Author Archives: mellorandscott

The Advent of Couch Commerce

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E-consultancy (the fantastic resource of all things digital and commerce) has published some startling research about peoples shopping habits whilst using their tablets.

The research predict that 119 million tablets will be sold in 2012, 70% of them will be iPads. This will give rise to 169.6 million iPad sales in 2016, say that number again – 169.6 million.

They predict that the effect on e-commerce will be huge, there has already been a 348% increase in traffic from tablets in one year.

Tablets have grown to account for 6.52% of all website visits in 2012, which doesn’t sound lot but Desktops visits has dropped below the magic 90% mark for the first time to 88.12%. With the predicted explosion of tablet sales these numbers are sure to continue on this trend and we will eventual see tablet visit numbers in the 50% region…..MASSIVE NEWS.

But the research that gives all of this context for the marketing man is that 96% of users currently shop on their tablet whilst sitting on the couch. The question to ask is what other thing do most people spend their time doing whilst on the couch (only clean thoughts count!), the answer is watch TV. So we have a captive audience sat on the couch watching Madmen (other TV shows are available) and you have these same people doing the huge majority of their online shopping (on the only device they will own) whilst watching the TV. This as they say is a marketing man’s dream!

The brands that apply some proper creative thought into how they are going to leverage more sales from this perfect storm are the ones who will make the most cash – the possibilities are endless. Get in first and you steal market share – big market share. We at Mellor&Scott have already got a few ideas we’ll be pitching to a client or two.

Paul

 

A Budget for Good Business

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This week saw Chancellor George Osborne’s third budget announcement, unfortunately although announced with much fanfare, the majority of the headlines measures had been leaked to selected press prior to Wednesday. However it certainly was a Business Friendly Budget and ‘Unashamedly backed business and aspiration’ – GOOD.

It’s not my normal stance to write about politics as you will always inadvertently piss somebody off and others will get the wrong end of my stick, but these are two issues that regardless of which political party you support I think should be supported by us all as they provide support to businesses and therefore HELP EVERY employed person in the UK.

The two measures I’m talking about are the reduction in Corporation Tax and the 50p tax rate moved to 45p – both of which are good for UK businesses.

Corporation tax coming down 1% immediately and then staying at 22% from 2014 is a great step in the right direction. Of course there are few other taxation elements that need to be addressed which is why some business leaders have still got their knickers in a twist – such as the business tax of 5.6 per cent and lower allowances in capital investment. But overall the corporation tax reduction should be widely accepted as good thing. It allows businesses more flexibility to invest in infrastructure, people, and expansion or at the very least put it into their reserves should they hit troubled waters – therefore helping to protect jobs.

Reducing the 50p top rate to 45p again is another sound business move – of course the acquisition from Labour politicians was ‘why cut the top rate of tax when the rest of the population are struggling?’ and they do have a point to an extent however it is perverse to tax rich people just because we can, the evidence over the last 100 years shows us that lower tax levels actually increase the GDP of an economy thus making it easier to do business in a country. I felt Labour’s response was almost tribal rather than actually considering what message the 50p rate sends to business leaders across the world. We live in a world of high mobilisation and if you penalise too highly or what they consider disproportionately then they will just live somewhere else and take their tax revenue with them. The world has changed in the last 10 years and politicians have to consider these differences when making tax law in the 21st Century.

Obviously I set up Mellor&Scott 3 years ago in the middle of a recession and both of these measures are wholeheartedly supported as a step in the right direction. Hopefully the Chancellor will be supported in a year’s time with how business has reacted to these measures and will be encouraged to go further with even more business friendly measures.

Until then, let’s crack on and work hard!

Paul Mellor, Design Director

Miami blues….

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A couple of weeks back I went on holiday to Miami. It was my first time in the US of A and despite taking a few days to adjust to the extreme heat and politeness I’d recommend it. Being a cynical designer I couldn’t help but notice certain aspects of the holiday that could be improved by better design. In fact rarely a day goes by when one of us in the studio doesn’t notice something that could be made better by design. I guess that’s why things change and evolve.

Here are a few observations that got on my wick. With some of them you might think, “Get over it! You’re in Miami, go and sun that puny white body and maybe even treat yourself to a camp cocktail’? Perfectly valid points but ‘A’ I spray tanned before I went and ‘B’ the cocktails were about $40 each and I’m a tight northerner!

