Tributes and messages left on store windows

Apple enthusiasts and others touched by the sudden passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs have begun gathering and leaving notes or other tributes at Apple stores around the world, from New York City to Australia, and outside Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino. The gatherings, seen outside many of Apple's flagship stores such as the Fifth Avenue store known as "The Cube" and the downtown San Francisco store, have seen condolence cards and post-it notes, candle and gifts of Apples and photos of Jobs left in tribute.

Many have written their own heartfelt messages to the man who up-ended technology several times over the course of his career, lending his touch to everything from computer-animated movies to a series of (for their time) cutting-edge computers, from the original Apple I to the NeXT Cube to the iMac. Having taken computers from hobby to mainstream to the core of worldwide commerce, Jobs and his executive team of designers and engineers were equally quick to throw out much of what they had invented and unafraid to re-imagine the machines, first as staples of the creative industries, then as digital entertainment centers, and finally to what Apple called the "post-PC" era, where considerable computing power is available in handheld devices such as phones and tablets.

Jobs' remarkable prescience about where technology was leading enabled him and the company to frequently leapfrog the competition by creating markets where little or none existed, or by re-invented technology consumers found mediocre and turning it into technology they adopted into their own lives. It was not long ago that people drove to video stores to rent movies, bought CDs in record shops or had wireless phones that did little more than work as phones. Apple not only came to dominate many of these markets, they often defined them: Microsoft had been unsuccessfully hawking tablet computers for years before Jobs and his team found the magic formula that made the original iPad the surprise hit of 2010.

What places Apple above other corporations -- even those that sell far more devices, such as Samsung and Microsoft -- is the high loyalty and intense devotion fans have of Apple products and, more importantly, for the path the company leads them along. Each new innovation, even if Apple was not the first to invent it, brings a substantive change in the lifestyle of Apple enthusiasts. The corporation that dared to take risks, and occasionally didn't live up to the hype -- the iPod struggled for a few years before hitting critical mass, and the Apple TV bubbled along as a self-described "hobby" for Jobs for a long time before the latest version began to catch on -- won respect and admiration for being willing to try something new rather than just rest on its laurels.

Many paying tribute expressed their appreciation for Jobs and his customer-centric vision that exhibited a strong passion for making devices that improved the lives and encouraged the creativity of its buyers. Many notes left on the glass front of the Apple stores had simple sayings such as "iSad" and "thank you Steve." Others wrote longer pieces saying how much the company's products or philosophy had changed their lives, influenced their thinking or given them insight.

Reports and photos have been posted to Flickr, Instagram, Posterous, Twitter and Facebook from stores in Boston, Tokyo, Cupertino, Manhattan, Sydney and other cities around the world. [photos via CNet's Brian Tong and via Instagram users Patr1ck and Shiboda Times]

by MacNN Staff