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The Conversation: Steve Jobs' Greatest Contribution

As we near the first anniversary of the visionary's death, we ask you one simple question

  • Smithsonian.com, August 01, 2012, Subscribe

 

In the September 2012 Style & Design issue, our cover story by biographer Walter Isaacson looks back on Steve Jobs as a designer, citing Jobs as saying, "We have a chance to communicate something through the design of the objects themselves."

What was Steve Jobs' most significant contribution?

Name: (required)

Your Twitter Name:

Submissions are moderated and will not appear until Smithsonian.com approves them.

Finding a business model for selling music
Brian Wolly, @brianwolly

TWEET THIS

The iPhone. He didn't build it alone but his vision has forever changed the world.
Ryan Reed, @ryanreed

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Making bald sexy.
Perrin Doniger, @PerrinD

TWEET THIS

Not the most important for all,but for me? He helped the movie, "Toy Story" happen.
Kelly Smith, @ksmittyyyy

TWEET THIS

ipad
claire

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chic black turtlenecks
Javiva

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For me since I do not use a cell phone it's the new iPad. I'm 70 and i love my iPad .
Patricia Schlag

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Allowing me to realize I didn't know what I wanted... but he did.
Todd Stowell, @toddstowell

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Creating the computer for the rest of us.
Megan Gambino, @megan_gambino

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iPad! Changed mobile computing and made the tablet viable.
EPCOT Explorer, @EPCOTExplorer

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Steve Jobs Greatest Contribution was to loan name Apple from Beatles, graphical UI (icons and mouse) from Xerox and so on, and so on.
murphy

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Seamless integration of hardware and software.
Steve Basile, @xebrawerx

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Creating for me a wonderful world with my Iphone,Ipad and my Mac.He is a genius
Claude Dufour, @clsurgdufour

TWEET THIS

Giving consumers a chance to understand the beauty of technology.
Janet Pearson, @JCPRetired

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The Mac SE. It changed my life forever.
Ruth Elizabeth Sansom, @cecreatives

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Judging from the other comments here... the reality distortion field!
Steve Smith

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Must be..uhm..Nope. Can't think of anything of value this man has provided the world
JMT, @jtangvik

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Thinking outside the box and believing in himself
Diantha Harris, @lifepnet

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Taking GUI out PARC labs and puttingnit on a PC (Mac).
Mike eliasz-solomon, @Stanczyk_

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iTunes. It was the cash cow that allowed Apple to thrive, made the iPod successful, and gave Apple the opportunity to develop inventions like the iPhone and iPad.
David Thornley

TWEET THIS

Making grey warm and cool at the same time
Naomi Taylor, @taylor_naomie

TWEET THIS

inspiring creativity in others, even when they did not see it in themselves
Peter Higgins, @fromawayme

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Selling the MAC OS to those of us who wanted and needed to get their work done. One pixel at a time and then, of course, Pixar Power!
Deborah McLaughlin

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He made all the gadgets on "Star Trek" a reality, sans the taser.
Kevin Scott Collins, @Kevinscollins

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Profits for Apple
Gordon Bennett

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Steve Jobs gave us machines we could turn on and be enjoying in 15 minutes. He realized function follows form. Imagine: Drag a file to a garbage can when you're done with the file. Genious!
Beverly Wright Coleman

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The iOS operating system changed the world in mobile computing.
Sejin Kim

TWEET THIS







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