Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, as everyone knows, died last week at 56.

 As a Mac man—and I don’t mean McDonald’s—all my days on a computer, I feel a debt of genuine gratitude to Jobs for developing and manufacturing products that come with an absolute minimum of jigeroos. iMacs, iPhones, iPads, Jobs’s refinements of all these, while he was the head of Apple, were never-ending. Apple products cost more than competing items, but they hold up better, and thus bear out the apothegm—so comforting only when it proves true—that one gets what one pays for.

"In lapidary inscriptions," said Dr. Johnson, "a man is not under oath." Still, I have been a little startled by the Princess Diana-style reaction to the death of Steve Jobs. The Internet has been weighted down with lachrymose tributes; even the mainstream press is given over to extended compliments. Bouquets of flowers have been deposited at the entrance to Apple stores, accompanied by heartfelt handwritten notes to the deceased. 

The passing of Steve Jobs has sparked an immense amount of reflection and appreciation—just as his retirement did months ago, and the publication of Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs will do later this month. But for all the talk of Steve Jobs and the world that he created, attention must be paid to the world that created him: Silicon Valley.

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There are two ways to look at the profits reports that are emerging from corporate boardrooms, often after a brief stop for an added shine at the office of the firms’ accountants. One is to find out just how this or that firm has been doing in the past quarter, compared with a year ago and with analysts’ expectations. I leave that to security analysts, whose job it is to move from that information to a guess as to what it portends for the future, and from there to a  “buy,” “sell,” or “hold” recommendation. With some 80 percent of companies thus far reporting exceeding analysts’ (modest) expectations, and their earnings increasing by 40 percent compared with last year, there is cheer in the counting houses.