Sliding toilet door handle in Hotel room

Miami toilet door

 
I can understand why sliding doors are useful in the limited space of a hotel room but why screw on the world’s most useless handle!?

 

 

 

 

 

The cavity in the pressed steel bracket was too shallow to get my big peg fingers into. Even the boniest witch fingers would struggle to ‘get purchase’ on this! In this picture you can see the small disc to lock the door is smaller than a 1p coin (the approximate worth of this entire mechanism).

 

 

 

 

 

When the sliding door was fully opened it fell back flush with the wall. This meant you had to stick your finger tips into the small gaps either side and pull it out requiring the strength of a scorpion claw – a power not many people possess.

 

 

 

 

 

Alternatively you could reach up to the top of the door and pull it out with a cheeky digit – ridiculous and difficult to do especially for the younger and older generations.

Shoddy library in hotel lobby

 

 

 

 

Initially I thought ‘quite quirky to have a ten foot high book case in the hotel lobby with pretend books all the same colour’. Then I thought no, it might look good but why not make it a space guests can interact with i.e. fill the damn thing with real books! People could sit, read and engage with something on those expensive looking sofas. Personally I would add one of those sliding ladders and push myself from one side to the other pretending to search for a book.

Over engineered beer bottle

 

 

 

 

 

Come on Mr ‘Miller Lite’ the beer maker! Since when do you need to screw the top back on a beer bottle? Picture the scene. You go to the bar on a hot summers day and order a beer. Having taken a couple of sips you think ‘mmm I think I’ll screw this top back on and finish this later once its become warm and a little less fizzy’? Or better still I’ll reuse this very robust Aluminium bottle later and fill it with orange juice with a hints of stale beer!

Compared to a normal beer-can I can’t see how it is more efficient to manufacture, distribute, serve and use? It could be argued it’s classier than a can and forms part of wider branding campaign but drinking out of a metal bottle feels weird and in the context of user experience I think it spoils the ceremony of enjoying an alcoholic beverage.

Draconian TV system on plane

Despite having to punch the screen Bruce Lee style with a “HIYAA!” sound effect from 3cm away to move through each step of the onboard TV system, it isn’t the TV itself I want to discuss, it’s the casing of the screen that was awful to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the fatty in front of me decided he needed to recline his seat it meant the TV was at the wrong angle to view. Fortunately the designers of the TV housing thought to integrate a tilting mechanism. Unfortunately it didn’t tilt without administering more Kung Fu jabs much to the pleasure of Jabba the Hutt in front of me.

I’d love to see Apple design TV systems for planes. In fact all you need to do is mount an iPad into the headrest – done!

Sachets from hell

 

 

 

 

 

Before you ask, no I don’t cross dress (although some say I am curious), it’s my girlfriend hand modelling in these pictures. The customary on board cuisine was best avoided despite nearly chewing my own fingers off. I tentatively had a prod and found these sachets really annoying to use. Despite having a small slit to help you on your way it just wouldn’t open.

The same applied to the mini cheese packaging. You can see the red line where stronger material is used to cut through the softer transparent film thereby guiding the tear, but it didn’t work. The easiest cheese packaging system I’ve used is Baby Bell’s, which are encased in wax; they’re also a taste sensation! In fact thinking about it cheese packaging is always pretty terrible. It rarely reseals the food properly once open, it’s hard to open without the help of a knife or scissors and its rarely recyclable.

You might be wondering what the point of this blog is apart from some idiot moaning about things that don’t really matter. The point is I think we all need to question the products/services we interact with. It’s a behavioural thing, so we can do something about it. Pick up a pencil and sketch out an idea.  Who knows where it might lead. Probably the bin but maybe one little golden nugget will change the way some people live in its own little way.

Feel free to write in with any of your holiday gripes Mellor & Scott fans but please keep it design related!

Have a nice day yawl.

Jim

Movember – A Unique Brand with a Cause

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Mellor & Scott MovemberIt’s November, therefore it’s very cold and there are thousands of Mo-Bro’s on the streets of the UK. Commuting on the tube or bus, you can spot moustaches perched on the top lip of many a young gentleman. A knowledgeable nod from one Mo-Bro to another, this simple sign is more than acknowledgement is it camaraderie.

What is it? Movember is a charity committed to funding research into the causes and cures of testicular cancer.

