Public Figure

Steve Jobs
co-founder and CEO of Apple and Pixar

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

-Steve Jobs

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs, is an American business magnate and inventor. He is well-known for being the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. Jobs founded another computer company, NeXT Computer after leaving Apple. Jobs is also known as the one man who could have upstaged Bill Gates. But Jobs was as excited about innovation as Bill Gates was interested in making money.

Steve Jobs was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin to Joanne Simpson and an Egyptian Arab father. Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, Californiathen adopted him. The writer Mona Simpson is Jobs’ biological sister. In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. One semester later he had dropped out. But instead of going back home he hung around college and took up the study of philosophy and foreign cultures.

Steve Jobs had a deep-seated interest in technology so he took up a job at Atari Inc. which was a leading manufacturer of video games. He struck a friendship with fellow designer Steve Wozniak and attended meetings of the “Homebrew Computer Club” with him. Wozniak and Jobs developed a system with a toy whistle available in the Cap’n Crunch cereal box to make it possible to make free long distance telephone calls. They called off the amateur venture after someone told them of the possible legal consequences.

After saving up some money Steve Jobs took off for India in the search of enlightenment with his friend Dan Kottke. Once he returned he convinced Wozniak to quit his job at Hewlett Packard (HP) and join him in his venture that concerned personal computers. They sold items like a scientific calculator to raise the seed capital.


In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computer Co. in the Jobs family garage. The first personal computer was sold for $666.66. By 1980, Apple had already released three improved versions of the personal computer. It had a wildly successful IPO, which made both founders millionaires many times over. Steve Jobs had managed to rope in John Scully of Pepsi to head the marketing function in Apple.

A tiff with the Apple board and John Scully led to the resignation of Steve Jobs. As soon as he resigned he immersed himself in his brand new venture. Steve Jobs decided that he wanted to change the hardware industry. The company was called NeXT Step and the new machine was called NeXT Computer. He ploughed in more than U.S. $250 million into the company. The machine was a commercial washout but it did help in object-oriented programming, PostScript, and magneto-optical devices. Tim Berners-Lee developed the original World Wide Web system at CERN on a NeXT machine. Bitterly disappointed with NeXT Step, Jobs accepted the offer that Apple made him.

Steve Jobs also started Pixar Inc., which has gone on to produce animated movies such as Toy Story (1995); A Bug’s Life (1998); Toy Story 2 (1999); Monsters, Inc. (2001); Finding Nemo (2003); and The Incredibles (2004). This venture has made him one of the most sought after men in Hollywood.

Post Pixar, Steve Jobs wanted another round of revolutionizing to do. This time it was the music industry. He introduced the iPod in 2003. Later he came up withiTunes, which was a digital jukebox. A million and a half iPods later, the music industry still does not know whether this invention will save it or destroy it. Applehas a great advertising track record and its ‘Rip, Mix, Burn’ campaign was another feather in its cap. Now the industry uses a Mac to make the music and an iPod to store it.

Steve Jobs had created a Techno storm that changes the world in recent years. His failure in the early days which due to his ill-tempered thinking make him suffer a lot yet he overcome himself and making his idea sale. He’s successful because he think out of the box and create products that are valued by many and also have more interaction to others. This has make Apple, Macintosh, and Pixar change the life of everyone in the world.

References

Youtube video : Steve Jobs Documentary
URL : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MwD-TZ6r9Y

Wikipedia : Steve Jobs

URL : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#NeXT_Computer

All about Steve Job .com
URL : http://www.allaboutstevejobs.com/ bio/bio.html