Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc, has died aged 56. Here are some key dates from his life and work:
Steve Jobs in 2008 with a MacBook Air laptopPhoto: AP
3:31AM BST 06 Oct 2011
1955: Stephen Paul Jobs is born on Feb. 24.
1972: Jobs enrolls at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but drops out after a semester.
1974:
Jobs works for video game maker Atari and attends meetings of the
Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend who was a
few years older.
1975: Jobs and Wozniak attend Homebrew Computer Club meetings.
1976:
Apple Computer is formed on April Fool's Day, shortly after Wozniak and
Jobs create a new computer circuit board in a Silicon Valley garage. A
third co-founder, Ron Wayne, leaves the company after less than two
weeks. The Apple I computer goes on sale by the summer for $666.66.
1977: Apple is incorporated by its founders and a
group of venture capitalists. It unveils Apple II, the first personal
computer to generate color graphics. Revenue reaches $1 million.
1978: Jobs' daughter Lisa is born to girlfriend Chrisann Brennan.
1979: Jobs visits Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, and is inspired by a computer with a graphical user interface.
1980: Apple goes public, raising $110 million in one of the biggest initial public offerings to date.
1982: Annual revenue climbs to $1 billion.
1983:
The Lisa computer goes on sale with much fanfare, only to be pulled two
years later. Jobs lures John Sculley away from Pepsico Inc. to serve as
Apple's CEO.
1984: Iconic "1984" Macintosh commercial directed by
Ridley Scott airs during the Super Bowl. The Macintosh computer goes on
sale.
1985: Jobs and Sculley clash, leading to Jobs' resignation. Wozniak also resigns from Apple this year.
1986:
Jobs starts Next Inc., a new computer company making high-end machines
for universities. He also buys Pixar from "Star Wars" creator George
Lucas for $10 million.
1989: First NeXT computer goes on sale with a $6,500 price tag.
1991:
Apple and IBM Corp. announce an alliance to develop new PC
microprocessors and software. Apple unveils portable Macs called
PowerBook.
1993: Apple introduces the Newton, a hand-held,
pen-based computer. The company reports quarterly loss of $188 million
in July. Sculley is replaced as CEO by Apple president Michael Spindler.
Apple restructures, and Sculley resigns as chairman. At Next, Jobs
decides to focus on software instead of whole computers.
1994:
Apple introduces Power Macintosh computers based on the PowerPC chip it
developed with IBM and Motorola. Apple decides to license its operating
software and allow other companies to "clone" the Mac, adopting the
model championed by Microsoft Corp.
1995: The first Mac clones go
on sale. Microsoft releases Windows 95, which is easier to use than
previous versions and is more like the Mac system. Apple struggles with
competition, parts shortages and mistakes predicting customer demand.
Pixar's "Toy Story," the first commercial computer-animated feature,
hits theaters. Pixar goes to Wall Street with an IPO that raises $140
million.
1996: Apple announces plans to buy Next for $430 million
for the operating system Jobs' team developed. Jobs is appointed an
adviser to Apple. Gil Amelio replaces Spindler as CEO.
1997: Jobs
becomes "interim" CEO after Amelio is pushed out. He foreshadows the
marketing hook for a new product line by calling himself "iCEO." Jobs
puts an end to Mac clones.
1998: Apple returns to profitability.
It shakes up personal computer industry in 1998 with the candy-colored,
all-in-one iMac desktop, the original models shaped like a futuristic
TV. Apple discontinues the Newton.
2000: Apple removes "interim" label from Jobs' CEO title.
2001:
The first iPod goes on sale, as do computers with OS X, the modern Mac
operating system based on Next software. Apple also releases iTunes
software.
2003: Apple launches the iTunes Music Store with 200,000
songs at 99 cents each, giving people a convenient way to buy music
legally online. It sells 1 million songs in the first week.
2004: Jobs undergoes surgery for a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer. Apple discloses his illness after the fact.
2005:
Apple expands the iPod line with the tiny Nano and an iPod that can
play video. The company also announces that future Macs will use Intel
chips.
2006: Disney buys Pixar for $7.4 billion. Jobs becomes
Disney's largest individual shareholder, and much of his wealth is
derived from this sale.
2007: Apple releases its first smartphone,
the iPhone. Crowds camp overnight at stores to be one of the first to
own the new device.
2008: Speculation mounts that Jobs is ill,
given weight loss. In September he kicks off an Apple event and says,
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," making a play off a
famous Mark Twain quote after Bloomberg News accidentally publishes,
then retracts, an obituary that it had prepared in advance.
2009:
Jobs explains severe weight loss by saying he has a treatable hormone
imbalance and that he will continue to run Apple. Days later he
backtracks and announces he will be on medical leave. He returns to work
in June. Later it is learned that he received a liver transplant.
2010:
Apple sells 15 million of its newest gadget, the iPad, in nine months,
giving rise to a new category of modern touch-screen tablet computers.
Jan.
17, 2011: In a memo to Apple employees, Jobs announces a second medical
leave with no set duration. Cook again steps in to run day-to-day
operations. Jobs retains CEO title and remains involved in major
decisions.
Aug. 24, 2011: Apple announces that Jobs is resigning as CEO. Cook takes the CEO title, and Apple names Jobs chairman.
Oct. 5, 2011: Jobs dies at 56. Apple announces his death without giving a specific cause.
Veja repercussão sobre a morte de Steve Jobs, fundador da Apple
Jobs lutava contra mais de um câncer desde 2004. Morte do empresário virou o assunto mais comentado nas redes sociais.
Do G1, em São Paulo
Bill Gates fala no Twitter sobre morte de Steve Jobs
(Foto: Reprodução)
Personalidades, celebridades, políticos e especialistas em tecnologia
lamentaram a morte do cofundador da Apple Steve Jobs, ocorrida na tarde
desta quarta-feira (5).
Leia o que eles disseram: Barack Obama, presidente dos Estados Unidos"Michelle
e eu estamos entristecidos em saber sobre o falecimento de Steve Jobs.
Steve estava entre os maiores inovadores americanos - corajoso o
suficiente para pensar diferente, ousado o suficiente para acreditar que
ele poderia mudar o mundo, e talentoso o suficiente para fazê-lo."
Bill Gates, presidente da Microsoft, pelo Twitter
"Melinda e eu extendemos nossas sinceras condolências à família e
amigos de Steve Jobs. O mundo raramente vê alguém que tenha um impacto
tão profundo. Para aqueles de nós que tivemos a sorte de trabalhar com
Steve, foi uma honra muito grande. Eu sentirei falta de Steve
imensamente."
Tim Cook, substituto de Jobs na Apple"Eu
tenho uma notícia triste para compartilhar com vocês. A Apple perdeu
seu gênio criativo e visionário, o mundo perdeu um ser humano
maravilhoso. Aqueles que foram sortudos o suficiente para conhecer e
trabalhar com Steve perderam um grande amigo e um mentor. Não há
palavras para expressar adequadamente a tristeza com a morte de Steve."
Mark Zuckerberg, pelo Facebook
"Steve, obrigado por ser um mentor e um amigo. Obrigado por mostrar que
você o que você constrói pode transformar o mundo. Vou sentir sua
falta."
Sergey Brin, cofundador do Google
"Desde os primeiros dias do Google, sempre que Larry [Page] e eu
buscávamos inspiração para visão e liderança, não precisávamos olhar
mais adiante que em Cupertino [onde fica a sede da Apple]. Steve, sua
paixão pela excelência é sentida por todos que já tocaram um produto da
Apple (incluindo o MacBook com o qual estou escrevendo isso agora). E eu
testemunhei isso pessoalmente nas poucas vezes em que nos encontramos.