What’s makes it so different? There are many male orientated charities (albeit not as many as female ones), so what makes Movember any different? I believe there are 2 main differentiators,

  1. It is focused into one month of the year.
  2. It is very easy to publicly show you are a Mo-Bro.

Looking at each of these points we can dissect them to determine their impact. Firstly, the consumer side of Movember is focussed into one month, November, this underpins everything within the brand starting with the name: Movember. If you asked 100 brand owners if they would like 100% market coverage of their brand spread evenly throughout the year, you would get 100 answers saying ‘yes!’. This is one of the major reasons behind my ‘Mo’ love, because they have gone out of their way to singularly focus and narrow their consumer touch points and fund raising into one month of the year – that’s less than 10% of the year! A completely different strategy to the vast majority of other charities and in complete contrast their competitors (yes even charities have competitors). It could be argued that because the Movember brand is withdrawn from the consumer for 11 months of the year, they have been starved and then when given the chance to show some ‘Mo’ love people fall over themselves to be involved. It’s a clever, but more importantly a very brave, brand owner who adopts this strategy – hence my Mo love!

The second benefit is that every male can publicly demonstrate that they’re a Mo-Bro, actually some chaps struggle to grow a moustache, myself included as mine is a sparse mixture of thick blond hairs and some rather whispy bum-fluff – not a great look! Yet I walk down the street proudly showing off my lack lustre Mo. Large numbers of charities and other organisations realise the strength and value of letting their supporters publicly show their support (great examples of this are the Yellow wristband for LIVEstrong and the Poppy from The British Legion) yet the Mo for Movember is the only one that you have to grow and cultivate and it’s on your face, nobody can miss the fact you are a Mo-Bro. The beauty of the Moustache is that it harks back to older times before we had the modern instant gratification syndrome in which we all now live – because you have to wait a couple of weeks before showing off your Mo and you have to love, stroke and trim it whereas you give LIVEstrong a couple of quid and you are given a wrist band straight away.

So to summarise, I think the Movember brand and its values are a perfect storm of a great cause, creativity, unique strategy and nostalgia – and I will continue to support Movember every November.

Paul Mellor

The Value and Complexity of Intellectual Property

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Intellectual PropertyThere are a couple of things to know prior to considering Intellectual Property;

It is incredibly complicated and without it designers are worthless.

So what is Intellectual Property (IP)? It is the absolute value of everything we as designers produce. Its why the client pays your invoice, but ultimately IP is what you have created and what a client is buying.

If you pick up a pencil and piece of paper, sketch out the new logo for your new company ‘Paul Mellor Enterprises’…. that is IP.  Perhaps you could call it the X-Factor of the logo. Therefore it‘s the most important thing in any designers life, so why do so many designers still have no clue about IP nor its value?

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has four different types of IP; Patents, Design Rights, Copyright and Trademarks. I attended an IPO event last month at the Design Council, there were a number of highly regarded keynote speakers discussing just Design Rights. I have a good understanding of IP and I still found it incredibly complicated to follow. How is the layman expected to understand IP when a room of noted speakers disagree on certain aspects?

To demonstrate how complicated and valuable IP is there are a few high profile ‘patent wars’ currently being fought between some BIG players;

1. Apple claims that the Android operating system in both mobile and tablet devices infringes on the IP of their Operating System (OS), Samsung in particular has come into Apple’s firing line.

2. In response Samsung has cited Apple has infringed on it’s Android adapted OS and it’s smartphones.

3. Dyson has claimed for the last few years that VAX and Dirt Devil have infringed on the patents and design rights surrounding the DC02. The VAX alternative, the Mach Zen was released after the DC002 and Dyson feels it too closely matches their designs and ultimately has cost Dyson in lost revenue. As recently as this week, The Court of Appeal rejected Dyson’s claims that their IP has been infringed and therefore VAX is free to continue selling their Mach Zen.

4. Google recently bought a section of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, a huge sum of money but they purchased the business because it owns swathes of patents of huge value. They plan to use these patents as part of their very expensive arsenal in their continued battles against Apple.

5. Fashion house Louboutin has been in a long running legal dispute with YSL over the protection of the famous red soles on their stilettos. YSL won a preliminary ruling saying that Louboutin could not trademark the use of red soles. The battle has become increasingly fraught and surprisingly Tiffany the jeweller’s have come out supporting Louboutin. You might think it’s because they are best buddies but the business brains among you will realise that Tiffany has trademarked their distinctive Blue colour and if Louboutin lose in their efforts to trademark red then Tiffany will be next in the firing line!

