Full biography of Steve Jobs. Pancreas cancer

Steve Jobs.

Businessman, engineer, founder and executive director of the world famous corporation Apple Inc. This man played a key role in the development of the computer industry. Today we will talk about him. About Steven Paul Jobs. About how this outstanding man was able to achieve fantastic heights in business, despite all the difficulties and trials fate had in store for him.

Steve Jobs, the path to success

Steve was born in San Francisco, the son of an American, Joan Carol Schible, and Abdulfattah John Jandali, a Syrian by birth. Steve was born on February 24, 1955. When the boy was only seven days old, his parents decided to abandon the child.

The boy was adopted by the Jobs family from Mountain View, California. His adoptive mother Clara, an accountant and his adoptive father Paul, a mechanic at a laser manufacturing company, were the ones who raised the boy and gave him the name that will go down in business history, Steven Paul Jobs.

As a child, Jobs was such a daredevil that he was close to becoming a juvenile delinquent. He was expelled from school after third grade. The turning point in Steve's life was his transfer to another school, thanks to a talented teacher who was able to get along with him. Under the influence of the teacher, the bully came to his senses and began to study.

The method of motivation, of course, was not new; Jobs received money from the teacher for completing tasks correctly. The amounts are not large, but more than enough for a fourth grader. As a result, Steve's performance improved to such an extent that he, bypassing the fifth grade, moved to high school.

Steve Jobs' childhood and youth

At the age of twelve, being a rather brash teenager, Steve pulled another trick by calling the home of William Hewlett, who at the time served as president of the Hawlett-Packard Company. Jobs was building an electrical frequency indicator for his high school physics class and was missing a few parts: “My name is Steve Jobs, and I was wondering if you had spare parts that I could use to build a frequency counter.”

They chatted for almost half an hour, Hewlett promising to send the parts Jobs needed. William Hewlett also offered Steve Jobs a summer internship in his company, in the very company under whose roof the entire Silicon Valley industry was born.

During his internship at Hawlett-Packard, Jobs met a man whose friendship became a defining moment in his life. This man is Stephen Wozniak, who ended up working at Hawlett-Packard after giving up boring lectures at Berkeley, University of California.

Wozniak was passionate about radio engineering, so working in such a company was much more interesting to him than boring studies. At the age of just 13, Stephen Wozniak built a rather complex calculator.

At the time of his acquaintance with Steve Jobs, Wozniak was already thinking about the concept of a personal computer, although at that time none of them existed. The young people had very different characters, but despite this, they quickly found a common language.

A couple of years later, when Jobs was already 16, he and Voznik met the then famous hacker, Captain Crunch. Crunch shared with them the secrets of his trade, such as using the sounds made by the whistle that came with Captain Crunch cereal to outsmart the switching device and make phone calls around the world absolutely free.

Shortly thereafter, Stephen Wozniak designed the first device that imitated the sounds of Crunch's whistle and also allowed free calls to anywhere in the world. He called this device “Blue Box.” Steve Jobs took over the implementation of the product.

Blue Boxes were very popular among students and sold for $150 each. Amazing, given that the cost of the “box” was about $40. Despite the popularity of the device, the guys were not able to achieve much success. It all started with problems with the police, and then some bandit threatened Jobs with a gun so that he would shut down the “blue box business.”

After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. After the first semester, he dropped out, explaining his decision this way: “I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my parents’ savings went towards paying for college.

Six months later, I didn't see the point. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with my life, and I didn't understand how college would help me figure it out. I was pretty scared at the time, but looking back, I realize it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”

After Jobs dropped out of college, he focused entirely on the things that really interested him. However, it was not easy for him to remain a free listener at the university.

Here's what Jobs himself says about that time: “Not everything was so romantic. I slept on the floor in my friends' room, since I didn't have my own dorm room. To get food for myself, I handed over empty soda bottles, then they paid five cents apiece. Once a week, on Sundays, I went to the Hare Krishna temple to have a normal meal, this temple is located on the other side of the city, I walked about 7 miles...”

Jobs's survival on campus continued for another eighteen months after his expulsion. Steve returned to California in the fall of 1974, where he again met an old friend, technical genius Stephen Wozniak.

On Woz's recommendation, Steve got a job at Atari as a technician. Atari was a manufacturer of popular video games. Jobs didn't make any plans at that time; all he wanted was to save enough money to go to India.

There is nothing surprising in the choice of the country, because Steve Jobs’ youth occurred during the heyday of the hippie movement, with all the ensuing consequences. Jobs had a habit of using recreational drugs such as LSD and marijuana.

It is interesting that many years later, Jobs, having already gotten rid of this habit, does not at all repent of using LSD; moreover, Steve considers this one of the most significant periods in his life, which changed his worldview.

Atari paid for Steve's trip to India, on the condition that he also visit Germany, where production problems need to be resolved. Steve did an excellent job with this task.

On his trip to India, Steve was accompanied by his friend, Dan Kottke. Arriving in India, Jobs immediately exchanged all his belongings for the tattered clothes of a beggar. Steve set himself the goal of making a pilgrimage across the country, completely relying on the help of strangers he accidentally met along the way.

The adventure was not easy, a couple of times Jobs and Kottke were on the verge of death, the reason for this was the harsh climate of India. Contrary to expectations, meetings with the guru did not bring enlightenment to Steve. Despite this, the trip left a deep imprint on the heart and mind of Jobs, because it was in India that he learned what real poverty was, which was completely different from the one played by the hippies of Silicon Valley.

Upon returning to length, Steve Jobs continued his career at Atari. Some time later, Steve Jobs was entrusted with the work of creating a full-fledged slot machine for the BreakOut game developed by the company.

As Nolan Bushnell, who is the founder of Atari, said, Steve Jobs was asked to reduce the number of chips on boards to a minimum, and for each chip removed from the circuit he would receive $100. Due to the fact that Steve was not strong in building electronic circuit boards, he offered cooperation to his friend, Stephen Woznik, for a 50% premium.

Everyone at the company was shocked when Steve Jobs presented them with a board from which 50 chips had been removed. Stephen Wozniak developed a circuit so dense that mass production was impossible. Jobs told Steven that the company only paid $700, when in fact it paid $5,000, and Wozniak received his $350.

Apple founded

Stephen Wozniak presented the finished model of the Personal Computer to the management of Hawlett-Packard in 1975. It’s strange, but the company’s management was not interested in the development of their engineer, perhaps due to the fact that at that time computers were imagined only in the form of huge iron cabinets filled with electronic components.

They were then used only in big business or at military installations. Home personal computers were not even dreamed of. Atari also refused to help Stephen Wozniak due to the “lack of commercial prospects in the new product.”

It was then that Steve Jobs made a fateful decision - he convinced Stephen Wozniak and another Atari employee, draftsman Ronald Wayne, to open their own business and devote it to the development and production of PCs. Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded Apple Computer Co. as a partnership on April 1, 1976. This date became the starting point of Apple history.

Like Hawlett-Packard, Apple began in a garage owned by Steve Jobs' adoptive father. He supported his son and his partners, even pulled in a giant wooden machine; this machine played the role of the first “assembly line” in the history of the corporation.

Of course, the young company required initial capital; the funds were raised by the sale of Steve Jobs' minibus; Wozniak, in turn, sold his favorite programmable calculator from Hawlett-Packard. The company's starting capital was $1,300.

Wayne designed the company's very first logo, which honestly looked more like a sketch than a logo. The drawing was of Sir Isaac Newton and an apple falling on his head. Subsequently, as you know, the logo was noticeably simplified.

The first large order was received from a local electronics store, an order for 50 PCs. The funds available to the start-up company were not enough to purchase the parts necessary for assembly in large quantities. Jobs found a solution; he persuaded suppliers to provide the necessary materials on credit for a period of 30 days.

Having received the necessary components, Wozniak, Wayne and Jobs began assembling the machines in the evenings. Within 10 days the entire batch was delivered to the store. The first computer was called Apple 1, it was sold at a price of 666.66% $, since Stephen Wozniak really liked numbers consisting of identical digits.

Despite the fact that the start-up company so quickly received and successfully completed its first large order, Ronald Wayne lost faith in the company's success and decided to leave the game. Wayne left the company, selling his 10% share to his partners for $800. Wayne later commented on his decision: “Jobs is a hurricane of energy and focus. I was already too disappointed in life to rush through it on this hurricane.”

In any case, the company needed development. Already in the fall of the same year, Wozniak completed work on the Apple 2 prototype, which became the first Personal Computer in the world to be put into mass production. It had a plastic body, a floppy disk reader, and supported color graphics.

In order to ensure successful sales of the computer, Steve Jobs launched an advertising campaign and the development of attractive PC packaging, which clearly showed the company's new Apple logo, Jobs' favorite fruit.

The logo indicated that the Apple 2 supported color graphics. Later, the ex-president of several structural divisions and, in fact, the founder of Be, Inc., Jean-Louis-Gase, spoke about the logo: “It was impossible to dream of a more suitable logo: it embodied aspiration, hope, knowledge, and anarchy...”

At that time, no one had released anything like this; the very idea of ​​a personal computer for private use was very skeptically accepted by big businessmen. The result of this reaction to the new product was the difficulty in finding financing for the release of Apple 2. Hewlett-Pckard and Atari again refused Apple financing, although they called the project “funny.”

Still, there were those who supported the idea of ​​​​creating a computer accessible to the masses. Don Valentine, a famous financier, introduced Jobs to the equally famous venture capitalist Armas Clif "Mike" Markkula. Mike helped aspiring businessmen draw up a business plan and invested $92 thousand from his personal savings into the young company.

Markkula also helped secure a quarter-million dollar line of credit with BankofAmeica. This help allowed the two Steves to "get out of the garage." Production volumes increased significantly, the staff expanded, and finally, the fundamentally new Apple 2 was launched into mass production.

