Josh Dannan discussess technology

Josh Dannan was reminiscing recently after Steve Jobs passed away.  Jobs was the founder of Apple Computer and the mastermind behind the Mac Computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad.  Josh Dannan was considering just how much Jobs changed information technology, particularly in the past ten years, and whether we know it or not, changed or touched most of our lives.

Josh Dannan remembers having an old apple computer back in the day.  Jobs’ revolutionized the personal computer by making it accessible to home users.  For many “computer geeks” Jobs’ creation was a seminal moment in their lives.  Flash-forward to 2001, and Jobs again set a revolution in motion.  That was the year that Apple released the first iPod.  It is hard for Josh Dannan to believe that that was just 10 short years ago. The iPod now seems so ingrained out many of lives he can barely remember what it was like before they came on the scene.

Josh Dannan can still recall fondly his old Sony Walkman.  Before the iPod came along, it was the standard for portable music.  Small (relatively) and light-weight (relatively), it was the way to listen to your cassette tapes virtually anywhere.  Competitors came and went, and like many others, Josh Dannan didn’t think too much of Apple’s newest product.  How wrong he would turn out to be.  The digital music scene was still young and it took a couple years for the music to catch up with capabilities of the iPod.  The iPod started to take off a couple years later with the release of Apple’s iTunes.  Now, instead of being limited to a dozen or so songs on a cassette tape, you could load your iPod with (potentially) your entire music collection.  Hundreds or even thousands of songs were available, anywhere, at the touch of a button.   Closely tied to the iPod’s functionality, iTunes and the iPod slowly started to dominate the market.  Since 2001, an estimated 300 million iPods have been sold worldwide.  The success of the iPod not only changed the music player industry; it changed the entire music industry.

Jobs’ next trick was to change an entirely different industry.  In 2007, Jobs and Apple took on the mobile phone industry.  Leveraging the success and technology of the iPod, they created and released the iPhone in 2007.  This time, Josh Dannan was one of the early adaptors and got an iPhone as soon as he could.  This new product was, essentially, a combination of the iPod and a cellular phone.  Now you take your music with you, and talk to people all on the same device.  This device could do more though.  It had a revolutionary large, color touch-screen that made interacting with the phone easy.  You could check your mail on it, and browse the internet. The birth of the “smartphone” had occurred.  This birth led to the release of numerous competitors, but none have garnered the reputation of the iPhone.

Jobs’ vision led to other innovations such as the iPad.  Josh Dannan can’t help but wonder what other wonderful inventions Jobs had up his sleeve before he passed away.  It truly is amazing how much this one man and his company changed the face of information technology in such a short period of time.