6. The world of pop is not immune, Rihanna’s latest video took ‘inspiration’ from David LaChapelle. Mimicking dance moves, sequences and most importantly styling. She did this without permission and therefore LaChapelle claimed Rihanna had infringed on his IP and was understandably angry. Rihanna has rather large pockets and so an out of court settlement was agreed a few weeks ago.

So we come back to the ‘Value of IP’, Apple sold more than 17 million iPhones during the last quarter bringing in $10.98 billion from iPhones alone. If Samsung stops Apple from selling it’s iPhones it will cost Apple billions of Dollars every month!

In 2011’s second quarter Motorola shipped 11 million mobile devices, 440,000 of those were Motorola’s Xoom tablet devices. In other words because the IP protecting the way the iPad works is so effective it meant Motorola was forced to scrape  the crumbs under Apple’s table and therefore created a shocker of product costing them billions!!

Google bought 13,000 patents when they acquired Motorola Mobility, simple maths suggests that they value Motorola’s patents at just under $1 million each!

Unfortunately not every designer is lucky enough to work with Apple, Dyson, Samsung or Louboutin on a regular basis however ignorance is not a defence, so it is a designers responsibility to make sure they get a grip on the IP of their designs. Both making sure they are not infringing on anyone else’s IP and that they know the value of what they have created.

Don’t stick your head in the sand!

Paul Mellor, Design Director

Why am I being flooded with talentless designers?

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design pencilPicture the scene, I am the co-founder of Mellor&Scott and hence sat in a big chair shouting at an iMac. This morning I collect the days post, I go through the envelopes picking out all the bills and cheques and give them to David our Technical Director (I don’t like bills and David loves cheques!).

I am left with a collection of envelopes of varying size and colour all containing people’s CV’s. Lets say there are 5 CV’s today all of which have been sent speculatively, sometimes I have the time to read them and sometimes I don’t. Today is a good day and I give myself 2 minutes to read the CV’s, I can’t say that any of them impress me; they are all generic, faceless and grey; devoid of personality and most importantly they are all missing examples of a person’s ability to sketch. I loose count of the number of low resolution computer generated visuals; all produced in software like 3D Studio Max, Solidworks, Adobe CS etc etc. No creativity and no sketchwork. I’m almost always disappointed with the standard of the graduate designers.

Last week research from Universities UK showed that there has been a 25% increase in the number of Art & Design graduates in 2011 compared to 2003/4 and that according to the Higher Education Statistics agency 33% of design graduates were still out of work 3 years after graduation.

The report says the growth in the number of creative art and design students has ‘increased at a rate above that seen for all students’ in the same period. So if student numbers increased slightly why did design seen an increase of 25%? Are we as an industry a victim of our own success, and therefore have made the design profession such an appealing employment prospect? I think the answer to that is – no, and the answer is that there are more greedy Universities churning out ‘numbers’ as opposed to talent.

The proof that the bean counters at Universities are more concerned with their bottom line than nurturing talent is shown in the 33% of designers who still don’t have a job 3 years after graduating. On the whole if a designer doesn’t have a job 3 years after graduating then they don’t have the skills to pay the design bills. Graduates should be holding their Universities to account, they should be asking, why did you not give me all the skills required by employers, especially after I handed over thousands of pounds in tuition fee’s? It is scandalous that Universities are allowed to so poorly tutor design students, and if it happened in industry then the University would be taken to court for breach of contract.

Perhaps University greed has come to bite them back because research from UCAS this week shows that student applications have dropped 7.9% between 2011 to 2012. Perhaps it’s just coincidence that this drop in numbers has happened at the same time that tuition fee’s have increased to £9000. That’s another argument for another day. But don’t forget design student numbers have still increased dramatically since 2003/4.

This is not a new problem, design graduates leaving Universities without the correct skills has been happening for years. Upon setting up Mellor&Scott 3 years ago and getting fed up with the same CV’s arriving in our mailbox I contacted my old tutors at Loughborough University offering them my time for free. I gave 2 lectures to second year students pointing out the importance of creativity, sketching and what skills employers are actually looking for when hiring for junior design positions. This involved informing the students that they were not being equipped with the skills industry requires, that they should listen to me and that they will almost certainly have to develop these skills themselves. As you can imagine, I have not been asked back to give a lecture this year!

