Sour Grapes

Yea, we know the story goes like this:

A fox sees some big, round, juicy grapes hanging high on the vine but it just can't reach the grapes to eat it. After die trying to eat the grapes and fails, the fox concludes that these grapes must be sour.

This is a great illustration of the method used by jealous assholes to reduce cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort of having two or more conflict ideas. In this story, the fox knows that the grapes looks juicy and probably are sweet too. At the same time, the fox also knows that he can never eat the grapes. Thus, he suffers cognitive dissonance. And to reduce this discomfort, he criticizes these grapes are sour.

Few days ago, I read an article which goes with a title like this: Steve Jobs wasn't great; he wasn't even close

Okay, dear Mr Neeraj Takhur, you are the greatest, okay? You deserve the fucking right to fucking judge who fucking deserves to be mourned by the fucking dumb million, okay?

Some people think - 

What so great about him? All he did invent were some crappy laptops which do not use Microsoft and some crappy mobile devices which act more like Gameboy. And he doesn't even fucking invent this. His company, which is full of talented designers and engineers invented these craps. And most importantly, I don't even fucking use crappy Apple products. Steve, you suck!!!! You're way too overrated!!!

And some people think - 

Oh my god, are you fucking serious? Millions of people dying every fucking day but no one cares. And millions are crying for a overrated celebrity CEO? Are you guys dumb or what? 

And I think -

fuck you!!

Steve Jobs invented not only a product, but also a life changing technology and a mind blowing business philosophy (that can never be understood by nerds). So let us explore what he has done:

1. Introduction of iTune that changes music industry

iTune changes the music industry and the way we live. Remember Napster - a peer-to-peer music sharing program that was sued by all music producers? Before the introduction of Napster, we have to pay for RM30 for a cassette (remember this, anyone?) or RM50 for a CD or RM10 for a pirated CD. Since the introduction of Napster, we can access music for free. However, due to massive copyrights violations, the court ordered a shutdown to the company in July 2001. And so long to free online music but Napster has pioneered the online music market. Many music producers wanted to sell music through online but failed miserably. Steve Jobs saw this through and introduced iTune in April 2003, with more than 200,000 songs. iTune proves to be successful - by Dec 2003, iTune increased to 25 millions songs and by 2010, iTune songs has been downloaded MORE THAN TEN BILLIONS TIMES!!!! 10 billions songs = 1,000,000,000 songs = 10^9 songs = $0.99 per songs = $999,999,999 profits. iTune has changed the music industry so fundamentally that CDs will soon meet the fate like cassettes. And hey, not forget that iTune introduced its online movie in 2008. It is not easy to replace cinemas for the facilities cinemas provide - but at some point, iTune has replaced many DVDs and CDs. We are able to access to music and movies so conveniently that we refuse to use pirated stuff. Hence, creating more business for music and movies producers and ensuring more better quality music and movies are produced.

2. Introduction of iPod accelerates the rise of digital age

iPod changes the way we listen music - from analog to digital. Do you still remember Sony Walkman or Discman? And how the introduction of digital music destroyed these products? iPod is not the first digital music player but it is the most successful digital music player since its introduction. None of the digital music players are as successful as iPod and as influential as iPod. The rise of digital music is inevitable but iPod acts as a catalyst that accelerates such changes.

3. Introduction of iPhone that creates billions of businesses

Here comes the iPhone - our lovely iPhone that changes the mobile phone industry so fundamentally that we have to use smart phones to cope with the world. iPhone is not the first smart phone in the world - but its introduction of touchscreen on the smart phone has led the market by far - 125 millions sold worldwide or 1.7% of the world population is using iPhones. The most interesting part of iPhone is not the phone itself but the apps itself. More mindblowing statistic - 15 billions apps downloaded from February 2011 to July 2011 since the introduction of App subscription. According to this website, on average an App costs $2.04. The App market is worth $30 billion!!!! Not to forget the butterfly effect of these Apps for other market potential - like Angry Birds soft toys. Imagine many businesses are involved in iPhone itself - manufacturing of iPhone, manufacturing of machines to manufacture iPhone, programmers to design the Apps, designers for games and iPhone, manufacturing of iPhone accessories like screen protector and skins, manufacturing of side products as result of Apps (like Angry Bird) etc... Billions and billions of money are generated from iPhone itself and billions of lives are living because of the income made due to this money generated from iPhone effect.

4. Introduce of iPad to replace netbook

iPad is a hybrid of iPhone and Macbook. Although it is still at its early age, iPad is a very successful product. It has the same butterfly effect as iPhone but just not as huge impact due to lower volume sold. But because it is a hybrid of iPhone and Macbook, it accelerates and magnifies the butterfly effect of iPhone.

5. Re-introduce the concept of marketing

Steve Jobs is great not because of the products mentioned above. He is great because he re-introduce the concept of marketing. All the concepts taught in school like 4Ps 7Ps are old school. The most important thing about marketing is to sell your products - and Steve Jobs sells his products through the following concepts (a few of his concepts):

i. Repackaging - A video camera on a Nokia phone is still a video camera. A video camera on a iPhone is FACETIME. Repackage your competitors' necessity products into a value add-on products - is the way of Steve's marketing.

ii. Create Anticipations and meeting the expectation - "I'm going to introduce something new in April 2012 - and here is a peak." Steve creates a WOW before his products are sold to market. After creating all the hypes, he manages to meet all the expectations of the users, and sometimes surpassing the expectation.

iii. Sell Prototypes - If you are selling a perfect product, you're selling it too late. Steve never sells a perfect product - that's why many people call his product crappy. But hey, nothing is perfect - and this leaves a lot of room of improvement and value add-on in the future.

iv. Mass market friendly - Position yourself as mass market, instead of niche market. Blackberry aims for only business persons. iPhone aims for mass market - which also includes business persons. Make something so simple that even a fool knows how to use it. That's the one button concept of iPhone, iTouch and iPad.

v. Users generated content - You can't create everything that suits everybody. Let the users creates something for other users. The users probably knows better than you what they want.

vi. Avoid competitions - Nokia introduces full keyboard phone, Blackberry introduces full keyboard phone, iPhone introduces one button phone. Avoid competitions and always look for the blue ocean - this is easier said than done. But always be innovative and avoid competitions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, you know why one dies a million cry, a million die no one cries? Everyone dies somehow and millions of people dying everyday and millions of people born everyday too. But how many people have you touched before dying? A beggar dies on the street - yea it's sad but it's part of the life. Your dad dies on the street - you feel much worse although it is part of the life because he fucking raised you up!! Who cares about the millions who die everyday? We just care about people who affect our lives.

So dear Mr Neeraj Takhur, maybe you're right - Steve Jobs is not great. But the way he changed our life and created business for so many livings are undeniable. Maybe you're so fucking great that you think he does not deserve millions of tears. But probably the money your father is making to raise you up is part of butterfly effect of Steve Jobs. So, go fuck yourself, stop being jealous and live in your stone age. Thank you.