The media describe Jobs as an innovative visionary, whose love of the clean-cut Modern look of the German Bauhaus inspired him to remake the geeky beige desktop computer into a user-friendly object of desire. Isaacson argues that by extending that design philosophy to all of Apple's products -- from the iMac to the iPod, the iPhone to the iPad -- Jobs became the most important entrepreneur in the most important industry of the early 21st century.
This version of Jobs's story embodies the tech industry's belief that everything ever done in Silicon Valley is new and different. But it reflects a degree of historical amnesia: The idea of using design to gain advantage over the competition is at least as old as the first Industrial Revolution.
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