Apple Pays Tribute To Nelson Mandela On Its Homepage
December 7, 2013
Apple has just updated the homepage of its official website with a simple tribute to Nelson Mandela, who passed yesterday at the age of 95.
Normally featuring promotional banners for some of Apple's products, Apple.com now shows an image of the late South African anti-apartheid activist.
Mandela served as the President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, as well as the first black South African to assume the position.
Mandela is a true global icon, to say the least. And Apple's remembrance of his memory and legacy is not unexpected, especially considering that Mandela was one of the influential personalities who appeared in Apple's famous "Think Different" ad campaign.
Apple CEO Tim Cook himself honored Mandela with a couple of tweets. In the first tweet, Cook said, "Amazing human being. Champion of freedom and human dignity. He set an example for all of the world. RIP Nelson Mandela. We miss you already." In the second, he posted a significant portion of one of Mandela's best-known maxims: "What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others ..."
Apple marketing head Phil Schiller also recently quoted Mandela on Twitter: "Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement."
As noted by 9to5Mac, Mandela joins the likes of Beatles member George Harrison, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and Apple cofounder Steve Jobs in the short list of people to whom Apple has paid tribute in its homepage.