Steve Jobs: February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011
Jobs was the adopted son of a Mountain View, CA couple and grew up in Cupertino, the city where Apple is now based. He met his longtime friend and fellow Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak when he was 16 years old thanks to an introduction from a mutual friend. That was in 1971—years before the two roped in a couple more friends to begin working on their first computers for Apple.
Jobs founded Apple in 1976 along with Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, and A.C. Markkula Jr. in order to create personal computers that regular people could use at home—a young but budding market back in the late '70s. Apple saw some success with its first series of Apple II computers, but the first Macintosh was released to the public in 1984 and became a wild success. Although Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985 following a power struggle between him and who would become the new CEO, John Sculley, he was never forgotten by the Apple faithful. Jobs made a triumphant return to the struggling company in in 1997 following Apple's purchase of Jobs' other company, NeXT Computer.
Since then, Apple has been doing (almost) nothing but going gangbusters on the technology world thanks to Jobs' ambitious-yet-ruthless management style. The original iMac, followed by the iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air, and now the iPad have all seen levels of success that were unfathomable in the mid-'90s. Jobs has arguably positioned himself as one of the most important people in personal technology between the late-1970s and today—a difficult title to strive for during such a technologically innovative time period.
But the legend of Steve Jobs goes much further—and will live much longer—than any single piece of technology that Apple has produced. From stories of Jobs firing people in elevators to recollections of him going to a neighborhood pool party with his son, Jobs somehow managed to maintain a personal reputation as chilled out Buddhist with a type A personality. His high standards, combined with his eye for simplicity, will certainly live on in Apple's future creations. But for now, we must say goodbye to the man who worked tirelessly to make it all possible: Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
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