Marketing genius a hero does not make.
Steve Jobs has a long history with Apple. In the late 1970s, Jobs started Apple with Steve Wozniak and Mike Markkula, because that’s what guys did in the ‘70s — start tech companies and party at the discothèque. ‘Twas a marvelous time to be John Travolta.
The company grew, and over Apple’s relatively long history, Jobs’s involvement with the company has waxed and waned, cumulating in his remarkably successful term as CEO and eventual resignation on Aug. 24. With his resignation, an amazing era ended.
I learned my first programming language, BASIC, on an old Apple IIe I bought on eBay for $10. It came with a sealed package of 5.5 inch floppy disks, and I still have my favorite computer to this day. Since then, I’ve bought Apple laptops, phones and music players. I have an appreciation for Apple’s products, to say the least.
And it’s not totally undeserved. Apple has innovated countless markets, stimulated economic growth and employed innumerable “geniuses” on a global scale. They consistently stand behind their products, frequently replacing broken products like iPods and iPhones outside of warranty and feed our hedonistic itch for “new.”
On the other hand, we have a slew of Microsoft products that, for whatever reason, just don’t work as well. It may not be Microsoft’s fault if the problems are too many software contributors or an ocean of relentless hackers producing a myriad of viruses for Windows computers. At the end of the day, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has more money than Jesus himself and gives an obscene amount to charity.
Take, for example, the “Global Development Program,” which works to bring food, clean water and safe financial services to the deeply impoverished — no church fliers or bibles, no iPod production line.
Or consider the Foundation’s “Global Health diagnostics.”
With his devilishly handsome good looks, Steve Jobs may be the only man alive to successfully pull off the turtleneck. I am convinced the garment was made for him alone, but the good-looking marketing genius has not given back to humanity in the way Bill and Melinda Gates have.
I am in no way defending Bill Gates. I attentively watched the 1999 movie, “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” which attempts to portray the history of Microsoft and Apple, though with a bit of a slant, to say the least. The movie was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards, and Bill Gates could not have been portrayed more negatively if he’d been given horns and a pitchfork.
I’m in no position to comment on the early stirrings between the two companies. But I imagine there were, and likely still are, many unscrupulous practices in the industry.
When Steve Jobs became CEO in the late ‘90s, he controversially discontinued indefinitely all of Apple’s charity programs, explaining the money would flow when Apple was profitable.
On Aug. 11, 2011, Apple, Inc. reached a humble $338 billion dollar market value, based on its stock price for the day.
On the verge on bankruptcy, clearly.
Bill Gates has, like Alfred Nobel, done wonders for his long-standing reputation through philanthropy. I am, and imagine I will remain for some time, an Apple fan. But I cannot say Steve is a hero and chastise Bill Gates’ terrible software when my brothers across the globe, who live on less than the price of one Starbucks coffee per day, are receiving nutritious food, clean water and medical services from Gates.
I certainly won’t be buying my next computer from Microsoft, but Apple won’t be getting my donation money, either.
 
Devin Graham is a 22-year-old economics senior from Prairieville. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_DGraham.
 
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Contact Devin Graham at [email protected]