Steve Jobs Apple Co-Founder and Former CEO has passed away today, 5th October 2011, at age 56.
This is not a joke, as we would have hoped or believed after the inspiration for a generation and creator of many of the great gadgets we use in day to day life resigned from the company he co-founded to focus on his declining health from pancreatic cancer, which was sadly the cause of his passing.
Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24th 1955. He never met his biological father and was adopted shortly after birth by Paul and Clara Jobs of Montain View, California who named him Stephen Paul Jobs. A name that would become world famous as one of the great inventors and entrepreneurs of our lifetime.
A keen tech enthusiast throughout his youth, Steve moved from Cupertino Schools onto Reed College then worked with Atari on the circuit boards for the popular Breakout game of the ’70s. In 1976 along with old school pal Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne the trio formed Apple from the humble setting of Jobs’ garage and set out to build the first Apple Macintosh computer.
Bringing in an executive from Pepsi-Cola co. named John Sculley as CEO saw Jobs lose his position as Head of Macintosh in the then small company he had helped found. Steve being Steve, he didn’t let this bring him down and set off with creative ideas in his head that would make him a legacy none of us would ever forget. Jobs at this time also spread his wings to form the NeXT computer system, which the operating software for would be the start point for Apple’s iOS.
During his lengthy absence from Apple, Steve bought into The Graphics Group, which at the time was a part of LucasFilm, and later became Disney Pixar. Jobs still held shares in the companies stock up until his death.
A twist of fate in 1996 saw Apple aquire the NeXT computer co. and with it came Steve Jobs again. This ‘Second Coming’ introduced the world to the revolutionary iTunes digital music store, as well as the must have gadgets the iPhone multitouch smartphone and the iPad tablet featuring the iOS operating platform. These devices shaped the way everything following would look and perform and were followed up by a succession of improvements and upgrades.
In 2004, Steve Jobs announced he was suffering from pancreatic cancer, but he continued on as an artist and tech-inspiration overseeing the role of key speaker for so many of these iconic and historical product launches and his face, name and reputation became unrivalled as the front-man of world technology. Appearing on magazine covers, featuring on billboards and even his own comic book. Towards 2009/10 it became clear that Steve’s health was declining but as ever he carrying the torch for Apple through it all. He took a break at the start of 2011 and returned for his his last appearances at the iPad 2 launch event and the WWDC conference in June to announce a series of new wares including the iCloud.
In August 2011, Steve Jobs did choose to resign from his position as CEO of Apple, considering his health as upmost importance, and his role was passed to Cheif Operating Officer Tim Cook.
Steve Jobs passes just days after the next generation of his groundbreaking iPhone is announced to the public by his successor. A fitting tribute to the man who started it all and who will be missed by not only the tech world but maybe unknowingly by society as a whole.
The Gadget Helpline joins the outpouring of voices online wishing their best to the Jobs family after the loss of a great man.
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