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The cult of Steve Jobs

6 October 2011 Last updated at 23:07 GMT Share this pageEmailPrint

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By Kate Dailey

BBC News Magazine

In life, as in death, Steve Jobs commanded love and respect

Continue reading the main story

In today's Magazine

A bumpy road

Quiz of the week's news

'We are the 99%'

Stargazing at an 'Aboriginal Stonehenge'

Steve Jobs's combination of success and secrecy endeared him to people across

the world, who mourned his death in public.

Even before Steve Jobs passed away, his cult of personality loomed large over

Apple.

When it was announced that he'd be stepping down, analysts worried that the

company would flounder without him.

But his death crystallised both his status as a cult figure and his legacy to a

company in transition.

Within minutes of his passing, Twitter was overcome with hashtags and posts in

memoriam. On Facebook, people posted and reposted a series of photos, quotes,

and videos about Jobs, creating a digital echo chamber.

People flocked to Apple stores across the globe to leave flowers. Groups used

the candle apps on their iPads to create a vigil.

Secretive and private

The mass reaction to news of his death made it seem as though Jobs was a friend

to the millions of people who owned his product.

In reality, they knew very little about him.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

Non-conforming was exactly what Steve Jobs is about. It's incredibly

attractive, especially today

Jonathan Gabay

Brand consultant, JonathanGabay.com

"He was incredibly secretive and private. You'd be hard-pressed to find a

picture of him and his kids, hard-pressed to hear him talk about anything but

Apple products," says Leander Kahney, author of Inside Steve's Brain, a

biography of Jobs.

That Jobs never revealed much about his politics or his personal life also

meant that he could never disappoint fans' preconceived notions.

"Because he was mysterious, people could project their own ideas on to him, and

he could be a lot of things for a lot of people," says Mr Kahney, who runs the

website Cult of Mac and wrote a book of the same name.

Man of mystique

Jobs's carefully constructed web of secrecy, peppered with some hints of

vulnerability and accessibility - he was famous for answering customer emails -

only added to the looming legend that grew with each Apple innovation.

"The more you saw him as having mystique, the more it went hand in hand as him

being a visionary," says Maia Young, an associate professor at the UCLA

Anderson School of Management.

When mysterious people are successful, she says, we perceive them "as if they

have a special something endowed to them that most of us don't have access to."

She conducted a study in which subjects were asked to assess Jobs's potential

at predicting government spending, trends in the stock market, and the future

of interest rates.

"The more people saw him as having mystique, the more they ascribed to him the

ability to predict those things," she said. "It's a testament to how much

people saw in him."

It's also a testament to how closely he guarded his personal image.

Thinking differently

From the beginning, there has been a cult around Apple, says Mr Kahney. But

that had less to do with personality and had more to do with the products,

which engendered tremendous loyalty. That so few people used them created both

an air of exclusivity and a fierce protectiveness from enthusiasts constantly

worried that behemoths like Microsoft would run their beloved company out of

business.

Jobs added something different to the mix.

Continue reading the main story

In pictures: The Internet mourns

Photos of online reactions to Jobs' death. Plus: BBC's technology correspondent

discusses Jobs' successor

World Wide Wake

Tim Cook and Steve Jobs

"One of the things that Mr Jobs did, which was very unlike anyone else, was he

did it his way," says Jonathan Gabay, a branding consultant and founder of

JonathanGabay.com.

Before Jobs, computers were grey boxes used for maths and science; business

machines for men in suits and ties. Jobs, clad in jeans and pioneering the

casual-Friday dotcom lifestyle, changed all that.

"It liberated people to express a different way of doing things, hence his

brilliant slogan 'think different'," says Mr Gabay.

Mainstream blues

By thinking differently, Jobs placed himself squarely in the mainstream. With

the invention of the iPod and iPhone, Apple went from a quirky underdog to a

global powerhouse. Its ubiquitous white earbuds were worn by both hipster

artists and Wall Street suits.

When it came to business, Mr Jobs was anything but a revolutionary. "It seems

like a cool, liberal, creative company, but the reality is it's a very

locked-down place. It's not a happy place to work," says Mr Kahney.

"It's one of the tightest-controlled corporations in the world."

The mystery surrounding Jobs was always just a few notes away from menace. As

the company became more successful and less outwardly innovative - after all,

how many times can one company be expected to create the next big thing that

revolutionises our lives? - the chance that Jobs might prove himself to be

fallible increased.

Selling a solution

Now the company that Jobs pioneered must navigate a new path without its

storied leader. But the legacy that Jobs left provides some direction.

As consumers around the world went online to memorialise Jobs, no-one was

crowing about his innovations in processor speed or even Apple's innovative

design.

The majority of posts cemented Jobs's status as a dreamer and visionary:

quoting him when he said: "Have the courage to follow your heart and

intuition,"; linking to Apple adverts that begin 'Here's to the crazy ones';

posting articles that promise to explain 'What Steve Jobs understands that our

politicians don't'.

Jobs died at a time when people trust authority less than ever. The technology

he created and the image he projected sold consumers a possible solution.

"People are desperately craving the idea that they can do things in a different

way because they don't trust the way it was done before," says Mr Gabay. "This

sense of non-conforming was exactly what Steve Jobs is about. It's incredibly

attractive, especially today."

Above all, Jobs promised a lifestyle - you can be cool, you can go against the

grain, and you can succeed with those ideas.

"Everyone who buys a Mac says, 'I'm going to write my novel, I'm going to edit

my movie, I'm going to cut that single'," says Mr Kahney. "It speaks to that

creative streak. In reality all they do is sit around and watch Netflix on it."

When his legion of fans went online to mark his passing, they were saying, "I

want to believe." They were letting the world know that they too, are capable

of thinking differently.

Even if they themselves sometimes forgot, Steve Jobs never did.