Steve Jobs died on Wednesday October 5th at the young age of 56. How will he be remembered? Well to start he left a mark, an imprint on generations, by making peoples lives better and in the process changing the world.
He was a trendsetter, an innovator, and a perfectionist who had the vision and the drive to bring to market products that had not yet developed a market. His products defined the market. His products created the market. He understood technology, but better still he understood human nature and the interaction between both.
He was born on February 25th, 1955 in San Francisco and adopted when he was one week old. He grew up in the heart of what was to become Silicon Valley.
He co-founded Apple Computers in 1976 (with Steve Wozniak) in the garage of his parent house. He was only 21. He made Apple and the Macintosh a household name.
Although he dropped out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, he stressed the importance of education, and as he often stated he continued to attend the classes that he enjoyed, some of which clearly defined the design ethos of everything he ever touched and was involved in.
He was a serial entrepreneur. After being very publicly ousted from Apple in 1985 he founded the NeXt Computer Company and in 1986 he co-founded Pixar, the award winning computer animation movie company.
In 1996 he sold NeXt to Apple in a move that would bring him back as Apple’s CEO. This second renaissance was Steve Jobs greatest moment. He took on the dominance of Microsoft and began a period of innovation where products like the iPod, the iMac, the iPhone, the iPad and iTunes.
His battle against cancer began in 2004 when he received an operation for pancreatic cancer. Something he was able to recover from and continue to drive the Apple revolution. But in 2009 he was forced to take a leave of absence when he had to undergo a liver transplant. He was back within 6 months.
He was known for wearing his trademark black turtlenecks with jeans and trainers. But most important of all he was a family man and sadly leaves behind a wife and four children.
Steve Jobs’ name will forever be synonymous among names like Edison and Einstein. He was one of the world’s greatest innovators and his loss is surely to be felt. In one-way or another everyone, including us at Unlockworldwide.com, have benefited by the products that he created. He made our lives easier. He changed the world.