The success of Apple 2 can only be described as grandiose: the latest development was swept off the shelves and bought up in hundreds and thousands of copies. It’s amazing, because at that time, the volume of the global PC market did not exceed 10,000 units. In 1980 Apple company Computer has gained recognition as a computer manufacturer. The company's staff included several hundred people, and exports of products outside the United States were launched.

The same week in 1980 as John Lennon's murder, Apple Computer went public. The company's shares were sold out in record time, within one hour! Already by this moment, Steve Jobs has become one of the richest Americans, his popularity is growing every day, because he is a simple young guy who, without education, suddenly became a millionaire, this is the American dream...

The personal computer instantly became part of the everyday life of residents of developed countries. Over a couple of decades, PCs have become indispensable assistants in organizational, communication, production, educational and other technological and social areas of human activity.

The words spoken by Jobs in the early 80s turned out to be prophetic: “This decade marked the first date between Society and the computer. And for some crazy reason, we were in the right place at the right time to do everything to make this novel flourish.” Thus began the computer revolution.

Project Macintosh

In December 1979, Xerox (XRX) gave Steve Jobs and several other Apple employees access to its Palo Alto research center. There, Steve first saw Xerox's prototype Alto PC, which used a graphical interface that allowed the user to issue specific commands to the computer by hovering the cursor over one of the graphical objects shown on the monitor.

According to colleagues, the development he saw impressed Jobs, after which he began to claim that all future computers would use this technology. This reaction is understandable, because the new product contained three things through which the path to the user’s heart lies. Steve Jobs was amazed by the simplicity, ease of use and aesthetics of the new product, and set himself the goal of creating such a computer.

At that time, the company had been developing a new Lisa computer for several months, which received this name in honor of the daughter of Steve Jobs. Jobs' goal was to create a computer that cost two thousand dollars. However, now Jobs was haunted by the idea of ​​​​implementing a revolutionary new product, which he saw within the walls of the Xerox research center.

This desire cast doubt on whether the originally planned price of $2,000 would remain unchanged. Soon, Apple President Michael Scott removed Jobs from the Lisa project. Steve Jobs became chairman of the board of directors, and the project was led by another employee.

Jobs, removed from work on the Lisa project, focused his attention on a small project of the talented engineer Jef Raskin. Previously, Steve made repeated attempts to close this project. Raskin's main idea was to develop an inexpensive computer, costing about $1000. The engineer named the development Macintosh after his favorite apple variety, McInosh.

The PC was supposed to be a device that included a monitor, keyboard and system unit. That is, the consumer could buy a computer that was ready to use. An interesting fact is that Raskin did not recognize the need for a computer mouse and did not plan to use it for the Macintosh.

Steve persuaded Raskin to appoint him as head of the project. Jobs immediately intervened in the development of the Macintosh computer, he ordered Raskin to use the Motorola 68000 processor in it, the same processor that was supposed to be used in the Lisa project. This was done due to the fact that Jobs wanted to port the Lisa graphical interface to the Macintosh.

Also, Steve Jobs introduced a mouse into the Macintosh, despite all Raskin's objections. Jeff Raskin, realizing that Jobs had completely taken the project away from him, filed a complaint with company president Mike Scott. In the complaint, Raskin described Jobs as an incompetent person who would ruin all his endeavors.

Jobs and Raskin were invited to a conversation with the president of the company. Mile Scott, after listening to the opinions of both, ordered Jobs to complete the development of the Macintosh, and he sent Raskin on leave to somehow smooth out the situation. It is worth noting that President Michael Scott was fired that same year and his position was temporarily filled by Mike Markkula.

Jobs planned to complete the Macintosh project within 1 year. Unfortunately, the work was delayed, and in the end Steve decided to entrust the development software for computers to third party companies. To accomplish this task, Jobs chose the young company Microsoft, which was already known for creating the Basic computer language for the Apple2 project (and a number of others).

Jobs visited Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond. After negotiations between the parties, a decision was made to cooperate. Bill Gates and Paul Allen (founders of Microsoft) visited Cupertino to see the experimental Macintosh model with their own eyes.

Microsoft was faced with the task of creating software for the Macintosh. The most famous and popular program at that time was Microsoft Excel.

Meanwhile, the first marketing strategy is being developed to market the Macintosh computer. Marketing was handled by Jbs himself, who understood little about it, so we can say that the plan was rather conventional.

Jobs assumed that sales of the Macintosh computer would start in 1982, he planned to sell half a million computers a year, it is worth noting that no research was carried out, and the figure of 500,000 was taken from the air. The Macintosh and Lisa computers were scheduled to be released at the same time; Jobs convinced company resident Mike Markkula that the Macintosh would not be a competitor to the Macintosh. In turn, Markkula insisted on releasing the Macintosh a month after the launch of the Lisa computer.

The Macintosh was eventually scheduled to launch on October 1, 1982. There was only one problem left - there was too little time left until October, but Jobs, being very stubborn, did not want to listen to anything about the timing.

That year, Jobs was featured on the cover of Time magazine. His development of the Apple 2 was recognized as the best computer of the year. An article published in the same issue focused mainly on Jobs. The article stated that Steve would make an excellent king of France.

It was also said that Jobs made a fortune from the work of other people, while he himself understands nothing about engineering, programming, or design, and there can’t even be any talk about business. The article mentioned statements from many people who wished to remain anonymous, including comments from Stephen Wozniak (he left Apple after the accident).

Steve Jobs was very upset by this article, he even called Jeff Raskin, the engineer who originally developed the Macintosh, to express his outrage. Steve knew that from now on he was personally dependent on Mac being a success.

Jobs purchased an apartment in Manhattan overlooking New York's Central Park. There, in New York, he first met John Sculley, president of the world famous Pepsi company. They took long walks around the city and discussed Apple's prospects and talked about business.

At that time, Jobs decided for himself that it was a person like John who should hold the post of president of Apple. Sculley had a great understanding of business, but absolutely nothing of technology, which made him and Jobs a great team. There was one “but” in Jobs’ plan; John worked successfully at Pepsi. As a result, Jobs managed to lure Sculley to his company, and one phrase said by Jobs to Sculley forever went down in business history: “Do you intend to sell sugared water for the rest of your life, or do you intend to change the world?”

Meanwhile, the Macintosh software developers did not have time to complete the project on time, but Jobs, without unnecessary hysterics, managed to rally the team and motivate the programmers so that they worked the last days with virtually no sleep. The result is amazing, as everything was ready on time. An important business principle came into play: “if you have the right people on your team, you will succeed.” The Macintosh group had just such people.

The presentation of the Macintosh was stunning, the world saw both a revolutionary development and a brilliant speaker in the person of Steve Jobs.

John Sculley, who served as Apple's president, brought the Macintosh and Lisa developers together into one team and put Steve in charge. After one hundred days of phenomenal sales of the Macintosh, the first difficulties began.

The problem for many buyers was the lack of software. At that time, the Macintosh only had the standard Microsoft package and standard Apple programs. Other developers could not understand how to create software with a graphical interface. This significantly slowed down computer sales.

Soon problems appeared with the hardware. Steve Jobs was adamantly opposed to Macintosh extensions, but users didn't like it. Apple employee Michael Murray said, "Steve did market research by looking at himself in the mirror every morning."

The situation in the company was heating up. At this point, conflicts began to arise between the Macintosh developers and the rest of the company. Steve Jobs never missed an opportunity to disparage the latest Apple 2 models, which was still the company's cash cow.

Apple was going through a rough patch, and Jobs, in his typical manner, blamed other people for the company’s failures, especially the company’s president, John Sculley. Jobs argued that Sculley was unable to reinvent himself and enter the high-tech business.

The result was the dismissal of Steve Jobs from the company that he founded. The reason for this was a series of behind-the-scenes intrigues that Jobs waged, hoping to take the post of president of the company.

After Steve was fired, he was offered an honorary position as an Apple representative, but he turned it down. Moreover, Jobs sold all the shares of the company that he owned at that time, leaving himself only one symbolic share.

After Jobs's dismissal, Apple would have a successful period, recording the highest sales in the company's history. Later, dark times would come for the company, Apple would be close to collapse, but in 1997, Steve Jobs would take over the company, pull it out and even make it one of the largest in the industry.

But this is still 12 years away, and for now Jobs is young, rich and ready for new achievements. Steve had no intention of quitting his business, although he could afford it. After all, he could easily become a venture investor and forget what work is. But all this was not typical for Steve Jobs, so he decided to start a new business - to found the Next computer company.

Life afterApple

Steve Jobs envisioned Next as a company to develop computers for educational sphere. The investor in the project was Ros Perot, who invested $20 million in Next, for which he received a 16% stake in the company. It is worth noting that the investor was attracted by Jobs himself, his devilish charm, since there were no business plans in sight.

The revolutionary NextStep operating system was developed especially for Next computers; it was built according to the principles of objective-oriented programming, which later became ubiquitous. Despite the usefulness of the development, Jobs will not achieve much success; on the contrary, he will waste a lot of money.

To give Next credit, these computers have been used by some creative people in their work. This is how such gaming legends from IDSoftware as Doom and Quake were created on Next computers. In the late 1980s, Jobs made a desperate attempt to make Next a success by offering the contract to Disney. But this idea failed; Disney did not want to break off relations with Apple.

It seemed that fortune had turned away from Steve and he was about to become bankrupt, but there was one more trump card left. Jobs had a rare talent, he was able to rally a group of people, inspire them to create something significant, which he did in the company that gave PIXAR, computer animation to the world.

Steve Jobs acquired PIXAR from Star Wars director George Lucas in 1985. It is worth noting that Lucas initially asked for $30 million for the company, but Steve was in no hurry to shell out that kind of money, he waited for the moment when Lucas urgently needed money, and after bidding, he acquired the company for one-third of the original price.

