iGenius Steve Jobs Dies
The co-founder and chairman of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, died on October 5 at age 56 after battling pancreatic cancer for several years. Under his guidance, Apple produced an array of products that transformed the digital age: the Apple II computer; the Macintosh with its revolutionary graphical interface; the iMac computer; the iBook laptop; the iPod music player; the iPhone, the first computer-like smartphone; and the iPad, the first tablet computer. Apple’s online music store, iTunes, opened in 2003 and quickly grew into the nation’s largest music retailer. Jobs also led Pixar Animation Studios, which produced the first feature-length, computer animated film, Toy Story, and a string of hit movies. After being ousted from Apple in 1985 corporate coup (overthrow), Jobs returned as chief executive in 1997. Pulling the company back from the brink of bankruptcy, Jobs built Apple into one of the world’s most valuable corporations.
Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco on Feb. 24, 1955, and raised by adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Jobs. He dropped out of Reed College in Oregon after six months but stayed on for several months, taking classes of his own choosing. He and high school friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple in a garage in Palo Alto, California, on April Fools Day, 1976. They launched the Apple II in 1977. When Apple stock was first made available in 1980, Jobs, then 25 years old, made an estimated $217 million.
Steve Jobs’s product and marketing innovations and extraordinary personal taste transformed not only the desktop computer, cellphone, and music player but whole industries, including retail music, consumer electronics, and mobile communications.
Additional World Book articles:
- Back in Time (1998)
- Back in Time (2007)
- Back in Time (2010)
