Tribute to Steve Jobs

Born:Steven Paul Jobs

February 24, 1955

San Francisco, California, U.S.

Residence :Palo Alto , California, U.S.

Nationality: American

Alma mater Reed College (dropped out in 1972)

Occupation: former Chairman, Apple Inc.

Net worth: $8.3 billion (2011)

Board member of: The Walt Disney Company , Apple, Inc.

Religion: Buddhism

Spouse: Laurene Powell (1991 present)

Children : 4

Relatives Mona Simpson

Website Steve Jobs

Steven Paul " Steve " Jobs (born February 24, 1955)is an American business magnate and inventor. He is co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served aschief executive of Pixar Animation Studios ; he became a member of the board of directors of TheWalt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in the 1995 movie Toy Story as an executive producer.

In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak , Mike Markkula , and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series . In the early 1980s,Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse -driven graphical user interface , which led to the creation of the Macintosh .


After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1984, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT , a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded,and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios . He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. Consequently Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder at 7% and a member of Disney's Board of Directors.


Jobs' history in business has contributed much to the symbolic image of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both functional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.

On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation from his roleas Apple's CEO. In his letter of resignation, Jobs strongly recommended that the Apple executive succession plan be followed and Tim Cook be named as his successor. Per his request, Jobs was appointed chairman of Apple's board of directors.




Jobs was born in San Francisco and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs (née Hagopian) of Mountain View , California, who named him Steven Paul. Paul and Clara later adopted a daughter, whom they named Patti. Jobs' biological parents Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian Muslim graduate student from Homs who later became a political science professor, and Joanne Simpson (née Schieble), an American graduate student who went on to become a speech language pathologist later married, giving birth to and raising Jobs' biological sister, the novelist Mona Simpson .



Jobs attended Cupertino Junior High School and Homestead High School in Cupertino , California, and frequented after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto , California. He was soon hired there and worked with Steve Wozniak as a summer employee. In 1972, Jobs graduated from high school and enrolled in Reed College in Portland , Oregon. Although he dropped out after only one semester, he continued auditing classes at Reed, such as one in calligraphy , while sleeping on the floor in friends' rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Macwould have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.[/color]


In autumn 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak. He took a job as a technician at Atari , a manufacturer of popular video games , with the primary intent of saving money for a spiritual retreat to India. Jobs then traveled to India to visit the Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram with a Reed College friend (and, later, the first Apple employee), Daniel Kottke , in search of spiritual enlightenment. He came back a Buddhist with his head shaved and wearing traditional Indian clothing. During this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics , calling his LSD experiences "one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life". He has said that people around him who did not share his counter cultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking.



Jobs returned to his previous job at Atari and was given the task of creating a circuit board for the game Breakout . According to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell , Atari had offered $100 for each chip that was eliminated in the machine. Jobs had little interest or knowledge in circuit board design and made a deal with Wozniak to split the bonus evenly between them if Wozniak could minimize the number of chips. Much to the amazement of Atari, Wozniak reduced the number of chips by 50, a design so tight that it was impossible to reproduce on an assembly line. At the time, Jobs told Wozniak that Atari had only given them $700 (instead of theactual $5000) and that Wozniak's share was thus$350.

CAREER



In 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne , with later funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product-marketing manager and engineer A.C. "Mike" Markkula Jr. , founded Apple. Prior to co-founding Apple, Wozniak was an electronics hacker. Jobs and Wozniak had been friends for several years, having met in 1971, when their mutual friend, Bill Fernandez, introduced 21-year-old Wozniak to 16-year-old Jobs. Steve Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a computer and selling it. As Apple continued to expand, the company began looking for an experienced executive to help manage its expansion. In 1978, Apple recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO for what turned out to be several turbulent years. In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?"



The following year,Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled " 1984 ." At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as"pandemonium." The Macintosh became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface . The development of the Mac was started by Jef Raskin , and eventually taken over by Jobs.

While Jobs was a persuasive and charismatic director for Apple, some of his employees from that time had described him as an erratic and temperamental manager.An industry-wide sales slump towards the end of 1984 caused a deterioration in Jobs's working relationship with Sculley, and at the end of May 1985 following an internal power struggle and an announcement of significant layoffs Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division.



Around the same time, Jobs founded another computer company, NeXTComputer . Like the Apple Lisa , the NeXT workstation was technologically advanced; however, it was largely dismissed by industry as cost-prohibitive. Among those who could afford it, however, the NeXT workstation garnered a strong following becauseof its technical strengths, chief among them its object-oriented software development system. Jobs marketed NeXT products to the scientific and academic fields because of the innovative, experimental new technologies it incorporated (such as the Mach kernel , the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port).

The NeXTcube was described by Jobs as an"interpersonal" computer, which he believed was the next step after "personal" computing. That is, if computers could allow people to communicate and collaborate together in an easy way, it would solve many of the problems that "personal"computing had come up against.

During a time when e-mail for most people was plain text, Jobs lovedto demo the NeXT's e-mail system, NeXTMail , as an example of his"interpersonal" philosophy. NeXTMail was one of the first to support universally visible, clickable embedded graphics and audio within e-mail.