There was, however, one condition: Lucas reserved the right to use any PIXAR developments in his film projects. At that time, the company had the PixarImageComputer, it cost an incredible amount and sold very poorly. Jobs began searching for a market for this device. At the same time, PIXAR continued its activities in developing animation software and began conducting some experiments in creating its own animation projects.

Jobs will soon open seven representative offices selling PixarImageComputer in different cities, but this idea will not be successful, since this computer had a very narrow focus and will be used only by a narrow circle of people.

The arrival of artist John Lasseter (who had previously worked for Disney) at PIXAR was a turning point in the life of the company; it was John who would take the studio to new heights. He was initially hired to create short animated videos demonstrating the capabilities of PIXAR software and hardware. PIXAR's hot streak began with the short films "AndreandWallyB" and "Luxo, Jr."

A key moment was Jobs' financing of the short film TinToy, which later won an Oscar. In 1988, PIXAR introduced a new software product, RenderMan, which for a long time would be Jobs’s only income.

At the end of 1989, the situation was this: Jobs had two companies producing first-class products, but due to extremely low sales, the press predicted the failure of both companies, PIXAR and NEXT.

Jobs had to actively respond to the crisis. First of all, he sold the PIXAR computer business, which was undoubtedly unprofitable. The Vicom company bought out some of the employees for several million, and everything that had a connection with the PixarImageComputer. As a result, PIXAR acquired a single direction - animation.

Steve Jobs, like many businessmen, often spoke to students. In 1989, he gave a speech at Stanford. Being an excellent speaker, Steve felt confident and calm on stage, but suddenly something went wrong, Jobs began to stammer, and it seemed to many spectators that he had completely lost the thread of his speech.

The reason for Steve's strange behavior was the woman sitting in the hall that day. It was Laurene Powell, and Jobs really liked her. It is worth noting that this was not simple affection; Steve experienced feelings that were previously unfamiliar to him. After the lecture, Jobs exchanged phone numbers with this girl, left the building and got into his car. He had a business meeting scheduled that evening.

But as soon as he got into the car, Steve realized that a business meeting was not what he wanted that evening. Steve caught up with Lauryn and invited her to the restaurant that evening. They spent the rest of the day walking around the city. Steve and Lauryn subsequently get married.

Jobs improved his personal life, but business was still not going well. At the end of the year, PIXAR made another reduction. It is worth noting that many employees were laid off, but it bypassed the group of animators led by John Lasseter. It became obvious that Jobs was betting on him.

Steve Jobs is one of those people who trust only their intuition. He always ignored other people's opinions, even if he was wrong. Of course, Steve, like every person, still has a narrow circle of close people whose opinions he listens to. For example, this circle now includes Apple's chief designer, Jonathan Ive.

In the early '90s, a select group of people who were allowed to challenge Steve's views included PIXAR co-founder Alvy Ray Smith. Very often Alvy pointed out Steve's mistakes; to be honest, he understood animation much better than Steve.

At the next PIXAR meeting, Jobs spoke outright nonsense; it was obvious that he did not understand this topic at all. Alvy lost his patience, jumped up and began to prove to Steve that he was wrong. At this moment, Alvy acted rashly. Jobs has always been an extraordinary person with his own oddities. At meetings, he had a special white board, on which only he always wrote.

That day, Smith, in the midst of an argument, began to write something on this board, trying to prove that he was right. Everyone present froze. A moment later, Jobs was in front of Smith and hurled personal insults at him, which, in the opinion of those present, were completely irrelevant and truly vile. Shortly after this incident, Alvy Ray Smith left the company PIXAR, which he founded.

PIXAR's breakthrough came when Steve Jobs received financial support from Disney. The terms of the agreement were as follows: PIXAR creates a full-length computer animated film, and Disney, in turn, bears the costs of promoting the film.

This agreement was a great success, since Disney is a very powerful marketing machine. Steve Jobs managed to negotiate the most favorable terms for his company. In 1991, this agreement became a lifeline for Jobs; newspapers had already predicted a future bankruptcy for him, not yet knowing that PIXAR would bring him billions. That same year, another important event occurred in Jobs’ life—his wedding to Lauren. At that time, Steve was 36 and Lauryn was 27 years old. The wedding was ascetic.

In 1992, Jobs was unable to finance Next on his own, and got Canon to reinvest $30 million (previously $100 million). At that time, sales of Next computers increased, but still, the company sold as many computers in a year as Apple sold in a week.

In 1993, Steve had no choice but to decide to wind down the production of the Next PC, although this decision was difficult for him. It was decided to direct all the company's efforts to software development. This was a turning point for history, as the NextStep operating system would later become the basis for MacOSX, which would lead Macintosh computers out of the crisis.

At that time, there was one person, a tandem with whom ensured Jobs’ success. Director, animator, artist - John Lasseter. John was still working at PIXAR, and it was largely thanks to him that PIXAR signed such a lucrative contract with Disney, since the latter were persistently trying to lure John to themselves. But Lasseter remained loyal to PIXAR.

PIXAR's first animated film, Toy Story, was released on Christmas Day in 1995. The debut project was a dizzying success.

The mid-90s were a terrible time for Apple. John Sculley was fired from the post of president of the company, Michael Spindler did not last long in his place, and after him Jill Amelio took the presidency of Apple.

The company's market share was rapidly declining. Moreover, it became unprofitable. Management tried to get out of the crisis by selling the company to a larger company. Negotiations were held with companies such as Phillips, Sun, Oracle, but they were unsuccessful.

Steve Jobs was busy planning PIXAR's initial public offering at the time. The IPO was the light in the window for Jobs; he was planning a public offering immediately after the release of Toy Story.

Meanwhile, the situation at Apple was not getting better; at the end of 1996, it got to the point that Bill Gates was constantly calling the head of Apple Computer, Gil Amelio, to convince him to install the WindowsNT operating system on Macintosh computers.

As a result of long negotiations, Steve Jobs sells Next to Apple for $377 million and 1.5 million shares. Apple's main goal was to obtain the NextStep operating system and a group of its developers (more than 300 people). Apple got what it wanted, and Steve Jobs was appointed advisor to Gil Amelio.

However, the innovations did not bring much benefit. The company's activities were controlled by the same people, and the company's losses grew. Jobs took advantage of the moment and overthrew Amelio as president. At that time, Gil Amelio was hit by a barrage of devastating articles published in various media.

The reaction of the company's board of directors was not long in coming; Amelio was fired from the post of president. Then no one thought about the promise Amelio made when he was appointed. Amelio promised to bring Apple out of the crisis in three years, but only worked for half of this period. During his tenure, the company's cash flow increased markedly. At that time, this merit was not enough.

It was obvious to everyone that the post of president of Apple would be taken over by Steve Jobs, a media darling. How could it be otherwise? A man who lost everything, but did not give up and found a way to get up from his knees (thanks to PIXAR). Moreover, it was Jobs who was the founder of Apple, whoever is not him will be able to breathe life into the company and all its employees.

Jobs was named acting CEO. First of all, Steve Jobs called Bill Gates. Apple has granted Microsoft rights to some user interface developments. In turn, Microsoft invested $150 million in the company's shares and also committed to releasing new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh. In addition, Internet Explorer has become the default browser for Mac.

Steve Jobs quickly adapted to the company and took control. They decided to close the unprofitable Newton project, which had been sucking money from their Apple for many years. It was a project to develop the first PDA, but it ended in failure because it was simply ahead of its time.

At that time, Steve's old friend joined the board of directors of Apple; it was the head of Oracle, Larry Ellison. Ellison's presence was a great support for Jobs.

In 1998, Jobs gave a speech at the MacWorldExpo. Steve was telling visitors about the state of the company, and as he left the stage he said, “I almost forgot. We're making a profit again." The hall exploded with applause.

By 1998, PIXAR had released four wildly successful animated films: Toy Story, The Adventures of Flick, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. The company's total revenue at that time was $2.8 billion.

Jobs' studio was a phenomenal success. That same year, Apple began returning to the big game. Jobs introduced the first iMac. It's worth noting that the iMac was being developed before Jobs returned to the company, when Gil Amelio was president. But all the credit for the iMac was assigned to Jobs, nothing can be done about it.

Jobs' return to Apple had a positive impact on the company in many ways. For example, the company's inventories were $400 million, but after the measures taken by Steve they were reduced to 75 million. This was achieved thanks to Jobs's habit of being careful and attentive to every small detail of the production process.

The iMac, being a computer and monitor in one, was a great success. After Apple presented another new product - the iBook portable computer. At the same time, C&C transferred the rights to Sound Jam MP to Apple. Subsequently, the world will recognize this program as iTunes; it will mark the beginning of the popularity of iPod players.

After the release of iTunes, Apple turned its attention to the mp3 player market. Jobs held a series of negotiations with the PortalPlayer company, as a result of which it was decided to entrust this company with the development of a player for Apple, or rather the hardware part of the player, since Apple itself was responsible for the software part.

This is how the iPod was born. During the development of the player, Jobs regularly made a lot of comments to the developers of the Portal Player company, in the end this was beneficial: customers received the best (at that time) mp3 player. The player was designed by the famous Apple designer Jonathan Ive, who is currently the chief designer of the Fruit Company.

Quince's merits also include the success of all the company's new products after Jobs returned to it. The design of the first iMacs also belongs to him.

Subsequently, new versions of the player began to be released, each subsequent one being more popular than the old one.

Around the same time, Apple introduced a new operating system, MacOSX, which marked the beginning of the entire series. OSX gave Macintosh computers a new lease of life.

As events unfolded after everyone knows, the iPod became the most popular player in the world. The popularity of Macintosh computers is getting higher and higher.

Apple began producing a mobile phone that has become a cult favorite. The iPhone has absorbed all the best achievements of the “fruit company”.

Steve Jobs was first and foremost a public figure

He had an amazing ability to inspire young and talented people. What is this performance worth?

His drive allowed him to almost always achieve success.

On October 5, 2011, at the age of 56, Steve Jobs passed away. But he remained in the memory and hearts of people forever.

