Edible Apple

While watching Apple’s stream of Tuesday’s iPhone event two nights ago, the video would periodically pan to the same shot of audience members applauding. While I normally wouldn’t have paid much attention to such a thing, the shot in question caught my eye because it centered on an empty seat with a black cloth draped over it, with the word “Reserved” written on it.

Though this transpired one day before Steve Jobs passed away, I was still exceedingly curious. “Who was this reserved seat for?”, I  wondered. The CEO of Nuance, maybe? Perhaps a representative from a top development company? But more importantly, I wondered who in the world would get an invite to an Apple iPhone event and not show up?

Looking back, perhaps this was a quiet tribute from Apple executives to Steve Jobs, who likely knew that this would be the last Apple keynote held while Jobs was alive. Indeed, the other folks seated in the row with the reserved seat include top Apple executives Bob Mansfield and Jeff Williams, Apple’s Senior VP of operations.

Following his resignation as CEO of Apple, Jobs reportedly told biographer Walter Isaacson that he knew death was around the corner. It stands to reason that Apple executives were aware of this as well.

And so, I’d like to think that the seat above was reserved for Steve Jobs, who though not able to attend in body, was long in the thoughts of the people he inspired so greatly.

One Twitter user aptly summed it up: “Reserved for Steve Jobs. Now, and forever.”