what's often overlooked is that jobs copied a lot from xerox parc. jobs undoubtedly was a visionary who knew how to package technology and appeal to the masses, but let's also fairly state how much of apple's initial innovations originated from elsewhere.
Xerox made a lot of money in pre-IPO investment in Apple, which is why Jobs was given a tour o PARC. If you ever have the chance o playing with a Star and compare it to a Lisa or a Mac, you'll clearly see how much Apple improved over the original ideas.
no question. this is why the Star never succeeded -- much like tablets from microsoft. the macro point is that jobs, like gates, often found tech inspiration from elsewhere. jobs' superpower was infusing geeky products (potentially pioneered elsewhere) with mass market appeal.