This is the success story of Steve Jobs.

I don't trust a computer I can't lift.

The creator of the iPhone, Steven Paul Jobs, better known as Steven Paul Jobs, Steve Jobs, is one of the founders of Apple, Next, Pixar corporations and a key figure in the global computer industry, a man who largely determined the course of its development.

The future billionaire was born on February 24, 1955 in the town of Mountain View, California (ironically, this area would later become the heart of Silicon Valley). Steve's biological parents Abdulfattah John Jandali (a Syrian emigrant) and Joan Carol Schible (an American graduate student) gave their illegitimate child for adoption to Paul and Clara Jobs (née Hakobyan). The main condition of adoption was that Steve higher education.

While still in school, Steve Jobs became interested in electronics, and when he met his namesake Steve Wozniak, he first thought about a business related to computer technology. The partners' first project was BlueBox, a device that allowed long-distance calls for free and was sold for $150 apiece. Wozniak was involved in the development and assembly of the device, and thirteen-year-old Jobs was selling illegal goods. This distribution of roles will continue in the future, only their future business will now be completely legal.

In 1972, after graduating from high school, Steve Jobs entered Reed College (Portland, Oregon), but quickly lost interest in studying. After the first semester, he was expelled of his own free will, but remained living in friends’ rooms for about another year and a half, sleeping on the floor, living on money from returned Coca-Cola bottles, and once a week coming to the local for free lunches. Hare Krishna temple. Then he took a calligraphy course, which subsequently gave him the idea to equip the Mac OS system with scalable fonts.

Steve then got a job at Atari. There, Jobs develops computer games. Four years later, Wozniak creates his first computer, and Jobs, while continuing to work at Atari, organizes its sales.

Apple

And from the creative tandem of friends, the Apple company grew (Jobs suggested the name “Apple” due to the fact that in this case the company’s phone number appeared in the telephone directory right before “Atari”). The founding date of Apple is considered to be April 1, 1976 (April Fool's Day), and the first office-workshop was the garage of Jobs' parents. Apple was officially registered in early 1977.

And the second most of the developments was Stephen Wozniak, while Jobs acted as a marketer. It is believed that it was Jobs who convinced Wozniak to refine the microcomputer circuit he had invented, and thereby gave impetus to the creation of a new personal computer market.

The debut model of the computer was called Apple I. During the year, the partners sold 200 of these machines (the price of each was 666 dollars 66 cents). A decent amount for beginners, but nothing compared to the Apple II, which came out in 1977.

The success of the Apple I and especially the Apple II computers, coupled with the advent of investors, made the company the undisputed leader in the computer market until the early eighties, and the two Steves became millionaires. It is noteworthy that the software for Apple computers was developed by the then young company Microsoft, created six months later than Apple. In the future, fate will bring Jobs and him together more than once.

Macintosh

The milestone event was the conclusion of a contract between Apple and Xerox. Revolutionary developments, which Xerox could not find a worthy use for 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 personal computer interface with its windows and virtual buttons owes much 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 using intricate commands typed by “initiates” on the keyboard. Now the mouse becomes the main working tool.

The success of the Macintosh was simply stunning. At that time, there was no competitor in the world even closely comparable in terms of sales volume and technological potential. Shortly after the release of the Macintosh, the company ceased development and production of the Apple II family, which had previously been the company's main source of income.

Jobs' departure

Despite significant successes, in the early 80s. Steve Jobs is gradually beginning to lose his position in Apple, which by that time had grown into a huge corporation. His authoritarian management style leads first to disagreements and then to open conflict with the board of directors. At age 30 (1985), the Apple founder was simply fired.

Having lost power in the company and his job, Jobs did not lose heart and immediately set about new projects. First, he founded the company NeXT, which specialized in the production of complex computers for higher education and business structures. This market was too narrow, so no significant sales could be achieved.

A much more successful undertaking was the graphics studio The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar), purchased from Lucasfilm for almost half the price ($5 million) of its estimated value (George Lucas was getting divorced and needed money). Under Jobs' leadership, several super-grossing 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 owning a 7% stake in Walt Disney. By comparison, Disney's heir apparent inherited only 1%.

Return to Apple

In 1997, Steve Jobs returns to Apple. First as an interim director, and since 2000 as a full-fledged manager. Several unprofitable areas were closed and work on the new iMac computer was successfully completed, after which the company's business rapidly took off.

Later, a lot of developments will be presented that will become trendsetters in the technology market. This includes the iPhone mobile phone, the iPod player, and the iPad tablet computer, which went on sale in 2010. All this will make Apple the third largest company in the world by capitalization (it will even surpass Microsoft).

Disease

In October 2003, an abdominal scan showed that Steve Jobs had cancer tumor pancreas. In general, this diagnosis is fatal, but the head of Apple turned out to have a very rare form of the disease that can be cured with surgery. At first, Jobs refused it because, due to his personal convictions, he did not recognize interventions in the human body. For 9 months, Steve Jobs hoped to recover on his own, and all this time no one from Apple management informed investors about his fatal illness. Then Steve decided to trust the doctors and notified the public about his illness. On July 31, 2004, Stanford Medical Center performed a successful operation.

In December 2008, doctors discovered a hormonal imbalance in Jobs. In the summer of 2009, according to representatives of the Methodist Hospital at the University (Research and Medical Center) of Tennessee, it became known that Steve had undergone a liver transplant. On March 2, 2011, Steve spoke at the presentation of a new tablet - iPad 2.

Promotion methods

To define the charisma of Steve Jobs and its impact on the developers of the original Macintosh project, his colleague at Apple Computer Bud Tribble coined the phrase “Reality Distortion Field” (FIR) in 1981. The term was later used to define the reception of his key performances by reviewers and fans of the company.

According to colleagues, Steve Jobs is able to convince others of anything, using a mixture of charisma, charm, arrogance, perseverance, pathos, and self-confidence. Basically, PIR distorts the audience's sense of proportion and proportionality. Small progress is presented as a breakthrough. Any mistakes are hushed up or presented as insignificant. The difficulties overcome are greatly exaggerated. Certain opinions, ideas and definitions can change radically in the future without any regard to the very fact of such changes. In principle, PIR is nothing more than a mixture of political propaganda and advertising technologies.

For example, one of the most common examples of PIR is claims that consumers are “suffering” from low-quality competitors’ products, or that the company’s products “change people’s lives.” Also often unsuccessful technical solutions explained by the fact that the consumer does not need it. The term is often used in a derogatory context to criticize Apple or its supporters. However, many companies today are switching to a similar technique themselves, seeing how far it was able to push Apple economically.

Very often, people who are actively searching for their calling in life are inspired by the success stories of the richest and most famous inhabitants of our planet. And while some are impressed by the amazing destinies of legendary actors and singers, others are delighted by the managerial talents and mental abilities of extraordinary businessmen.

Of course, the most striking example is Steven Paul Jobs, since he, being a simple guy from an ordinary family, managed to become an influential and successful leader of the world's largest corporation.

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco. Fate presented him with many trials, the first of which was the abandonment of his natural parents, who were young and not ready to raise a small child. Fortunately, she took him from the orphanage wonderful family Clara and Paul Jobs, who later became a real family for the businessman.

Stephen was such a bully that he was even expelled from school several times. But despite this, he had good abilities, which were impossible not to notice. Thanks to this, the administration of the educational institution allowed him to skip the 5th grade of primary school and go straight to secondary school.

Jobs often helped his father fix cars, was interested in engineering, and attended an amateur radio club. This indicates that he had a craving for various techniques from early childhood. As a child, Jobs met his future partner, friend and equally talented developer, Stephen Wozniak.

First inventions

Jobs always had a passion for invention in his soul. Together with Wozniak, they developed and created a unique device, with the help of which it became possible to make phone calls around the world absolutely free. The young guys did not stop there and decided to sell their “blue boxes”, unfortunately, without thinking about the legal consequences of such experiments.

By the way, sales were going well, with Wozniak and Jobs earning more than $100 on each device.

Youth

After graduating from school, Jobs entered a good paid college, but after studying there for only one semester, he decided that he had chosen the wrong path for himself and dropped out of the students. For more than a year, he wandered around the hostels, slept wherever he could and ate in local churches, and then decided to return to his native California.

Thanks to his old friend, Steve got a job at the successful video game company Atari. For Jobs, this was a good opportunity to earn money for such a coveted pilgrimage trip to India. Having accomplished his dream, he realized that it did not bring him the enlightenment he expected, and returned to his previous job. He successfully developed popular video games, for which he received good fees.

Apple Company

Initially, the office of the world's most famous corporation, Apple, was located in the garage of Jobs' parents' house. Here, together with Wozniak, they created their first personal home computer. Soon they had wholesale orders for such advanced equipment. The partners had to take out loans to purchase the necessary parts, but they still made a profit.

Within a few years, thanks to the desire to earn money and the desire to improve their computer, they developed the world's first device with color graphics support. Jobs and Wozniak quickly found investors for their project, expanded the company's staff and launched large-scale production of new equipment. It was a real success, because all copies were sold out in a short time, and the profit of the developers at that moment already amounted to more than $200 million.

After some time, Steve became interested in a new project called Macintosh. He dreamed of creating a device that would combine all the components of a desktop computer (system unit, monitor, keyboard). An interesting fact is that the software for this project was developed by Microsoft employees. Later, Apple successfully presented the iBook, a portable computer. This was another breakthrough for the Jobs corporation.

In addition to computer technology, Steve was involved in the development of music gadgets - the iPod. At that time, it was the most stylish, popular and convenient music player based on Apple software - iTunes.

The next stage of development of the corporation was the creation of the iconic mobile phone – iPhone. To develop it Apple employees have combined all their achievements in recent years and released a fashionable gadget using their own software - Mac OS.

This was followed by presentations of improved computers and tablet PCs - iPads, which are still very popular. All Apple products are distinguished by their original, stylish design and carefully thought-out interface.

