Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and technology industry visionary, has unfortunately passed away at the age of 56, last week on the 5th October, victim of a terrible illness.
He was passionate about innovation and has left us a big legacy linking computing to telecoms. We are all sad with this news and not only Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, but almost the whole ICT world, the whole world.
Here is the tribute by Telefónica CEO, Mr. César Alierta, in the Spanish press, El País.
César Alierta had the occasion to personally meet Steve Jobs and considers him “simply a genius as he associated a PC to a mobile device, creating a truly interconnected world”. “He imagined and created new products, exciting his users and converting them in real fans, fostering a technological revolution that has changed society and opening non-limitative perspectives for the industry.”
Also our COO, Mr. Julio Linares honored him in the Spanish newspapers Expansión last Friday, explaining that “he was more than a talented manager and entrepreneur. His greatest legacy will be his vision and his attitude. He taught how to loose fear to technology and bring technology to users in a simple way. He was able to convert an innovation in a need for users.” Mr. Linares also writes: “The customer experience was at the basis of his philosophy and we should all learn about this.”
Telefónica was one of the first operators who introduced the revolutionary iPhone in November 2007 in Europe, first in the UK and later in Spain and other European markets. In that sense we have been an “early adopter” of the Apple products, which mastermind was Steve Jobs.
We will miss him, this is for sure…
