A lot has been said about Steve's passing, and even more will be said about whether Apple will continue it's meteoric rise, and continue hitting the ball out of the park.
To tell you the truth, nobody can predict the future, (although I'm sure there will be an app for that eventually), all we can do is observe and comment.
I observed recently 2 friends who were exclusive Blackberry users. They didn't use them at work, they were their personal phones and chose them mainly for the hardware keyboard, with the comment that, "they could never use one of those touchscreens."
Well I met them recently for a meal and guess what? they both pulled out iPhone 4's.
I wasn't too surprised, but what did surprise me were the reasons why they chose one.
Their contracts were up for renewal and they walked into their local phone shop, and were persuaded by the staff to get an iPhone.
Their comment was, "we didn't go in wanting an iPhone, but they let us play with them for a while and we're hooked!"
Since then, they have gone 'app crazy' showing me various cat apps, apps for Halloween, Christmas, joke apps, you get the idea.
I showed them Shazam whilst in the restaurant - they were gobsmacked and downloaded it immediately.
This isn't really unusual, as Apple's user experience is excellent, but the thing to take home here is this:
- They don't know who Steve Jobs is
- They don't know Apple's history
- They don't know (yet) how the Mac differs from Windows
- They just know what they like
You could say that the reason why people choose a Blackberry over and iPhone and a PC over a Mac, is because of the legacy of opinion that surrounds both topics.
It's going to be pretty easy to topple RIM, they haven't had a chance to get ingrained into people's habits.
The reason why the Mac is finding harder to topple Windows, is because it's been around much longer, and has had a chance to get into people lives, habits and personalities.
Just give us time.
