Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs (pronounced {{IPA|/d?o?bz/}}) (born February 24, 1955) is the CEO of Apple Computer and a leading figure in the computer industry. As co-founder (with Steve Wozniak) of Apple in 1976, he helped popularize the concept of the home computer with the Apple II. Later, he was one of the first to see the commercial potential of the GUI and mouse developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, and saw that these technologies were incorporated into the Apple Macintosh. Today as the CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs is known to be the man behind the recovery of Apple Computer, especially through an idea he pushed for, the iPod. Jobs is also chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, a leading producer of computer-animated feature films.

Early years

Born to Joanne Simpson and a Syrian father, Abdulfattah ("John") Jandali, a political science professor, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Steven Paul was put up for adoption since an unmarried couple having a child was unaccepted in society at the time. Steven Paul was adopted soon after birth as a "John Doe" Baby by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California. Paul and Clara Jobs gave him the name Steven Paul Jobs. His biological parents later married and gave birth to Job's biological sister the novelist Mona Simpson, who is married to Richard Appel. The marriage of his biological parents ended in divorce years later. To this day, Jobs dislikes Paul and Clara Jobs being called his adopted parents, and prefers to simply refer to them as his "parents."

Related Topics:
Green Bay, Wisconsin - Adopted - Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California - Biological - Mona Simpson

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but he dropped out after one semester. Years later, when speaking at a Stanford University graduation ceremony in 2005, Jobs said he remained at Reed attending classes, including one in calligraphy. "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts," he said.

Related Topics:
1972 - Homestead High School - Cupertino - California - Reed College - Portland, Oregon - Stanford University - Calligraphy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the "Homebrew Computer Club" with Steve Wozniak. He took a job at Atari, a manufacturer of popular video games, as a technician. During this time, it was discovered that a slightly modified toy whistle included in every box of Cap'n Crunch breakfast cereal was able to reproduce the 2600 Hz supervision tone used by the AT&T long distance telephone system. Jobs and Wozniak went into business briefly in 1974 to build "blue boxes" based on the idea that allowed for free long distance calls.

Related Topics:
1974 - Homebrew Computer Club - Steve Wozniak - Atari - Video games - Cap'n Crunch - Breakfast cereal - 2600 - Hz - AT&T - Long distance - Telephone - System - Blue box

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1976, Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak, 26, founded Apple Computer Co. in the Jobs family garage. The first personal computer Jobs and Wozniak introduced was called the Apple I. It sold for $666.66, in reference to the phone number of Wozniak's Dial-A-Joke machine, which ended in -6666.

Related Topics:
1976 - Apple Computer Co. - Apple I

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1977, Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II, which became a huge success in the home market and made Apple an important player in the nascent personal computer industry. In December 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded corporation, and with the successful IPO, Jobs' stature rose further. That same year, Apple Computer released the Apple III, but it met with less success.

Related Topics:
1977 - Apple II - Nascent - 1980 - IPO - Apple III

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As Apple continued to grow, the company began looking for corporate management talent to help manage its expansion. In 1983, Jobs lured John Sculley, an executive with Pepsi-Cola, to serve as Apple's CEO, challenging him, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" That same year, Apple also released the technologically advanced but commercially unsuccessful Lisa.

Related Topics:
1983 - John Sculley - Pepsi-Cola - Lisa

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1984 saw the introduction of the Macintosh, the first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface. The development of the Mac was started by Jef Raskin, and the team was inspired by technology that had been developed at Xerox PARC, but not yet commercialized. The success of the Macintosh led Apple to abandon the Apple II in favor of the Mac product line, which continues to this day.

Related Topics:
1984 - Macintosh - Jef Raskin - Xerox PARC - Apple II

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~