Steve Jobs rose to become an icon of media technology through his passion for computers and inventive talent. The co-founder and former CEO of Apple revolutionized the market for “digital lifestyle” products with iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad. As a brilliant pioneer and charismatic leader, he became the driving force in the company and regularly captivated the masses.
• Steve Jobs founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak in his parents’ garage
• NeXT and Pixar as a second mainstay
• Jobs was long responsible for the Macintosh project and was instrumental in the development of revolutionary products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad
Jobs’ early life
Steve Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco. Immediately after his birth, he was put up for adoption by his parents and grew up with his adoptive parents, the Jobs couple, in California. He only found out about his biological parents and his older sister years later. In 1972, Jobs finished high school and went to Reed College in Portland to study calligraphy, but left without a degree and instead worked on designing video games for the Atari company.
Rise with Apple
Even without expensive equipment, Jobs found ways to pursue his interest in technology early on. In 1976, together with his longtime friend Steve Wozniak, he constructed the first sophisticated personal computer in the garage of his parents’ house. The “Apple I” ushered in a new computing age based on the idea of easy-to-use calculators. The simple and brilliant business idea took off immediately and generated mass demand, whereupon Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computer Inc in 1976. Their revolutionary work quickly made them famous in the tech industry. Jobs was one of the first entrepreneurs to understand that the personal computer would appeal to a wide audience. A little later, the two Apple founders celebrated worldwide success with the “Apple II”, which became synonymous with the boom in personal computers. In 1980 the company successfully went public. By the time he was twenty-five, Jobs was one of the richest men in the United States, with assets of around $100 million.
Other important milestones in life
Within the company, Jobs devoted himself primarily to the development of the Macintosh model he favored. After an internal power struggle, he was ousted from the company in 1985 and founded a new company, NeXT Computer Inc. The product idea of the NeXT computer was based on the concept of team-oriented cooperation between the employees of a company and prevailed as so-called “interpersonal computing” in business, primarily because of the flexible program system NeXTSTEP.
Meanwhile, Jobs acquired a controlling interest in Pixar Inc., a computer animation studio in California. Pixar’s IPO made Jobs a billionaire for the first time. In 2006 he finally sold the studio to the Disney Company.
In 1991, Jobs married Laurene Powell, with whom he had three children. His firstborn daughter was from a relationship with journalist Chrisann Brennan.
Jobs’ return to Apple
By the end of 1996, Apple had suffered enormous financial losses and was on the brink of collapse. After intensive and lengthy research efforts failed to develop an acceptable replacement for the obsolete Macintosh operating system (OS), new CEO Gilbert Amelio bought Jobs’ company NeXTSTEP for more than $400 million to upgrade its operating system evolve into a new Macintosh operating system. At the same time, he brought Jobs back to Apple as the first advisor, who was later appointed interim boss at his original company. In the years that followed, Jobs reformed the production and sales structure in order to lead Apple out of the crisis with the iMac. After Amelio was fired, Jobs was appointed CEO of the company. Jobs simplified the company’s product line and forged an alliance with Microsoft Corporation but did not adopt Microsoft’s Windows operating system, believing that Apple was in a unique position with its own operating system. With the introduction of the iPod, iPhone and iPad, he transformed technology and communication. His iconic presentation of the iPhone cemented his position as a media technology icon.
Jobs was extremely focused on his projects and so charismatic that he was able to win over numerous people for his ideas. According to an article in the IT platform CIO, few executives pay as much attention to the product itself and design aspects as Jobs did. “Simplicity, functionality and customer appeal have always come first for Jobs,” biographer Jon Katzenbach told CIO. Cost or profit were of secondary importance to him. Jobs’ beliefs and innovative spirit saved the company, which re-established itself as a master high-tech marketer and pioneer.
In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In early 2011, Jobs announced that he would hand over day-to-day operations to Tim Cook for health reasons and resigned as Apple’s CEO that same year. Shortly thereafter, he died on October 5, 2011 at the age of 56 as a result of severe cancer.
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