My message to all design students is clear: demonstrate creativity and the ability to sketch and you will find a job.

Regardless of whether we have a vacancy or not, I will personally get back in touch with any student who sends Mellor&Scott a CV that demonstrates creativity and the ability to sketch.

You can find instructions on our website for how to get in touch with Mellor&Scott regarding vacancies. http://www.mellorandscott.com/careers.html

 

Paul Mellor, Design Director.

 

 

 

 

The X-Factor: Trapped at Deadlock?

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We don’t normally dabble into analysing The X-Factor from a business perspective but the news of falling viewing figures and consequently lower revenue based on the assumed reduction in phone votes and loss via advertising has got us thinking.

The X-Factor is a behemoth of an entertainment show; I have avoided calling it a talent show as it is tantamount to calling WWE wrestling a sport. The show has spawned many hit singles, successful tours, creates untold column inches, re-launched the career of some of the judges and has long sat at the top of the viewing figures for the last few years. However, The X-Factor is essentially a brand; if you want a brand to increase its profitability then new markets are often sought. Simon Cowell has chosen this option and taken The X-Factor across the pond. By hoping to use leverage his profile garnered on American Idol, create hype by hiring and firing judges and having a large prize fund; the show was pretty much a shoe-in to be a success. In reality, the US viewing figures have been less than stellar, Cowell allegedly wanted 20million viewers and he got around 12million for the season premiere. This sounds respectable but American Idol clocked in a massive 28million for their season premiere, this certainly puts things into perspective.

The reasons for the relative failures in both the UK and US markets are slightly different.

The UK market had a brand that was trusted, we liked our judges, the format was settled and eventually the best artist won after we got over the novelty act phase. The producers have always tweaked the format but they may have gone a ‘tweak’ too far.

The changes that have occurred this year seem to have been too significant to overlook. The number of adverts has increased (there to increase revenue) meaning the show is much more disjointed, the change in the judging panel does not seem to have been appreciated and the selection of the acts has been mystifying. Again, if you look at the early shows then it is clear to see who is in the later stages as they have interviewed the people in their homes, often many miles away. So at this point we know that the judges haven’t picked the majority of the people who are in the later stages. When they do finally get a chance to choose the acts they seem to use a Magic Eight Ball. So why trust what the brand is saying if it is contrary to what we being told to believe.

I have been involved in the audition process and I can state that the show is staged to an incredible degree. No stone gets left unturned during research so if there is a ‘shock’ or a ‘scandal’ then it is highly doubtful that this has not been managed and orchestrated by the show itself. After all you want to be in control of your brand, monitoring how it will be perceived to ensure maximum impact!

Assuming we take a different product like a packet of cereal; you have a product that will remain pretty much consistent, perhaps a small change to the packaging every now and then but if you like it then you would never really change. If the cereal box was enlarged but you got the same amount of cereal, the packaging changes to something you are unfamiliar with and the flavour is very similar but just not the same would you still want it? If there are too many changes then the consumer will no longer want what is being sold.

The US audience is subject to different challenges. Firstly The X-Factor is new and the market is pretty saturated, with American Idol and The Voice performing particularly well. Secondly, The X-Factor is not in a great timeslot up against another successful show, Modern Family, and their timeslot often shifts to accommodate the baseball. Further compounding the issues are the facts that The US are less keen on the UK format (particularly the inclusion of the crazy folk) and they also appear less taken with Nicole Scherzinger after she replaced the well-received Cheryl Cole. Quite a few challenges for a fledgling show!

So back to the cereal analogy, you introduce your new cereal on a shelf next to a successful competitor, you then move it around frequently, you also include some fruit pieces in the cereal even though they have only really been tested in other markets and then alter the packaging after a few weeks. Obviously this is a simplistic analogy but you can start to see why The X-Factor is struggling to gain traction in the US.

Creating a brand is difficult, expanding it has additional challenges, but taking your eye off the ball and resting on your laurels are a dangerous game and in the case of The X-Factor the brand expansion is not paying off at home or abroad.

 

Blackberry Crumble?

