Is Steve Jobs the 2nd Greatest Innovator of All Time?

[joe-h2o]

classic naysayer behaviour, very quick to bash and crow, but they're very unsporting losers when proved wrong.

I have a rule about spending time retaliating to retardation on the internet so I'll be brief. I know the "No Flash" only applies to mobile devices. Doesn't excuse them from not having it. Jobs was a clever man, he brought together real innovators and had the charisma to lead.
If you want a real innovator, look up Jobs' countersteve The Wizard of Woz.

Well, at the time of the iPhone's release there was no flash on mobil devices - internet browsing was very limited, and Mobile Safari attempted to change it all by making the browsing experience much more like a "normal" computer. It's not like they launched into a space with an "inexcusably lacking" feature - they worked around the major areas where they knew that people would miss it (Youtube, for example).

It may have become a hot button issue because Apple chose not to put it on the iPhone for performance reasons (it really ran unacceptably badly), and then became the "must have" missing feature that Android was going to be the jewel in Android's crown of "things the iPhone can't do" and as it turns out, they decided ultimately what Apple did - the performance is simply not good enough, and Adobe eventually pulled the plug on an official client anyway.

Flash is simply not designed with low power, mobile devices in mind. Apple were just the first to "admit it" and ship a phone with a specific stance on the issue.

 

[BrunDeign]

I'm wondering how many of the people that complained about Tesla not being on learned that from a Cracked article...

Also Zucker-whatsit is on there because Facebook gave people a new, INNOVATIVE way to communicate news and daily-happenings with one another. 3 percent of the vote is A-ok in my book. Not Steve Jobs at 24 percent though. Guy didn't do a damn thing as far as I can tell. Unless he was down there in R & D developing the Iphone and Ipad, all he did was market it.

 

[Ninmecu]

I'm wondering how many of the people that complained about Tesla not being on learned that from a Cracked article...

Actually, I'd learned of it by reading The 48 Laws of Power and The 33 Strategies of War, both written by Robert Greene. I'll admit I was mildly skeptical, mostly due to the fact that the canadian equivalent to a history class is a brief skim through the colonization of the nation, the tech boom and then WWI and WWII, then it simply stops there. Needless to say, my knowledge of historical "fact" is rather limited, so even now I'm mostly relating it as "fact" based on the fact that many other sources and people agree with it being "fact".

All that can be said about this, is Politics as usual. To paraphrase Machiavelli. "The world is made up of common people, and because common people are so easily moved, they will support your good and ignore your bad so long as the good you do outweighs the bad. The few that understand that the good is simply mediocre at best will be panned and balked at by the masses, as such, you've no need to fear them."

 

[Flac00]

Really? Whens the last time you bought a CD? The last time you saw a phone without a touch screen. The last time you opened an application on your computer using text based input? This guy changed everything A LOT, you can't suddenly discredit him just because you don't like Apple products.

the last time I bought a CD? I don't know, but I don't have to thank steve jobs for that since he had nothing to do with it. The last time I saw a phone without a touch screen? I don't have any that have touch screens, and steve didn't make those either. The last time I opened an application using a text based input? Probably in the 1990's, and if you want to thank the operating systems you have now, thank xerox for inventing the operating system that steve bought and took all the credit for. I don't even know why you picked those examples.

Because they exist today in popular culture because of Steve Jobs. He may not have invented them, but he made them possible. Xerox was never going to continue their Alto or Star lines, not to mention because they were not very well made. Had it not been for the iMac and Lisa, the whole style of GUI would have either not existed or taken a very long time to fully develop.
Second, of coarse Steve Jobs had EVERYTHING to do with the new wave of digital distribution for music. Nothing on the scale or the effectiveness of iTunes had ever existed before. What came after based its designs off of iTunes and its distribution method. He created iTunes, he created the music distribution methods we see today.
Third: no, he didn't create touch screens. But no POPULAR smart-phone before the iphone had one. They all had button based designs and touch screens seemed slow, inaccurate, and inconvenient. The Palm Pilot had it, but most everything else was button based. With the release of the iPhone and now iPad, the industry is dominated by smart-phones that have touch based interfaces. Thank the iPhone, and specifically Steve Jobs, for that.

