Steve Jobs (From askmen)

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Whyis He famous

For more than 30 years, Steve Jobs flexed his imagination to change the ways thattechnologycan impact our lives. Through big ideas, bold imagination and innovative precision, Jobs grew the Apple brand that he co-founded from a respected niche enterprise into a full-blown mainstream techno-force of nature.

The ways that we listen to music, communicate with friends or, most recently, read books, were all influenced by his mega-successful lines ofiPods,iPhonesandiPads. A visionary wizard who never met a cutting-edge gadget that he didn’t like (or invent himself), Steve Jobs was plugged into each of us in some way in the tech-heavy times in which we live.

Though recurring health issues caused Steve Jobs to take a few time-outs in recent years, his penchant for success was unshakable, as demonstrated by the hype surrounding the release of theiPad 2and theiPhone 5, and Oscar applause forToy Story 3-- one of the box office hits to come from his secondary business juggernaut, Pixar Animation Studios. On August 24th, 2011,Jobs announced he was resigningas CEO of Apple, and on October 5, 2011, he died, sparking an enormous outpouring of grief around the world.

Steve JobsQuote

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

88Magnetism

The tall and slight Steve Jobs wasn’t known for his devastating looks, and it didn’t help his game that his trademark public outfit consisted of a black turtleneck, bluejeansandsneakers. While his past conquests included famed singer Joan Baez, Jobs was been happily married to Laurene Powell for 20 years.

96Success

With his name on over 200 patented products or in-development projects, Steve Jobs was a master of bright ideas and entrepreneurial brilliance. Not only was he filled with great ideas, but each one -- be it the iPod, iPhone, iPad or iAnything -- seemed to take on a global must-have status within minutes. Jobs' continued success with Apple, along with his equally lucrative endeavors at Pixar Animation Studios, helped him amass a fortune of over $5 billion dollars and earn honors like the National Medal of Technology, an induction into the California Hall of Fame and five consecutive appearances on AskMen’sTop 49 Most Influential Menlist. It’s not too shabby for a man who maintained a whopping annual salary from Apple of $1 a year -- apart from 5.5 million ever-climbing company shares.

Jobs was called “the most famous maestro of the micro” byTimeand “CEO of the Decade” byFortune, but he also earned a few knocks for the, shall we say, strong-willed and intimidating sides of his personality, as well. While this might have caused some people to see him as egomaniacal, Steve Jobs always recognized the value that teamwork offers -- which came directly from his biggest business model influence,The Beatles. As such, he continually surrounded himself with strong allies like Steve Wozniak (Apple), John Lasseter (Pixar) and even longtime rival Bill Gates.

Steve JobsBiography

Naturally, Steve Jobs began life inSan Francisco-- one of the hubs of Silicon Valley -- where he was raised by his adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Jobs. While he was also a competitive swimmer, Jobs became far more interested in hardware and machinery. He watched his dad work with cars, and as a teenager, he joined the Hewlett-Packard Explorer Club, which introduced him to computers for the very first time. The process of product testing proved fascinating and at that point, he had all but decided that his future was in technology.

Jobs’ association with Hewlett Packard continued during his high school years at Homestead High School. Purely out of his own interest, he went to company seminars and after talking to HP President William Hewlett at one such meeting, he was offered an internship with the company. He gladly took it and formed a friendship with fellow employee Steve Wozniak before heading toPortlandto attend Reed College in 1972. The experience was both short-lived and memorable, as Steve Jobs quit after a single semester, but audited a calligraphy class that later influenced his stylistic choices with fonts years later.

Steve Jobs headed back to California where he found employment with video game giant Atari and re-connected with Steve Wozniak in the Homebrew Computer Club. On the side, they developed a “Blue Box” -- a hack made from Cap’n Crunch cereal box whistles that could mimic AT&T long distance tones and allow for free phone calls. While it wasn’t legal, it did prove that they could make a good team. But before going further, Steve Jobs took a self-fulfilling journey to India that included LSD trips and an embracing of Buddhist principles. Upon his return to home soil, he was ready for a new professional adventure.

Steve Jobs Launches Apple

Following a brief return to Atari, Steve Jobs teamed up with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to foundApplein 1976. Steve Jobs settled on the name because he had picked apples during a past summer and they were also his favorite fruit. After they initially began selling a circuit board that was known as Apple I, Wayne left the company and Steve Jobs and his partner launched the Apple II in 1977, which was notable for its architectural design and for displaying graphics in color. The product’s simple components made it a worthy (and innovative) personal computer, making Apple a name and giving Steve Jobs the financial ground to continue pushing the company forward.

