Steve Jobs (1955–2011) computer designer

Steven Paul Jobs was born in California in 1955 and adopted by a machinist and his accountant wife. While passing through local schools in Mountainview, California, Jobs began displaying an aptitude for electronics and mechanical tinkering. He managed to secure a summer job at the nearby Hewlett-Packard computer firm, where he met and befriended Steve Wozniak, a fellow computer enthusiast. Jobs dropped out of college in 1972 and spent several years studying Eastern philosophy while designing games for the Atari computer firm. After a spiritual foray to India, where he caught dysentery, Jobs came home to California and reunited with Wozniak in 1975. Both young men began experimenting with the concept of a low-cost, high-speed computer for home and personal use and founded the Apple Computer Company in Jobs’s garage. A working model, christened Apple I, was designed in 1976 and offered to Hewlett-Packard, which turned it down. However, it sold relatively well on its own, and a legend was born. This was followed by an even more advanced design, Apple II, in 1977, which opened the age of desktop information processing. Sales of this revolutionary technology proved phenomenal and reached $200 million by 1980. However, as other companies invested in small computers, fierce competition erupted for the growing marketplace. Jobs subsequently stumbled badly in 1980 when his new Apple III computer proved overpriced and prone to technological glitches. A newer design, the Macintosh, was introduced in 1984, but it also sold poorly. By 1985, Apple Computers had lost half its market share to IBM, so Jobs resigned as chairman and voluntarily departed.

Undeterred, Jobs founded a new company, NeXT, in 1985 with $100 million of his personal assets. Thereafter he dedicated himself to designing revolutionary computer hardware for research and educational purposes. Innovative machines emerged from the company, but marketing and sales proved lackluster. Jobs, wishing to diversify, then purchased a small computer animation company named PIXAR from renowned filmmaker George Lucas in 1986. He immediately realized the potential for computer-generated film effects and poured $40 million into new technology and programming while entering into a film deal with Walt Disney Productions. In 1996, PIXAR released Toy Story, the first completely computer-generated film, to rave reviews, and company stock rebounded accordingly. Within a year, PIXAR’s assets were worth more than $1 billion. Jobs also enjoyed a measure of revenge when Apple bought out his NeXT Company and solicited his return as chief executive officer.

In 1997, Jobs again made headlines when Bill GATES of Microsoft Corporation unexpectedly joined forces with his erstwhile rival Apple Computers. Moreover, Jobs invested $150 million into the ailing firm in exchange for a nonvoting minority in the company. The alliance between Gates and Jobs, two legendary giants of the computer world, has rendered them a formidable force in terms of both hardware and software development. But Jobs scored an even greater success with his revitalized PIXAR company. Over the past decade five highly successful PIXAR films have yielded more than $1 billion in profit for both companies, with Disney receiving the lion’s share. However, in the spring of 2003, PIXAR made and released the animated film Finding Nemo for Disney, which grossed more than $300 million. This made it the most successful animated film in history and induced Jobs to reevaluate his relations with Disney CEO Michael Eisner. He demanded a complete overhaul of their working relationship, reversing the arrangement whereby PIXAR received a pittance. Jobs insisted that PIXAR receive the majority of profit from all future releases, whereas Disney’s take would be reduced to 10 percent. Failing that, Jobs was willing to offer PIXAR’s services to any one of a number of well-financed Hollywood competitors. Despite his growing relationship with the MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY, Jobs remains indelibly associated with the rise and triumph of the home computer market. “We started out to get a computer in the hands of everybody,” he declared, “and we succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) computer designer

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