Steve Jobs a True Smartphone Innovator
Steve Jobs (1955-2011)is the former CEO of Apple (as of Aug. 24, 2011 Chairman of the Board), which he co-founded in 1976. We're not going to speak to all that Apple Inc. does. Our focus will be on the i Phone and how it has revolutionized the smartphone industry. Matter of fact we think it turned the market upside down in just four short years.
Remember the first Apple phone was introduced in 2007 and look how far we've come already.
Growing Up Jobs
Who says you can't come from an ordinary or even broken home and make a name for yourself.
Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on February 24, 1955. His parents were unwed college graduates who gave him up for adoption to to Paul and Clara Jobs a couple from south of the Bay Area.
Steve Jobs grew up in the Cupertino area of California, which coincidently is the current headquarters of Apple Inc. He did drop out of Reed College in Portland Oregon and went to work with Steve Wozniak at Hewlett-Packard Company. One very important aspect to the development of the Apple phone was Steve continuing audit courses at Reed College including calligraphy. Jobs states, "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
Jobs also had some interesting interests at the time. He traveled to India and returned a Budhist and also experimented with psychedelics...LSD.
Founding of Apple Computer
Steve Jobs along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer in 1976. Jobs being the business person that he is also founded NeXT Computer around the same time.
Fired from Apple Computer.
Yes, Jobs was fired in 1985 from the company he helped to found. Not to rest on his laurels Mr. Jobs went on to buy what is known today as Pixar for $10 million. Talk about making a killing on an exit. Pixar was sold to Disney in January of 2006 in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion.
Does he attract money?
In 1996 (yes we're not going in chronological order) Apple Inc. announced it would be buying NeXT for $429 million. At the closing of the deal guess who was brought back the company he had originally co-founded. You know the answer...Steve Jobs. He was brought back because the company was having one of its worse years ever, talk about a bushel of rotten apples.
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Do you have any stories or memories about Steve Jobs or how his Apple products have affected you? Please share!
Apple Firing on All Cyclinders
Being a shrewd man, Mr. Jobs organized a board coup allowing him to be named interim CEO where the interim label would not last for long. His major act was to cut across the board. Implementing changes that would propell Apple to a consumer electronics juggernault by 2006.
The key products coming out of Apple included: iPod, Mac, operating system OS X and iTunes store.
Apple Phone Arrives
In January of 2007 at Macworld Steve Jobs changed the world with the introduction of the iPhone!
Now this is truly a smartphone. The i Phone puts three things into your pocket all in one device:
- computer
- iPod
- phone.
The iPhone was so revolutionary and a critical aspect of the pivot the company was making that Apple Computer Inc. changed its name to Apple Inc.
What was unparalleled at the time was the exclusivity agreement with AT&T to be the only wireless carrier offering the iPhone.
Steve on the Job
Let's just say Mr. Jobs has a very aggressive and demanding personality. Steve Jobs is known to have a temperamental style and in some circles he very well may be an egomaniac. But we won't hate because who else was going to bring us the best smartphone in the world.
We do have a grievance with the tight control coming out of Cupertino though. Their iPhones are apart of a very closed system where what Steve says goes and either you like it or you don't there is no middle ground. Obviously you cannot satisfy every consumer which has lead to jailbreak of the i Phone.
How much does money talk?
Steve makes only $1 each year but he holds over 5 million Apple shares as well as 138 million shares in Disney bringing his estimated net worth to just over $5 billion making him one of the top 40 wealthiest Americans.
Personal and Health
Jobs married Laurene Powell, on March 18, 1991 and they have a son and two daughters. Steve also has a daughter born in 1978 from a previous relationship with the Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan.
We're confident it doesn't take Apple's CEO much brain power to figure out what he'll be wearing. You know he usually wears a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers.
His choice car is a silver 2006 Mercedes SL 55 AMG which does not have any license plates.
Steve Jobs makes Apple what it is and there were major concerns when it was announced he underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. Again on January 17, 2011 he would take another medical leave and Tim Cook would be responsible for day-to-day operations, with Jobs being involved with major strategic decisions at the company.
Apparently, there has always been a succession plan in place because with the resignation of Mr. Jobs from his position as CEO, Mr. Cook has been elevated from his COO position to CEO.
On Wednesday, October 5, 2011 Mr. Jobs died at the age of 56.
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