Em nome de todos nós o Google, e além disso, na tecnologia, você fará
muita falta. Minhas condolências à família amigos e colegas da Apple."
Arnold Schwarzenegger, governador da Califórnia
"Steve viveu o sonho californiano durante todos os dias de sua vida e
ele mudou o mundo e inspirou a todos nós. #ThankYouSteve."
Mark Zuckerberg publicou uma mensagem sobre Steve Jobs em seu perfil no Facebook (Foto: Reprodução)
Bob Iger, presidente da Walt Disney Corporation, da qual Jobs era um dos conselheiros"Steve
Jobs foi um grande amigo, além de um confiável conselheiro. Seu legado
se extenderá muito além dos produtos que criou ou dos negócios que
construiu. Será as milhões de pessoas que ele inspirou, as vidas que
mudou e a cultura que definiu. Steve era tão 'original', com uma
criatividade tão completa e uma mente imaginativa que definiram uma era.
Apesar de tudo o que ele conquistou, parece que ele ainda estava apenas
começando. Com seu falecimento, o mundo perdeu um original raro, a
Disney perdeu um membro da nossa família, e eu perdi um grande amigo.
Nossos pensamentos e orações estão com sua esposa Laurene e seus filhos
durante esse período difícil." Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher do jornal "The New York Times"Steve
Jobs foi um visionário e um maravilhoso amigo do 'The New York Times'.
Ele ampliou as barreiras de como os provedores de notícias e informação
interagem com seus usuários. Eu estou entre as pessoas que lamentam
profundamente o seu falecimento." Ashton Kutcher, ator norte-americano
"Design não é só a aparência de algo ou sua sensação. Design é como o produto funciona. Steve Jobs descanse em paz." Ronaldo, ex-jogador de futebol, pelo Twitter
"R.I.P Steve Jobs" ("descanse em paz Steve Jobs") Banda Coldplay, pelo Twitter
"Acabamos de receber a terrível notícia do falecimento de Steve Jobs,
Que vida incrível e inspiradora. Mudou o mundo de muitas maneiras.
Descanse em paz Steve."
Roberto Scoble, jornalista norte-americano especialista em tecnologia, pelo Twitter
"No quartel-general da Apple os funcionários estão definitivamente tristes e as bandeiras já estão a meio mastro." Walter Longo, executivo brasileiro que vive e trabalha na Califórnia, pelo Twitter
"Almocei hoje na Apple com meus amigos da Amil e Ponto Mobi. Passamos o
tempo todo falando da vida de Steve Jobs. Triste coincidência..."
Jimmy Fallon, comediante norte-americano, pelo Twitter"Obrigado,
Steve Jobs, por todas maneiras divertidas e incríveis com as quais você
melhorou nossas vidas... Enviado do meu iPhone." Lance Armstrong, ciclista norte-americano, pelo Twitter
"Devastado ao saber sobre o falecimento de Steve Jobs. Fui abençoado de
ter a oportunidade de passar um tempo com ele em várias ocasiões. Que
ele descanse em paz."
Kevin Smith, cineasta norte-americano, pelo Twitter"Nossos
pais tiveram Kennedy, nós tivemos Steve Jobs. [Thomas] Edison nos deu a
eletricidade, Jobs nos deu os Jetson na vida real. Perdemos um ícone
hoje. Guarde luto por ele." Ryan Seacrest, apresentador do reality show American Idol, pelo Twitter
"'Tenha a coragem de seguir seu coração e intuição. Eles já sabem o que
você realmente quer se tornar. Todo o resto é secundário.' - Steve
Jobs" Mandy Moore, atriz norte-americana, pelo Twitter
"Descanse em paz Steve Jobs. Obrigada por sua inovação e genialidade. Meu coração está com sua família e pessoas amadas..."
Steve Jobs leaves more than a legacy of inspiration and management at Apple; he was also a hands-on inventor,
often working with others but inextricably a part of many products that
came out of the company -- including smaller contributions like
packaging design or accessories, not just his well-known role in shaping
the computers and mobile devices for which the company is best known
today.
Often working in tandem with other designers such as Apple Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive
or engineers to achieve his vision but occasionally listed as sole or
principle inventor, Jobs generally worked like a sculptor -- endlessly
reviewing each piece of a process and accepting or rejecting them until
the final product emerged from a thousand possible decisions. In some
cases he would come up with the original idea and work with teams to see
it through; other times he would devise a method to improve an existing
product, such as the design for the chargers for many of the current
Apple products.
When Jobs resigned as CEO last August, The New York Times ran a
profile of the patents on which Jobs' name appears as a way of looking
into his mind -- and found a CEO who saw no detail as too small,
contributing ideas wherever he thought they would improve the experience
for the user. Jobs was also known for mentioning that Apple threw away
at least as many products and ideas as they carried through to market, a
sign of his dedication to discovery via trial-and-error. Many of the
patents listed in the interactive feature
never made it beyond the prototype stage, and others (such as the Apple
TV) evolved considerably before finding mainstream acceptance.
He was also credited with a number of eloquent writings, including the
copy for the famous "Here's to the Crazy Ones" commercial that kicked
off the "Think Different" campaign, and his open letter "Thoughts on
Flash," which changed the debate on Apple's decision to keep Flash off
its mobile devices, letting more open alternatives gain a foothold and
restoring competition that the rest of industry eventually embraced --
just as Apple did with its own operating system a decade earlier.
Ironically, Jobs -- and Apple -- may be as well known for the way they
made some products obsolete as they are for the innovations they
contributed. A long list of popular technologies, products, services and
icons of modern life -- from video-rental and CD outlets to commercial
radio and TV networks and photography (and now, with Siri, potentially
search engines) have seen their impact lessened and their business model
thrown into disarray by the disruptive nature of Apple's periodic
industry-changing revelations and the ripples of those inventions.
Of the 317 patents so far awarded that mention Jobs, he is listed as
sole or principle inventor on 33 of them -- including the signature
glass staircases, themselves an innovative design, that embody his
vision of elegance married to functionality and are a fixture at Apple's
flagship retail stores. In recent months, Jobs has been offering
further ideas involving glass, helping re-design the iconic glass "cube"
of the 5th Avenue Apple Store as well as expounding on an innovative
use of massive pieces of curved glass for the company's forthcoming new
headquarters.
Over 200 of the patents also involve his main collaborator, Apple VP of
Design Jonathan Ive. Since Ive's first marquee contribution to the
company -- the futuristic (and influential) but commercially
unsuccessful 20th Anniversary Macintosh,
Ive has been one of Apple's lead designers, working with Jobs to
achieve visionary concepts, such as the iMac's (all versions) goal of
"hiding" the CPU behind the screen, making the experience more immersive
for users without simply shuffling the mechanic under the desk or
otherwise taking up work space.
"Design is a funny word," Jobs once said. "Some people think design
means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it
works."
The Times' profile of Jobs can be seen here, and the interactive list of patents can be found here.
Microsoft is set to win Brussels approval for its planned $8.5bn (€5.9bn) acquisition of online telephone service Skype, highlighting the turnround in its long-strained relations with European competition authorities.
Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, is to give the
green light to the proposed deal without any remedies, in spite of
complaints from would-be rivals over Microsoft “bundling” the software
with Windows.
The
decision to clear the purchase without an in-depth, second-phase
investigation will be a relief for Microsoft and will allow the deal to
go through without delay.
It follows approval in June from the US Federal Trade Commission,
which was satisfied there was sufficient competition from rival online
services such as Google Talk to permit the deal to go ahead. Competition
reviews are still under way in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Taiwan.
Mr Almunia’s decision to clear the takeover without a hitch confirms
what has been a dramatic about-turn in Microsoft’s fortunes in Brussels,
transforming it from the combative, arch foe of the Commission to a
complainant in cases against Google and IBM.
