How Steve Jobs and Apple changed travel forever

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple

Apple founder Steve Jobs, who "thunk different." Photo: andrechinn / Flickr

The media lit up with commemorations of Steve Jobs, the legendary CEO of Apple who passed away on Oct. 5, 2011. While talking about his full impact on technology is beyond the scope of this blog, we can talk about how his products changed our trips: How Steve Jobs helped make Apple a major disruptor in travel.

The iPhone was not the first smartphone that could access the Internet.  However, it was a level ahead of its competitors in offering a fuller web experience.  At the time, web surfing on phones was much more limited.  The iPhone made touchscreens and apps popular.

Photos used to be developed at stores, then painstakingly assembled into binders as photo albums.  Now with the right apps, you can snap a picture with your phone and send it out to your friends instantly.  Apple’s devices pulled off the feat of making the world smaller, more personal, and more connected.

This is only the beginning.  About a year ago, there was news that Apple was developing iTravel, an app for the iPhone.  According to patent filings, iTravel would integrate transportation booking, check-in, and social networking. It would turn your iPhone into an electronic ticket–and ticket agent.  We can only imagine how Jobs would have presented it at a future Apple summit.

Do you use Apple products?  How have they affected your travels?  Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University:

Posted by | Comments (4)  | October 7, 2011
Category: Travel Tech


4 Responses to “How Steve Jobs and Apple changed travel forever”

  1. JD Says:

    “The iPhone was the first smartphone to truly put the Internet in your hand”

    Er, where did you get this??

  2. Agle Says:

    Steve Jobs affected travel for me, but not in the way you’re thinking. People often completely fail to mention a little thing called PIXAR, which opened up the world of possibility and inspired countless to dream.

  3. Rudolph Aspirant Says:

    Just a little comment re. the Stanford commencement address: in my opinion, Mr. Jobs was a truly talented, creative, but also conscientious artist. The encouragement to “follow your heart” when making important life changing decisions is, IMHO, more likely to be successful in the case of similar persons than in the other cases of the vast majority of us. I recommend thus prudence and rationality, especially since I also tend to disagree that “relationships built on initial love only improve with time”, unless one really has the capacity to make an EFFORT, to really WORK at it in a CONSISTENT manner along the way, make some compromises, allow oneself to learn, collaborate with others, etc.

  4. Susan Fox Says:

    For international long trips, I always travel with my MacBook Pro and iPhone and, recently, my iPad. I use the MacBook for primary image storage for the thousands of photos I take for reference for my paintings (6000+ for my 2011 five week trip to Mongolia). The iPhone gets used as mostly as an iPod, since I can’t use it as a phone in Mongolia (because no, I don’t want to have it unlocked). For the first time I didn’t take any physical books with me, only the iPad and it worked great. Other than needing to make sure I keep everything charged, these three products have made travel more pleasant and functional.