“I have always said that if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know......... unfortunately, that day has come” -Steve Jobs
Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs, an American inventor and entrepreneur and co-founder of the Apple Inc. which rule everyday life has stepped down as its chief executive officer.
Steve Jobs, who produced one of the world’s most beloved brands from the brink of technological irrelevance, is suffering from cancer. He has been on a medical leave since January. He had a surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004 and had a liver transplant in 2009. Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook is the next chief executive of Apple.
Little Jobs was an adopted child of Paul and Clara Jobs. He was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco. His biological parents are Abdulfattah Jandali, a native Syrian Muslim and a professor of political science and Joanne Simpson, an American graduate student and speech language pathologist.
Mother Joanne had college education and she wanted a well-educated couple as her boy’s future parents. Unfortunately, Poul and Clara Jobs were a lower middle class couple that had settled in the Bay Area after the War. At last, Joanne agreed to this adoption on the condition that they must send the boy to college. Poul and Clara later adopted a daughter named Patti.
Steve was really a tempestuous child. He did not care about school until he got in touch with “Teddy” Hill as a teacher. “She was one of the saints of my life. She taught an advance fourth grade class, and it took her about a month to get hip to my situation. She bribed me into learning.” – Steve recounts his own memory. Jobs attended Cupertino Junior High School, Los Altos and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. He grew up in Los Altos and became increasingly curious about the world of electronics. He went to college for one semester and then dropped out.
In 1976, three friends Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne became friends and they started assembling computers and selling them in the name of Apple.
In 1976 Apple produced their first computer Apple I which was mainly meant for hobbyists and engineers. In 1977 next production, Apple II was one of the successful personal computers. In 1983, he visited the Xerox Corp’s research centre in Palo Alto, California. It inspired him to start commercial computer with graphical user interface, icons, windows and a cursor controlled by the mouse. Therefore, he launched Lisa and Macintosh. It was faster and cheaper. Later he was forced out of Apple. Then he started a company which was called NeXT computer. In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple and announced that Apple would buy NeXT for $429 million. Apple created the first digital music player iPod in 2001. Later iPhone (2007) and iPad (2010) has taken the world by storm and Apple is now world’s most profitable manufacturer of phones and computers.
Jobs married Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991. They have three children – one son and two daughters. However, he went into a secret relationship with Christen Brennan. They have a daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs. She is Jobs’s first child. However, Jobs denied the child's paternity claiming he was sterile. Nevertheless, later he acknowledged paternity and The Lisa Computer (Apple III) was name after his first daughter.
He has prestigious honours in his basket such as Nation Medal of Technology by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. He was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine on November 27, 2007. Steve Jobs is now routinely voted as one of the world’s most important business leaders and Apple is regarded as the most innovative brand in the computer industry.
About the Author-
Priya Panda is student of Journalism and Mass Communication at Muralidhar Girl's College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and they do not reflect in any way those of the Dispassionate Observer.