Opponents of the Skype deal – including Messagenet, a Milan-based
rival to Skype – revived in their complaints many of the seminal EU
battles against Microsoft since the 1990s, arguing the group was again
“bundling” software in a manner the Commission stopped with respect to
its internet browser and media player.
In explaining the reason for the acquisition, Microsoft argued that
putting together Skype, which has 145m active users in an average month,
with users of its existing devices and software platforms would boost
the attractions of its products.
However, it stressed to competition authorities that the market had
completely changed since the original bundling decision, with Windows
just one of many available platforms for Skype, a product that achieved
success in spite of competition from a Microsoft product.
Microsoft also promised that Skype would always be available on rival software platforms such as Apple’s iOS, which is used in the iPhone and iPad, and Google’s Android smartphone operating systems.
The second main complaint against the deal regarded interoperability,
with rival internet telephone service providers demanding information
that would permit their customers to connect with Skype users.
Microsoft argued to the Commission that no consumers were locked in
to using Skype and that providing open access would require a degree of
standardisation that was not prevalent in consumer communications
software.
A spokesman for Mr Almunia declined to comment on the decision.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have reacted to the passing of Steve Jobs, stating that he was “among the greatest of American innovators.”
In a statement posted on the White House blog,
Obama says that Jobs “made the information revolution not only
accessible, but intuitive and fun.” He praises Jobs for his ingenuity
and for changing “the way each of us sees the world.”
“The world has lost a visionary,” Obama said. “And there may be no
greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world
learned of his passing on a device he invented.”
The statement is a moving tribute to man behind multiple computing
revolutions. The full statement from the President is included below:
“Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of
Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave
enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the
world, and talented enough to do it.
By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his
garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making
computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the
information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And
by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions
of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived
every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our
lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats
in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.
The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute
to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his
passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and
prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved
him.”
As the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was announced, Google
was quick to respond in more ways than one, and has been quite classy
about the whole thing.
The above is what Google’s homepage currently looks like. No
elaborate doodle, as I seriously doubt there was time for that, but
Google is clearly showing their respect anyway, and I would not be
surprised to see a Jobs doodle appear one day (possibly on his
birthday).
Google CEO Larry Page had the following to say: I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great
man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always
seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have
been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience
above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to
reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his
advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and
Google’s are with his family and the whole Apple family.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said: “From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought
inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than
Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has
ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this
on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have
met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology,
you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and
colleagues at Apple.”
Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted:
Google and Apple trade a lot of snarky comments, and are clearly
fierce competitors in mobile, but it quite clear that there is a mutual
respect between the two tech giants.
Apple announced the death of its visionary co-founder Steve Jobs.
NEW YORK: Apple on Wednesday announced the death of its visionary co-founder Steve Jobs.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," the company's board of directors said in a statement.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless
innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is
immeasurably better because of Steve."
The Silicon Valley icon
who gave the world the iPod and the iPhone resigned as CEO of the
world's largest technology corporation in August, handing the reins to
current chief executive Tim Cook.
Jobs had battled cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in
2009 after taking a leave of absence for unspecified health problems. He
took another leave of absence in January, his third since his health
problems began, before resigning as CEO six weeks ago. Jobs became
Apple's chairman and handed the CEO job over to his hand-picked
successor, Tim Cook.
The news Apple fans and shareholders had
been dreading came the day after Apple unveiled its latest version of
the iPhone, just one in a procession of devices that shaped technology
and society while Jobs was running the company.
Jobs started
Apple with a high school friend in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was
forced out a decade later and returned in 1997 to rescue the company.
During his second stint, it grew into the most valuable technology
company in the world with a market value of $351 billion. Only Exxon Mobil, which makes it money extracting and refining oil instead of ideas, is worth more.
Cultivating Apple's countercultural sensibility and a minimalist design
ethic, Jobs rolled out one sensational product after another, even in
the face of the late-2000s recession and his own failing health.
He helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a
necessity of modern life at work and home, and in the process he upended
not just personal technology but the cellphone and music industries.
For transformation of American industry, he ranks among his computer-age
contemporary, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates
and other creative geniuses such as Walt Disney that left an indelible
imprint on the world. Jobs died as Walt Disney Co.'s largest
shareholder, a by-product of his decision to sell computer animation
studio Pixar in 2006.
Perhaps most influentially, Jobs in 2001 launched the iPod, which offered "1,000 songs in your pocket." Over the next 10 years, its white earphones and thumb-dial control seemed to become more ubiquitous than the wristwatch.
In 2007 came the touch-screen iPhone, joined a year later by Apple's
App Store, where developers could sell iPhone "apps" which made the
phone a device not just for making calls but also for managing money,
editing photos, playing games and social networking. And in 2010, Jobs
introduced the iPad, a tablet-sized, all-touch computer that took off
even though market analysts said no one really needed one.
Steven Paul Jobs was born Feb. 24, 1955, to Joanne Simpson, then an unmarried graduate student, and Abdulfattah Jandali, a student from Syria. Simpson gave Jobs up for adoption, though she married Jandali and a few years later had a second child with him, Mona Simpson, who became a novelist.
Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs of Los Altos, Calif., a
working-class couple who nurtured his early interest in electronics. He
saw his first computer terminal at NASA's Ames Research Center when he
was around 11 and landed a summer job at Hewlett-Packard before he had finished high school.
Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Ore., in 1972 but dropped out after a semester.
"All of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my
college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it," he
said at a Stanford University
commencement address in 2005. "I had no idea what I wanted to do with
my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out."
When he returned to California in 1974, Jobs worked for video game maker Atari and attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend who was a few years older.
Wozniak's homemade computer drew attention from other enthusiasts, but
Jobs saw its potential far beyond the geeky hobbyists of the time. The
pair started Apple in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976. Their first
creation was the Apple I - essentially, the guts of a computer without a
case, keyboard or monitor.
The Apple II, which hit the market
in 1977, was their first machine for the masses. It became so popular
that Jobs was worth $100 million by age 25. Time magazine put him on its
cover for the first time in 1982.
During a 1979 visit to the Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center, Jobs again spotted mass potential in a niche
invention: a computer that allowed people to access files and control
programs with the click of a mouse, not typed commands. He returned to
Apple and ordered the team to copy what he had seen.
It
foreshadowed a propensity to take other people's concepts, improve on
them and spin them into wildly successful products. Under Jobs, Apple
didn't invent computers, digital music players or smartphones - it
reinvented them for people who didn't want to learn computer programming
or negotiate the technical hassles of keeping their gadgets working.
"We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas," Jobs said in an interview for the 1996 PBS series "Triumph of the Nerds."
The engineers responded with two computers. The pricier one, called
Lisa, launched to a cool reception in 1983. A less-expensive model
called the Macintosh, named for an employee's favorite apple, exploded
onto the scene in 1984.
The Mac was heralded by an epic Super Bowl
commercial that referenced George Orwell's "1984" and captured Apple's
iconoclastic style. In the ad, expressionless drones marched through
dark halls to an auditorium where a Big Brother-like figure lectures on a
big screen. A woman in a bright track uniform burst into the hall and
launched a hammer into the screen, which exploded, stunning the drones,
as a narrator announced the arrival of the Mac.
There were early stumbles at Apple. Jobs clashed with colleagues and even the CEO he had hired away from Pepsi, John Sculley.
And after an initial spike, Mac sales slowed, in part because few
programs had been written for the new graphical user interface .
Meanwhile, Microsoft copied the Mac approach and introduced Windows,
outmaneuvering Apple by licensing its software to slews of computer
makers while Apple insisted on making its own machines.
