Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California (USA). It was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Paul Jobs was a machinist and he repaired cars as a hobby. Jobs remembers that his father was very skilled at working with his hands.
In 1961 the family moved to Mountain View, California. This area, just south of Palo Alto, California, was becoming a hub for electronics, which forms the building blocks of devices like radios, televisions, stereos, and computers.
As a child, Jobs preferred to do things himself. He was swimming competitively, but was not interested in team sports or other group activities. He showed an initial interest in electronics and gadgets. He spent a lot of time working in the garage of a neighbor who worked at Hewlett-Packard, an electronics manufacturer. At the Hewlett-Packard Explorer Club he saw engineers show off new products and for the first time he got to see his first computer. He was twelve years old. He was extremely impressed and knew immediately that he wanted to work with computers.
While in high school, Jobs attended lectures at the Hewlett-Packard plant. He once boldly asked President William Hewlett for the parts he needed to complete a class project. Hewlett was so impressed that they gave Jobs everything he needed and offered him a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard.
University time
After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon for two years. He dropped out after one semester to visit India and study Eastern religions in the summer of 1974. In 1975, Jobs joined a group known as the Homebrew Computer Club. One of them, a technical genius named Steve Wozniak, was trying to build a small computer. Jobs was fascinated with the marketing potential of such an idea. In 1976, he and Wozniak formed their own company. They named it the Apple Computer Company, in memory of a happy summer that Jobs had spent picking apples. They raised $ 1,300 in cash initially. At first they sold circuit boards while working on the prototype of their computer.
Apple
Jobs realized that there was a huge gap in the computer market. At that time, practically all computers were so large that they filled a room, and so expensive that no individual could buy them. However, advances in electronics caused computer components to be reduced and the power of the machine increased.
Jobs and Wozniak redesigned their computer, with the idea of selling it to individual users. The Apple II hit the market in 1977, with impressive first-year sales: $ 2.7 million. The company’s sales grew to $ 200 million in three years. This was one of the most fabulous cases of corporate growth in the history of the United States. Jobs and Wozniak had opened an entirely new market: that of personal computers.
By 1980, the era of personal computers was already underway. Apple was forced to continually improve its products to keep going as more competitors entered the market. Apple introduced the Apple III, but the new model suffered from technical and marketing problems. It was taken off the market and later reworked and reintroduced.
Jobs continued to be the marketing force behind Apple. In early 1983 he made known Lisa. It was designed for people with minimal computing experience. However, it did not sell well because it was more expensive than the personal computers sold by the competition. Apple’s main competitor was International Business Machines (IBM). By 1983, Apple was estimated to have lost half its market share.
In 1985 , differences of opinion between him and the company’s CEO, John Sculley, caused Jobs to resign. In the same year, he founded NeXT Inc., especially renowned for its object-oriented software development system.
In 1986, it bought the Graphics Group (later to be renamed Pixar) and ‘Toy Story’ was the first animated film to be released after the acquisition.
In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple as head of the company. Under his guidance, a series of projects were dissolved; introduced a new range of products that greatly increased the company’s sales, becoming one of the world’s electronic giants.
In 1998, Apple iMac was released worldwide.
In 2000, he became the permanent CEO of Apple, adopting the title, iCEO.
In 2001, the company entered the world of music with the introduction of the iPod, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store. The device was an instant hit and improved the company’s sales and reputation by leaps and bounds. The first generation of iPods gave way to modified consumer devices such as the iPod classic, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, and iPod shuffle.
In 2003, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, but nine months later, surgery successfully removed the tumor.
In 2005 , with Disney’s purchase of Pixar, he became the largest shareholder in the Walt Disney Company with approximately 7% of the company’s shares.
In 2007 , it entered the mobile phone business with the launch of the iPhone and the rest, as they say, is history. With its multi-touch screen, its own mobile browser, built-in iPod, the iPhone revolutionized the way the world looked at mobile devices.
In 2008 , the iPhone 3G was released with three main features: support for GPS, 3G data, and triple-band UMTS / HSDPA; In 2009, iPhone 3GS was released. Apple was ranked by Fortune magazine as the number one most admirable company in America.
However, in 2009 the public began to speculate about Jobs’ potential health problems because he had lost a lot of weight. In this year he underwent a liver transplant operation.
In 2010 , it released the iPhone 4, which was a sleeker model than its successors and included improved features such as a five-megapixel camera, a 4G-capable secondary front camera.
In 2011 , the iPhone 4S was released that included Siri, a voice recognition capable virtual assistant. In the same year, Steve Jobs resigned from the presidency of Apple, but continued as chairman of the company’s board.
Six weeks later after stepping down as president of the company, on October 5, 2011, Apple announced that Steve Jobs had died of pancreatic cancer.
Awards and honours
During his lifetime, Jobs received several awards, including the National Medal of Technology and the Jefferson Award for Public Service.
He was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2007. The same year, Fortune magazine named him the world’s most powerful person in business.
In 2009, Fortune magazine named him CEO of the decade . The following year, he appeared at number 17 on the Forbes list of the most powerful people in the world.
In 2010, he was named Person of the Year by the Financial Times newspaper.
Steve Jobs lived from 1955 to 2011. He died aged 56 from cancer, and today the Apple company continues to operate and innovate revolutionary technologies for future generations as inspired by Jobs.
