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.

Return to Apple

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $402 million, bringing Jobs back to the company he founded. In 1997 he became Apple's interim CEO after the directors lost confidence in and ousted then-CEO Gil Amelio. Upon returning to the leadership of Apple, Jobs used the title of "iCEO". In March of 1997 Jobs abruptly 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 Steve's summary executions were rare, but a handful of victims is enough to terrorize a whole company." http://www.salon.com/tech/books/2000/10/11/jobs_excerpt/index2.html

Related Topics:
1996 - NeXT - 1997 - Gil Amelio - Newton - Cyberdog - OpenDoc

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With the purchase of NeXT, much of the company's technology found its way into Apple products, notably NeXTSTEP, which evolved into Mac OS X. Under Jobs' guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac. Since then, appealing designs and powerful branding have worked well for Apple.

Related Topics:
NeXTSTEP - Mac OS X - IMac

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In recent years, the company has branched out. With the introduction of the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, the iTunes Music Store, the company is making forays into personal electronics and online music. 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 killer design.

Related Topics:
IPod - ITunes - ITunes Music Store

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jobs worked at Apple for several years with an annual salary of $1, and this earned him a listing in Guinness World Records as the "Lowest Paid Chief Executive Officer". At the 2001 keynote speech of Macworld Expo in San Francisco, the company dropped the "interim" from his title. His current salary at Apple officially remains $1 per year, although he has traditionally been the recipient of a number of lucrative "executive gifts" from the board, including a $90 million jet in 1999, and just under 30 million shares of restricted stock in 2000-2002. As such, Jobs is well compensated for his efforts at Apple despite the nominal one-dollar salary.

Related Topics:
Guinness World Records - $90 million jet - 1999

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jobs is both admired and criticized for his consummate skills of persuasion and salesmanship, which has been dubbed the "reality distortion field" and is particularly evident during his keynote speeches at Macworld Expos. This "RDF" shield is an encapsulating term, also referring to Apple's sometimes non-competitive market pricing, such as the overly expensive G4 cube, or making decisions outside the desire of market demands, such as the elimination of Macintosh clones. Not all of his decisions have met with widespread approval; Apple's marketing efforts in the 1980s, while excellent from a technical standpoint, were alienating to corporate buyers, who turned to IBM, resulting in a precipitous drop in market share. Microsoft further diminished Apple's lead by later developing its own GUI, Microsoft Windows, which eventually eclipsed and dominated over Apple's share.

Related Topics:
Reality distortion field - Keynote speeches - Macworld Expos - Microsoft Windows

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~