Software developers wrote programs first for Windows because it had
millions more computers . A Mac version didn't come for months, if at
all.
With Apple's stock price sinking, conflicts between Jobs
and Sculley mounted. Sculley won over the board in 1985 and pushed Jobs
out of his day-to-day role leading the Macintosh team. Jobs resigned his
post as chairman of the board and left Apple within months.
"What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was
devastating," Jobs said in his Stanford speech. "I didn't see it then,
but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that
could have ever happened to me. 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."
He got into two other companies: Next, a computer maker, and Pixar, a computer-animation studio that he bought from George Lucas for $10 million.
Pixar, ultimately the more successful venture, seemed at first a
bottomless money pit. Then came "Toy Story," the first computer-animated
full-length feature. Jobs used its success to negotiate a sweeter deal
with Disney for Pixar's next two films. In 2006, Jobs sold Pixar to The
Walt Disney Co. for $7.4 billion in stock, making him Disney's largest
individual shareholder and securing a seat on the board.
With
Next, Jobs was said to be obsessive about the tiniest details of the
cube-shaped computer, insisting on design perfection even for the
machine's guts. He never managed to spark much demand for the machine,
which cost a pricey $6,500 to $10,000.
Ultimately, he shifted
the focus to software - a move that paid off later when Apple bought
Next for its operating system technology, the basis for the software
still used in Mac computers.
By 1996, when Apple bought Next,
Apple was in dire financial straits. It had lost more than $800 million
in a year, dragged its heels in licensing Mac software for other
computers and surrendered most of its market share to PCs that ran
Windows.
Larry Ellison,
Jobs' close friend and fellow Silicon Valley billionaire and the leader
of Oracle Corp., publicly contemplated buying Apple in early 1997 and
ousting its leadership. The idea fizzled, but Jobs stepped in as interim
chief later that year.
He slashed unprofitable projects,
narrowed the company's focus and presided over a new marketing push to
set the Mac apart from Windows, starting with a campaign encouraging
computer users to "Think different."
"In the early days, he
was in charge of every detail. The only way you could say it is, he was
kind of a control freak," he said. In his second stint, "he clearly was
much more mellow and more mature."
In the decade that followed, Jobs kept Apple profitable while pushing out an impressive roster of new products.
Apple's popularity exploded in the 2000s. The iPod, smaller and sleeker
with each generation, introduced many lifelong Windows users to their
first Apple gadget.
ITunes, in 20XX, gave people a convenient
way to buy music legally online, song by song. For the music industry,
it was a mixed blessing. The industry got a way to reach Internet-savvy
people who, in the age of Napster, were growing accustomed to
downloading music free. But online sales also hastened the demise of CDs
and established Apple as a gatekeeper, resulting in battles between
Jobs and music executives over pricing and other issues.
Jobs'
command over gadget lovers and pop culture swelled to the point that,
on the eve of the iPhone's launch in 2007, faithful followers slept on
sidewalks outside posh Apple stores for the chance to buy one. Three
years later, at the iPad's debut, the lines snaked around blocks and out
through parking lots, even though people had the option to order one in
advance.
The decade was not without its glitches. Apple was swept up in a Securities and Exchange Commission
inquiry into stock-options backdating in the mid-2000s, a practice that
artificially boosted the value of options grants. But Jobs and Apple
emerged unscathed after two former executives took the fall and
eventually settled with the SEC.
Jobs' personal ethos - a
natural food lover who embraced Buddhism and New Age philosophy - was
closely linked to the public persona he shaped for Apple. Apple itself
became a statement against the commoditization of technology - a cynical
view, to be sure, from a company whose computers can cost three or more
times as much as those of its rivals.
For technology lovers,
buying Apple products meant gaining entrance to an exclusive club. At
the top was a complicated and contradictory figure who was endlessly
fascinating - even to his detractors, of which Jobs had many. Jobs was a
hero to techno-geeks and a villain to partners he bullied and to
workers whose projects he unceremoniously killed or claimed as his own.
Unauthorized biographer Alan Deutschman described him as "deeply moody
and maddeningly erratic." In his personal life, Jobs denied for two
years that he was the father of Lisa, the baby born to his longtime
girlfriend Chrisann Brennan in 1978.
Few seemed immune to
Jobs' charisma and will. He could adeptly convince those in his presence
of just about anything - even if they disagreed again when he left the
room and his magic wore off.
"He always has an aura around his
persona," said Bajarin, who met Jobs several times while covering the
company for more than 20 years as a Creative Strategies analyst. "When
you talk to him, you know you're really talking to a brilliant mind."
But Bajarin also remembers Jobs lashing out with profanity at an
employee who interrupted their meeting. Jobs, the perfectionist,
demanded greatness from everyone at Apple.
Jobs valued his
privacy, but some details of his romantic and family life have been
uncovered. In the early 1980s, Jobs dated the folk singer Joan Baez, according to Deutschman.
In 1989, Jobs spoke at Stanford's graduate business school and met his
wife, Laurene Powell, who was then a student. When she became pregnant,
Jobs at first refused to marry her. It was a near-repeat of what had
happened more than a decade earlier with then-girlfriend Brennan,
Deutschman said, but eventually Jobs relented.
Jobs started looking for his biological family in his teens, according to an interview he gave to The New York
Times in 1997. He found his biological sister when he was 27. They
became friends, and through her Jobs met his biological mother. Few
details of their relationships have been made public.
But the
extent of Apple secrecy didn't become clear until Jobs revealed in 2004
that he had been diagonosed with - and "cured" of - a rare form of
operable pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.
The company had sat on the news of his diagnosis for nine months while
Jobs tried trumping the disease with a special diet, Fortune magazine
reported in 2008.
In the years after his cancer was revealed,
rumors about Jobs' health would spark runs on Apple stock as investors
worried the company, with no clear succession plan, would fall apart
without him. Apple did little to ease those concerns. It kept the state
of Jobs' health a secret for as long as it could, then disclosed vague
details when, in early 2009, it became clear he was again ill.
Jobs took a half-year medical leave of absence starting in January
2009, during which he had a liver transplant. Apple did not disclose the
procedure at the time; two months later, The Wall Street Journal
reported the fact and a doctor at the transplant hospital confirmed it.
In January 2011, Jobs announced another medical leave, his third, with
no set duration. He returned to the spotlight briefly in March to
personally unveil a second-generation iPad .
In 2005, following the bout with cancer, Jobs delivered Stanford University's commencement speech.
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've
ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," he said.
"Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all
fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the
face of death, leaving only what is truly important."
by Paul Bond, The Hollywood Reporter |
Outubro 05, 2011 7:59 EDT
Getty Images
Steve Jobs, the Apple
co-founder who used digital technology to resurrect animated feature
films, reshape the music industry and shake up film and television
distribution models, died Wednesday. He was 56.
Jobs, a
computer genius who, with fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak, built
the first Apple computers from the Jobs' family garage, died of
complications from pancreatic cancer.
A Buddhist and
vegetarian who once handed out bottles of carrot juice to
trick-or-treaters, Jobs was diagnosed with the disease in 2004 when he
disclosed that doctors had removed a cancerous tumor from his pancreas.
Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II computer in 1977 and took
their company public in 1980, an event that made Jobs a multimillionaire
able to set his sights on conquering the entertainment industry. He
succeeded by turning Pixar into what is arguably the most consistent
film studio in history and by becoming the largest shareholder of
Disney, the industry's most iconic company.
Born in San
Francisco on Feb. 24, 1955, to an unmarried couple, Jobs was adopted by
Clara and Paul Jobs. As early as high school, Jobs was plotting a course
that included the creation of world-changing products leading to
personal fame and fortune. Along the way, he feuded with some of the
most powerful men in the fields of technology and entertainment,
including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, longtime Disney CEO Michael
Eisner and even The Beatles.
