Remembering the man who changed the technology world and influenced the era of "Think Different"
On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died in California at age 56 due to a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
The devastating news came to millions of tech fans all over the world.
Steve Jobs was a great man, and a brilliant influence and credit to the technology world, and everyone here at Tech Beever would like to send our condolences to Jobs' friends and family for their tragic loss.
The computer entrepreneur and inventor was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. and also served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios.
In 1978, Apple recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO for what turned out to be several turbulent years. In 1983, Steve Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?"
Later the following year, Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled "1984". At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, to which an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience.
In 1984, however, Sculley relieved Jobs of his duties as head of the Macintosh division. Jobs later claimed that being fired from Apple was the best thing that could happen to him; "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."
Following in 1985, Jobs founded NeXT Computer in 1985, which saw the birth of the NeXT workstation. The NeXT workstation was known for its technical strengths, with its object-oriented software development system. NeXT products were marketed to the financial, scientific, and academic community, highlighting its innovative, experimental new technologies, such as the Mach kernel, the digital signal processor chip, and the built-in Ethernet port.
In 1986, Jobs bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division for the price of $10 million, with the first film produced by the partnership, Toy Story, bringing fame and critical acclaim to the studio when it was released in 1995. The company went on to (and still does) create brilliant animated films, including box-office hits A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Cars (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010). Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3 each receiving the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
The second generation NeXTcube was also released in 1990, with Jobs touting it as the first "interpersonal" computer which would replace the personal computer. The NeXTcube could share voice, image, graphics, and video in email for the first time. "Interpersonal computing is going to revolutionise human communications and groupwork", Jobs told enthusiastic reporters. In 1996, NeXT Software, Inc. released WebObjects, a framework for web application development. NeXT was acquired by Apple Inc. in 1997 and WebObjects was used to build and run the hugely popular Apple Store, MobileMe services, and the iTunes Store.
Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of $429 million for NeXT brought Jobs back to the very company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until his tragic death in 2011.
Under Jobs's guidance the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac, and later, the iPod portable music player, iTunes digital music software, and the iTunes Store.
On June 29, 2007, Apple entered the mobile phone business with the introduction of the iPhone, a multi-touch display smartphone, which also included the features of an iPod and, with its own mobile browser, revolutionized the mobile browsing scene. While stimulating innovation, Jobs also reminded his employees that "real artists ship", by which he meant that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and attractive design.
With the ever importance of the Mac, Macbook, iPod, iPhone and iPad series growing all the time, it's hard not to look at Steve Jobs' work and think that this man brought something to the world with every product he placed his fingers to. Even if you're not a fan of Apple, no one can argue the influence Jobs brought to the technology world, that even if you're a firm 'fanboy' of Android, that the iPhone was a true innovation of the smartphone world. And that the iPad may not have been the first tablet in the world -- it was almost certainly a revolutionary bound forward, bringing the love, and even 'need' for a stylish, yet magical device.
It's all these things and more, that make the loss of Steve Jobs; a man who wasn't afraid to "think differently", all the more tragic.
Steve Jobs will be sadly missed, but for all the work he's done, for products that will continue to grow and evolve -- he'll never be forgotten.
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