Steve Jobs, Apple, and The Gaming Community

     The digital world suffered a grave loss this year when Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple passed away.  Steve Jobs, and Apple, have contributed greatly to the development of computers and portable technology, as well as contributing to counter cultural-ism. Through the iPod and subsequently the iPhone, Apple has helped to shaped the digital world in positive ways. Apple made great strives to try to bring smart technology and touch screens to as wide of an audience as possible, and the loss of Jobs well have a serious impact on the future of digital technology. That being said, as much as Steve Jobs and Apple did contribute to the computer world, they did not contribute as much to the gaming world as some people seem to think. Well I can agree that both Apple/Jobs and video games have contributed greatly to new forms of digital media and performance art, the two are in no way linked. After reading an article from Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/11/04/steve-jobs-and-apples-influence-on-gaming-massively-overstated/, I was shocked by the number of people who did not understand the impact Jobs actually had on the world. During the London Games Conference, people who attended the event were asked to named both the most influential person to video games, and the most influential product. I was shocked to learn that 26% of the attendees thought that Steve Jobs was the most influential person in the world to gaming, and that 17% thought the iPhone was the most influential product. Now like I said, I'm not denying that Jobs contributed greatly to digital culture, but he has in no way whatsoever contributed to the development of gaming, and nor is the iPhone the most influential product ever. I agree fully with what the author of the article says, and how Jobs should not even be mentioned on the list of influential individuals, let alone number 1 overall.  I can fully understand people wanting to honour Jobs' memory and all of the work he has done, however it is only right if they actually honour him for work he actually attributed it too, or else you are just tarnishing his memory.