Why my iPhone 4S Makes Me Happy
About 3 weeks before Apple announced the iPhone 4S I left my iPhone 3GS in the restroom at work. I noticed it wasn’t in my pocket about 20 minutes later so I rushed back to the restroom and it was gone. I work at a high-security, Fortune 500 company and I was certain someone found it and would turn it in to security, post a message on our employee bulletin board, or at the very least respond to the constant calls my wife and I were making all afternoon to my missing iPhone.
No luck. It was never coming back to me.
For about three weeks I had to use a regular mobile phone, a cheap, little $20 device that had a screen the size of my thumbnail. I knew Apple would be announcing something big in a couple weeks, the successor to the iPhone 4. Maybe it would be the much talked and rumored about iPhone 5 or maybe the more feasible iPhone 4S. I knew that whatever was released I would buy immediately.
The day came when they announced the iPhone 4S. The event lacked the enthusiasm that’s usually present with Apple events. I thought it was just the fact that Tim Cook was doing his first live event and maybe he was a little nervous. Beyond that, I didn’t think much of it. Then the real news was released the next day.
Steve Jobs died.
I don’t need to explain how much of an impact his death had on the world. It’s been nearly a month since his death and it’s still a highly talked, blogged, reported and watched about news event on the Web. But what you don’t know is how much Steve meant to me. When I heard that Steve died I was emotionally unaffected as I was expecting to hear this news soon after learning that he stepped down as CEO of Apple. It took a couple of days upon hearing of his death, but the magnitude and scope of who we lost on October 5, 2011 finally sank in for me.
For three years I carried around my iPhone in my left, front pocket. I could also say that for three years I carried around a little piece of Steve Jobs just like everyone else that had an iPhone. When his death finally caught up with me emotionally I realized that I was no longer carrying around my little piece of Steve. That was when I realized just how much I missed my iPhone.
Enter the iPhone 4S
On October 7, 2011, I ordered a white, 16GB iPhone 4S. Just being able to order this new, unbelievably cool device made me feel a little bit better, but it would be a week before I could put my hands on it when it was officially released on October 14, 2011. That week was filled with excitement and anxiety as I waited for FedEx to deliver my new iPhone. I could not wait to get the phone, activate it and put it back where it belonged… in my left, front pocket.
Yeah, that may be weird, but it was the most important thing to me. My iPhone is my lifeline to the World when I’m not in front of one of the two Macs I use on a daily basis. It takes pictures and video of my kids, allows me to connect with friends, family and colleagues. I check my email at least once an hour and sparingly read the latest tweets from the people I follow. I play games, manage projects, communicate with clients and collaborate with friends. I do it all on a little device thanks to Steve Jobs and his incredible teams at Apple.
Missing Steve
I think about Steve Jobs daily now that he’s gone. I wonder what’s next for Apple. What’s in store for us 5, 10 and even 20 years down the road. Will Apple continue to create products with the same impact as the ones they created when Steve was alive? I sure hope so. I’ve known from the day of his death, like so many others of said across the Internet, that Steve Job’s greatest achievement was not a single device, but a single company. Apple is the embodiment of Steve Jobs, and as long as I have something in my left, front pocket for the rest of my life, I know I will always have a little piece of Steve with me.
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