Jobs also successfully produced popular cartoons at the Pixar animation studio, and then became a shareholder of the Walt Disney company. His total wealth is more than $7 billion, of which only $2 billion is Apple stock.

Unfortunately, Steve Jobs passed away in October 2011. Cancer beat him. But the story of a man who created his own success will live forever.

Video is a documentary about Steve Jobs. A man who changed the world!

What interesting facts do you know about such a successful, outstanding person as Steve Jobs? Share interesting information in the comments to this article.

Good luck and see you in the next article.

Steven Paul Jobs from San Francisco, California, was born on February 24, 1955. He was an American inventor, entrepreneur and industrial designer. And also one of the founders, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Apple Corporation. A very famous person.

Steve Jobs. History of success

Steve Jobs' childhood

Steve Jobs' parents were unmarried students. His father is from Syria, and his mother is a German emigrant. Steve's mother studied at the university where his father worked as a teaching assistant. The relatives of the girl, who was only 23 years old, were against their relationship and threatened to deprive her of her inheritance. A young student was forced to go to a private doctor in San Francisco to give birth and give the child up for adoption.
Paul Jobs and an Armenian-American woman adopted the boy because they could not have children of their own. They named their adopted son Stephen Paul. Stephen's biological mother wanted her son to grow up in a family with higher education. The adoptive parents gave her a written agreement that they would pay for the boy’s education. Jobs always considered his adoptive parents father and mother. It irritated him when someone called them adopted. The biological parents did not know anything about the whereabouts of the child.
Adoptive father Stiva worked in a financial company. He was an auto mechanic who repaired old cars in his garage to sell. His desire was to instill in the boy a love of auto mechanics. But this activity was not for Steve. Through cars he became acquainted with the basics of electronics, which he found very interesting.

School

Steve didn't like school. The way Steve Jobs studied at school was interesting. Except for one teacher who saw his ability, all the teachers considered him a prankster. She found an approach to him and rewarded him for good studies, stimulating his learning. As a result, Steve began to study well without help, and passed all exams perfectly, so much so that the director offered to transfer him from the fourth grade directly to the seventh! Steve was enrolled in sixth grade.
Steve talked to an engineer who brought him into a company's research club. There he saw a personal computer, which he was impressed by. In this club, each participant worked on their own project. Steve decided to build a digital frequency meter. But to implement his project, he needed details. Then Jobs, who was only 13 years old, called the head of this company at home. So he got the necessary parts and work on the assembly line, which aroused the envy of his rivals. Steve also delivered newspapers and worked in the warehouse of an electronics store. At the age of 15 he already had his own car. A year later he traded it for a better one. Steve started hanging out with hippies, listening to Bob Dylan and The Beatles, smoke marijuana and use LSD.
A friend and classmate of Jobs introduced him to Stephen Wozniak, who was interested in computers. In 1969, Woz and a friend began assembling a small computer and showed it to Jobs, who was very interested. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak became best friends.
Jobs implemented his very first business project while still in school. After it, Steve realized that electronics was a good income. He carried out this project together with Stephen Wozniak. After which they collaborated a lot more.

Reed College

In 1972, Steve Jobs graduated from high school and left his parents' home, despite his parents' objections. That same year, Steve entered Reed College, a private university, the most expensive in America. His parents found it difficult to pay for his education. But Steve wanted to study there, despite the fact that he dropped out after half a year. This college was full of free morals and a hippie atmosphere, and the standards of education were high and the curriculum was rich. But to Steve she seemed boring and uninteresting. There Jobs first became seriously interested in one of the eastern spiritual practices - Zen Buddhism. He became a vegetarian and began to fast.
He was expelled, but he could attend classes that seemed interesting to him for free for another year. One of them was calligraphy courses.
Jobs led a bohemian lifestyle, despite the fact that he sometimes slept on friends' floors and ate free meals once a week at the Hare Krishna temple.

Working at Atari

In 1974, Jobs got a job as a technician at the young company Atari. There he finalized the games and made design suggestions. But for his arrogance and unkempt appearance, they disliked him. But the founder and head of this company liked him, who transferred him to work on the night shift in order to save his job.
That same year, Jobs traveled to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. His family knew that he went on this trip to numb the pain of being abandoned immediately after birth. Having learned about his real parents, Steve hoped to understand something very important about himself and his place in life. Upon returning, Jobs found himself a spiritual mentor. He stayed in India for 7 months and arrived very thin, tanned, with a shaved head and wearing Indian clothes. Also during this time, Jobs experimented with psychedelics.
"Homemade Computer Club"
On March 5, 1975, a meeting of the Homemade Computer Club was held. Steve Wozniak was there, for whom the club became a second home. After the first meeting, he began designing the machine, which was later called the Apple I. Wozniak received his first unique result: displaying characters typed on the keyboard on the screen. Woz showed this to Steve Jobs, who was greatly impressed.
Jobs also began visiting the club. More precisely, he was at several meetings and was able to get the best, expensive and very scarce spare parts for Wozniak’s computer for free.

Creation of Apple

The history of the creation of Apple began with Jobs immediately starting a conversation about the commercial potential of this invention. He convinced Woz to stop handing out computer blueprints to everyone, despite the fact that the club was not used to hiding the exchange of ideas. He also drew attention to the fact that club members are working on drawings without bringing their projects to working condition. Jobs suggested that Woz sell ready-made printed circuit boards at the club and take on the most difficult part of the work, deciding to sell them at twice the price.
For the required amount, he sold his minibus, and Wozniak sold one of his main valuables - a programmable calculator. With this money, Jobs paid an Atari employee he knew to create a circuit board diagram so that he could then put it into mass production. They received the first batch of boards.
He took one of his friends, who was well versed in documents, to his team, in case of disagreements with Wozniak.
All that remains is to register the company. We had to come up with a name. Jobs had just returned from a farm where he had been pruning apple trees and eating an apple diet. He became a fruitarian, considered it sufficient to wash no more than once a week, and returned home absolutely happy. Woz met him at the airport. On the way home, they were choosing a name for the future company, because in the morning they had to submit documents for its registration. Jobs came up with “Apple Computer” and said that if nothing better was offered by morning, the name would remain. And so it became.
The company was registered on April 1, 1976. Wayne drafted the partnership agreement, wrote the first manual for the Apple I, and created the logo. After 12 days, Wayne realized that the tasks of his two comrades were beyond his strength, and left the company, taking his share.

Together with a friend, Steve developed one of the first personal computers, which had great commercial potential.
At a meeting of the Homemade Computer Club, Jobs and Wozniak presented their computer. Steve Jobs spoke with passion and conviction, but only one person became interested in computers—the owner of a computer store. The next day, Jobs came to his store and made a deal, because he ordered 50 pieces at once.
They were housed in the Jobs' home and garage. Work began, Steve attracted almost everyone. During this work, Jobs first showed himself as a tough, authoritarian leader. He made an exception only for Woz, never raising his voice to him.

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A month later the order was ready. The Apple I came with fully assembled motherboards. The Apple I is recognized as the first computer in history to be supplied ready-made, as other computers appeared on the market as kits. Later they managed to sell more than a hundred more Apple I computers.

The Apple II computer became the company's first mass-produced product.
The Apple I contained almost no electronic innovations. While working on it, Wozniak came up with ideas that he later implemented in a separate model. Apple's new product had many revolutionary features.
Due to the reorientation of the business towards the mass consumer, the first serious disagreements arose between Jobs and Wozniak.
Jobs concluded that device design matters a lot.
He realized that they couldn’t afford to produce computers with plastic casings and original designs. He decided to sell the rights to the entire development to Atari. There was a meeting with the director. But nothing came of it, because Steve smelled so bad that the director was sick. In addition, Jobs threw his bare feet right onto the table and he threw him out the door with a scream.
Then Jobs held a presentation of the Apple II. He behaved so arrogantly and self-confidently that Wozniak was very ashamed. Management turned them down, but Jobs did not give up. He was advised to contact the founder of one of the first venture capital companies.
The founder of this company showed up in the Jobs garage. The decor and appearance of the garage's inhabitants impressed him. Steve tried to look like an informal person - skinny and with a sparse beard.
He told Jobs that he was ready to finance them if he hired an employee who understood marketing and could draw up a business plan. It turned out to be Mike Markkula, who offered Jobs and Wozniak financing in exchange for a third of Apple shares. On January 3, 1977, the Apple Computer partnership became the Apple Corporation.
Markkula greatly influenced Jobs, because his authority was comparable to that of his father.
After the founding of the corporation, Apple acquired its own office. The company had several employees. The question arose about its president. The 22-year-old eccentric, shaggy, constantly dirty and ragged Jobs was not suitable for this job. Mike Scott was invited to this position; he was an experienced leader, and his main task was to pacify Jobs, who was becoming more rude and hot-tempered, which made it difficult for ordinary programmers.
It was not easy for the new president to cope with Jobs, who always wanted to be first. Jobs never had as many conflicts with anyone as he did with him.
Without the help of an advertiser who quickly agreed to cooperate with Apple, success could not even be dreamed of. We were tasked with developing a company and product logo. The art director proposed two options: a logo in the shape of an apple, whole and bitten. Jobs said that a whole apple could easily be confused with a cherry, so he chose a bitten one. In addition, he settled on a version with six colored horizontal stripes because of its psychedelic quality. This logo was approved before 1998.
In 1977 there was the first Computer Fair. Jobs decided to amaze everyone with the Apple exposition and his efforts paid off, because Apple received an order for 300 computers and the company got its first foreign dealer.

Sales and prosperity began to grow rapidly for several years to come. They no longer paid attention to scandals and conflicts between its founders. The Apple II was successful and profitable for 16 years. During this time, up to 6 million Apple II computers were sold, because it was one of the most profitable projects, and this is the result of the joint work of engineer Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, manager and designer. If Jobs had not improved it externally, it would have been gathering dust on shelves without use.

