Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was an American  innovator,  developer, and entrepreneur who was the co-founder,  principal  superintendent, and  president of the Apple computer. Apple’s revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, are now seen as  decreeing the  elaboration of  ultramodern technology. 

Steve Jobs’ parents and adoption

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to  scholars Abdul Fattah Jandali and Joanne Carole Schieble. They were  unattached at the time and gave him up for relinquishment. He was taken in by a working- class couple, Paul and Clara Jobs, and grew up with them in mountain view, California.

Clara worked as an accountant, and Paul was a seacoast guard  stager and machinist.  Jobs ’ father, Jandali, was a Syrian political  wisdom professor. His  mama , Schieble, worked as a speech therapist. Shortly after Jobs was placed for relinquishment, his  natural parents married. Not until Jobs was 27 could he uncover information on his  natural parents. 

Early life

As a boy, Jobs and his father worked on electronics in the family garage. Paul showed his son how to take  piecemeal and reconstruct electronics, a  hobbyhorse that  inseminated confidence, tenacity, and mechanical prowess in  youthful jobs. He grew up with one family,  croquette. Paul Jobs was a machinist and fixed  buses  as a  hobbyhorse. 

He lived with his consanguineous family in mountain view, California. This area, just south of Palo Alto, California, was  getting a center for electronics. Electronics form the  introductory  rudiments of  bias  similar as radios,  boxes, stereos, and computers. At that time, people started to  relate to the area as “ silicon  vale. ” this is because a substance called silicon is used in the manufacturing of electronic  corridor. 

Steve Jobs’ education and college

Steve Jobs was always intelligent and a human being with new-age thinking. His youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. Jobs was a prankster in elementary school due to boredom, and his fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school — a proposal that his parents declined.

After graduating from high school in 1972, jobs attended reed college in Portland, Oregon, for two years. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes at the school. Jobs later recounted how one course in calligraphy developed his love of typography.

In 1974, jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. Several months later, he left the company to find spiritual enlightenment in India.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs

Back when Jobs was enrolled at homestead high school, he was introduced to his future partner and co-founder of Apple computer, Steve Wozniak, who was attending the University of California, Berkeley.

Jobs realized there was a massive gap in the computer market. At that time, almost all computers were mainframes. They were so large that one could fill a room and so costly that individuals could not afford to buy them. Advances in electronics, however, meant that computer components were getting smaller and the power of the computer was increasing.

Jobs and Wozniak redesigned their computer with the idea of selling them to individual users. The apple ii went to market in 1977, with impressive first-year sales of $2.7 million. The company’s sales grew to $200 million within three years. This was one of the most unusual cases of corporate growth in U.S. History. Jobs and Wozniak opened a new market of personal computer. Personal computers began a completely new way of processing information.

By 1980 the personal computer era was well underway. Apple was continually forced to improve its products to remain ahead as more competitors entered the marketplace. Apple introduced the apple iii, but the new model suffered technical and marketing problems. It was withdrawn from the market and was later reworked and reintroduced.

Jobs continued to be the marketing force behind the apple. Early in 1983, he unveiled the Lisa. It was designed for people possessing minimal computer experience. It did not sell well, however, because it was more expensive than personal computers sold by competitors. Apple’s biggest competitor was International Business Machines (IBM). By 1983 it was estimated that apple had lost half of its market share (part of an industry’s sales that a specific company has) to IBM.

In a 2007 interview with pc world, Wozniak spoke about why he and jobs clicked so well: “we both loved electronics and the way we used to hook up digital chips,” Wozniak said. “Very few people, especially back then, had any idea what chips were, how they worked, and what they could do. I had designed many computers, so I was way ahead of him in electronics and computer design, but we still had common interests. We both had pretty much sort of an independent attitude about things in the world.”

Founding and leaving apple computer

Apple Computer was founded in 1976 by Jobs and Wozniak when Jobs was only 21 years old. Their entrepreneurial endeavor was funded by Jobs selling his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak selling his beloved scientific calculator. With their innovation in making computers smaller, cheaper, and more accessible, Apple revolutionized the computer industry and made everyday life easier, as described in the biography of Steve Jobs.

In 1980, Apple Computer went public and became a publicly-traded company. On the first day of trading, the company’s market value reached an impressive $1.2 billion.

The Macintosh

In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh, which featured a revolutionary on-screen display with small pictures called icons. The use of a mouse to point and click on icons made the Macintosh very user-friendly. However, it did not sell well to businesses due to its lack of certain features, such as a high-quality printer, which other personal computers had. This failure marked the beginning of Jobs’ downfall at Apple, leading to his resignation in 1985 from the company he co-founded, though he remained the chairman of its board of directors, according to Steve Jobs’ biography.

After leaving Apple, Jobs founded a new computer company called Next, and the Next computer was introduced in 1988 at a gala event in San Francisco. It received generally positive reviews, being very user-friendly with fast processing speed, great graphics displays, and an excellent sound system. However, the Next machine did not become popular as it was expensive, had a black-and-white screen, and was unable to link to other computers or run common software. The company struggled to sell its specialized operating system to mainstream America, and in 1996, Apple acquired Next for $429 million, as mentioned in Steve Jobs’ biography.

