Ten Most Famous Business Cards Of Legends

In an era of Facebook, iPhone and Smartphones; the humble business card is at the brim of turning outdated. But once, the captivating business cards, of rich and famous tech tycoons, celebrities and politicians have marked a remarkable change from being pragmatic to giving an insight into their personality sticking to an old-fashioned manner but in their own unique style.

Here are the 10 famous business cards that belong to the some tech titans and celebrities which everyone would love to have a look at.

#10 Steve Jobs

There was a time when walkman was the future and iPod was outlandish. At that point of time, Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple was in immediate need of business card to flourish his business. Following, he came up with a variety of business cards in a simplistic and unique manner. He started his creation of business cards from 1979.

#9 Eric Schimdt

Eric Schimdt, according to his card holds the title of “Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO of Google”. Schimdt’s card was actually a talk of the town soon after it was created due to its typo errors. It created hype in the media because of his power and designation as the Search Giant’s CEO.

#8 Mark Zuckerberg

“I’m CEO, Bitch”, Facebook CEO and billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg, shows the world that you can get away with anything and everything when you’re the boss. The story of this title has been the talk of the town since 2009. The film “the Social Network”, based on Ben Mezrich’s book, announced the phrase to the world. Through his card, he shows that you’re the boss and can put anything on the card and no one can deny it. It marks a bold statement and presents an impression of radicalism or lack of concern and considered expression.

#7 Bill Gates

The colorful visually-appealing business card introduced by Microsoft founder and billionaire, Bill Gates. Back then, Microsoft was headquartered in Albuquerque. The card introduces the founder with a full title.  He might not carry the prestige of a former President, but his contributions to the society are far-reaching. The business card design and possibilities reached a matured stage where he has made the best use of it.

#6 Steve Wozniak

One of the coolest and most modern business cards we’ve ever seen comes from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The card is made of stainless steel with creative design and laser etching. It is custom made and includes designs, both etched and printed. It is sleek, smooth sexy lines wrapped around future-proof metal.

#5 Evan Williams

Evan Williams, the founder of several internet companies, is known to be the creator of two most popular internet websites, Blogger and Twitter. Williams’ business card carries a logo of Twitter on one side along with his name, designation and the company name where he has looked forward to make it simple. It was created soon after he was raised as the CEO of the social networking site, Twitter.

#4 Barack Obama

The Senatorial business card of Barack Obama presents a rare archive of the 2008 Presidential elections. Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois was elected as the first African American President of the United Sates. The business card carries the patriotic raised seal of a gold eagle and his name, designation and office details as United States Senator. It guarantees authenticity as it comes with a certificate.

#3 Walt Disney

The animation giant, Walt Disney, popularly known as Disney, created a business card hand-drawn which obviously sounds and appeals cool. It provided a taste of his passion and illustrative skills on the card which shows a vivid example of who he is and what he does.

#2 Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga teamed up with Polaroid in 2011 with an aim to restore the famous brand. The company designed a business card for the pop-music star which is quite innovative and catchy. It is designed with a logo of the company in bold characters alongside her name and designation as “Creative Director”. The texts, probably supposed to be the company’s address is striked off whch have made it catchy.

#1 Albert Einstein

Known to be the father of modern Physics, Albert Einstein, had a surprisingly plain business card which hardly had any justice to his theories, his personality nor his appearance. He has mainly focused on the simplicity of the card, rather than revealing his identity and profession.

Unusual Ways That Made Apple the Most Admirable

Steve Jobs defines a generation with his great innovative ideas and legendary products. He has used different strategy and principles which is one of the reasons for the huge success of the company. Alyson Shontell has explained some unusual ways that Steve Jobs had implemented.

Partner with the enemy

In the business war, it’s hard to believe that two competitor companies getting together. It’s unimaginable that two rival companies can be together. But here, Steve Jobs applied his extraordinary ideas and he made Bill Gates to invest a $150 Million in Apple. Apple had a financial loss from 12 years and that’s make him turned to Bill Gates and in 1997 at Macworld Expo Apple and Microsoft announced their partnership.

