iSalute!

Super Steve! iSalute you.

Despite the fact that I've never owned any of your products. Despite the fact that I don't think you were the world's greatest inventor. Heck! I don't even think you really invented anything. May be I am wrong.

I know for sure that you didn't invent the Computer. The Japs had revolutionized the world with portable audio with their walkman. You didn't even invent the mobile phone. Online music download had its origins much before your hair started graying. As the attorneys for Samsung recently pointed out, Stanely Kuberick conceptualized the idea called Tablets in his movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". Then why do people around the world had such a wonderful regard for you? Why the heck did / do I admire you?

I can't talk for others. I can surely talk for self.

Why do I admire Sachin Tendulkar? Did he invent anything in cricket? Is he the first entertainer on the cricketing field? Is he the best that ever was? May be yes. May be no. And the debate will rage on for ever. With no definite answers. With no one acknowledging the other man's view. The debate, like most of them these days, will forever remain a dirty dog fight in a pigsty. Any answer will always polarize people. Not that people are close anyways.

Why do I admire you?

You made men weak in their knees. You made me weak. I have ogled at iMac and Macbook much more than naked images of Monica Bellucci! Every time I walk around Tata Croma, I spend chunk of my time looking at your products from various angles. I used to run my fingers over your products just to feel that quality. I used to stare at the screen wondering if I should really question God's existence. And I loved them despite the products being in white. Damn! I hate whites! I love black. Especially on Computers. You made me say "White is the New Black!" You made white look powerful and menacing, with loads of grace.

I used to walk before your MacBook just to see my image beam on that screen. You and your product made my image on that screen feel like some celebrity! Given to you, you would have made Vijayakanth handsome, and therefore Abhishek Bachchan still single! You made women envy your products. You made men madly fall in love with a product. Worse still, you made men feel inferior, when women started preferring an iPhone over iMan. You created a gender war out there with your products. You almost made humans forget progeny.

 

And it wasn't "All Show, No Go", like with most gorgeous looking things. You had the stuff to call the others efforts as mere bluff. And you were right!

I can still recollect the first iPhone experience. I had already seen couple of touch screen phones, and they all sucked big time. I held it in my hands and wondering "Whats new about it?". It will lag. It will respond slowly. Typing would be difficult. Navigating tiresome. And five minutes later I was all teeth. The experience...... It was fucking mindblowing! Pinch zoom! The graceful sliding of the screen menus! The butter smooth user interface. And only one physical button! And I was surely eating my words and much more. And I realized that how you managed to pound Nokias and Blackberrys and others to submission.

 

What the heck!You made me look beyond bikes and cars. Had I come across your products a decade back, there would have one CA less and one more geek who wanted to be Steve Jobs.

Any phone without radio sucks big time for me. I may never use the radio, but I surely want it in my phone. Spec to spec, Samsung Galaxy S2 will beat your iPhone to pulp, and lick it for appetizing. The other Androids will go round and round and thump your iPhone and send it to your maker. Your tabs will soon be relegated to a mere spectator with all Sandwiches and Mangoes. The sleeping Finnish giant has just woken up from a long sleep and is going to pummel your products to submission. Microsoft will soon launch an all out war on your OS. Like you, your products may meet early end.

But still I admire you.

Your products aren't the best in the business. They don't have the best of the features. iPhone didn't even have a message forwarding facility in its first iteration! Most of the features aren't even original. I may never buy any of your products. I find them impractical. I find your bitches too pricey for what they offer. 

And shamelessly, that goddamn sucker in me might eat these words. I don't care! But, the point is, to be admired you need not be the worlds greatest inventor. You need not even be magnificent creator. You need not even be the magician pulling out scores of rabbits out of the hat.

You can be the greatest simply because your were THE perfectionist. You set the records. You changed the way we see the world, and use the products. You made us realize how small things such as user interface can mean so much to us. You set the benchmarks. You redefined perfection. And again. And again. You made your rivals run out of breath. You made them weak in their knees.

You elevated the entire experience to heights hitherto unknown. You were the benchmark.

You shook the entire world with just one product in each category. You didn't need any variants. You didn't need an battalion of products. You had just one weapon. Just one! Just one iPhone to take on the army of Nokias, Samsungs, HTCs, Blackberrys. Just one iOS to take on the Microsofts, Googles, Palms. Just one iPad to challenge the entire world.

You had just one war cry! "All ya mofus! I am the best. Come. Beat me, if you can!"

And I salute you! For you were surely the one to beat