Next and Apple

In December 1996, Apple acquired Next Software, and as a result, Steve Jobs returned to the company as a part-time consultant to the CEO. The following year, Apple and its rival Microsoft surprised everyone by entering into a partnership to collaborate on sales and technology. Over the next six years, Jobs played a significant role in introducing new products and marketing strategies.

In November 1997, Jobs announced Apple’s plan to sell computers directly to consumers via the internet and phone. This move led to the creation of the successful Apple Store, which became the third-largest e-commerce site on the internet within a week. In September of the same year, Jobs was named interim CEO of Apple.

In 1998, Jobs revealed the iMac, which offered powerful computing capabilities at an affordable price. A year later, Apple unveiled the clam-shaped laptop, the iBook, which came in various bright colors and included Apple’s Airport technology for wireless internet connectivity.

In January 2000, Jobs announced Apple’s new internet strategy, which centered around a group of internet-based applications designed exclusively for Macintosh users. At the same time, Jobs confirmed that he was taking over as Apple’s permanent CEO.

Steve Jobs, a computer industry visionary, believed that when you see something as a compelling reason and feel that it’s within your reach, even if you don’t know how to achieve it, it’s worth dedicating years of your life to make it a reality. This perspective is evident in his efforts to transform his ideas into innovative products that cater to the needs of both businesses and consumers.

He played a crucial role in ushering in the era of personal computing, and his contributions have been instrumental in shaping the technology landscape.

Reinventing Apple

In 1997, Steve Jobs resumed his role as Apple’s CEO, and just as he played a crucial role in the company’s success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalizing it in the 1990s. With a new management team, revised stock options, and a self-imposed salary of $1 per year, Jobs steered Apple back on course. He introduced innovative products, such as the iMac, and effective branding campaigns, which caught the attention of consumers once again.

In the following years, Apple continued to release groundbreaking products such as the iPod, iPhone, and MacBook Air, which have shaped the evolution of technology. Competitors scrambled to produce comparable technologies every time Apple launched a new product. By 2008, fueled by iTunes and iPod sales, Apple became America’s second-largest music retailer, with Walmart being the only company ahead of it.

Apple’s success has been acknowledged by various sources, including Fortune magazine, which ranked it as America’s most admired company and the number one company among the Fortune 500 for returns to shareholders.

Steve Jobs and Pixar

In 1986, Steve Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar animation studios. Believing in Pixar’s potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money in the company. The studio went on to produce wildly popular movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles; Pixar’s films have collectively netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder.

In 2011, Forbes estimated the majority of Jobs’ net worth at around $6.5 billion to $7 billion from his sale of Pixar to the Walt Disney Company in 2006. However, if Jobs had not sold his Apple shares in 1985, when he left the company he founded and helmed for over a decade, his net worth would have been a staggering $36 billion.

Steve Jobs’ wife and children

Jobs and Laurene Powell married on March 18, 1991. The pair met in the early 1990s at Stanford Business School, where Powell was an MBA student. They lived together in Palo Alto, California, with their three children: Reed, Erin, and Eve.

Steve Jobs’ battle with cancer and death

In 2003, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare but treatable form of pancreatic cancer called neuroendocrine tumor. Instead of undergoing surgery right away, Jobs decided to change his diet to include more fruits and vegetables and eliminate meat.

This decision caused concern among Apple’s board of directors, who worried about the impact on shareholders if news of their CEO’s illness became public. However, Jobs prioritized his privacy over disclosing his condition to shareholders and ultimately delayed surgery for nine months.

Steve Jobs underwent successful surgery in 2004 to remove a pancreatic tumor. However, Jobs maintained privacy about his health issues and did not speak extensively about them. In 2009, rumors about Jobs’ weight loss and possible health problems resurfaced, leading to his announcement of a leave of absence from Apple due to a hormone imbalance.

He named Tim Cook as responsible for the company’s daily operations during this time. Jobs returned to the spotlight briefly in 2009 and continued to oversee Apple’s product launches throughout 2010. In January 2011, Jobs announced another medical leave, ultimately resigning as CEO in August of that year and passing away on October 5, 2011, in Palo Alto, following a decade-long battle with pancreatic cancer. Despite his challenges, Jobs’ life and career continue to inspire many.

Steve Jobs Book Review

Walter Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs” is a compelling biography that offers a deep dive into the life of Apple’s co-founder. Isaacson’s meticulous research, including interviews with Jobs and those close to him, paints a vivid picture of the visionary’s personal and professional life.

The book covers Jobs’ journey from his early years to his successes at Apple, NeXT, and Pixar, revealing his relentless pursuit of perfection and innovation. Isaacson presents a balanced view, highlighting Jobs’ genius while acknowledging his flaws and controversial management style.

Isaacson’s engaging storytelling brings Jobs’ story to life, making this biography essential for anyone interested in the tech industry’s influential figures. “Steve Jobs” is a captivating exploration of the man who revolutionized how we live and interact with technology.