Steve Jobs wasn’t simply the CEO of Apple. He was one of the people who made technology genuinely exciting.
I remember the anticipation surrounding Apple events and wondering what Apple was going to unveil next. There was something different about the way Jobs introduced products. He didn’t just stand on stage and run through specifications — he explained why a product existed and why you might actually want it.
The Macintosh helped make personal computers more approachable. The iPod and iTunes transformed how we listened to and bought music. Then came the iPhone, arguably his greatest legacy, completely changing our expectations of what a mobile phone could be. The App Store created an entirely new software economy, while the iPad challenged the idea that a computer needed a keyboard and mouse.
Jobs didn’t personally invent every piece of technology inside these products. His real talent was seeing what technology could become. He understood the importance of bringing hardware and software together, removing unnecessary complexity and turning technology into something people actually enjoyed using.
I’ve spent years using Apple products and covering the Apple Home ecosystem, and that original philosophy is one of the reasons I became so interested in it in the first place. I love technology, but I’ve always been far more interested in what technology allows us to do than a list of specifications.
That’s perhaps the part of Steve Jobs’ legacy that resonates with me most. Technology should feel useful. It should feel approachable. And when it’s done really well, you shouldn’t need to think too much about the technology underneath it.
Apple has changed enormously since 2011, as has the entire technology industry. There are Apple products today that Jobs never got to see, from Apple Watch and AirPods to the many ways Apple’s ecosystem now extends throughout our homes and everyday lives. We’ll never know what he would have thought about all of them, but you can still see his influence.
I never met Steve Jobs, and I obviously never had the opportunity to speak to him. But his influence has still reached into my own life in a very real way.
Today, I create content about Apple Home and the wider ecosystem around it. I film, edit, write and publish much of that work using Apple hardware. I cover products and technologies that, in many cases, exist because of foundations laid by Apple during the Jobs era.
That’s why, for me, remembering Steve Jobs isn’t simply about looking back at an influential CEO or a collection of iconic products. His legacy is something I interact with almost every day.
Steve Jobs: February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011.