In earlier times an egomaniac who
once dressed up as Jesus Christ at a Halloween party, Jobs even lost
control of Apple, necessitating that he engineer one of the business
world's most successful comebacks of all time. In 1983, Jobs famously
convinced PepsiCo executive John Sculley to become Apple CEO by asking:
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do
you want a chance to change the world?"
A year later, Apple
made advertising history with a Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley
Scott that introduced the Mac computer. One year after that, Sculley,
in concert with the board of directors, ousted Jobs from Apple. "What
can I say? I hired the wrong guy," Jobs said in a 1996 PBS documentary.
"He destroyed everything I spent 10 years working for, starting with
me."
The year he left Apple, Jobs created a new company, NeXT
Computer, and a year later he purchased another, the computer graphics
division of Lucasfilm for $10 million.
Jobs would own 92
percent of that CG-company purchased from Star Wars creator George
Lucas, with Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull sharing the remaining 8
percent. It was Smith's idea to call the new entity Pixar.
With the addition of John Lasseter and some of the most inventive
animators in the business, the team set out to make the first feature
film based on Pixar's CG-images, a goal so lofty that, had the film
flopped, it could have ended Jobs's corporate comeback. Toy Story,
though, was the biggest hit of 1995, paving the way for a Pixar IPO and a
lucrative partnership with Disney, the film's distributor.
Jobs earned his way back to Apple in December 1996 when Gil Amelio, who
took over the CEO spot from Sculley three years earlier, purchased NeXT
for $429 million. Within eight months, Jobs had convinced the board to
lose Amelio and name Jobs interim CEO. In 2000, Jobs made the title
permanent.
With the music industry reeling from Internet
users who preferred sharing music to buying it, Apple created the iPod
and iTunes, with Jobs handling the arduous task of obtaining the digital
rights to songs that he would sell to consumers for 99 cents apiece.
Having been battered by digital pirates, music executives were skeptical
of the iTunes Music Store back then, according to Hilary Rosen, head of
the RIAA at the time, but they were won over by Jobs's passion.
"The shift came about above all because of the sheer willpower of
Steve. His sheer charisma and his intensity absolutely made a
difference," Rosen said, according to the book iCon Steve Jobs: The
Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, by Jeffrey Young and
William Simon. "Steve is an incredible music fan. For people in the
music industry, that was very special."
Jobs, who once dated
folk singer Joan Baez, named his computer company Apple in part because
of his admiration for the Beatles and their Apple Records. But when the
iTunes music store used an apple for its logo, Apple Corp. sued. Four
years later, the two settled their legal differences, and iTunes began
selling Beatles music in November (2010).
As Apple the
computer company was shaking up the music industry, Pixar, the other
company run by Jobs, was enjoying a streak of hits with A Bug's Life,
Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, and Jobs
was trying to squeeze a better distribution deal from Disney's then-CEO
Michael Eisner.
The negotiations became so rancorous that former vp Al Gore, an Apple board member, stepped in, to no avail.
Jobs called Pixar "the most powerful and trusted brand in animation,"
and he doubted that Pixar could ever strike a deal with Disney as long
as Eisner was at the helm, according to iCon. That feud, too, was
settled in favor of Jobs when, after Eisner quit Disney, new CEO Bob
Iger purchased Pixar in January 2006 for about $7.4 billion, giving Jobs
a 7.4 percent stake in Disney and a seat on its board of directors.
Even before Jobs joined Disney, he was taking advantage of the
conglomerate's close association with Pixar to boost the potential of
iTunes, which began supporting video in 2005. Along with music videos,
some of the earliest content available were TV shows from Disney's ABC
and Disney Channel networks like Desperate Housewives, Lost, That's So
Raven and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
The
introduction of the iPad on April 3, 2010, took portable viewing of
video on-demand to a different level, and iTunes now offers thousands of
film and TV titles.
"With Apple, Steve Jobs has created an
unassailable ecosystem of iPods, iTunes, iPhones and iPads that has
changed the world and destroyed all challengers for both the home and
the enterprise, a heretofore unthinkable vision that no others can
compete with worldwide," CNBC host Jim Cramer told The Hollywood
Reporter.
But while Jobs has been on a roll for more than a
decade as arguably the world's most influential man in digital
entertainment, he died before he could guide Apple TV - which he once
referred to as his "hobby" - to success.
Apple TV, a
fraction the size of a typical cable set-top box, moves iTunes
collections, as well as video from YouTube, Netflix and other online
suppliers, to TV screens. While generally reviewed as extraordinarily
sleek and convenient, the product has yet to strike a chord with
consumers the way iPod, iPad and iTunes have, a fact that insiders say
disturbed Jobs more than he would let on.
At a Macworld
Conference and Expo in 2007, Jobs used a hockey analogy to explain how
he kept Apple's products ahead of the curve. "There's an old Wayne
Gretzky quote that I love: 'I skate to where the puck is going to be,
not where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple.
Since the very, very beginning," he said.
Jobs often was
criticized for being a perfectionist. In 1995 he told the Smithsonian
Institution, "It's painful when you have some people who are not the
best people in the world."
Friends say Jobs mellowed late in
his life, focusing on family. "Parenthood changes one's world," he
said. "It's almost like a switch gets flipped inside you, and you can
feel a whole new range of feelings that you never thought you'd have."
Because of his poor health, Jobs has taken multiple leaves since 2004
from his position as CEO of Apple, and on Aug. 24 he relinquished the
spot permanently. Jobs assumed the role of chairman of the board - a
position that hadn't existed at the time - and Apple appointed then-COO
Tim Cook its new chief executive.
A donor to Democrats and
liberal causes, Jobs dined with President Bill Clinton at Jobs's home
in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1996 and later slept in the Lincoln Bedroom of
the White House. President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal
of Technology in 1984, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
inducted him into the California Hall of Fame in 2007.
Worth
an estimated $8.3 billion, Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene Powell
and their children Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve, as well as daughter,
Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from a previous relationship.
"Your work
is going to fill a large part of your life," Jobs told students at
Stanford in 2005, "and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what
you believe is great work."
Steve Jobs en una de las presentaciones de Apple. | AP VEA MÁS IMÁGENES
ELMUNDO.ES |
Actualizado jueves 06/10/201101:47 horas
Steve Jobs, uno de los fundadores de Apple, ha fallecido esta noche a
los 56 años después de perder la batalla contra el cáncer y otros
problemas de salud, según ha anunciado la propia compañía. "Apple ha perdido a un genio visionario y creativo y el mundo ha perdido a un asombroso ser humano", ha informado la empresa fundada por Jobs a través de un escueto comunicado en su página web.
"Aquellos que hemos tenido la suerte de conocer y trabajar con Steve
hemos perdido a un querido amigo y a un mentor. Steve deja atrás una
compañía que sólo él podría haber construido y su espíritu estará
siempre en la base de Apple".
Jobs anunció a comienzos del año que su renuncia al puesto de
consejero delegado que ocupaba en la empresa por motivos de salud y
nombró como sucesor a Tim Cook.
No era la primera vez que Steve Jobs se veía obligado a relegar sus
funciones en la empresa a causa de su salud. Antes, en 2004, un cáncer
de páncreas lo tuvo apartado varios meses del trabajo.
Desde entonces, las especulaciones sobre su estado de salud no han
cesado. En 2009 una nueva complicación le volvió a alejar de sus
funciones en Apple. En esta ocasión sufrió un desajuste hormonal que
comunicó en enero del mismo año y que se prolongó seis meses, lo que
tardó Jobs en recuperarse de un trasplante de hígado.