The next turning point for Steve Jobs at Apple came in 1984. Pushed aside from the development of the Apple Lisa, a personal computer, due to a disagreement, he had been busy working instead on a new system called Macintosh. The release of the Macintosh was accentuated by a landmark Ridley Scott-directedSuper Bowl commercialcalled “1984,” which positioned the new computer as the solution to a society bound by conformation. The release of the computer brought the graphical interface technology to new levels by also allowing users to dabble in desktop publishing and laser printing. It was a landmark industry victory for Steve Jobs that influenced every personal computer that came after it, but another company disagreement led him to leave the company in 1985.

Steve Jobs Becomes CEO Of Pixar

The dubious departure of Steve Jobs from Apple inspired him to start a new company called NeXT Computer. Unfortunately, the creation of NeXT didn't meet with the same kind of success that he had previously enjoyed at Apple. The expensive computer costs didn’t resonate well with consumers, making the company a money-loser for Steve Jobs, but after shifting the focus at NeXT to software in 1993, two valuable ideas came out of the process. One was the first-ever internet browsing program and the second was the foundation for a new operating system. Although they were not viable programs for NeXT hardware, Steve Jobs knew they would have a purpose somewhere else. During his time at NeXT, Steve Jobs also made a significant investment into the entertainment arena that eventually made his career lucrative again. Through a deal withStar WarsdirectorGeorge Lucas, Steve Jobs purchased The Graphics Group, a computer graphics sector of Lucasfilm, and re-named it Pixar with the idea of selling hardware that could create state-of-the-art graphics. The initial machines were, like NeXt products, too expensive. But following a deal with Disney, the Pixar technology was used to create the first computer-animated film,Toy Story, in 1995. The huge success of the film not only jump-started the newly-titled Pixar Animation Studios and Steve Jobs, but revolutionized the animated film industry. Pixar-made films became highly-anticipated events and the success ofToy Storyinspired similar hits likeA Bug’s Life,Monsters, Inc., andFinding Nemobefore Pixar was eventually sold to Disney in 2006.

Steve Jobs Re-Joins Apple And Releases The iPod

Hot on the heels ofToy Story, Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 after the company paid over $400 million to purchase NeXT. Internal squabbling at Apple led him to be named the new CEO soon afterwards and he wasted no time making changes -- including taking a $150 million investment from Bill Gates to supply new Macintosh systems with Microsoft Office. With NeXT technology now part of the Apple umbrella, he used his previous operating system foundation to develop Mac OS X and launch it on the new 1998 iMac product line. Featuring a colourful design and components that emphasized compatibility between PCs and Macs rather than distance, the iMac offered a much-needed boost to Apple’s market share. Jobs continued his product revolution at Apple by branching out into media players with the release of the iPod in 2001. Using the Apple-branded program iTunes, iPods gave users the ability to transfer songs from their computers to portable devices -- allowing them to listen to hours of music on the go. By 2009, iPods hit a total sales mark of over 220 million units and a market share of over 70%. Like the iMac, they were well-engineered and cosmetically appealing.

Steve Jobs Releases The iPhone And iPad

In 2006, Steve Jobs brought more innovation to Apple with the release of theMacBook, a new Macintosh notebook that eventually became the company’s highest-selling Mac product ever. Incredibly, the release of the MacBook paled in comparison to Steve Jobs’s 2007 venture. Seeking to expand on the innovation of the iPod but with an added (and ambitious) technological focus, Jobs released the iPhone -- a product that combined the music of the earlier portable media player with mobile phone capabilities, a video camera, a web browser, and an on-screen keyboard. Predictably, the revolutionary product attracted international anticipation across all demographics, and by 2011, Apple had sold over 100 million iPhones. The release of these Apple products represented a series of amazing industry victories for Jobs, but they were even more impressive, considering the health problems that were plaguing him along the way. A cancerous pancreatic tumor in 2004 led to dramatic weight loss and was also followed by a liver transplant in 2009. A few weeks prior to releasing the iPad 2 tablet computer in March of 2011, Steve Jobs announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from Apple to focus on his health but would remain a key voice for the company’s important decisions. The prospect of the Apple visionary's departure frightened investors -- and share prices showed it -- and it remains to be seen whether the company can innovate without Jobs.

Steve Jobs' Death

On August 24th, 2011,Jobs announced he was resigningas CEO of Apple, undoubtedly because of his recurring health issues. Tim Cook was been named as Jobs' successor. And on October 5, 2011, news spread that Steve Jobs had passed away at the age of 56 from his long battle withpancreatic cancer.

Steve Jobs' sister, the novelist Mona Simpson, read the eulogy at his memorial service. The eulogy waspublished in theNew York Timesseveral weeks after the service. Simpson ended the eulogy by repeating her brother's final words: "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."

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