When I came to China in 2007, almost no one knew who Steve Jobs was.  Very few folks used Apple products.  99.9% of all pirated software was for the Windows platform.  I also remember when I bought my iPhone 3G in Hong Kong, I was scared to take it out in public for fear of thieves spotting it.  Now, with the release of the iPhone and the iPad, everyone in Shenzhen knows who Steve Jobs is.  You don’t see the Apple laptops so frequently, but iPhone 4s and iPads are everyone.  Once on a crowded subway, I just looked around me noting the mobile phones noting which ones were iPhones – every single one except for one was an Apple.  And it looked like every single one of the Apple iPhones, except for my shabby iPhone 3G, was an iPhone 4.  And, I couldn’t believe the various memorials that were on display for him when he died. The Steve Jobs biography was out here at the same time it was in the US.  I saw many people with their own copy.  What an influence he’s had.

I remember asking some folks a long time ago, not long after the iPhone was released, what they thought was the start of Apple’s current greatness.  One friend told me he thought it was the iPod with the revolutionary wheel.  I always felt it was OS X.  I was working at MS when I first got a look at OS X and fell in love with it right away.  I was lucky enough to work on a Mac product while there.  I remember when I bought my first Apple laptop in 2006 in anticipation of my travels – I was so impressed by the experience of taking it out of the box, turning it on, and setting it up in just a few moments.  I remember thinking back then that I should stick some money in Apple stock.  It was around $60 back then and I think I just got lazy and didn’t do any more research.  Oh well, the products themselves have provided plenty of return on my investment.