We will surely miss you. You built a team to create an iCon and became An iCon yourself.  Best way to live with what you love.

You fought with 'pancreatic cancer' , lived a short life ( 3-4 extended years due to medical advancements such as liver transplant) during which you gave "i-pad" to the world.

Tablet PC was not new to the world. You created 'touch' as new sensor of usability for the world.

I learnt about product designs from seeing Apple Products as released. Your commitment to excellence will not be matchable by anyone else. 

My understanding about the product design began with seeing "Macintosh" from "inside out".

I was lucky to see the technology revolution between 1984 till date with reference to Macintoch and PC (IBM machine).

When I had joined Wipro (R&D), our Chairman Shri AH Premji , went on a business trip to USA and while on return purchased the just launched Macintosh.( Nov 1984).

He handed over this unique personal gadget to Dr Sridhar Mitta ( Chief of R&D ) to see and evaluate the product.

Finally, team members got to see the product as well. The day was filled with lot of news ( though this is pre Google story ).

Sheriff - our unix expert was most knowledgble techy in the labs to know more about this. I was given a chance to see the system from inside out being  the first member from PC group.

Janakiraman ( my boss ) was very good to allow different members being used for building the knowledge base. I was working on terminal design (called WT-100 ) for banking use. Seeing the macintosh from inside was a great experience for me.

The system came with a 3.5 floppy drive which has basic operating system and few applications.

It was not easy to hack it in Gadget guru style. We needed Torex Screw driver.  This was not readily available anywhere in any of the hardware shops.

I visited couple of machinist shops and got one made especially to strip down the machine back cover .  After which when I opened it, could see marvel of design and engineering.

I also happen to see the PC , almost same time with 64KB RAM.

The box was not too bulky. Mouse, Windows, Hypercards, Smiling icon and way to interact was different for traditional 'text' based programs. Auto insert, auto eject using a command , concept of thrash can --all travelled from this machine to the world of Windows and automotive music players.

Subroto Bagchi, Gardner Mindtree ( then in Wipro during one of the WLP WMP program ), happened to show us a video "in search of excellence" which has story on how the Macintosh was created. This video had Steve jobs and his whole team working from an apartment. The team was virtually locked inside this apartment and would work in a way 24x7, where all food and utilities will be provided and no one was allowed to go out.

Except the product , no one was allowed to come out of this apartment for 12-15 months, before the product was launched. In modern times you will find this being called as 'Agile' , scrum etc . Still , it would be hard to believe. Graphic designer of the team became more graphical by growing his beard which he did not shave for months together.

Some of the developers traveled in trucks loaded with systems to dealers shops where, next day (july 24th 1984) , the product got launched. I Have not seen such a passion in today's worldly organisations.  This was shown as re-created story , which had all real team members acting the time which they spent - for a management training video.

I also get reminded of one more thing about his leadership style and motivation- How to give credit of work to "members" who built and designed the mac ?

Amazing concept - Steve has every box -from inside with a special stuff.  Inner part of every box has embossed signatures of all developers who made this happen.

Those who lived in US at that time, may not forget the marketing style of Steve Jobs, when 30 second advertisement during the soccer SuperBowl became one of the most engrossing jaw dropping 60 seconds ever.

Search "macintosh 1984 advt" or visit this link -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-715862862672743260

Being an electronic hobbyist it was nice to observe a great product from inside out , I fell in love for the first time with Mac.

The product was designed for 110V (US) and was in working condition for 16 yrs in Wipro Infotech. ( During one inventory clearing exercise, it was rediscovered in 1993)

Though, it was not used much in later years. As an iconic piece, it was sold off to spare part vendor one final day from Victoria Road office. I am sure some of the old Wiproites will be able to recall this after reading this blog.

This moment of truth taught me a number of things.

1.One needs to know about the customer environment in which product is used. Every product should resolved the key problems faced by clients.

2. Product should be over engineered to stand the test of time.

3. Product should offer enough value , sometimes more than expected value.

4. Each time, one designs a product - one need not decide functionality only on the basis of what is being asked by the customers.

Customers who have never seen something - will never state these in their needs or requirement list.

5. Portability - by features, weight , sleek design.

6. Ease of service and incorporating field level diagnostic support.

7. Documents to support the product in the field.

8. Making sure the user inputs are captured to improve the product in later revisions.

9. Commitments to improve it , based on client feedback.

10. Setting up new benchmark in design concepts by challenging  "Why not?"

Lastly on reliability, I remember having used Q660AV system at home, where RN Agrawal (President WEP) sold some of the systems to employees at affordable prices, when Apple Distributorship moved away from Wipro in 1993-97 timeframe. I happen to buy this system and then travelled to US for different global customer engagements.

My wife and Children learnt to use email from this system. The system was never formatted in 7 yrs of life.The system never crashed when my children ( 3 yrs old that time ) would sometime play nursary rhymes and games over this system and press power off wirhout properly shutting it down.

The next reboot, it will come up again.

No viruses and hard disk failures to crash the system. My kids Amit and Amrita still remember the system for the ease of use.

My son has now another Macbook.  He loves it . My network of Wipro and ex-Wipro colleagues - remember good old days when we had these systems being sold and serviced.  This group has most lively memories and are well connected.

Madhvesh (MKK) . Rajesh Narang ( Ample Tech- Apple Distributor in India for more than 10+ years ), Rajesh Bhateja, PK Singh, Ashutosh(AMV), Mirji(AKM) and publishing related customers will swear by these systems.

Steve jobs is no more, but has left legacy of designs - fonts ( Apple Garamond ), PDF, Bringing laserprinting on table top, Adobe products, color matching systems for publishers, music machines  which can create best of music ( as used by AR Rehman and others) . Gaming applications, media in the pocket, i-tunes, good quality music and couple of bonjour moments.

Read more about Apple's patents in -iphone related applications please visit wwww.patentlyapple.com

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/archives.html