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Apple celebrates life of Nelson Mandela on its homepage

Screen Shot 2013-12-06 at 11.25.01 PM

Apple has completely removed all product promotion from its www.apple.com homepage this evening and replaced it with a touching tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela, who passed away earlier this week. The New York Times has an interactive timeline of Mandela’s life.

Apple has previously replaced its homepage to mark the passing of only a few other individuals: Gregory Hines, George Harrison, Rosa Parks, board member Jerry York, and Steve Jobs. Apple executives Tim Cook and Phil Schiller shared their thoughts about Mandela’s life via Twitter:

[tweet https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/408934382658134016 align=’center’]

[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/408772726875111424 align=’center’]

[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/408939782924824576 align=’center’]

Thanks, Steven.

Mandela appeared in one of Apple’s early Think Different print advertisements:

nelsonmandela.jpg

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Comments

  1. Gregg Mojica - 10 years ago

    That’s awesome. At first, I thought only Steve Jobs would be honored this way, but it’s very fitting. He was the kind of “rebel” Apple admires and an amazing human being. Rest in Peace, Nelson Mandela.

    • Jörgen Spanjer - 10 years ago

      Next up: che guevara?
      Dropped the ball big time Apple!
      Better do some real reading on this “hero”.

  2. I thought all this kind of stuff about him too, and then my fb friends educated me.

    I suggest you do a little reading… O_o

    • You know Steve Jobs wasn’t a saint either. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t an inspiration, a visionary and that his life shouldn’t be honored.

      All of us have fallen short of God’s glory and we’re far from perfect but in our mess hopefully we can find a way to make a difference and be remembered for our accomplishments and not our shortcomings.

      • drtyrell969 - 10 years ago

        Yeah, well Steve didn’t kill 400+ people.

    • weakguy - 10 years ago

      I also suggest you to do some reading about our very own Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. if that’s what you think about Mandela. After you get “educated”, I suggest you to do more reading on other visionaries/legends. Apparently many people don’t think they are humans as well.

    • Well I’ve been truly schooled the last couple of days since posting this comment. :\

      Mandela was the one person I wanted to meet before I died. I am now in a bot of a state of shock at what I have learned.

  3. Nelson Mandela brought hope to a completely broken nation. That nation is still broken. Madiba’s replacement is a disgusting human. South Africa needs to embrace Madiba’s forgiveness. Regardless of race, Zuma needs to go. Anyone that says H.I.V. is not transferrable if you “have a shower” afterwards is ignorant, and frankly not helping our race move forwards. Mandela would not want millions of people mourning his death, he would want us all to move forwards to a better, harmonic South Africa.

  4. The truest comment, and the wisest comment from Madiba was that success is measured by the positive effect you have on the lives of others. We all need to focus on what’s good for our race as human beings. When was the last time you enriched the life of another?

  5. dedomobil (@dedomobil) - 10 years ago

    Apple also honored Akio Morita founder of Sony on the home page when he passed away.

  6. Pauline Wolfowitz - 10 years ago

    Celebrating a terrorist, communist, genocider, racist, and torturer? That’s real classy Apple. He sang about killing white people (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcOXqFQw2hc), his organization created a form of torture used on children called Necklacing that was endorsed by his wife (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necklacing) and he created and led an organization that tortured people, committed genocide against whites, and terrorized the country with road side bombs similar to what our military faces in the Middle East (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umkhonto_we_Sizwe). He specifically advocated violence. This is the sick mind of “anti-racist” liberals. It’s just cultural Marxism by force.

    • Kuveshan Naidoo - 10 years ago

      Its astounding how ignorant some of you Americans are…..understand the situation surrounding his actions before passing comment. You need to have a “feel” of our country. Reading mere text does not explain circumstances.

  7. Siva Venkatesh - 10 years ago

    instead of the word “celebrates” you should have used “remembers”.

  8. It is entirely appropriate to consider his ‘terrorism’ when weighing the facts. However, in doing so, consider the oppression he was up against and then ask yourself: what if he just ‘lay down and took it up the tail pipe?’

  9. maestro jab - 10 years ago

    Surely Apple will not stand in the way to talk about Nelson Mandela for their own self promotion. Don’t get me wrong, he was an amazing man, but seriously what association has Apple ever had with him?