Change the business plan

When Apple started, it was only a Computer company. But Steve always wanted Apple to grow and he knew that the company needed to broaden its aspects for better growth. To become truly successful Apple needed to widen its approach. So the company began expanding its products. It did not stick to only computers and started release of Final Cut Pro, followed by MP3 players, music, iPhones and iPads. Even Jobs changed the company’s name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. in 2007 to symbolize the new, broader vision.

Stylish Products

Apple products can be considered as the most stylish product till date. In the year of 1998, Jobs called a meeting at Apple, and said, “You know what’s wrong with this company? The products have no sex in them,” as he realized that Apple’s products looked dated. But today Apple is credited for creating the most beautiful and stylish technology, from colorful iMacs to sleek iPads.

 

Creating their own retail store

Apple owned their own retail outlet stores as other retailers were not giving Apple products adequate solutions. Now Apple has more than 255 retail stores worldwide and they are the most favorite of the retail industry. This is one of the most thriving formulas for the success of the company.

Hiring different employees

Graduates and Engineers are not the only employees that Steve had hired, according to him they are not the only people who can run a company. Jobs said “Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”

Think differently

“Think Different” is an advertising slogan created for Apple in 1997. The campaign was one of the most effective of all the time. It inspired innovation and reinvention which Apple portrays today.

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What Steve Jobs Got Wrong?

Steve Jobs personality reflects Apple in itself; he is the key person behind the persona created by Apple and its innovations. He created a whole new era with the introduction of iPhones and iPad, which are a rave in the society today. He is even responsible to give entertainment a whole new platform with Apple’s iPod, but the question is, did he always get it right from the beginning of his career. The answer is no, he had gone through his share of downfall and flops before arriving to the level of success that we all witness now.

His success has been cherished by the whole world with a loud applause and it is known to all. However his failures got wrapped up under his success stories, let’s go through the products that taught Steve tough lessons of business and failed to achieve its targeted hype.

1. Apple III

In the year 1981, Apple released its next version to Apple II and named it as Apple III with an intention to revive the success of Apple II, however things did not seem to turn out as expected. Apple III ran twice as fast as the Apple II and has twice as much memory – 128k of RAM. It is also the first Apple computer to have a built-in floppy drive, a Shugart 143k 5.25-inch floppy drive. The Apple III has 4 internal expansion slots that are compatible with Apple II cards, and also has Apple II Plus emulation built-in. The whole process was build under the supervision of Steve Jobs. It was available at an introductory price of $7,800.

2. Lisa

In the year 1983 Steve designed Apple Lisa, first commercial computer with a GUI, or Graphical User Interface, however it could not impact the market as predicted. Due to its high price and little availability of software applications this product failed to click.

3. Next Computers

Next computers were Steve’s nurtured child which took off in the year 1989. After his showdown with then Apple CEO and his resignation “Next Computers” was founded in the year 1985. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, the sales of the NeXT computers was relatively limited, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. However ultimately Apple purchased NeXT on December 20, 1996 for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock which marked Steve’s re entry to the company.

 

4. Puck mouse

Apple’s puck mouse was released in the year 1998 with high hopes, but it lined up as another failure into Steve’s kitty. This was one big project for Steve after his much hype return to Apple. Although initially Puck mouse got overwhelmed response it lost its charm in a very short span of time and could not yield it big in the giant tech world.

 

5. The cube

The cube was offered at a price of introductory price of $1799 in year 2000. The Power Mac G4 Cube was a small form factor Macintosh personal computer from Apple by using the innovation from Next computers but its high price resisted its technology to boom. The diminutive 8″ x 8″ x 8″ cube, suspended in a 10″ tall Acrylic (PMMA) enclosure, housed a PowerPC G4 processor running at 450 or 500 megahertz, and had an unconventional vertical slot-loading DVD-ROM or CD-RW drive.

 

6. iTunes Phone

iTunes phone emerged in the market in the year 2005. It had the capacity to hold only 100 songs, above that the transferring process was also heavily time consuming; downloading was a big fuss in the device.

 

7. Apple TV

In the year 2007, Apple set its footprints and it was the result of Steve hunger for new innovation and creativity. It was a small box that connected to a TV and to a Mac in the home. A tiny remote allowed the owner to play music and movies from the PC on the TV. The set up and use was hugely complicated. Movies purchased from iTunes were low resolution and looked fuzzy on HDTV sets.