Listen to yourself, he didn't invent CD's but he made them possible. WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? If he didn't help create them he gets no points for them.

Ok, I'll concede that Apple modified the GUI to something that was much better and that is genuine innovation, still not nearly enough to get him on this list, as the people who made it originally should be higher.

If you were to argue for digital distribution (which isn't your original argument), you'd still fail, digital distribution for music existed before iTunes, all they did was make it bigger and more popular, which isn't innovation.

Finally, like I said before, popularizing something like touch screens isn't innovation.

Wait what? Did you even read the part of my post about iTunes? Steve Jobs had nothing to do with CDs. Of coarse, they were made by Sony. I'm not sure how you even slightly got that out of what I was saying. I was pointing out about the last time you bought CDs since no one buys them anymore, not after the creation of iTunes and many of the other subsequent online music distributers. And of coarse him creating iTunes was an innovation and a revolution. Digital distribution would have taken decades to realize had it not been for iTunes, and even then, most of its business would be relegated to "nerds" (as much of the media would refer to them as)
Finally, about the issue of popularity. What Steve Jobs did was not to make things popular, he instead made them so functional, useful, and convenient that they became popular as a side-effect. The touch screens on almost all of the phones before the iPhone SUCKED. Seriously, they were slow, inaccurate, and no where close to the abilities of a keyboard or clicker. At best touch screens were a gimmick at best, and an inconvenience at worst. But I'm really only using the touch screen as an example of what the iPhone brought. Soon after, people made operating systems that closely resembled the iOS system (android), or created whole new phone lines to compete with the iPhone (uh, I'm not gonna list them all). The market today is so much different then it was 4 to 5 years ago that it isn't funny. iPhones themselves have changed smart-phones into something everyone has and wants. They have also completely re-innovated the gaming industry, who is now having to deal with the extremely lucrative mobile market. Hell, people are now doubting the continuation of consoles because of the iPhone (which is ridiculous in reality though). All of these innovations came from the mind of Steve Jobs, making them his innovations.

 

[Li Mu]

ok, someone earlier said that Steve Jobs invented the internet.

YOU FAIL. GTFO. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200.

 

[Mandalore_15]

The survey is called "Greatest Innovators OF ALL TIME". ***** should learn to read her own survey...

OP: I would honestly have said Nikolai Tesla is the greatest. The guy invented stuff that we were only able to replicate almost a hundred years after his work was lost. He never gained credit for most of his work, including the invention of the radio and WIRELESS ELECTRICITY BEAMED ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. The guy should be on America's money!

 

[The Random One]

Perhaps the second loudest.

Edison is the loudest, indeed.

 

[fluxy100]

Temple Grandin - She has done some good work in improving the treatment of livestock, but her work with autism leaves me very sceptical of her worthiness to be placed on this list. Treating autism is a good thing, but she has actively opposed research towards a cure for autism. I cant support anyone who opposes the cure for an impairment.

While I agree with pretty much all of your post I find this one bit to be a little annoying, The reason Grandin and other people with autism, myself included, oppose research for a cure to autism is because Autism isn't a disease it isn't something bad. We just have differently wired minds from other people. I don't try to find a cure for the way you think, why should people be trying to find a cure for the way I think. Instead of finding a cure most high functioning autistics want to find ways to cope with autism and embrace it.

Also this poll is a complete load of bullcrap, the only really worthy people on the list are Bell, Grandin, and maybe Curie

 

[Funkysandwich]

Steve Jobs was not an inventor, or even an innovator. He was a marketer. I'm willing to bet that Apple spends more money on marketing then they do on R&D.

 

[Li Mu]

What you need to understand about these polls is that the majority of people surveyed are not overly well educated. I see people here throwing around names like Tesla and Curie. But the average man on the street has no idea who these people are.
The average person knows only those who have made a very recent impact.

Also, you have to remember that most surveys are biased in some way. If you survey people who are generally over the age of 50 you're less likely to get hundreds of votes for Steve Jobs.
If you survey people who are mostly under the age of 30 you're much more likely to get more recent famous names.

