Person of the Year: Steve Jobs

Here is the end of an era in Apple Inc following the resignation of the person behind iPhone, iPad, Mac and several other products, Steve Jobs as CEO. He is the person who has stood as an idol in business and entrepreneurship. In this article, we will go through a brief timeline of his life.
Steve Jobs as Youngster

Born on 24th February 1955 in San Francisco, US, his full name is Steven Paul Jobs. When he was born, his mother decided to put him for adoption because she wanted a girl. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. He attended Cupertino Junior High School in Cupertino, California. He was frequently attending lectures in Hewlett-Packard Company after school-schedule. Even he was hired there as employee. He passed out in 1972 from school and joined Reed College, Oregon. But he decided to drop out from that college after one semester because it was too expensive. His economical condition was not good at that time. He used to sleep on floor on friends’ rooms, returning coke bottle for 5 cents deposits to buy food. He also used to walk 7 miles across his hometown to get one good meal at Hare Krishna temple. He later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts." In 1974, He returned to California and worked as a technician in Homebrew Computer Club. During this time, he was influenced by spiritual thoughts of Buddhism. He also visited India for spiritual enlightenment after which he became a Buddhist.
In 1976, he and his friend (Steve Wozniak) started ‘Apple Computer Company’ in a garage. Their job was only to assemble a computer and sell it. This company started to expand and became popular within a short time. After 1978, they hired many CEOs for company. Company also went through some tough times during this period.
Steve Jobs introduced Macintosh Operating System in 1984. The Macintosh computer became the first successful computer with graphical user interface. It was the greatest achievement of Apple Computer. Jobs founded another company called NeXT computer during the same time. The products of NeXT computer implemented some innovative technologies. He also invented the new mail system NeXTMail. It was the first mail which would contain embedded accessible images. NeXT Computer also became popular within few years. It sold about 50,000 computer systems up to 1993.
During the same time, Jobs also bought the well-known graphics company Pixar Animation Studio. This company produced many box-office hit animation films with Disney Animation Studios such as Toy Story, The Incredibles, Monster etc.
Later in 1996, Apple purchased NeXT and company found its way to develop Mac OS. In 2000, Jobs became permanent iCEO of Apple. In 2000’s, Apple concentrated on the improvement of digital appliances. Jobs introduced the iPod, the portable digital music player in 2001. This iPod was popular worldwide becoming the common noun for all other portable music players. Another invention of company along with iPod was iTunes store, a digital music software. In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced iPhone and entered in cellular industry to eventually become the giant. iPhone was the first multi-touch screen cellphone. Later inventions of Apple such as iPad and iCloud are now at peak point of technology. His contribution in e-waste recycling is also considerable. In 2006, he started Apple’s Recycling Programs for Apple’s costumers for environment-friendly disposal of their old systems. He has listed about 230 patents for his several inventions such as multi-touch, keyboards, efficient batteries, power adapters etc.

Steve Jobs in Mac World Conference
In 2004, he announced his employees that he has a pancreatic cancer, a rare disorder. He underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy that appeared to successfully remove the tumor. Jobs later says that his willpower helped him to get healed.
Timothy J. Cook (Tim Cook) was the most reliable employee of Jobs who was head of worldwide sales and operations of Apple. Jobs is still having many serious health problems which forced him to resign. After his resignation, the post of CEO has handed over by Jobs to Cook.
After all, Steve Jobs has created an idol for us in every sense. Let us pray for his health and long life.

(THE FOLLOWING BLOCK WAS UPDATED LATER)
Steve Jobs died on 5th October 2011 at his California home, respiratory arrest caused due to pancreatic cancer. His death was very disappointing for all tech-lovers, Apple and Mac users.
RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

-by Nitish R. Muley