Jobs ran NeXT with an obsession for aesthetic perfection, as evidenced by such things as the NeXTcube's magnesium case. This put considerable strain on NeXT's hardware division, and in 1993, after having sold only 50,000 machines, NeXT transitioned fully to software development with the release of NeXTSTEP / Intel .

Pixar and Disney



In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar ) from Lucas film 's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million, $5 million of which was given to the company as capital.

The new company, which was originally based at Lucas film 's Kerner Studios in San Rafael , California, but has since relocated to Emeryville , California, was initially intended to be a high-end graphics hardware developer. After years of unprofitability selling the Pixar Image Computer , it contracted with Disney to produce a number of computer-animated feature films, which Disney would co-finance and distribute.

The first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story ,



brought fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995. Over the next 15 years, under Pixar's creative chief John Lasseter , the company would produce the box-office hits

A Bug's Life (1998),

Toy Story 2 (1999),

Monsters, Inc. (2001),

Finding Nemo (2003),

The Incredibles (2004),

Cars (2006),

Ratatouille (2007),

WALL-E (2008),

Up (2009)

and

Toy Story 3 (2010).

Finding Nemo , The Incredibles , Ratatouille , WALL-E , Up and Toy Story 3 each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , an award introduced in 2001.

In the years 2003 and 2004, as Pixar's contract with Disney was running out, Jobs and Disney chief executive Michael Eisner tried but failed to negotiate a new partnership, and in early 2004 Jobs announced that Pixar would seek a new partner to distribute its films once its contract with Disney expired.

In October 2005, Bob Iger replaced Eisner at Disney,and Iger quickly worked to patch up relations with Jobs and Pixar. On January 24, 2006, Jobs and Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. Once the deal closed, Jobs became The Walt Disney Company 's largest single shareholder with approximately 7% of the company's stock. Jobs's holdings in Disney far exceed those of Eisner, who holds 1.7%, and of Disney family member Roy E. Disney , who until his 2009 death held about 1% of the company's stock and whose criticisms of Eisner especially that he soured Disney's relationship with Pixar accelerated Eisner's ousting. Jobs joined the company's board of directors upon completion of the merger. Jobs also helps oversee Disney and Pixar's combined animation businesses with a seat on a special six-man steering committee

Return to Apple



In 1996, Apple announced that it would buy NeXT for $429 million. The deal was finalized in late 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company he had co-founded. Jobs became de facto chief after then-CEO Gil Amelio was ousted in July. He was formally named interim chief executive in September 1997. In March 1998, to concentrate Apple's efforts on returning to profitability, Jobs terminated a number of projects, such as Newton , Cyberdog , and OpenDoc . In the coming months, many employees developed a fear of encountering Jobs while riding in the elevator,"afraid that they might not have a job when the doors opened. The reality was that Jobs' summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims was enough to terrorize a whole company." Jobs also changed the licensing program for Macintosh clones , making it too costly for the manufacturers to continue making machines.

With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, most notably NeXTSTEP , which evolved into Mac OS X . Under Jobs's guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac and other new products; since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple. At the 2000 Macworld Expo, Jobs officially dropped the "interim" modifier from his title at Apple and became permanent CEO.

Jobs quipped at the time that he would be using the title 'iCEO.'



In recent years, the company has branched out, introducing and improving upon other digital appliances. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store , the company made forays into consumer electronics and music distribution. In 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone business with the introduction of the iPhone , a multi-touch display cell phone, which also included the features of an iPod and, with its own mobile browser, revolutionized the mobile browsing scene. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminds his employees that "real artists ship", by which he means that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and attractive design.




Jobs is both admired and criticized for his consummate skill at persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the " reality distortion field " and is particularly evident during his keynote speeches (colloquially known as " Stevenotes " at Macworld Expos and atApple's own Worldwide Developers Conferences . In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the U.S. by lashing out at environmental and other
advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. However, a few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores. The Computer TakeBack Campaign responded by flying a banner from a plane overthe Stanford University graduation at which Jobs was the commencement speaker. The banner read "Steve Don't be a mini-player recycle all e-waste". In 2006, he further expanded Apple's recycling programs to any U.S. customer who buys a new Mac. This program includes shipping and"environmentally friendly disposal" of their old systems.


Wealth




Even though Jobs earned only $1 a year as CEO of Apple,he holds 5.426 million Apple shares, as well as 138 million shares in Disney (which he had received in exchange for Disney's acquisition of Pixar). Forbes has estimated his net wealth at $5.1 billion in 2009, making him the 43rd wealthiest American.

Management style



Much has been made of Jobs' aggressive and demanding personality. Fortune wrote that he "is considered one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs ." Commentaries on his temperamental style can be found in Mike Moritz 's The Little Kingdom , one of the few authorized biographies of Jobs; The Second Coming of Steve Jobs , by Alan Deutschman; and iCon: Steve Jobs , by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon. In 1993, Jobs made Fortune 's list of America's Toughest Bosses in regard to his leadership of Next. Cofounder Dan'l Lewin was quoted in Fortune assaying of that period,"The highs were unbelievable . . . but the lows were unimaginable," to which Jobs's office replied that his personality had changed since then.