 

Related articles

• 7 products Steve Jobs got wrong (msnbc.msn.com)
• Insanely Great (openitstrategies.com)
• Tim Cook, Steve Jobs’ Alter-Ego? (pisupat.com)

Unforgettable Quotes from Steve Jobs

The man who defined a generation with his great innovative ideas and legendary products, Steve Jobs restructured the world of computer hardware and software. Resigning his role as the CEO of Apple, he wrote to the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community, “I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” He has been an inspiration to may, a true visionary who the world of technology admired for many reasons. Announcing his resignation, Apple website quoted Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech on behalf of Apple’s Board as saying, “Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company.” Here are some of the unforgettable quotes from the tech legend.

Jobs has been a great source of inspiration for the youngsters. He has always boosted the spirit and morale of the young innovators through his great ideas and he says, “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

The man who ran the richest company in the word over a decade, said, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

On being fired as Apple CEO, Steve said in 1987, “I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I’m only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I’ve got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.”

 And in 2007, he said, “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. It was an awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.”

Talking on life, love and the importance of finding the right career path, Steve says, “You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

Commenting on the company policies and marketing strategies, Steve makes it very simple and says, “A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing  for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

The Journey of Apple’s Showman

There was a time when hearing the word Apple brought into picture the fruit, but today when we hear Apple, the smartphone and Steve Jobs comes into picture. Such is the power of Apple of Steve Jobs, which has transformed its meaning.

Jobs once said, “If there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know.” Stepping down from his post as the CEO of Apple, he has created a big vacuum for the company and the entire technology industry too. Let us glance through the journey of Jobs – taking Apple from a garage startup to a billion dollar business.

An American business mogul, Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, and was adopted by Paul and Clara. He is the co-founder, chairman on the board and the former CEO of Apple. He always had distinguished ideas much ahead of the time, which the world did not readily accept. Jobs always said “Have patience and wait until the world changes its mind and accepts your idea.”

After graduating from high school, Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland. However, he dropped out after attending only one semester. But, he still continued auditing classes at Reed. Jobs used to sleep on the floor of his friend’s rooms, return Coke bottles for food money and grab weekly free meals at the Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later stated that if he had never dropped the single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.

Back home in 1974, Jobs started attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with his friend Wozniak and later took a technician’s job at Atari who manufactured video games,just to save money for a spiritual retreat to India. He returned from India as a Buddhist along with Daniel Kottke, with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. Later, he resumed his job at Atari.

Apple came to life in 1976 when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne co-founded the company in a garage. With expansion of Apple, the company looked in for an experienced executive thus appointing Mike Scott as the CEO. Jobs introduced the Macintosh in 1984 in Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, which became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface. The development of Mac was eventually taken over by Jobs from Jef Raskin.

Jobs founded NeXT Computer around 1985. He marketed the products to the scientific and academic fields due to the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated. NeXT Mail was one of the first to support universally visible, clickable embedded graphics and audio within e-mail. With the announcement of Apple to buy NeXT for $429 million in 1996, Jobs was back into the company. After taking charge as the CEO of Apple in 1997, Jobs took several intricate decisions like termination of a number of projects. He also changed the licensing program for Macintosh clones, making it too costly for the manufacturers to continue making machines. Under his guidance, the sales of Apple increased significantly with the introduction of iMac. Jobs brought into picture appealing designs and powerful branding which played an important role in the success of Apple.

In recent years, the company sprouted in to various digital appliances. Jobs brought in innovative products in the market with the introduction of iPod, iTunes Stores, iPhone and finally iPad. The world finally started accepting his concept and thoughts and realized that just a machine doing the job is not enough; you require a machine that matches your style statement along with high-performance thus providing you every possible technology in your hand.

But, with Steve Jobs resigning from his post and Tim Cook taking over, the question stands that what’s next in and for Apple and what’s next for the world of technology. Time will only answer the question. Michael Gartenberg, Research Director at Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, says, “While this marks the end of an era for Apple, it’s important to remember the there’s more to Apple than any one person, even Steve Jobs. Continuing as chairman Mr. Jobs will continue to leave his mark on both the company and products even as he transfers the reigns to Mr. Cook.”

 Whatever may be the case, the world is going to miss the charismatic man, who with his great vision, technology expertise and vivid talents mesmerized the world. Let us wait and watch the further journey of Apple.