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“Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.” -Steve Jobs. Steve Job’s life shows his childhood, road to success, keeping his success going and how he is remembered after his death. He was a very intelligent man who set himself up for success in multiple ways. He created a bright future for the rest of the world in terms of technology. After his passing he is still remembered by most people today as the creator of Apple, although that is not entirely true, but he did eventually become a part of the company and do alot for Apple. The technology he had helped design brought new features and different ways to have access to multiple sites, apps and social media all throughout the world.
For example, any question can be quickly searched for and answered at fingertips with the new technology and devices. The phones and laptops have made it easier to keep access even while not at home. Lots of advancements have been made to improve the life of society. Overall, he was a hardworking man who created a great technological future for years to come. Steve Jobs’ creation of Apple was significant to the electronics of the 2000’s because he had created several new ways to be in contact with the world and learn about new technology, he had also shown a lot of inspiration to others and he had helped in several ways to improve technology of the 2000’s.
Who is Steve Jobs?
Steve Jobs had an interesting and sort of challenging childhood. He went through several obstacles, but overcame them each time making him in to the person he was. On February 4th, 1955, Jobs was born in San Francisco. Although it was not a happy childhood story it worked out in the end for the better. His biological parents, Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, gave him up for adoption. His biological parents were quite successful themselves, his father being a political science professor who graduated from Wisconsin, and his mother had also graduated from Wisconsin. After being put up for adoption he was adopted by the Jobs family, Clara and Paul Jobs (Markoff, 2011). His adopted mother Clara was an accountant and his adopted father belonged to the Coast Guard in his past and was a machinist at the time.
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The family lived in Silicon Valley, California (Biography.com Editors, 2018). Although Jobs knew he was adopted he never was able to learn about his birth parents until he was around 27 years old because information seemed impossible to find (Biography.com Editors, 2018). The beginning of success is never easy and it especially was not for Steve at the beginning. He was very smart and good with electronics but was not sure where he was going in life or what he was going to do with his intelligence (Biography.com Editors, 2018).
When he was younger his father and him had spent lots of time together. Most of their time was spent in the garage working on electronics together (Biography.com Editors, 2018). He had dropped out of college and tried a few different paths before finally meeting his friend Steve Wozniak, and confounding Apple together in 1976. He worked with Wozniak for awhile before leaving the Apple company in 1985 to produce Pixar Animation Studios. After leaving Apple he returned more than ten years later (Biography.com Editors, 2018). As he grew up, he began getting into the business portion of his life and began being proposed to new opportunities.
Jobs’ life took some turns when he was in his teen and older years. This was the time when he began his involvement in business with Apple. Jobs attempted to go through college in 1972, but he decided it was not for him, and it was using up all of his parents money so he dropped out. He did not leave right after dropping out though, he had stayed in portland for about a year auditing classes (Markoff, 2011). Jobs had left Silicon Valley but returned to take a job as a technician at Atari, a video game manufacturer in 1974. Still not believing this was what he wanted to do he left again to travel. He decided to go to India with a friend who would eventually also become an Apple employee, Daniel Kottke (Markoff, 2011).
Steve had decided it was time to get married and start a family in the middle of his journey. He married Laurene Powell on March 18th, 1991. The couple met at a business school in Stanford. Laurene was a MBA student there. They had three children and moved to Palo Alto, California. Jobs did not like to talk about his family much and was always a closed book when it came to them. It was later discovered he had a daughter with a previous girlfriend he had at 23, he never actually got a paternity test of his daughter done because he had said that he was unable to have children. Her name was Lisa which later becomes relevant to one of his electronic creations.
He did not want a relationship with his daughter at first, but after she turned seven years old he started a relationship with her and she eventually came to live with him (Biography.com Editors, 2018). After Jobs got his family life started he fell into the business portion even more. He had co-founded Apple with the same man from earlier, Steve Wozniak, in the computer portion. Jobs helped the company to release and create new products for Apple such as the iPad and iPhone (Biography.com Editors, 2018). Which are still very huge customer products today. Jobs then got into Apple with his partner and made some changes and advancements.
How was Apple changed and created?
Jobs met several people along his journey, but a main one was who he began working in Apple with, Steve Wozniak. He met him when he was in highschool while Wozniak was currently attending college (Biography.com Editors, 2018). They worked together to come up with money to invest into Apple and build products to try to make the business known. Their very first was a investment of $1300. Later a man by the name of A.C. Markkula who was an Intel executive lent them $250,000 to continue their investment.
After they received the money they continued their funding by selling their most prized possessions, such as cars and scientific calculators. Wozniak and Jobs decided to work on the different parts of the products. Jobs was the marketing part of the operation and Wozniak was the technical side. They then together created the Apple I computer. Their whole business began in a garage when Jobs was 21, they then moved to an office in Cupertino to continue. They did not plan to make it big with the first Apple computer it was more of just to show to their friends and family. Jobs then decided it could be used as an actual product and sold (Markoff, 2011).