In 2005, Steve Jobs banned all books published by John Wiley n Sons from Apple Stores in response to their publishing an unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs . In its 2010 annual earnings report, Wiley said it had"closed a deal ... to make its titles available for the iPad."


Inventions



Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in over 230 awarded patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces(including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves,lanyards and packages.

Personal life



Jobs married Laurene Powell , on March 18, 1991. Presiding over the wedding was the Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa . The couple have a son and two daughters. Jobs also has a daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs (born 1978), from his relationship with Bay Area painter Chrisann Brennan. She briefly raised their daughter on welfare when Jobs denied paternity, claiming that he was sterile; he later acknowledged paternity. In the unauthorized biography, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs , author Alan Deutschman reports that Jobs once dated Joan Baez . Deutschman quotes Elizabeth Holmes, a friend of Jobs from his time at Reed College, as saying she "believed that Steve became the lover of Joan Baez in large measure because Baez had been the lover of Bob Dylan ." In another unauthorized biography, iCon: Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon, the authors suggest that Jobsmight have married Baez, but her age at the time meant it was unlikely the couple could have children.

Jobs is also a Beatles fan. He has referenced them on more than one occasion at Keynotes and also was interviewed on a showing of a Paul McCartney concert. When asked about his business model on 60 Minutes , he replied: My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people.

Jobs usually wears a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix , Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers. He is a pescetarian , one whose diet includes fish but no other meat.

His choice of car is a silver 2006 Mercedes SL 55 AMG, which does not display its license plates.

Jobs had a public war of words with Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell , starting when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes." On October 6, 1997, in a Gartner Symposium, when Michael Dell was asked what he would do if he owned then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the share holders."

In 2006, Steve Jobs sent an email to all employees when Apple's market capitalization rose above Dell's.
The email read: Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but Ithought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.

Health
In mid-2004, Jobs announced to his employees that he had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his pancreas . The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually very poor; Jobs, however, stated that he had a rare,far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor . After initially resisting the idea of conventional medical intervention and embarking on a special diet to thwart the disease, Jobs underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or "Whipple procedure" in July 2004 that appeared to successfully remove the tumor. Jobs apparently did not require nor receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy . During Jobs' absence, Timothy D. Cook , head of worldwide sales and operations at Apple, ran the company.

In early August 2006, Jobs delivered the keynote forApple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference . His "thin, almost gaunt" appearance and unusually "listless" delivery, together with his choice to delegate significant portions of his keynote to other presenters, inspired a flurry of mediaand Internet speculation about his health. Incontrast, according to an Ars Technica journal report, WWDC attendees who saw Jobs in person said he "looked fine." Following the keynote, an Apple spokesperson said that"Steve's health is robust."

Two years later, similar concerns followed Jobs' 2008 WWDC keynote address. Apple officials stated Jobs was victim to a "common bug" and was taking antibiotics, while others surmised his cachectic appearance was due to the Whipple procedure. During a July conference call discussing Apple earnings, participants responded to repeated questions about Steve Jobs' health by insisting that it was a "private matter." Others, however, voiced the opinion that shareholders had a right to know more, given Jobs' hands-on approach to running his company. The New York Times published an article based on an off-the-record phone conversation with Jobs, noting that "while his health issues have amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug,' they weren t life-threatening and he doesn t have a recurrence of cancer."

In a statement given on January 5, 2009 on Apple.com , Jobs said that he had been suffering from a " hormone imbalance" for several months. On January 14, 2009, in an internal Apple memo, Jobs wrote that in the previous week he had"learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought" and announced a six-month leave of absence until the end of June 2009 to allow him to better focus on his health. Tim Cook , who had previously acted as CEO in Jobs' 2004 absence, became acting CEO of Apple,with Jobs still involved with"major strategic decisions."




In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee.Jobs' prognosis was"excellent." On January 17, 2011, one and a half years after Jobs returned from his liver transplant, Apple announced that he had been granted a medical leave of absence. Jobs announced his leave in a letter to employees, stating his decision was made "so he could focus on his health." As during his 2009 medical leave, Apple announced that Tim Cook would run day-to-day operations and that Jobs would continue to be involved in major strategic decisions at the company. Despite the leave, he made appearances at the iPad 2 launch event (March 2), the WWDC keynote introducing iCloud (June 6), and before the Cupertino city council (June 7).


AWARDS

In popular culture Due to his young age, great wealth, and charisma, after Apple's founding Jobs became a symbol of his company and industry. When TIME named the computer as the 1982 "Machine of the Year" , it published a long profile of him as "the most famous maestro of the micro."



FILMS

*. Triumph of the Nerds a 1996 three-part documentary for PBS , about the rise of the home computer /personal computer.

*. Nerds 2.0.1 a 1998 three-part documentary for PBS , (and sequel to Triumph of the Nerds ) which chronicles the development of the Internet

*. Pirates of Silicon Valley a 1999 docudrama which chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft . He was portrayed by Noah Wyle



 

source:http://technoauts.in/tribute-to-steve-jobs