An Apple Without The Jobs 1

  

I saw the news about the resignation of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, on CNN Breaking News yesterday. It was a whao for me. I have read about him, and others, before in my little quest for Who Is Who in the computer technology and people whose extra-ordinary vision and doggedness in business made them to raise from nothingness to heroes and heroines. And hearing his story again in my Online Journalism class, wittily told by Prof. A.U. Adamu, I considered it worth sharing here. The news of the development has been headlines on virtually all media. Let me share some with you and other materials.

Steve Jobs is a living legend in Silicon Valley. He is the beloved visionary behind the Macintosh computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

Born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco to a single mother and adopted by a couple in nearby Mountain View at barely a week old, Steve Jobs grew up among the orchards that would one day become the technology hub known as Silicon Valley.

Jobs was 21 and Steve Wozniak 26 when they founded Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’s family home in 1976.

While Microsoft licensed its software to computer makers that cranked out machines priced for the masses, Apple kept its technology private and catered to people willing to pay for superior performance and design.

 Under Jobs, the company introduced its first Apple computers and then the Macintosh, which became wildly popular in the 1980s. 

Apple’s innovations include the “computer mouse” to make it easy for users to activate programs or open files.

Jobs was elevated to idol status by ranks of Macintosh computer devotees, many of whom saw themselves as a sort of rebel alliance opposing the powerful empire Microsoft built with its ubiquitous Windows operating systems.

Jobs left Apple in 1985 after an internal power struggle and started NeXT Computer company specializing in sophisticated workstations for businesses.

He co-founded Academy-Award-winning Pixar in 1986 from a former Lucasfilm computer graphics unit that he reportedly bought from movie industry titan George Lucas for $10 million.

Apple’s luster faded after Jobs left the company, but they reconciled in 1996 with Apple buying NeXT for 429 million dollars and Jobs ascending once again to the Apple throne.

Since then, Apple has gone from strength to strength as Jobs revamped the Macintosh line, revolutionizing modern culture with the introductions of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and iTunes online shop for digital content.

See Resignation Letter and Apple Press Release.

I will conclude this story when next I write. Believe me, there are a lot to say about this man, one of those whose invention revolutionize the world in all sphere.

                             Thank you for sharing in my thought.