Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, in full Steven Paul Jobs, (born February 24, 1955, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died October 5, 2011, Palo Alto California), Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs was an American businessman and inventor who played a key role in the success of Apple computers, iPod, iPad, and MacBook.

Who was Steve Jobs?

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, 1955, to two university students Joanne Schieble and Syrian-born John Jandali. He was raised by adoptive parents in Cupertino, California, located in what is now known as Silicon Valley.

Steven was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Steven’s father, Paul, encouraged him to experiment with electronics in their garage. This led to a lifelong interest in electronics and design.

 He dropped out of Reed College, in Portland, took a job at Atari Corporation as a video game designer in early 1974, and saved some money for a pilgrimage to India to experience Buddhism and Indian culture.

Steve Jobs in India

Steve Jobs came to India as a teenager in search of enlightenment. They traveled to the Ashram of Neem Karoli Baba in Kainchi. During his several months in India, he became aware of Buddhist and Eastern spiritual philosophy. He returned disappointed, following a brush with lice, scabies, dysentery and a near mob thrashing after he protested at being sold watered-down buffalo milk.

But the trip did mark a turning point in his life. Job’s first real computer job came working for Atari computers. At Atari, he came to know Steve Wozniak well.

Back in Silicon Valley 1974, Jobs reconnected with Stephen Wozniak, a former high school friend who was working for the Hewlett-Packard Company. When Wozniak told Jobs of his progress in designing his own computer logic board, he suggested that they go into business together, which they did after Hewlett-Packard formally turned down Wozniak’s design in 1976. 

In 1976, Wozniak invented the first Apple I computer. Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne then set up Apple computers. In the very beginning, Apple computers were sold from Jobs parents’ garage. Over the next few years, Apple computers expanded as the market for home computers began to become increasingly significant.

Macintosh History

The first Macintosh was introduced on January 24, 1984, by Steve Jobs. The Macintosh, or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers, manufactured by Apple and it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature two old knowns then, but still unpopular features—the mouse and the graphical user interface, rather than the command-line interface of its predecessors. In 1985, removed from his managerial duties, Jobs resigned and left Apple.

Steve Jobs leaves Apple in 1985

On leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT computers. NeXT never became the success Jobs hoped it would be. This was never particularly successful, failing to gain mass sales. However, in the 1990s, the NeXT software was used as a framework in WebObjects used in Apple Store and iTunes store. In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $429 million. Also during this period, he became a millionaire person in the world.