News of Steve Jobs’ death sent the tech world into mourning. As the news spread, people rushed to pay tribute the visionary, famed as much for his black turtle-neck sweaters as for his feats at Apple.
On Twitter #RIPSteveJobs was cemented as the lead trending topic, with #ThankYouSteve taking up second spot and #iSad third.
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Among the hardest hit were the leading players in the tech industry. To them Jobs was variously, a friend, competitor, mentor and inspiration. Many of them led the praise for Jobs on social media.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was candid in his praise for Jobs upon his resignation. He was similarly so on receiving news of Jobs’ death:
Ethernet co-founder Bob Metcalfe posted a series of Tweets sharing his personal memories of Jobs:
Tech innovator and serial entrepenuer Bill Gross hashtagged the “Change the world” quote from Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement speech:
TechCrunch founder and former Editor Michael Arrington expressed dismay at the news, saying:
Having already released an official statement saying “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come,” Jobs’ fellow computing pioneer Bill Gates sent a tweet expressing his condolences to the Jobs family:
He also linked to a statement on his personal blog:
Former MySpace president Jason Hirschhorn expressed his feelings on the enormity of Jobs’ influence:
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian posted a simple note of thanks, linking to a longer statement on Google+:
The Google+ statement reads:
There were few people who understood what people wanted better than him — even fewer who knew how to make something people loved. I’ve tried to emulate him where I could; his Stanford graduation speech still rings with me to this day. Thank you, Steve. The world has lost a genius today.
Jeff Clavier, Managing Partner of SoftTech VC reflected his own sense of mourning as well as that of those around him:
Salesforce CEO and Chairman Marc Benioff expressed a personal sense of loss:
He also linked to a 1997 think different advert from Apple, which Jobs narrated:
Harry McCracken, editor of Time Magazine’s tech blog, Technologizer, made reference to the magnitude of the contributions Jobs made outside of Apple:
Fittingly, McCracken’s latest Time column, on Steve Jobs, was written on an iPad:
TED curator Chris Anderson spoke about how Jobs’ ideals mirrored those of his own organisation:
He also linked to one of Jobs’ TED talks:
Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page spoke about the way Jobs reached out to him when he became Google CEO on Google+:
I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google’s are with his family and the whole Apple family.
His fellow co-founder Sergey Brin spoke about how Jobs had inspired himself and Page from the earliest days of Google:
From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met.
On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.
Google’s Senior Vice-President of Social Business, Vic Gondutra reposted the Google+ entry he wrote on Jobs’ resignation, as well as a story about his 12-year-old son being engrossed in his Macbook, ending with the statement “Generations of influence. That’s what Steve did.
Former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki posted about how he changed the topic of a webinar he was he was about to give for Social Media Examiner to his personal experiences of Jobs, “what he meant to me, and how he changed the world”.
The webinar was immediately shared online:
Guy Kawasaki on the Death of Steve Jobs from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.
In another Google+ post, he spoke about the words Jobs lived by: “There must be a better way.”
“You changed our lives, Steve, and you showed us that there is a better way…we will miss you,” he said.