The Apple III was a redesign of Wozniak's business computer. Businessmen, purchasing an Apple II for work, purchased two additional expansion cards for the computer. It was decided to deliver everything together. These were two different computers in one case.
There was great advertising, but it quickly became clear that computers were unstable in Apple III mode. The machine was improved, increasing the stability of its operation, but the reputation of the Apple III was already spoiled, and two years later the Apple III was completely discontinued.
Apple Lisa

Steve Jobs lost interest in the Apple III even at the development stage. He started a new project. And he brought two engineers to Apple, giving them the task of developing an “advanced” computer. Jobs named the project Lisa, in honor of his recently born daughter. Apple engineers completed the task, designing a better and more powerful computer that had nothing new except applications.
The state of affairs with Lisa did not suit Jobs, because he needed a breakthrough, movement, and not a repetition of what had been done.
Xerox was involved in venture capital investments and expressed interest in acquiring Apple shares. Jobs immediately put forward the condition that in return Apple employees would have access to their latest developments. An agreement was reached. Xerox management felt that Apple employees would not understand anything about their developments. Jobs realized that they were trying to deceive him and demanded to organize a second excursion, to which he took Bill Atkinson and programmer Bruce Horn with him. It didn’t work again: Atkinson and his colleagues quickly saw through them. Jobs became very angry and complained to the head of the venture capital department over the phone. The company's management immediately contacted the research center and demanded to immediately show Jobs the full development capabilities.
Apple's raid on Xerox PARC is called the most daring robbery in the history of the IT industry, because Jobs learned the secrets of Xerox. The main thing was ideas, and their implementation became a matter of time.
Xerox had an excellent chance to capture the computer market, but missed the opportunity. The next move was Apple's.
Jobs could easily call some engineer in the middle of the night and dictate his instructions to him. He became more aggressive and terrorized employees so much that Markkula and Scott, without looking at his status, reorganized Apple behind his back. 25-year-old Jobs was removed from his post and transferred to the honorary chair of the chairman of the board of directors, without real powers. So Steve Jobs found himself excommunicated from the project that he himself initiated.

Jef Raskin, who drew Jobs' attention to Xerox's developments, led another project at Apple. He wanted to create an inexpensive, portable machine that folded like a suitcase and looked more like a household appliance. After starting work on the project, he changed its name to Macintosh, after his favorite apple variety. The Macintosh prototype was three times cheaper and still ran twice as fast. Jobs switched from the Lisa project to the Macintosh.

There were differences between Jobs and Raskin.
It was said about Steve that he does not trust anyone and when new ideas are presented to him, he criticizes them and says that they are complete nonsense and a waste of time. But if the idea is good, then soon he begins to tell everyone about it as if he came up with it.
Jobs took charge of the Macintosh project and immediately set about revamping the Mac team while continuing to recruit new employees. After observing each candidate's reaction, he demonstrated a prototype computer. If the candidate became animated, started asking questions about everything and wanted to try everything right away, Jobs enrolled him in the group.
Jobs limited the size of the computer. Even its internal parts had to look harmonious. He was convinced that access to content system unit Only Apple employees should have it. Jobs believed that the buyer should feel that he was purchasing a unique and complete work of art.
Due to the personal ambitions of Steve Jobs, his actions led to a split in the team, because he did not miss an opportunity to make a barb or some other trick.
Jobs did not dare to develop the style of subsequent Apple products on his own.
While working on the Macintosh, Jobs traveled to Japan, visiting high-tech production facilities there, which impressed him with exemplary discipline and impeccable cleanliness in the workshops. Upon returning, Jobs decided to build a plant to produce Macintosh. He ordered the factory walls to be whitewashed and the machines to be painted in bright colors, shocking the employees and workers.
The Lisa computer was presented to the public, differing favorably from competitors' products with its high quality and advanced capabilities. But the unaffordable price did not show strong sales. All the same, Jobs, having lost the battle, confidently moved towards final victory.
He lured the best specialists companies working on other projects and from the Lisa project he stole everything that had been developed and valuable.
Jobs increasingly took control of the company's leadership, almost restoring his influence and authority, but he understood that much would depend on who would take the chair of Apple's president. Jobs was the obvious choice, but everyone understood that he was not yet ready to lead. I had to look for a candidate on the side.
Steve always knew how to get his way, and knew exactly what to say to everyone.
The new head of the company liked Jobs and accepted the offer to lead Apple. The first serious conflict between them occurred before the presentation of the Macintosh, when he insisted on including the cost of an advertising campaign in the price of the product, which led to an increase in the price of the computer.
Jobs turned the Macintosh presentation into a show. The computer spoke about itself using a software speech generator.

The dismissal of Steve Jobs

After the successful launch of the Macintosh on the market, Steve Jobs' position at Apple was temporarily strengthened. But within a year, Macintosh sales began to plummet. Users have found the strengths and weaknesses of the computer. Jobs took a very dubious step by ordering Macintosh emulation to be installed on unsold Lisa computers and releasing the result to the market under the Macintosh XL brand. Sales tripled, but it was a hoax that Apple's top experts rebelled against.
Jobs' second unsuccessful move was the launch advertising campaign Macintosh Office suite. Jobs took on too much of an assertive and aggressive tone. The ad turned out to be gloomy and depressing. The Macintosh Office project did not materialize.
Jobs became increasingly withdrawn and irritable. The crisis caused his working relationship with the new manager to deteriorate, leading to a power struggle between them. Jobs' management did not support him and removed him from management. Then he decided to stage a coup in the absence of a new leader and seize power. But even his most loyal supporters considered this plan crazy. The council sided with the leader. So, in 1985, Steve Jobs was fired from Apple. He lost the power struggle. Steve believed that everyone had betrayed him and abandoned him. After a while, he stopped going to work and made sure that no one noticed his absence. Jobs lasted five months, after which he left Apple and founded NeXT Inc.

NeXT Computer

In 1985, Jobs met a biochemist who said that the computer should be personal, powerful and inexpensive. Jobs launched the Big Mac project aimed at creating such a computer.
He recruited several members of the Macintosh team and registered NeXT Inc, a company developing a computer platform for universities and businesses.

Jobs saw the creation of the computer for the needs of science and education. He pledged to position the new computer as a "professional workstation" that would ship directly to colleges and universities.
A year later, Steve Jobs' company went bankrupt. The situation was saved by a businessman who bought a 16% stake in the company for $20 million, which became the first major investment in NeXT.
NeXT computers are now on sale.
In the same 1990, the second generation of the computer, the NeXTcube, was released. Featuring an innovative multimedia email system, NeXTcube allowed the sharing of voice, images, graphics and video.
The NeXT station was rejected as too expensive. But among those who could afford it, NeXT gained a following because of its technical advantages. Only 50 thousand cars were sold.

Pixar and Disney

Shortly before leaving Apple, Jobs met the head of the computer division of the Lucasfilm film studio, who was looking for a buyer for this division, and Jobs decided to buy this division of Apple's computer graphics.
An agreement was reached for Jobs to buy 70% of the division, which developed both hardware and software for graphics and animation, and produced films. The company became Pixar Studios. Jobs envisioned entering the mass market with the Pixar Image Computer, making it cheaper. But the company suffered losses, and Jobs was forced to constantly invest personal funds in it.
Jobs realized that they should focus on filmmaking. The Disney film company has turned its attention to Pixar. An agreement was signed on their joint production, the terms of which were unfavorable for the young company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Jobs decided to take a risk by going public after Pixar's premiere. But it became profitable, and the studio gained financial independence.
Steve Jobs was Pixar's CEO and major shareholder. Disney agreed to acquire Pixar. Once the deal was closed, Jobs became the largest private shareholder of The Walt Disney Company with 7% of the company's shares. His shareholding was larger than that of the founder, a member of the Disney family, Roy Disney. After Jobs' death, his Disney shares were transferred to the Steven Jobs Trust.
Steve Jobs. Return to Apple
By the mid-1990s, Jobs was already the head of a family with a wife and two children. He needed a constant source of income. But his company, NeXT, was having difficulty developing a new operating system for the Mac and was at an impasse. Jobs understood that he couldn’t get out on his own, and again began to look towards Apple, whose business was also not going very well, because after Jobs left, Apple stuck to old ideas and developments for several years, and then its market share fell.
The Apple director realized the depth of Apple's crisis and accepted Jobs' proposal for a possible merger or takeover of NeXT.
On December 20, Jobs returned to the company he founded and was introduced to the team as “adviser to the chairman.” Immediately, movement began to be felt: production was reduced, followed by a series of personnel changes and reshuffles. Jobs quickly managed to bring people loyal to him to key positions in the company.

Think Different

Steve Jobs dissolved the board. Jobs' mentor was among those fired. Jobs treated him like a father and went personally to inform him of his dismissal and ask for advice. He was sympathetic to Jobs’ decision and said that to save the company he would have to again produce something that no one had done before.
Jobs turned to old friends from the agency for help. Of all the options, Steve Jobs chose the Think Different concept.
He set out to restore the old relationship between Apple and its customers.
Jobs regained control of Apple, leading the corporation. Under his leadership, the company was saved from bankruptcy and began to make a profit within a year.
He took tough measures to revive the company and closed a number of projects. Many employees at this time were afraid to run into Jobs in the elevator for fear of losing their jobs. Over the course of the year, more than 3,000 people were laid off.
Jobs opposed the cloning of goods and refused to renew software licenses for third-party hardware manufacturers.
Instead of a large assortment, he announced the development of only four products, the appearance of which Jobs paid special attention to.

The achievement of the alliance between Jobs and one of his employees was the first iMac G3, because it became the best-selling computer in Apple history.
From then on, attractive design and a powerful brand worked for Apple.