“In a 2007 interview with PC World, Wozniak spoke about why he and jobs clicked so well: ““We both loved electronics and the way we used to hook up the digital chips,”” Wozniak said. ““Very few people, especially back then, had any idea what chips were, how they worked and what they could do”” (Biography.com Editors, 2018, Steve Wozniak Section). Apple began to improve and so did the world of technology. Machines and all of what had contained of them began getting smaller, easier to afford and more accessible to everyday people (Biography.com Editor, 2018). Apple began taking off and Jobs’ partner, Wozniak, and himself got along and worked together very well to continue to push Apple farther.
Apple’s products had some issues before, but the inventors continued to work and create Apple for the better. It took time and many different paths to get Apple to where it is today. The next product to be released from Apple had some issues. There were flaws that caused customers to be upset and disappointed. Even some of the products had recalls. Following the incident their sales dropped and other companies such as IBM started to overcome Apple in sale amounts. “In 1984, Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of counter culture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative.
But despite positive sales and performance superior to IBM’s PC’s the Macintosh was still not IBM- compatible. Sculley believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and the companies executives began to phase him out. Not actually having had an official title with the company he co-founded, Jobs was pushed into a more marginalized position and thus left Apple in 1985” (Biography.com Editors, 2018, Apple Computer Section). In 1980 Apple began to become a larger computer company. The company was now totaled at a value of around $1.2 billion, and this was just by the first day of trading. It was time to find someone to to take over CEO of Apple, so Jobs got in contact with John Sculley who was a marketing expert for Pepsi (Biography.com Editors, 2018).
Jobs decided to leave Apple and begin a new software sale. It’s name was NeXT Inc. Attempting to sell its system to mainstream America it didn’t work, so Apple bought out the company in 1996. After being bought out Steve returned to Apple once again in 1997 to be the CEO. Jobs was known for the success of Apple in 1990. A new management team was brought in and he had got Apple back into running with more success than before. More new products were created and advertised such as the iMac. The new product caught the attention of customers and took off in sales (Biography.com Editors, 2018). Steve Jobs improved himself and products over time, which led to him having several accomplishments and different products created throughout his lifetime.
What were Steve Jobs’ accomplishments and products?
Steve had several accomplishments throughout life but listed below are just some of the accomplishments that had to do with Apple. Jobs was introduced to several new products and computer models. One of them being the Apple II computer. He later was involved in the making of the Lisa and other desktop computers. While learning about the new computers he became more involved in interface and the use of a computer mouse for newer computers (Markoff, 2011). Jobs was once in control of Apple again and came up with a new design to put music into the business. He introduced the iPod MP3 player and iTunes, the music grew tremendously (Markoff, 2001). “The music arm grew rapidly, reaching almost 50 percent of the company’s revenue by June 2008” (Markoff, 2011, para. 58).
Jobs makes Bill Gates and Microsoft promise to never work on any business software that would use a computer mouse unless it was for Apple. The fact that they did not exclude them from developing a competing operating system would allow Gates to develop Windows alongside the Mac software Microsoft was developing (Lam, 2018, 1982).
Jobs didn’t look his best anymore but, he continued to keep the company running in all aspects. Apple computer was first introduced in 1977 which was also the same year the second Apple computer was a finished design and took off in success. Apple set a record stock offering in 1981 and again in 1983 it made the quickest entrance into the Fortune 500 of Americans top list (Levy, 2018). His memorable accomplishments were not only with Apple; he had several others too.
After being in the Apple company, Jobs had left a few times to join other businesses and expand his capabilities. He had several inventions and moments of fame other than alongside Apple. Jobs purchased a animation company in 1986 from another man named George Lucas, which had later became the Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs had a feeling that Pixar could be a big company so he invested $50 million dollars into the company using his own money. He ended up being right and it became very popular and released several movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles (Biography.com Editors, 2018). “Pixar films have collectively netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder” (Biography.com Editors, 2018, Pixar Section).
“Mr. Jobs also established a personal philanthropic foundation after leaving Apple but soon had a change of heart, deciding instead to spend much of his fortune $10 million on acquiring Pixar, a struggling graphics supercomputing company owned by the filmmaker George Lucas” (Markoff, 2011, para. 50). When Steve was a senior in highschool he created blue boxes and they sold for $150 when he would only spend $40 to make them (Lam, 2018). “They reversed engineered an acronym, “Local Integrated Software Architecture”, and a joke at the time insisted it stood for “Let’s Invent Some Acronym. The computer would have a UI based on the windowed and mouse driven interfaces inspired by tech at Xerox PARC” (Lam, 2018, 1979 Section). After getting into Apple and creating successful products the company had to be able to keep themself on top of other businesses.
How is Apple able to stay above other electronic companies?
Apple had to stay above other companies in order to keep making money and continue the business; therefore, they had to stay up on creating new and better products. Apple created several products that were a big hit such as the Macbook Air, iPod and iPhone. All of these products helped to keep evolving of new technology going. Still to this day; when Apple releases a new product or products, other companies come up with a product similar to put on the market in order to try and compete with Apple. “Apple’s quarterly reports improved significantly in 2007: Stocks were worth $199.99 a share a record-breaking number at that time and the company boasted a staggering $1.58 billion profit, an $18 billion surplus in the bank and zero debt” (Biography.com Editors, 2018, Reinventing Apple Section). Apple was second behind Walmart in 2008 being known as the second biggest retailer in America.
