Marketing Obituary South Africa

Steve Jobs: a "ding in the universe" today

A few months ago, I had the privilege of watching a "Steve-note" live, as Steve Jobs introduced iOS 5.0, Lion and iCloud at Apple's WorldWide Developer Conference in San Francisco. As he entered, the room erupted in an outpouring of love as 5000 developers and Apple people paid homage to an icon of our age.
Homepage of Apple's website pays tribute to the late Steve Jobs.
Homepage of Apple's website pays tribute to the late Steve Jobs.
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It was an electric moment that seemed to choke him up as he surely knew this would be the last.

His passing yesterday, Wednesday, 5 October 2011, as much as it might have been anticipated, came as a shock around the world. The Apple homepage was devastatingly simple. We all know the impact Jobs made on our world.

Neither is the future

Apple may never be the same, but thanks to Jobs, neither is the future we live in.

Steve Jobs, they say, IS the American Dream. And, in truth-is-stranger-than-fiction style, no Hollywood script could describe the incredible personal and professional journey his life would take.

I won't say anything about Jobs' complete reinvention of the fabric of modern society - that much is all around us. Let's look deeper, I believe, to his real legacy.

Every society's dream

The truth is that Jobs is not just the American dream - he is every society's dream. He has succeeded in doing what any human dreams of... Changing the world and transcending their circumstances.

And boy do we in Africa and the developing world need to transcend our circumstances.

And because a musician in Ghana, a writer in Mombasa, or a young app dev team in Durban can sell their creations to the world, he has given us the oxygen to make this transcendence a reality, if we so wish.

That's what inspires us

That's what inspires companies like us at immedia to dare to dream, to believe that we can create an app dev industry in Durban, that we can create "brain"-ready jobs for poor people, not just "shovel"-ready!

Jobs famously said he never wanted to die the richest man in the cemetery, but that he wanted to "put a ding in the universe".

Well, there IS a ding in the universe today.

Mission accomplished, Steve. Thank you for an iLife.

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About Anice Hassim

Anice Hassim is the CEO, Founder and majority shareholder of the immedia ecosystem. He is a speaker and educator around digital trends, strategy and marketing, and helps brands better understand and negotiate the digital space. Contact Anice on tel +27 (0)31 566 8000, email him at az.oc.aidemmi@ecina and follow him on Twitter at @anicehassim.
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