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blackberry crumble iconIt appears the blackberries are in season, both the juicy dark berry and the smartphone. The smartphone wars have been spicing up recently with iPhone launching the 4S, the Samsung Galaxy S2 winning the ‘Phone of the Year’ award and Android holding the market share for operating systems. As others bask in glory BlackBerry’s headlines are less positive (although they are pun-tastic) with data services being compromised for successive days on a global scale with trouble spreading as far as the US and Canada. The timing is not great for BlackBerry’s owners RIM, coming after a testing 12months. This starts to raise the questions what next? To us it seems like BlackBerry is ripe for the picking and I’m sure that the big players in the smartphone wars will be lining up their pieces ready for an attack.

I love a conspiracy theory and some of my thoughts after Steve Jobs passed were focussed on the timing with it being so close after the press conference. I mistakenly suggested to the office that he passed before the launch of the iPhone 4S and the information was withheld to ensure that publicity would not be affected. I was berated for the opinion (although I do stand by it). The unfortunate timing of the issues that are affecting BlackBerry and my love of a conspiracy theory got me thinking of corporate espionage. I do blame the advent of such shows as Spooks and 24 which have left us in little doubt that there are events that transpire daily that are withheld from the public. For example, what would prevent one of the major companies attacking BlackBerry in this way in order to reduce the share price and therefore make it less expensive to acquire the company? Granted, I am not remotely suggesting that either of the companies have done this but if publicly funded services under the guise of public safety conduct searches and covert operations, then surely businesses are also capable of questionable actions. Enron, Microsoft, Nestle and Coca Cola have all been subject to one controversy or another during their trading life so it would appear that dishonest behaviour in business is far from exceptional.

Regardless of the circumstance I think we could be in for a game changing few months in the smartphone industry and with any battle there will always be casualties. Could there be a BlackBerry or Apple crumble on the cards?

See you in the iCloud

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icloud iconInitially I thought writing an article about Apple would be a great idea. So I happily tapped away at my keyboard on Tuesday pre-empting the release of the iPhone 5. Working into the night I thought I’ll approach the media tomorrow and get some beauty sleep. When news broke the following afternoon that there was no iPhone 5 it kind of pissed on my chips. No matter, I thought, I’ll just update it with the lingo about the 4S instead. Done. I then walked in the office today to the sad news Steve ‘the God’ Jobs had passed away. So here we are, enjoy……

This article won’t offer a unique perspective on Steve Jobs as we never met him, in fact I personally have never owned an Apple product (I did find an iPhone 4 on the floor in a club but I managed to return it to an ungrateful owner).

The reason I’m writing this is that although I never wanted to be part of the Apple family, I have taken an interest through my proverbial twitching net curtain My reservations stem from being sucked into a brand that I’m just not ready for. I don’t think I’ve thought this much before dating someone but the vast reach of the brand, the endless possibility of the technology and the incredible fan base, well it is something that I’m not entirely ready to jump into bed with just yet.

My hesitant nature is difficult to put a finger on but I think it is partially due to the fact that I fear getting hooked. I will be one of the people that queue for a new iPhone, becomes obsessed about buying all Apple products to ensure cross-compatibility and forsaking other products and brands due to my commitment. Perhaps it is the fear that I will lose the free will to pick a new phone, surely that is reason enough to boycott??

It may be worth noting that there are Apple products in use in the office (we are a design consultancy after all) and I can use them interchangeably with the other tech in the office, I don’t have any issues with the products from a usability or cost issue. I’ve just never felt the need to join the Apple family.

After saying that I can’t help but be influenced by Apple; I followed the live blogs on Tuesday’s iPhone 4S launch, I read product reviews and write articles on Apple’s products, business and people. I felt genuine satisfaction with Tim Cook’s performance and felt genuine sadness to hear of Steve Jobs passing.

In a world of vast media exposure Steve Jobs did what many could not do and kept his private life exactly that, private. So for all those celebrities that maintain that it is not possible to be private and make ridiculous statements (I’m looking at you Johnny Depp) it appears they are wrong.

I think that this shows that regardless of my own indifference to the product there is no ignoring a person that has had such a huge impact on the way in which we live our lives.

Steve Jobs can’t be replaced and it will take time to recover from his absence, no doubt plans are in place and if anything, interest will grow in the short term. If the products continue to match the vision then his legacy will be preserved. Anything less and questions will be asked.

Steve Jobs will be missed by so many due to his vision of an ‘Apple’ future that was matched by his ability. Time to take some inspiration and get some designing done!