Mobiata founder Ben Kazez was an intern at Apple in summer 2006.

Angela Cesere | AnnArbor.com

Steve Jobs is often described as a visionary — the rare business executive who foresaw changes in technology, economy and culture years before the rest of us.

But he never lost sight of details.

That's a lesson Ann Arbor entrepreneur Ben Kazez won't forget.

On Day One of his software development internship at Apple's headquarters in California in the summer of 2006, Kazez quickly learned about Jobs' leadership style. He was assigned to help develop a new feature that would make the company's iCal calendar application easier to use on a Mac computer.

It was "very similar to a widget I'd designed independently. I saw a mockup for the iCal widget and wanted to add a few features that my users had requested," Kazez said in an email this morning. "'Sorry,' I was told. 'That design has already been through a dozen iterations with Steve.'"

Just, "Steve."

After Jobs' death Wednesday, that memory was vivid.

"It was so impressive to me that something as simple as a tiny pane of a little widget had been under so much scrutiny by SJ," Kazez said. "And his input was classic Steve — less is more."

Less than three years later, Kazez launched his new mobile software company, Mobiata, in Minnesota. He created the FlightTrack application — which makes it easy for frequent travelers to monitor their flight itinerary and gate changes — and sales took off. With sales skyrocketing, he needed more talent — and he identified Ann Arbor as the place to be.

So he moved his budding startup to Ann Arbor in early 2009, recruited U-M software phenom Jason Bornhorst to join his team and continued to develop popular applications.

With annual revenues nearing $2 million, he sold the company to global travel website Expedia.com in late 2010.

Now, Expedia has assigned Mobiata to expand its mobile presence — from its headquarters in Ann Arbor, where Mobiata recently quadrupled its office space.

All because Steve Jobs created a new business model that allowed private software developers to create applications for Apple devices and keep 70 percent of the revenue.

Jobs' advice — "delight the customer with less," as Kazez recounts — is evident in Mobiata's elegant applications with a sharp visual presentation and smooth navigability.

"It's a lesson I've tried to take to heart and demonstrate and confer upon Mobiata in our apps," Kazez said. "Steve made us who we are."

Kazez believes the lessons of Jobs' leadership will last.

"In true visionary style, though, I think Steve's death will actually have surprisingly little effect on the quality of products coming from app developers," he said. "His vision lives on in great innovations everywhere."

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.