Apple Store

Steve Jobs did not like the conditions in which Apple products were sold and he thought about creating a specialized Apple store.
He hired a vice president of sales, who advised him not to rush into opening a store, but to start modeling it in secret.
Jobs himself thought through and approved every detail.
The Apple Store was predicted to fail, but after 3 years, Apple stores averaged 5,400 people a week. There are a lot of Apple stores in the world now. which generate the most income.

Creating iTunes

The IT industry has developed. Steve Jobs came up with a global vision for the computer to make a breakthrough.
The great work began with the creation of high-quality software. On January 9, 2001, the iTunes media player was introduced.

An important part should have been the miniplayer. We decided to create our own device. Jobs changed the switch, which became a distinctive feature of many Apple devices.
The first generation of iPod was released on October 23, 2001. Jobs calculated that sales of the iPod would spur demand for computers, because the iPod was positioned as a cult accessory and actually acquired this status.
This is how Apple became a major player in the music industry.

iTunes Store

Steve Jobs introduced the online music store iTunes Store. He decided to sell songs not as albums, but individually. Music magnates took a risk because the losses from piracy were massive.
The head of the iTunes Store predicted a million sales in the first 6 months, but a million songs were sold out in just 6 days! Apple entered the market confidently.

First iPhone model

The success of the iPod did not bring Jobs peace of mind. The development of mobile phones has led to a drop in demand for cameras and digital cameras. Jobs knew that all the functions of other devices must be included in the telephone. Then the music player will no longer be needed.
The mechanical keyboard was removed and its functions were taken over by the software part. Jobs decided to try glass, which was supposed to be strong and resistant.
The main trump card of the model was the large glass screen.

The phone was introduced in January 2007, the presentation of which was the best of Steve Jobs' career. The telephone was also declared the invention of the year.

Over the next few years, Steve Jobs was ill a lot, but he took part in the development of the iPad Internet tablet, which he himself presented.
It was the most successful consumer product launch in history.

The company's success allowed Apple to become the most valuable company in the world in 2011. The resurgence of Apple has been called one of the greatest achievements in business history. Despite this, Jobs was criticized for his authoritarian management style, aggressive actions towards competitors and the desire for total control of products even after they were sold to the buyer.

Resignation

On June 6, 2011, Steve Jobs gave his last presentation. Jobs later resigned as CEO of Apple, retaining his post as chairman of the board of directors. A few hours later, Apple Inc. shares. fell.

State

Steve Jobs became a millionaire by age 25. He owned 5.426 million shares of Apple. Also owned 138 million shares of Disney. Forbes magazine in 2011 rated net assets Steve Jobs at $7 billion and placed him in 39th place in the ranking of the richest Americans.

Management style

Jobs sought to position Apple and the company's products at the forefront of the information technology industry. He said that great things in business are not accomplished by one person, but by a team. His subordinates respected him, because Jobs created the feeling that the impossible was possible.
After leaving Apple and working at NeXT, Jobs' character softened.

Inventions and projects

Relations with figures in the IT industry

Steve Jobs and the head Microsoft Bill The Gates are the same age and are at the origins of the computer revolution. They played decisive roles. The first of them developed the talent of a designer and the eloquence of a salesman. The second, experienced and cautious, knew a lot about programming.
Microsoft developed its own operating system, Windows, based on the same principles as the Mac. Jobs accused Gates of treason and theft. Their relationship deteriorated. The differences between them were in different approaches to work.
Returning to Apple, Steve Jobs decided to end this war, which was the result of several lawsuits. Jobs invited Gates to invest $150 million in Apple and develop programs compatible with the Mac. Jobs later said that this was one of his biggest mistakes.
Later, relations between entrepreneurs improved.
Jobs gave a speech, raising a toast “To both of us” and tearing up. In 2011, Bill Gates paid a final visit to Steve Jobs, whose illness was already critical. They spent more than two hours together, discussing with great animation.
One of Jobs's best friends in the IT industry was the founder of Oracle. Jobs was modest and did not show off his wealth. Another close friend of Jobs was Millard Drexler.
Jobs was surrounded by both friends and enemies. He was constantly in conflict with someone. Towards the end of his life, Steve Jobs fought with Google.
Apple is still making attempts to get its way through the courts, now without Steve Jobs.
Social activity
Jobs did not sign the Giving Pledge, which required the world's richest billionaires to give at least half of their wealth to charity. But despite this, Apple has become the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.
In 2010, US President Barack Obama met with Steve Jobs, who criticized the US educational system, saying that he would not last longer than one term. In 2011, Obama was at a meeting with representatives of the IT industry, where Jobs said that the President was a smart person, but endlessly explained why this or that could not be done. And that it infuriated him.

Scandals

In 2001, Jobs received stock options worth 7.5 million Apple shares. The case has been the subject of criminal and civil investigations. Jobs could face a range of criminal charges and civil penalties. Jobs was not fully aware of them. The scandal led to a fall in Apple shares and the dismissal of several employees.
The decline in share price due to fraud and scandal led to the filing of a number of lawsuits. A $7 billion class action lawsuit was filed against several Apple board members, including Jobs. Apple management reached an agreement with shareholders and paid a number of compensations.

Unauthorized biographies

In 2005, the publishing house John Wiley & Sons sent a copy of the unauthorized biography “Icon. Steve Jobs". According to some reports, the order not to release the publication came personally from Steve Jobs.

Harassment of bloggers

Jobs was very sensitive to his speeches at product presentations and demanded the strictest secrecy. A website was founded where information about Apple's new products was published before its official announcement. A lawsuit was filed against the site owner and his resource was closed.
On March 25, 2010, a certain Brian Hogan found a prototype of a new iPhone model in one of the bars, accidentally left there. An article about the phone's design appeared on the blog. Apple filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office, and searches were carried out in the apartments. As a result, the bloggers, by agreeing to return the sample to the corporation, avoided charges of buying stolen goods. Steve Jobs took part in the development of this conflict.

Censorship on iPhone and iPad

Jobs tried to maintain control over user actions. It was about banning pornography on Apple devices. Jobs responded that his definition of freedom included “freedom from porn” and other unwanted and potentially harmful content.
It was suggested to him that arrogance is not appropriate for an industry leader. But Jobs said there was no arrogance in his position.

Personal life

Steve Jobs tried to adhere to the principles of Zen Buddhism and Bauhaus. He was a pescatarian. Jobs usually wore a long-sleeved black turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers. This is how he expressed his style.
Jobs drove a silver Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG with no license plates and leased a new one every six months.
He was a big fan of Bob Dylan and The Beatles and made numerous references to them in his performances.

Searches for biological relatives

In 1986, Jobs' adoptive mother died. Steve had previously hired a detective to find his mother. He found a doctor who gave it to the Jobs. The doctor lied to him that all the documents were burned in a fire, but in reality he put them in an envelope, writing to send them to Steve Jobs after his death. Soon the doctor died, and Jobs received documents from which he learned everything about his parents and sister.
Steve considered Paul and Clara his parents, and in order not to upset them, he asked journalists not to publish if they learned anything about his biological parents.

Meeting the biological mother

Steve met his own mother and younger sister only 31 years later.
After the death of his adoptive mother, Steve called his biological mother and arranged a meeting. He did this out of curiosity and wanted to reassure the biological mother that she did the right thing. He wanted to meet her to see if she was okay and to thank her for not having an abortion. She apologized to him. Steve told her not to worry, because he had a good childhood and everything worked out.

Meeting your biological sister

In 1985, on the day he met his birth mother, Steve also met his sister, Mona Simpson, who, with the help of a private detective, found her father, whom Steve did not want to meet because he had left his wife and daughter.

Not knowing who his son had become, he told Mona that he used to have a cafe in Silicon Valley and said that even Steve Jobs had been there and was generous with his tea. Jobs asked Mona not to tell her father about herself. But his father accidentally found out that Jobs was his son, but also did not seek a meeting with him.

Relationships with biological family

Ten months after giving up the child, Steve's biological parents got married. Later they had a daughter. They divorced and the father lost contact with his daughter. Steve's mother remarried.
Jobs and his sister were close friends and kept their relationship secret until 1986. He also maintained a friendly relationship with his biological mother.

Relationships with women

Jobs always had difficulty containing his feelings and emotions. He was very addicted and publicly demonstrated delight from a new romance or melancholy from separation. Many considered him a romantic person, although in relationships with women he was sometimes calculating, selfish, rude and cruel.

Chris Ann Brennan

Chris Ann Brennan, a hippie girl, was Steve's first love, with whom he began dating before graduating from high school. Their relationship was not easy. Steve and Chris were constantly drifting apart and then getting back together. After some time, Chris became pregnant. Jobs acted like it didn't concern him. Chris gave birth to a daughter, Lisa Brennan. Jobs continued to deny his paternity, claiming that Brennan was not only dating him. Chris argued with Steve that he was making her look like a walker so as not to take responsibility. Jobs took part in the fate of his daughter: he persuaded Chris not to give the child to strangers, helped choose the girl’s name and named the new Apple Lisa computer with this name.

A year later, Jobs took a paternity test, which showed that he was the father of the child and he was ordered by court to pay child support. But even after this, Jobs refused to acknowledge his daughter for a long time. He later recognized Lisa as his daughter, and when she grew up, she and her father got along well.

Tina Redse

In 1985, Jobs met, in his words, the most beautiful woman in his life and his first true love, the hippie type, Tina Redse. She also worked in IT. They were united by a difficult childhood, both of them were in search of beauty and harmony. In character they were similar in neuroticism, sensitivity, and could give free rein to tears. She was strong-willed and easily neglected her unusual beauty, often not wearing makeup, which made her even more beautiful. Their romance was very stormy. Despite the similarities, the differences were insurmountable, because Redse was the kindest person. Philosophical differences were also very deep. In 1989, Steve proposed to Tina. There followed a refusal and a break in the relationship.