Jobs es considerado el autor intelectual de exitosos productos de Apple como el teléfono móvil iPhone y el reproductor de música iPod.
En 1976 fundó la compañía junto a Steve Wozniak y Ronald Wayne, y
jugó un papel fundamental en la revolución de los ordenadores
personales. En 1985 fue expulsado de la empresa, lo que provocó una
caída en los ingresos de Apple, que se revirtió sólo con su regreso en
1996.
Así abre su web Apple. No hacen falta más palabras.
Muere Steve Jobs.
Apple anuncia en un comunicado la muerte de su creador. Jobs abandonó
su puesto de consejero delegado el pasado mes de agosto debido a un
cáncer.
Apple anuncia el fallecimiento de Steve Jobs
El cofundador de la compañía luchó contra el cáncer desde que le fue diagnosticado en 2004
SANDRO POZZI | Nueva York 06/10/2011
Steve Jobs ha muerto a los 56 años tras una larga batalla contra el cáncer, ha anunciado Apple.
La historia del cofundador de Apple define la de la propia Silicon
Valley. Y su contribución al mundo de la tecnología de consumo -con
productos como los Mac, el iPod, el iPhone y el iPad- le convierte en
uno de los grandes innovadores de los últimos 75 años y un transformador
de la industria.
VIDEO - G. RODRÍGUEZ-PINA / L. ALMODOVAR / A. DE LA RUA - 24-01-2011
Recorrido por la vida de Steve Jobs, fundador de Apple, despedido de
la empresa y rescatado para refundarla y convertirla en un gigante - G. RODRÍGUEZ-PINA / L. ALMODOVAR / A. DE LA RUA
De niño sabía que sería algo grande. Y con esa ambición se puso el
objetivo de popularizar el uso del ordenador, llevándolas de las
oficinas al hogar. Con esa misión fundó en abril de 1976 la compañía
junto a Steve Wozniak, en un garaje en Los Altos. Buscaba así una
alternativa al coloso IBM, que entonces veía el PC como demasiado
pequeño para hacer computación en serio.
Tres décadas después, no
solo demostraría que podía hacer sombra a Big Blue, si no que se
convirtió es una de las marcas más reconocidas del mundo y en caso un
producto de culto. Transformación que culminó en 2007, cuando Apple
Computer pasó a llamarse Apple Incorporated, porque a su negocio
tradicional de ordenadores le sumó la música y la telefonía.
Jobs
nació un 24 de febrero de 1955 en San Francisco. El apellido lo tomó de
sus padres adoptivos. En 2004 se le diagnosticó un cáncer de páncreas.
Lo hizo público un año después, en el discurso de graduación de los
estudiantes de Stanford. En abril de 2009 fue sometido a un transplante
de hígado.
Su visión transformó también el mundo del celuloide. En
1986, exiliado de Apple, se hizo con la división gráfica por ordenador
de Lucasfilm. Así nacieron los estudios de animación Pixar, que trabajó
con Disney en creaciones como Toy Story o Buscando a Nemo. Demostró que el silicio también puede llegar al público.
A
su regreso en 1997, Jobs revitalizó la compañía y consiguió atraer a
los consumidores hacia sus ordenadores Mac, con dispositivos como el
reproductor iPod, el teléfono interactivo iPhone o la tableta iPad. Para
unir esos dos mundos utilizó iTunes, para la descarga lícita de música,
videos, aplicaciones y videojuegos, y los Apple Stores.
Creaciones
que fueron siempre acompañadas por un tsunami mediático. El diseño y su
manejo del marketing son dos ingredientes clave de la pócima, pero
también la imagen y el carisma de Jobs. La revista Fortune le
calificó por todo esto como el empresario más importante de la década,
no sólo por su manejo de la compañía, también por su influencia en la
cultura global.
Difunden medios de EU rumores sobre posible muerte de Steve Jobs
Redacción SDPNoticias.com
2011-09-09 15:35:00
Sitios como Gizmodo
y Gawker hicieron eco de un Tweet publicado por @WhatsTrending,
subsidiario de la televisora CBS, el cual habló de una supuesta muerte
del fundador de Apple, Steve Jobs.
“Reportes afirman que Steve Jobs ha fallecido. Manténganse informados
para más detalles”, se leía en el mensaje retuiteado por cientos de
personas.
Sin embargo, el mensaje fue retirado por el sitio, ya que hasta el momento está sin confirmar.
Steve Jobs ha padecido cáncer de páncreas y otros problemas de salud
que lo orillaron a renunciar al puesto de CEO de Apple en recientes
fechas.
Sin embargo, el sitio Gawker afirma que “puede haber algo” detrás de
los rumores de la muerte de Jobs, señalando una situación similar tras
la muerte del actor Patrick Swayze, donde los rumores fueron abundantes
momentos antes de la confirmación de su fallecimiento.
Murió Steve Jobs, el genio de Apple que popularizó la tecnología 05 de octubre de 2011 • 18h51• actualizado a las 19h04
Apple confirmó la muerte de su ex presidente ejecutivo, Steve Jobs. Foto: Apple.com/Terra México
Steve Jobs era Apple, la empresa que ayudó a fundar en 1976 y
con la que creó algunos de los productos más admirados en el mundo
tecnológico de los últimos años. Tras su muerte, se hace irresistible la tentación de mirar el pasado, aunque eso chocaría con las propias consignas de Jobs.
"Si miras hacía atrás en este negocio, serás aplastado. Tienes que
mirar hacia delante", dijo en 2009 cuando se conmemoraban los 25 años de
la creación de Macintosh, el primer computador comercial con ratón e
interfaz gráfico.
"Apple es un reflejo de Steve y él no quiere
celebrar el pasado. Él siempre dice que el trabajo importante es el que
haces hoy y mañana, no el de ayer", esa reflexión la hizo en 2009, Andy
Hertzfeld, uno de los expertos que formó parte del equipo que desarrolló
el Mac.
Jobs fue el jefe ejecutivo del gigante informático que en varias ocasiones llevó la batuta de la industria tecnológica.
Se le considera el arquitecto del éxito actual de la compañía que se
basa fundamentalmente en productos como el iPod, el iPhone y el iPad.
Problemas de salud
Pero las novedades de Apple no fueron la única razón por la cual Jobs estuvo en la mira de los medios de comunicación.
Desde que fue diagnosticado con cáncer de páncreas, en 2004, su salud fue un tópico regular en la prensa.
"Se le conocía por ser una persona bastante reservada. Se rehusó a
responder los rumores que desencadenó su presentación en la World Wide
Developers Conference, en 2008, cuando se le vio bastante demacrado",
señaló Maggie Shiels, corresponsal de la BBC en Silicon Valley.
Pero los tuvo que enfrentar.
En enero de 2009, dijo en un memorando que sufría de un "desequilibrio hormonal".
Una semana después, reveló que sus problemas de salud eran más complicados de lo que pensaba.
"Con el objetivo de retirarme de la atención pública y dedicarme a mi
salud... He decidido tomar un permiso médico hasta finales de junio",
dijo Jobs en un correo electrónico dirigido a sus empleados.
Desde finales de 2008 y hasta mediados de 2009, Jobs se ausentó de Apple para someterse a un trasplante de hígado.
El carismático líder, que nació en los huertos de albaricoque de la
región actualmente conocida como Silicon Valley, se negaba a dejar la
empresa a un lado.
Pese a sus ausencias, quería participar en la toma de las grandes decisiones de Apple.
Siempre presente
Se le criticó repetidamente por su temperamento y su estilo de liderazgo.
"Quienes han trabajado con él aseguran que suele ejercer una micro
gerencia. Ningún producto podía lanzarse si él no supervisaba y aprobaba
cada uno de los pasos del proceso de producción", dice el especialista
en tecnología de BBC Mundo, David Cuen.
