Steve Jobs: a legacy

There must be few people around who haven’t heard about the death of Steve Jobs, the former co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs is famous for his critical role in the development of the Apple brand and its products.

The journey started in 1976 when Steve Jobs, along with Steve Wosniak and Ronald Wayne. The company was incorporated without Wayne and, with the financial assistance of Mike Markkula, what we now recognise as Apple Inc. was born.

The Apple II was the first computer on sale which did not need assembling before use; a revolution at the time. The success of the computer was clear, with 6 million units sold during the period the computer was being produced from 1977-1993.

Despite the success of the company, board members were becoming concerned with Steve Jobs. He followed ideas on a whim, which many within the company disagreed with. This, coupled with financial problems, led to Jobs being removed from the company in 1984.

After leaving Apple, Steve Jobs was still in no short of success. He founded another company, NeXT, which produced the NeXT computer. This was the computer used by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN when the first web server was created. Jobs bought Graphics Group from George Lucas and renamed it Pixar. It became hugely successful with the release of Toy Story in 1995.

Apple Inc. bought NeXT in 1996 leading Steve Jobs back to his original role as CEO of the company after ousting the CEO at the time. The iconic iPod and the music store, iTunes, were released in 2001. By this time, Jobs had reversed the downturn of Apple Inc.

Just two years later, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He kept this secret from everyone, save a few people at the company.

Despite his illness, Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007 and the Macbook Air a year later. After several years of operations and treatment, and the rumours which accompanied them, Jobs took a leave of absence in January 2011 and resigned in August. He lost his fight with cancer on 5^th October.

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was a success. He co-founded one of the most successful technology companies ever. He led Apple Inc. into the 21^st century and made its products the most sought after in the shops. His death is a loss to the industry.