Steve Jobs was born to Abdufattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble Jandali Simpson in San Francisco, California. Paul and Clara Jobs adopted Steve Jobs after his birth in 1955 and moved to Mountain View, California. Paul Jobs was a fanatic about cars and Steve got his first exposure to electronics through cars and he received inspiration to make inexpensive goods through the simple architecture in his neighborhood at a young age.
“The
architect’s houses were smart and cheap and good. They brought clean design and
simple taste to lower-income people. They had awesome little features, like
radiant heating in the floors. You put carpet on them, and we had nice toasty
floors when we were kids. I love it when you can bring really great design and
simple capability to something that doesn’t cost much. It was the original
vision for Apple. That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac. That’s what we
did with the IPod.”
-Steve Jobs
-Steve Jobs
After high school graduation, Jobs attended Reed College but dropped out after six months. After her spent a long period of time in India, he spent most of his time with a man named Steve Wozniak. Wozniak and Jobs created the first Apple computer in the home of Paul and Clara Jobs in Los Altos. Little did Jobs know that he was creating a multi-billion dollar company. They created the Apple Two computer that further bridged the gap so ordinary people could use and afford computers.
“If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."
- Steve Jobs on his college experience
- Steve Jobs on his college experience
"In January of 1977, they valued the Apple Computer Company at $ 5,309. Less than four years later they decided it was time to take it public. It would become the most oversubscribed initial public offering since that of Ford Motors in 1956. By the end of December 1980, Apple would be valued at $ 1.79 billion. Yes, billion. In the process it would make three hundred people"
-Walter Isaacson (Jobs' approved biographer)
-Walter Isaacson (Jobs' approved biographer)
Years passed by and in 1985, Steve Jobs was actually kicked out of Apple, but he did not waste time. He bought an animation company that will later be known as Pixar. He help produce the film "Toy Story" and set the stage for many other Pixar successes. He also started a company called NeXT. However, in 1996, The Apple company bought the NeXT company, thus returning Jobs to the company he created. He innovated many products in the next 15 years such as iTunes, the iPhone, the iPad, the Macbook Computers, and many others. Sadly, he resigned from his post as CEO of Apple in 2011 years after he was diagnosed with cancer. He died on October 5, 2011 in his Palo Alto home, but he left a lasting legacy and he will always be remembered as a leader in technology.
Pictures courtesy of Walter Isaacson and his novel "Steve Jobs".