Steven Paul Jobs (Steve Paul Jobs, Steve Jobs) is one of the founders of Apple, Next, Pixar
corporations and a key figure in the global computer industry, the person who largely determined the course of its development.
The future billionaire was born February 24, 1955 in the town of Mountain View, California (ironically, this area will later become the heart of Silicon Valley). Steve Abdulfattah's biological parents John Jandali (Syrian emigrant) and Joan Carol Shibley (American graduate student) gave an illegitimate child for adoption to Paul and Clara Jobs (nee Akopyan). The main condition for adoption was Steve's getting a higher education.
Steve Jobs became interested in electronics, and when he met with his namesake, Steve Wozniak, first thought about the computer technology business. The first project of the partners was BlueBox - a device that allows you to use long-distance calls and vendors for $ 150 apiece for free. Wozniak was the developer and collector, and thirteen-year-old Jobs was selling illegal goods. Such an opportunity will be maintained in the future.
In 1972, after graduating from high school, Steve Jobs entered Reed College (Portland, Oregon), but quickly lost interest in learning. Already after the first semester, he was expelled of his own accord, but remained living in the rooms of friends for about a year and a half, sleeping on the floor, living for money for handed over bottles from Coca-Cola and once a week coming to free lunches at the local Hare Krishna temple. Then he got into calligraphy courses, which later prompted him to equip the Mac OS system with scalable fonts.
Then Steve got a job at Atari. There Jobs is developing computer games. Four years later, Wozniak creates his first computer, and Jobs, while continuing to work at Atari, establishes his sales.
APPLE
Apple grows out of the creative tandem of friends (Jobs suggested the name Apple because of the fact that in this case the company's phone number went in the telephone directory right before Atari). Apple’s founding date is April 1, 1976 (April Fools' Day), and Jobs’s parents ’garage was the first office building. Apple was officially registered in early 1977.
The author of most of the development was Stephen Wozniak, while Jobs was a marketer. It is believed that Jobs convinced Wozniak to modify the microcomputer scheme invented by him, and thus gave an impetus to the creation of a new personal computer market.
The debut model of the computer was called the Apple I. Over the year, companions sold 200 of these machines (the price of each is 666 dollars 66 cents). A decent amount for beginners, but this is nothing compared to the Apple II, released in 1977.
The success of Apple I computers and especially Apple II, together with the advent of investors, makes the company the undisputed leader in the computer market right up to the early eighties, and the two Steves as millionaires. It is noteworthy that the software for Apple computers was developed by the then young Microsoft company, created half a year later by Apple. In the future, destiny will reduce Jobs and Gates more than once.
A landmark event was the conclusion of a contract between Apple and Xerox. Revolutionary designs that Xerox couldn’t find worthy applications for a long time later became part of the Macintosh project (a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured and sold by Apple Inc). In fact, the modern interface of a personal computer with its windows and virtual buttons is largely due to this contract.
It's safe to say that the Macintosh is the first personal computer in the modern sense (the first Mac was released on January 24, 1984). Previously, the control of the machine was carried out with the help of intricate commands typed by "initiates" on the keyboard. Now the mouse becomes the main working tool.
The success of the Macintosh was simply overwhelming. In the world at that time there was no competitor, even close comparable in terms of sales and technological potential. Shortly after the release of Macintosh, the company ceased development and production of the Apple II family, which had previously been the company's main source of revenue.
Despite significant progress, in the early 80s. Steve Jobs gradually begins to lose ground in Apple, which by then had grown to a huge corporation. His authoritarian management style leads first to controversy, and then to open conflict with the board of directors. At 30 years old (1985), the founder of Apple was simply fired.
Having lost power in the company and work, Jobs did not lose heart, and immediately set about new projects. First, he founded the firm NeXT, which specialized in the production of complex computers for higher education and business structures. This market was too narrow, so some significant sales could not be achieved.
The graphic studio The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar), bought from Lucasfilm, was almost twice as cheap ($ 5 million) in its estimated value (George Lucas divorced and needed money) was a much more successful venture. Under the leadership of Jobs, several super-box animated films were released. The most famous: "Monsters, Inc." and the famous "Toy Story."
In 2006, Pixar was sold to Walt Disney for $ 7.5 billion, with Jobs taking possession of a 7% stake in Walt Disney. For comparison, Disney’s direct heir inherited only 1%.
In 1997, Steve Jobs returns to Apple. First in the position of temporary director, and since 2000 - full manager. Several unprofitable areas were closed and work on the new iMac was successfully completed, after which the company’s business quickly went up the hill.
Later, there will be presented a lot of developments that will become trendsetters in the technology market. This is an iPhone mobile phone, an iPod player, and an iPad tablet computer that went on sale in 2010. All this will make Apple the third largest company in the world by capitalization (it will even bypass Microsoft).