En la biografía de Jobs
escrita en The Apple Museum (El Museo de Apple), el empresario es
descrito como un adicto al trabajo, que motivaba a los demás con su
entusiasmo, apasionado por la tecnología, arrogante e intolerante.
Expertos aseguran que Job fue un hombre muy respetado en Silicon Valley.
"En el mundo de los -nerd-, es como una estrella de rock y, junto a los
fundadores de Google, es una especie de dios en el panteón griego", le
dijo en 2009 a la BBC la editora de fotografía del San Francisco
Chronicle, Kathleen Hennessey.
En el garaje
Jobs nació en
1955, en California, y fue adoptado por Paúl, quien trabajaba como
maquinista en una fábrica de láser, y Clara, una contadora.
Conoció, en la Universidad de Stanford, a su esposa Laurence Powell, con quien tuvo tres de sus cuatro hijos.
Cuando estaba aún en la secundaria, Jobs solía ir a charlas que se
dictaban en Hewlett-Packard, en California. Allí obtuvo un empleo
durante un verano.
Tras dejar el Reed College, en Oregón, se dedicó a trabajar para Atari.
Cuando tenía 21 años, creó junto a su amigo Steve Wozniak una computadora que llamó Apple.
"Jobs vendió su Volkswagen y Wozniak su calculadora científica marca
Hewlett-Packard, con lo que recaudaron US$1.300 para empezar su propia
compañía. Con ese capital inicial y líneas de crédito abiertas con
empresas proveedoras de electrónicos, establecieron su primera rama de
producción", cuenta The Apple Museum.
Jobs animó a Wozniak para
que renunciara a Hewlett-Packard y se convirtiera en el vicepresidente a
cargo de la investigación y el desarrollo de la nueva empresa.
"Empezaron a trabajar en el garaje de la familia de Jobs. Hicieron su
primera gran venta cuando la tienda Byte Shop, en Mountain View, les
compró sus primeras cincuenta computadoras ensambladas. Así nació la
corporación Apple".
Regreso
En 1985, con 30 años, Jobs
abandonó Apple después de un conflicto interno que lo desplazó de la
dirección de la compañía que él mismo había creado.
Fundó
entonces los estudios de animación Pixar, que ha producido películas
como "Toy Story", "Monstruos S. A." y "Buscando a Nemo", y continúo su
carrera empresarial con NeXT Computer Inc.
En 1996 decidió
regresar a Apple, cuando la compañía atravesaba una situación difícil e
incluso algunos expertos la daban por muerta, la revista Wired llegó a
destacar en su portada un artículo que le decía adios a Apple.
Pero Jobs la resucitó. Con su regreso volvió la creatividad que parecía
perdida. IMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone y iPad son sólo algunas de las
marcas que no sólo revivieron a Apple, sino que la pusieron en la
vanguardia del desarrollo tecnológico.
Steve Jobs murió pero su
nombre quedará asociado para siempre con el boom tecnológico de finales
del siglo XX y no es exagerado afirmar que fue él quien en cierta manera
popularizó la tecnología.
Este
fin de semana se convulsionaba la Red a raíz de un tweet que anunciaba
la muerte del exCEO de Apple, Steve Jobs, que a la postre se confirmo
falso y le ha costado el puesto a la conocida blogger de la CBS, Shira
Lazar.
En Internet, por mucho que se
piense, se escribe con tinta. La velocidad y el ansia por ser el primero
en contar algo, sin tomar las debidas precauciones que todo periodista
debe tener, desencadena enormes consecuencias con sólo un twitt.
Un tweet que le ha costado el puesto de trabajo
Es el caso de Shira Lazar, quien ha perdido buena parte de su reputación
y su contrato como blogger estrella y presentadora del programa online
que realizaba para CBS News al haber publicado un twett falso sobre la
muerte de Steve Jobs. La historia comienza el pasado viernes cuando se
publicaba un twitt sobre el fallecimiento de Jobs en el sitio What´s
Trending, perteneciente a la cadena estadounidense CBS.
Pocos minutos después, el texto era borrado pero ya fue tarde para
que la noticia corriera como la pólvora por internet. La propia CBS
publicó una disculpa aduciendo que “los informes de la muerte de Steve
Jobs no están confirmados” y se desvinculaba de la polémica argumentando
que la publicación de esta noticia se hizo de forma independiente y sin
seguir las normas para la obtención de noticias que utiliza la CBS.
Pese a que la propia Shira Lazar publicó un nuevo mensaje de
arepentimiento con sus mas sinceras disculpas, los ejecutivos de CBS
News han cortado toda relación con el blog What´s Trending y con la
propia Lazar, eliminando incluso cualquier contenido de la bloguera y su
web en los servidores de la cadena norteamericana. ¿Twitter se está pervirtiendo? Parece que este fin de semana Twitter era un medio de poca
confianza porque la NBC, por su parte, sufría el secuestro durante 10
minutos de su cuenta en la red social por parte del grupo de hackers
Script Kiddies, quienes perpetraron una macabra broma anunciando que un
avión se había estrellado en la Zona Cero durante el homenaje a las
víctimas del 11S.
Estos hechos no hacen sino llevarnos a la reflexión de hacia donde
nos ha llevado la vorágine de la blogosfera, en la que corren los
rumores y las suposiciones sobre productos, lanzamientos y fotos robadas
pero que al llegar a puntos como atreverse a publicar la muerte de una
persona habría que parar un momento y pensar que no es lo más importante
ser el primero, sino comprobar que estamos dando una noticia veraz. Fuente: The Hollywood Reporter
Apple II, Macintosh, iTunes, el iPhone y el iPad marcaron profundos cambios
Analistas, compañeros y competencia elogian la trayectoria de Steve Jobs
P. Romero | Agencias | Madrid
Actualizado viernes 26/08/201112:17 horas
El mundo de la tecnología no volverá a ser igual tras la anunciada marcha de Steve Jobs.
Desde 1976, el carismático e influyente cofundador de Apple ha sido
capaz de poner patas arriba mercados tan aparentemente dispares como los ordenadores, la telefonía, la industria de la música y la del cine, entre otras.
Su fuerte personalidad, el misticismo que le rodea, su audacia y su capacidad de ver un poco más allá que sus competidores han sido los motores que han impulsado importantes cambios y derribado barreras hasta hace pocos años infranqueables.
Jobs con el Apple II | Ap
"Steve Jobs ha cambiado el mundo cinco veces. Cinco". Así se expresa en una columna Josh Bernoff, vicepresidente de Forrester Research. Y explica que el primer cambio llegó con Apple II en 1977, el primer 'ordenador personal' tal y como lo conocemos hoy, algo inimaginable hasta entonces.
Con la introducción del Macintosh (1984), llegó la informática fácil para todos, con el uso de una interfaz gráfica sencilla manejable
gracias al ratón, al uso de iconos... Hasta un niño podía manejarlo. Y
supuso una nueva ruptura, una 'revolución', en la manera en la que la
gente se iba a relacionar con los ordenadores.
Jobs abandonó la compañía en 1985, pero volvería -para quedarse al
frente de la misma- en 1996. Cinco años más tarde, y tras renovar con
éxito la gama de ordenadores (Powerbook G3, iMac), lanza un órdago que cambiaría para siempre la poderosa industria musical. Con el iPod, pero sobre todo con iTunes, cambió las reglas de la distribución y del precio de la música.
