“The desktop metaphor was invented because one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That’s a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long.”
- February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011
- American
- Entrepreneur, businessman, industrial designer
- He brought to the world revolutionary products that combined technology and design at a high level, such as the personal computer Macintosh, iPhone, and iPad, and also revolutionized the music industry with the iPod, iTunes, and iTunes Store.
Quote
“The desktop metaphor was invented because one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That’s a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long.”
Explanation
In this quote, Steve Jobs reflects on the desktop metaphor—the concept of organizing files and managing storage on a personal computer. The desktop metaphor was created when computers were primarily stand-alone devices, where the user had to manage and store everything locally on their device. Jobs suggests that in the future, this paradigm might become obsolete. He envisions a world where users no longer need to manage their own storage or store data on their own devices, as the reliance on cloud computing and remote storage becomes more prevalent.
Jobs was predicting the shift from local storage to the cloud, where data is stored remotely and accessed over the internet. This move would not only eliminate the need for users to organize and manage files on their own devices, but also free them from worrying about storage limitations or backing up data. With the advent of technologies like cloud services, streaming, and big data, the traditional desktop experience, centered around file management and local storage, is increasingly being replaced by systems that handle data management automatically, in the background.
Today, this vision has largely come true. Services like iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox allow users to store their files remotely and access them from any device, removing the need for physical storage management. Jobs’ quote remains relevant as we continue to move towards a world where our devices are less about storing data and more about accessing and interacting with information stored in the cloud, offering greater flexibility and simplicity.
