My deep felt condolences to all at Apple for the loss of its founder, mentor and CEO, Steve Jobs. I, and my company, Diwan, have been working with Apple since 1980 till now - making the first Arabic personal computer in 1981, the Apple ][, all the way to the standard Arabic typeface for iOS.

Who knew that a calligraphy course Steve attended after dropping out of college would have led to a revolution in the whole of the printing and communications industry. It was proportional fonts on the Mac that made professional quality Arabic printing from personal computers possible and that in turn changed forever the way newspapers, books and all information was created and published in the Arab world. Without trying to sound too clichéd, when historians look back on this time, they will see this as significant a milestone in human development as the invention of the printing press. Jobs was the Gutenberg of the modern era.

The company and products he started have been an inspiration throughout my professional career. To me Apple is one of those rare organisations that has become more than a company but a world institution that inspires devotion from everyone who works with it or uses its products. The ideas it nurtured has created whole industries many times more valuable than its current stock price. But this is only the beginning and there is still so much that can be done. Apple now has the basis for an amazing future and I look forward to seeing that develop as much as I feel sad for the present.