(Ecns.cn)--It seems to still be vivid in mind that people from all ove the world, after the death of Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs on October 5, spontaneously flowed to Apple stores to honor the man who brought significant changes to their life.
In the United States, the home country of this great man, ordinary people sent flowers to his home, painted graffiti of Apple's logo, and bit into an apple to grieve Jobs' death. Microsoft and Google, two major competitors of Apple, flew a flag at half-mast or postponed the launch of new products to pay a tribute to their "annoying" rival.
In China, the largest Apple products consumer, the condolences for Jobs' death were even more. Though the man had never had a chance to land in the country and was blunter than his opponents about the potential value that China could bring to Apple, it did not pose as an obstacle for devoted Chinese fans to love this creative pioneer of the IT industry.
In Beijing, flowers, poetry, candles, and tears were seen in front of Apple stores. Millions of people forwarded tribute messages on their Weibo, a popular micro-blogging site in China, to express their sadness and admiration for this genius.
"He is a great man," said Chen Jianrong, a senior citizen in Beijing. "Though I do not have much knowledge about computers, with the help of the inventions of Jobs, I can now play games with my little grandson via an iPad, which has brought me great joy."
Actually this is the first time that a wide range of Chinese people felt so pained after the death of a foreigner. For most of these people, Jobs who lived thousands of miles away from them, is the most attractive business idol for them. He has had a profound influence on many people in the country.
Unforgettable Apple II
In 1976, Jobs established his Apple Company and with only a few years of effort, his company invented the world's first personal computer-Apple II by the end of 1970s. This breakthrough invention helped Apple to step onto the list of Fortune 500 corporations.
At the beginning of the 1980s, an employee of Apple came to Shanghai, China, bringing along an Apple II with him. But to his surprise, the Chinese people had little knowledge of the computer, which made him very disappointed. He then left the PC in China.
After the Cultural Revolution (from 1966 to 1976), scientific development in China was far behind other countries, but the Apple PC left by the employee had brought some changes to the country.
In 1984, Deng Xiaoping, a former paramount leader of China visited Shanghai and watched a young student playing on the Apple computer. This event turned out to be a motivation for the development of computers in China.
For the following 10 years in China, computers were widely spread in the country and the Apple computer has been warmly welcomed and recognized by Chinese people. "I can still remember the time when I got the instructions for an Apple computer with one of my colleagues," said a teacher in Beijing.
The popularity of Apple has helped to promote the emergence and development of some domestic computer companies, like Lenovo, while some companies began to imitate Apple products.
