I’ve never been a huge fan of Apple as a company, but it’s hard to argue that we lost a great technological visionary today.

I’ve never been an iPhone owner, but I appreciate the fact that he gave the mobile industry the kick up the arse it needed.  Arguably, if it wasn’t for the iPhone, Google may never have bought Android and we’d all still be stuck on Symbian (or Windows mobile 6!).

And I’ve never been an iPad owner, but I appreciate that he took a gamble by taking what was close to being a stagnant market, and reinvented it. If it wasn’t for the iPad, I probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to consider buying a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

And I’ve never bought a song from iTunes – but I appreciate the fact that Apple  bitch slapped the music industry into realising it couldn’t carry on living in the 80’s.  I don’t think Apple were key in turning downloading mp3s into an everyday thing, but they were certaintly instrumental in hurrying it along.

At some point today I came across a quote from Jobs that really struck a chord with me.  It’s actually the reason I was inspired to post this blog, so that I wouldn’t forget it:

You can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.

And so, despite not being an Apple user in any shape or form, RIP Steve Jobs – one of the greatest business minds of my lifetime. I hope Apple can keep pushing the industry forward without you.