And as many of you have also mentioned, the difference between innovator/inventor/marketer is quite large; yet for many people there is no real difference.
Steve Jobs was a genius at marketing Apple and HIMSELF.

Look at people such as Yoshiro Nakamatsu, the man who invented the Floppy Disc. The first ever portable memory device. How many people know of him? Yet look at what he started! A way to transfer date in a portable and convenient method.
Even the Ipod works on his foundations.
But I doubt Nakamatsu was listed in this survey. He isn't even mentioned in the Wiki article about the floppy disc.

 

[Wolf Hagen]

Innovative in Terms of Merketing?

Hellyes, he makes Product introductions into worship of "the i" to wich even the car industry could just look up to.

But dear gods... this man ran a computer building company, not turn the Z1 (Zuse still invented the programmable Computer, the Electric one goes to the US) into a Cray by touching it with his magic bitten apple.


That Poll is absolute fail, but I would be curious who was on poll in the first place.

 

[Steinar Valsson]

In relations to impartance, Steves ideas might not be as importand as electricity, the car, computers (original idea), phone etc. but he had a way of making new things. Don't know if he is supposed to be so high up there, but certainly deserves credit.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Temple Grandin - She has done some good work in improving the treatment of livestock, but her work with autism leaves me very sceptical of her worthiness to be placed on this list. Treating autism is a good thing, but she has actively opposed research towards a cure for autism. I cant support anyone who opposes the cure for an impairment.

While I agree with pretty much all of your post I find this one bit to be a little annoying, The reason Grandin and other people with autism, myself included, oppose research for a cure to autism is because Autism isn't a disease it isn't something bad. We just have differently wired minds from other people. I don't try to find a cure for the way you think, why should people be trying to find a cure for the way I think. Instead of finding a cure most high functioning autistics want to find ways to cope with autism and embrace it.

Also this poll is a complete load of bullcrap, the only really worthy people on the list are Bell, Grandin, and maybe Curie

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.

A disorder... A disability... An impairment...

 

[Vrach]

If people taught history properly, Edison wouldn't even be on that list, the man was a patent troll and a thug.

Also, a list of innovators that does not include Da Vinci (or Tesla?!?). I despair!

Amen man. Tesla and Da Vinci were leagues ahead of their competitors. But alas, genius is seldom understood in it's own time. Tesla's ideas are still relevant even today. Engineers and scientist periodically go through his notebooks looking for ideas.

^This. Courtesy of a link from The Oatmeal - http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html

 

[C F]

Amen man. Tesla and Da Vinci were leagues ahead of their competitors. But alas, genius is seldom understood in it's own time. Tesla's ideas are still relevant even today. Engineers and scientist periodically go through his notebooks looking for ideas.

^This. Courtesy of a link from The Oatmeal - http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html

I'm going to go ahead and say: that link is awesome. Read it now if you haven't already. Might as well add Da Vinci [http://badassoftheweek.com/davinci.html], too. The two best mad scientists, ever.

 

[Thepistolman1234]

They're all wrong, Thomas Edison stole someone's idea, and Apple is an evil evil company.

 

[Alssadar]

Besides computers,
I'm stuck between guy who decided "Hey! I can hold this animal bone/stick like a club!," the random person who was like "If you put sticks overhead and all around you, you stay warm and safe!" as well as the man who was all "Wait. These seeds take a couple months to grow. They then become edible. Let's just sit down here and wait for them to grow."

 

[Arrogancy]

Yeah, Steve Jobs wasn't really an innovator. Great businessman, of course. Pioneer of the digital age, not so much. Edison was a great inventor, and likely a better businessman than Jobs, but even he isn't really the greatest innovator of all time. I'd put Leonardo Da Vinci and Nikola Tesla before him, and Jobs quite low on the list.

 

[Arrogancy]

They're all wrong, Thomas Edison stole someone's idea, and Apple is an evil evil company.

That's not entirely true. Edison was a good inventor in his own right, but his company exclusively held the patents on the inventions of those who worked for him.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

They're all wrong, Thomas Edison stole someone's idea, and Apple is an evil evil company.

Disney is an evil evil company.... Apple is just evil