Steve Jobs Biography - Founder of Apple Computer
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." -Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs regularly makes most rosters of the rich and powerful. It
is surprising for a guy who takes home an annual salary of U.S. $1. The
reasons why he is on all power lists are; Apple, Next, iPod and Pixar.
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, California then 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 of 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 and join him in his
venture that concerned personal computers. They sold items like a
scientific calculator to raise the seed capital. There is controversy as
to where did the name Apple originate. According to one belief Apple
originates from a pleasant summer Jobs had spent as an orchard worker in
Oregon. There is another school of thought that says that the symbol of
rainbow colored apple that has been bitten into is a tribute to Alan
Turing who was a homosexual and had died after biting a cyanide laced
apple.
In 1976, Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak, 26, 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 NeXTStep 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 NeXTStep, 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 with iTunes, 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. Apple has 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 lives with his wife, Laurene Powell and their three
children in Silicon Valley. He also has a daughter, Lisa Jobs from a
previous relationship. In 2004, there was a cancerous tumor in his
pancreas, which was successfully operated upon.