With Steve Jobs stepping down as Apple's CEO, tech pundits, executives, and reporters are chiming in with their thoughts on Jobs' legacy at Apple and his leadership style. Turns out he paid extremely close attention to detail, according to an anecdote shared by Google engineering chief, Vic Gundotra.
Apple and Google have had their differences when it comes to mobile strategies, but Gundotra said he "had regular dealings with Steve," calling it "one of the perks of the job."
On one particular Sunday in 2008, Gundotra received a phone call from Jobs. "While it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?" Gundotra wrote on his Google+ profile.
What had prompted the CEO of one of the biggest tech firms in the world to put in the call to Google? A lawsuit? Application emergency? Nope. It was all about colors. Specifically, a shade of yellow.
"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow," Steve reportedly told Gundotra. "I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"
Gundotra gave his blessings and Jobs soon sent an email titled "Icon Ambulance," with directions for how Apple engineer Greg Christie could fix it.
"Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced," Gundotra wrote. "But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday. To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve."
Other tech execs are also weighing in on Jobs' departure, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
In a phone interview aired on Bloomberg TV, Wozniak said Jobs will "go down in history as the most important technical leader ever."
Though Wozniak acknowledged that he is "not close to Steve like I once was," he was confident that Apple will carry on in Jobs' absence. Apple employees aren't necessarily interested in looking at great products, he said, they are interested in the origin of those great products, and that is a very Jobs-esque approach.
"People around somebody who thinks in great ways, who thinks ahead, who they admire, they want to be like that, they want to find those formulas and keep them," Wozniak said. "So a big company like Apple isn't going to change drastically and all of a sudden hit the tubes because it doesn't have the formula."
Scott McGregor, CEO of Broadcom Corporation, meanwhile, said the company has "the deepest respect and admiration for Apple and Steve Jobs."
"As one of our largest long term customers, Apple is an innovation powerhouse and we fully expect the company to continue its tradition of technology breakthroughs," he continued. "Apple has a deep and broad bench of engineers and staff who will continue the innovative work Steve inspired. We wish Tim Cook great success in his new role as CEO."
In the tech press, the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg said Jobs' departure is the end of a extraordinary era. "Most people are lucky if they can change the world in one important way, but Jobs, in multiple stages of his business career, changed global technology, media and lifestyles in multiple ways on multiple occasions," Mossberg wrote.
Blogger Robert Scoble also shared his thoughts on Jobs, as did GigaOm's Om Malik.
For more, see A Look Back at the Career of Steve Jobs. Also check out Apple Will Be Fine Without Jobs as CEO and Steve Jobs Resigns: Nothing Changes, as well as the Greatest Victories of Steve Jobs slideshow below.