Apple got into this position from their iPod and iTunes sales. Although Apple is ranked behind Walmart for top sales they were ranked number one on in Fortune magazine (Biography.com Editors, 2018). In May of 1980, the Apple III was released to dominate the desktop computers in the market, but the computer was having some technical problems. I.B.M did not release their personal computer until 1981. Jobs moved his main focus to a new project that was named Lisa (Markoff, 2011, para. 41). The first Apple computer was not sold to many people, but it did sell enough to make enough money for the couple to make their design better. They released the Apple two in 1977. This was the first computer that had color graphics and a keyboard. This computer was designed for all kinds of people and was a huge success. The computer topped out the sales at $3 million.
Over time the amount was raised to $200 million (Entrepreneur Staff, 2008, Para. 5). IBM quickly developed their own PC to try and get back ahead in sales but they were not successful. When the production of the Apple II computer ended they had sold over 6 million computers (“Steve Jobs”, n.d., Mini Bio Section) . The sales of the iPhone began in June of 2007 (Markoff, 2011). “Mr. Jobs’s goal was to sell 10 million of the handsets in 2008, equivalent to 1 percent of the global cell phone market. The company sold 11.6 million” (Markoff, 2011, para.61). After getting the building process down and increasing the sales, they needed to continue to outsell.
Not only did Apple have to create better products, they had to know how to market and get buyers attention also. Apple stayed on top of IBM PC by putting an add in a newspaper basically dissing on them saying Apple could do better. Jobs claimed that if IBM was to come out on top computers would be ruined and not up to date for years to come. “Steve also said, ““We’re going to out-market IBM. We’ve got our shit together.”” 20 years later, the heirs of the IBM PC, running Microsoft’s Windows, would have over 90% market share” (Lam, 2018, 1981 Part 2). ““We will make them bright and pure and honest about being high-tech, rather than a heavy industrial look of black, black, black, black, like Sony,”” he preached. ““The way we’re running the company, the product design, the advertising, it all comes down to this: Let’s make it simple. Really simple”” (Isaacson, 2012, para. 9). Jobs also starred in a parody where he was President Roosevelt and he declared war on IBM computers. ““IBM wants to wipe us off the face of the earth,”” said Jobs to Fortune magazine” (Lam, 2018, 1984 Part 2). Even after Steve Jobs passed away, he is still remembered greatly today by family and almost every person who knows about Apple.
How did Steve Jobs die and what was it like after his death?
Steve Jobs death was known about by many people, but not many know how he passed and what he went through. His struggle with disease lasted for awhile even though many people did not realize it. He stayed with the company and released new products while going through treatments and becoming weak and broke down (Markoff, 2011, para. 3). He had surgery 2004 and received a liver transplant in 2009. He had to take leave of absences for medical reasons several times before finally dropping down and giving a man names Timothy his position (Markoff, 2011, para. 4).
Jobs passed away in Palo Alto on October 5, 2011 at the age of 56 because of his pancreatic cancer (Entrepreneur Staff, 2008). “Jobs once described himself as a ‘hopeless romantic’ who just wanted to make a difference” (Entrepreneur Staff, 2008, para. 16). “On October 5th, Steve Jobs passed away,peacefully,surrounded by his family” (Lam, 2018, 2011). In Mona Simpson’s eulogy for Steve Jobs, his sister said Steve Jobs looked at his sister Patty, kids and wife, then said “OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW” (Biography.com Editors, 2018, Steve Jobs’ Death and Last Words Section). After his death and his complications he was remember in many ways and still talked about.
Basically after he died things never changed, other than Steve being gone, for example he was still known as creator of Apple and known for most Apple products. People began tributes to him immediately on Wednesday evening on social media and in formal statements. Some of the people included President Obama, industry leaders and Apple fans (Markoff, 2011, para. 6). His wife and his children are still alive today along with some of his close family members (Markoff, 2011, para. 54). Even after all of his health issues and his traumatic death he was still a very impactful person to the technology world.
Conclusion
Steve Jobs’ creations were and still are significant to the electronics of the 2000’s because he invented several products that kept up with the technology industry, and he also showed a lot of inspiration through quotes and speeches, he overall helped in several ways to improve technology of the 2000’s. He was very respected and looked up to by others. In 1955 when Jobs was born, he was put up for adoption by his birth parents who went to college and had good degrees. After moving with his adopted parents and was always very creative. He later became part of the Apple business.
Over time Apple was changed to newer, better, smaller and more advanced products conducted by Apple. Apple had long fights with IBM to stay on top. New products and softwares were created to make sure they company was best selling. Today, when most people think of Apple they think of Steve Jobs and his advancements even after he passed in 2011. Apple is still a highly demanded product today. Overall, most believe Steve Jobs had a huge impact on the world of technology in the 2000’s, even before and after also.