El iPod se impuso sobre los demás MP3 por su diseño y su magnífica interfaz, a pesar de estar íntimamente ligado al programa iTunes, la puerta de acceso a la mayor tienda de música del mundo. Fue iTunes el sistema que supuso una dolorosa lección a las grandes discográficas. ¿Qué es eso de comprar un disco 'empaquetado', cuando se pueden adquirir canciones sueltas? ¿Por qué pagar más de un dólar por canción?
Con el iMac en 1998. | AP
La cuarta gran 'revolución' llegó a través del iPhone (2007), un dispositivo tan nuevo en su lanzamiento que ha cambiado prácticamente todo en la industria de la telefonía móvil. El concepto de pantalla multitáctil, la conexión real a Internet, las aplicaciones,
todas estas innovaciones llegaron con el icónico teléfono para
quedarse. Aunque quizá el cambio más determinante ha sido el de la
relación entre fabricantes y operadores: Apple mantiene el control total sobre el 'software' del aparato.
Por último, el quinto gran cambio provocado por Jobs fue provocado por el iPad, la tableta que ha desatado una auténtica fiebre,
nuevas posibilidades en industrias como la prensa o los contenidos
audiovisuales, y una crisis en la industria del ordenador tradicional.
Naturalmente existen otros grandes cambios que ha liderado Steve
Jobs, y merece la pena mencionar uno que no tuvo que ver con Apple: Jobs
renovó la manera de hacer cine de animación con su compañía Pixar, que creó tras comprar The Graphics Group en 1986, y que terminó adquiriendo Disney en 2006, lo que dejó al propio Jobs como uno de los mayores accionistas de la mítica fábrica de sueños.
La 'magia' del visionario
Mientras crece la preocupación sobre la salud de Jobs, analistas y expertos de todo el mundo se han lanzado a elogiar la figura del hasta ahora consejero delegado de Apple, e incluso a darle las gracias. Walter Mossberg,
analista del Wall Street Journal, cree que la renuncia de Steve Jobs
"es el final de una era extraordinaria, no sólo para Apple, sino para la
industria global de tecnología en general". Y apunta, citando a fuentes
muy cercanas a Jobs, que a pesar de encontrarse "seriamente enfermo,
está muy vivo". "Por lo tanto", aclara Mossberg, "no se trata de un
obituario".
"Después de todo, es el hombre que puede ver el futuro mejor que la mayoría de nosotros"
Om Malik escribe en Gigaom,
destaca que en estos tiempos de cambios constantes y decisiones a corto
plazo para salvar trimestres, Steve Jobs supo tener visión a largo
plazo. "Después de todo, es el hombre que puede ver el futuro mejor que la mayoría de nosotros".
"Steve y Apple no tienen miedo de pensar en el futuro, (...) a
inventar el futuro y equivocarse", escribe Malik, y añade: "Con Steve, Apple no tenía problemas en ver al iPhone 'matar' al iPod y al iPad 'matar' a los MacBook. Él entiende que no se camina hacia el futuro mirando hacia atrás".
'Uno de los grandes líderes'
Incluso desde la competencia se han escuchado voces ensalzando la figura de Jobs. El consejero delegado de Sony, Howard Stringer, comentó, citado por Reuters: "Su brillantez ha sido bien documentada, pero nos olvidamos de la valentía con la que se enfrentó a su enfermedad" (en relación con los problemas de salud de Jobs). "Que haya logrado este gran éxito en estas circunstancias duplica su legado", afirmó.
Por su parte, el presidente de Google Eric Schmidt,
amigo de Jobs durante años antes de que la competencia tensara su
relación, aseguró que "Steve Jobs es el consejero delegado de mayor
éxito en EEUU en los últimos 25 años", que "combina el toque de un artista y la visión de un ingeniero para construir una empresa extraordinaria... Uno de los grandes líderes en la historia de América".
También desde Google, Vic Gundotra, vicepresidente de negocio social del gigante de la Red, ha escrito un breve pero emotivo texto en el que describe a la perfección el carácter de Steve Jobs a través de una anécdota: una llamada que recibió un domingo de 2006 del propio Jobs, en la que le pedía ayuda para corregir el tono de amarillo del logo del buscador en la pantalla del iPhone.
"Cuando pienso en liderazgo, pasión y atención al detalle", escribe
Gundotra, "vuelvo a la llamada que recibí de Steve Jobs en una mañana de
domingo de enero. Fue una lección que nunca olvidaré. Los directores deben preocuparse por los detalles. Incluso tonos de amarillo. En un domingo".
'Cambió el mundo y nos inspiró'
Un niño observa un ordenador con la imagen de Steve Jobs en una tienda Apple de California. | Reuters
Efe | Los Ángeles
Actualizado jueves 06/10/201103:49 horas
La empresa tecnológica Apple ha habilitado un correo electrónico para
que cualquiera pueda enviar un mensaje de condolencia por la muerte de
su cofundador y ex consejero delegado, Steve Jobs, quien ha fallecido a los 56 años.
El buzón virtual rememberingsteve@apple.com
será una vía para centralizar los innumerables mensajes de internautas,
políticos y famosos que se multiplican en las redes sociales desde que
se conoció la noticia del deceso. "Echaré de menos a Steve inmensamente", dijo el presidente de Microsoft, Bill Gates,
mientras que Mark Zuckerberg, cofundador de Facebook le agradeció que
fuera su mentor y amigo. "Gracias por mostrar que lo que creas puede
cambiar el mundo", dijo Zuckerberg. Samsung, uno de los grandes competidores y socios de
la empresa californiana, transmitió a los familiares y colegas de Jobs
sus "más profundas condolencias". Refiriéndose a él como "presidente
Steve Jobs", la compañía recalca en un comunicado que "introdujo
numerosos cambios revolucionarios en la industria de tecnologías de
información y fue un gran emprendedor".
Desde Twitter, el presidente de EEUU, Barack Obama, recordó cómo las
contribuciones de Steve Jobs han hecho posible "el trabajo de cada día".
Poco después, la Casa Blanca emitía un comunicado en el que Obama se
refería a Jobs como un hombre "entre los más grandes de los innovadores
estadounidenses". Fue "lo suficientemente valiente para pensar de modo
diferente, lo suficientemente osado para creer que podría cambiar el
mundo y con el talento necesario para conseguirlo", añade la nota.
Por su parte el exgobernador de California y actor, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, apuntó que Jobs vivió "el sueño californiano cada día de
su vida". "Cambió el mundo y nos inspiró", comentó Schwarzenegger.
Uno de los creadores de la serie 'Perdidos', Damon Lindelof, aseguró
que Steve Jobs será echado de menos por "todos los soñadores sentados en
sus garajes que están suficientemente locos para cambiar el mundo". La
Academia de la Grabación de EEUU, organización que concede los premios
Grammy, agradeció a Jobs haber revolucionado la forma cómo se escucha la
música. "Tu visión no se olvidará", afirmó la institución. Apple cambió su habitual presentación en la página web, que suele tener sus productos como protagonistas, y la sustituyó por una fotografía de Jobs con los años de su nacimiento y muerte (1955-2011).
"Apple ha perdido a un visionario y un genio creativo y el mundo ha
perdido a un increíble ser humano. Steve dejó detrás una compañía que
solo él podría haber construido y su espíritu será para siempre la base
de Apple", dice un mensaje oficial que se puede leer en el portal de la
empresa.
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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Bill Gates fala no Twitter sobre morte de Steve Jobs
Mark Zuckerberg publicou uma mensagem sobre Steve Jobs em seu perfil no Facebook (Foto: Reprodução)
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have reacted to 
Steve Jobs en una de las presentaciones de Apple. | AP 
Steve Jobs. | Efe
Jobs con el Apple II | Ap
Con el iMac en 1998. | AP
Un niño observa un ordenador con la imagen de Steve Jobs en una tienda Apple de California. | Reuters
