Okay, you convinced me. His talent wasn't in technical capability, it was in motivation and a nose for what people wanted.
I think where I made my mistake in judging him is by thinking he was a technical genius of some sort. ( a Position which I have held since the late 1970s when I heard that the Apple II was developed by the both of them.)
You see, my heroes are engineers, not businessmen, and so I don't normally assign any high value to the contributions of people who are good at sales and marketing. Advancement of the Art is everything to me, while making money off it is just incidental to the part I've always regarded as important.
My thinking is that "of course advancement of the art is going to make money." Especially during that period in history when the whole world was trying to get their hands on anything micro-computer related.
But Steve Jobs could do it better and could better figure out what the public wanted. Still doesn't put him on my list of greats, but I think I can now grasp why others look at it that way.
I think where I made my mistake in judging him is by thinking he was a technical genius of some sort. ( a Position which I have held since the late 1970s when I heard that the Apple II was developed by the both of them.) You see, Diogenes, that's why so many of Apple's competition just don't get why their products filled with delightful specs don't make it. Steve Jobs once said that a perfect product consists of knowing when you have taken OUT just enough, not adding MORE. Adding more and more bells and whistles that will not be used, just to add them to the specs, is not necessarily a GOOD thing.
For example, the latest incarnation of the Samsung flagship phone has the capability to monitor SpO2 levels in blood!! I have discussed this with multiple medical professionals. . . and not one of them could think of a situation in which monitoring blood Oxygen saturation levels that would be trusted, accurate, or even diagnostically useful in a mobile phone. Yet Samsung included it in their phone. . . because it sounded cool to have. Samsung's engineers involved thought "Hey, we can include this!" and tossed it in the pile of specs!. . . but Steve Jobs would have said "No! It's useless," and taken it out.
Similarly, he would say "No" to the 4K resolutions on 5" screens. . . because it is hype that actually degrades usability even though it sounds really COOL. . . and even the engineers would agree with him on that. That idiotic idea probably came from the sales and advertising people. . . because they think "We can sell 'Super HD' to the ignorant rubes!"