The recent passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs gives us the perfect opportunity to reflect on two principles that propelled Apple—and by consequence the information age—in the last decade: integration and simplicity. It’s hard to believe, but this is what our lives looked like in 2001.
Then Jobs held up a little white box. At the October 2001 Apple Developers Conference, Jobs announced the iPod and our lives were forever changed. The original iPod allowed us store up to 1000 songs, revolutionizing the way we looked at music and expanding the role it could play in our day-to-day lives. The iPod was technological light-years beyond 90s gadgets such as the Walkman, primarily for its ability to store and play music simultaneously. Subsequent iPod generations brought the ability for games (brick, anyone?), photos, and videos. You could even scrawl your name on the back in a warranty-voiding engraving.
In 2007, the iPhone followed, bringing email, web browsing, music, video, and games all into one device. The advent of the App Store the following year literally put everything from investments to pizza delivery within the touch of a button. Through the simplicity of such choices as 16GB or 32GB, black or white, Verizon or AT&T, Jobs made technology personal. Now, days after the announcement of the iPhone 4s, this is our world today:
At Vehicle Media, we aspire to bring these same Jobsian principles of simplicity and integration into all the work we produce. Companies that service only one of your needs are, perhaps, still in the age of the Walkman. We believe you shouldn’t have to search from company to company for services you could get in one integrated package.