Lauren Powell was Steve Jobs's only wife and the second woman he loved. She was eight years younger than him.
On January 1, 1990, Jobs proposed to Powell. They went on a trip, after which it turned out that Lauren was pregnant.
There was a wedding in 1991. Jobs was happy in his family life.
In the same year, the couple had a son, then two daughters. But Jobs did not spend much time with children. He communicated more with his son, who had good manners and a gentle character, only in appearance he was similar to him.

Health problems

In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The prognosis for the development of this form of cancer is extremely unfavorable, but Jobs turned out to have a type of disease that can be treated surgically. Jobs refused to undergo surgery for nine months. He tried to prevent the disease using alternative medicine. In July 2004, Jobs agreed to a pancreaticoduodenectomy operation, during which the tumor was successfully removed, but at the same time metastases were detected in the liver. Doctors managed to partially sequence the cancer genome. During Jobs' absence, the company was run by Tim Cook, Apple's head of global sales and operations.
Jobs' health gradually deteriorated, and he became very thin. Jobs did not reveal the truth about his health. The cancer had metastasized, and due to painkillers and immunosuppressants, Jobs had no appetite and was subject to frequent depression. Apple shares were declining.
In 2009, Jobs informed everyone about his illness and went on vacation, again handing over matters to Tim Cook. He underwent liver transplant surgery. In early 2010, he returned to work.
On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his retirement. Tim Cook was his successor. Jobs continued to be involved in Apple affairs, advising Tim until his last day.

Death of Steve Jobs

After eight years of battling the disease, on the afternoon of October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died due to complications that led to respiratory failure. The cause of Steve Jobs' death was pancreatic cancer. He died surrounded by his family at 56. His initial choice of alternative treatment led to his early death.
Relatives said Jobs died peacefully. Steve Jobs' words before his death were: Wow! Wow! Wow!
Apple and Microsoft have lowered their flags. There was also a directive to lower flags at all Disney properties, including Disney World and Disneyland.
A small private funeral was held on October 7, 2011, at the only non-denominational cemetery, which was not disclosed.

Media coverage

Adult Swim aired a 15-second spot with the word "hello" fading out and then changing to "goodbye."
Awards and public recognition
Jobs received public recognition and a number of awards for his influence. He is called "father" digital revolution" Jobs was a brilliant speaker and brought innovative product presentations to new level.
A long article was published about Jobs as "micro's most famous maestro."
Steve Jobs was awarded, received a prize and was a laureate of the “Technology - Chariot of Progress” competition. In 2007, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife inducted Jobs into the California Hall of Fame.
In 2007, Fortune magazine named Jobs the most powerful person in business, and in 2010 he was ranked 17th on its list of the world's most powerful people.
In 2011, a bronze statue of Steve Jobs was unveiled. In 2012, Steve Jobs was called "the greatest entrepreneur of our time" and was posthumously awarded the Grammy Trustees Award. The Disney film “John Carter” and the Pixar cartoon “Brave” were dedicated to him.
On the first anniversary of Jobs' death, a sculpture was unveiled - the 330-kilogram composition represents the almost two-meter palm of Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs greatly changed the modern world and revolutionized no less than six industries.

Criticism

Jobs's personal qualities were often criticized because he always strived for the universal, the only possible, perfection, beauty and simplicity. He needed complete control over any situation. Steve was considered angry, cruel and vindictive. He often lured away employees from other companies and abandoned everyone he hired.
Apple's policy has always been Steve Jobs' policy. Apple tightly controls consumer computers and portable devices.
10 books have been written about Steve Jobs, 6 documentaries and 3 feature films have been shot, as well as one theatrical production in New York.

Stephen Paul Jobs is a man who is one of the generally recognized authorities in the global computer industry, who largely determined the direction of its development. Steve Jobs, as he is known throughout the world, became one of the founders of Apple, Next, Pixar corporations and created one of the most odious smartphones in history - the iPhone, which has remained among the leaders in popularity among mobile gadgets for 6 generations.

Founder of Apple

The future star of the computer world was born in the small town of Mountain View on February 24, 1955.

Fate sometimes throws out some very funny things. Coincidence or not, this city will become the heart of Silicon Valley in a few years. The newborn's biological parents, Syrian emigrant Steve Abdulfattah and American graduate student Joan Carol Schible, were not officially married and decided to give the boy up for adoption, setting only one condition for the future parents - to give the child a higher education. This is how Steve ended up in the family of Paul and Clara Jobs, nee Akopyan.

Steve's passion for electronics captured him during his school years. It was then that he met Steve Wozniak, who was also a little “obsessed” with the world of technology.

This meeting became somewhat fateful, because it was after it that Steve began to think about his own business in the field of computer technology. The friends implemented their first project when Jobs was only 13 years old. It was a $150 BlueBox device that allowed you to make long-distance calls absolutely free. Wozniak was responsible for the technical side, and Jobs was involved in the sales of finished products. This distribution of responsibilities will continue for many years, but without the risk of being reported to the police for illegal actions.

Jobs graduated from high school in 1972 and attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He got bored with his studies very quickly, and he dropped out of college immediately after the first semester, but he was in no hurry to leave the walls of the educational institution completely.

For another year and a half, Steve wandered around friends’ rooms, slept on the floor, handed over Coca-Cola bottles and once a week had free lunch at the Hare Krishna temple, which was located nearby.

Still, fate decided to turn its face to Jobs and pushed him to enroll in calligraphy courses, attending which made him think about equipping the Mac OS system with scalable fonts.

A little later, Steve got a job at Atari, where his responsibilities included developing computer games.

Four years would pass, and Wozniak would create his first computer, and Jobs, out of old habit, would handle its sales.

Apple Company

The creative union of talented computer scientists very soon grew into a business strategy. On April 1, 1976, the well-known April Fool's Day, they founded Apple, whose office was located in the garage of Jobs' parents. The history of choosing the company name is interesting. Many people think that there is some very deep meaning behind it. But, unfortunately, such people will be bitterly disappointed.

Jobs suggested the name Apple because it would appear right before Atari in the phone book.

Apple was officially incorporated in early 1977.

The technical side of the work still remained with Wozniak, Jobs was responsible for marketing. Although, in fairness, it must be said that it was Jobs who convinced his partner to finalize the microcomputer circuit, which later served as the beginning of the creation of a new personal computer market.

The first computer model received a completely logical name - Apple I, the sales volume of which in the first year was 200 units at 666 dollars 66 cents each (witty, isn’t it?).

Quite a good result, but the Apple II, released in 1977, was a real breakthrough.

The stunning success of two Apple computer models attracted serious investors to the young company, which helped it take a leading position in the computer market, and made its founders real millionaires. Interesting fact: Microsoft was founded six months later, and it was the company that developed software for Apple. This was the first, but far from the last meeting between Jobs and Gates.

Macintosh

After some time, Apple and Xerox entered into a contract between themselves, which largely determined the future of the development of computer technology. Even then, Xerox's developments could be called revolutionary, but the company's management could not find practical application for them. The alliance with Apple helped solve this problem. Its result was the launch of the Macintosh project, within which a line of personal computers was developed. Everyone technological process, from design to distribution to the end consumer, was handled by Apple Inc. This project can easily be called the period of the birth of the modern computer interface with its windows and virtual buttons.

The first Macintosh computer, or simply Mac, was released on January 24, 1984. In fact, it was the first personal computer, the main working tool of which was the mouse, which made operating the machine extremely simple and convenient.

Previously, only “initiates” who knew an intricate “machine” language could cope with this task.

Macintosh simply did not have competitors who could even remotely come close in terms of their technological potential and sales volume. For Apple, the release of these computers was a huge success, as a result of which it completely stopped the development and production of the Apple II family.

Jobs' departure

In the early 80s, Apple turned into a huge corporation, releasing successful new products to the market over and over again. But it was at this time that Jobs began to lose his position in the company's management. Not everyone liked his authoritarian management style, or rather, no one liked him.

An open conflict with the board of directors led to Jobs being fired in 1985, when he was only 30 years old.

Having lost his high position, Jobs did not give up, but, on the contrary, threw himself headlong into developing new projects. The first of these was the NeXT company, which was engaged in the production of complex computers for higher education and business structures. The low capacity of this market segment did not allow significant sales to be achieved. So this project cannot be called super successful.

With the graphics studio The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar), which Jobs bought from LucasFilm for just $5 million (when its real value was estimated at $10 million), everything was completely different.

During the period of Jobs' management, the company released several full-length animated films, which were extremely successful at the box office. Among them are “Monsters, Inc.” and “Toy Story.” In 2006, Jobs sold Pixar to Walt Disney for $7.5 million and a 7% stake in the Walt Disney company, while the Disney heirs themselves own only 1%.

Return to Apple

In 1997, 12 years after his ouster, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO. Three years later he became a full-fledged manager. Jobs managed to bring the company to a new level of development, closing several unprofitable areas and completing the development of the new iMac computer with great success.

In the coming years, Apple will become a real trendsetter in the high-tech goods market.

Her developments invariably became bestsellers: the iPhone, iPod, iPad tablet. As a result, the company took third place in the world in terms of capitalization, surpassing even Microsoft.

Steve Jobs: speech to Stanford graduates

Disease

In October 2003, during a medical examination, doctors gave Jobs a disappointing diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

The disease, which is fatal in the vast majority of cases, developed in a very rare form for the head of Apple, which can be treated through surgery. But Jobs had his own personal beliefs against interfering with the human body, so he initially refused the operation.

The treatment lasted 9 months, during which none of the Apple investors even suspected the fatal illness of the company's founder. But it did not give any positive results. Therefore, Jobs finally decided to undergo surgery, having previously publicly announced his state of health. The operation took place on July 31, 2004 at the Stanford Medical Center, and was very successful.

But this was not the end of Steve Jobs' health problems. In December 2008, he was diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance. He underwent a liver transplant in the summer of 2009, according to officials at the University of Tennessee Methodist Hospital.

Steve Jobs: quotes