Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco. He was an orphan and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs, They lived in the South Bay Area, in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. Steve discovered the world of electronics at age 11 with his friend Bill Fernandez. His interest was in electronics; he liked to play around a lot .A few years later, Bill introduced him to one of his other friends who was 5 years older than Steve and had already distinguished himself as an electronics wiz kid, Steve Wozniak, nicknamed Woz. At that time Jobs was working on something his own, he called it the bluebox. It was small pieces of hardware that could be used to make international calls for free. He showed this to Woz and Woz thought that if they put both of their skills together they could achieve something. During his late teens, Jobs would become friendlier with Woz, as he would persuade him to sell his so-called blue boxes. As Jobs entered college at the University of California at Berkeley, he realized that higher education would not give him what he expected from life. So after six months, he dropped out of college. Steve renewed his interest in electronics as he discovered the amazing work of his friend Wozniak had achieved. He had been designing a very compact personal computer. He had done so thanks to his talents and the skills he had got from the Homebrew Computer Club; a local computer enthusiasts group. Steve took the opportunity and started selling the computer his friend had built. On April 1, 1976 was the official birth of Apple Computer. Steve Jobs has made himself famous.
Nowadays many people own a computer. A computer is a electronic device which makes life easier. Apple’s first sales came from a retail computer store called the Byte store. The owner of the store bought 50 Apple computers each for $500. A computer in 1950 would cost $600 and it was a lot then. It was expensive because it required so much assembly. In 1976 the Apple I computer came out. It was a personal home computer. The first computers that Jobs, Woz and some friends were designing and building was in Steve’s parents garage in Los Altos. More of his friends saw this and were willing to help. In April 1977 the Apple II was introduced at the West Coast Computer Fair. Woz’s design, the Apple II had a breakthrough, it very successful because of its performances. Also a big thing was that a disk drive was available. From then thousands of programmers started writing software for it. In 1979 the first spreadsheet software (Excel) was developed and first ran by the Apple computers. Jobs and Wozniak wanted to improve this computer and in 1983 they came out with a new computer. The Apple Lisa Computer. With this computer they wanted to improve the “mouse” and also wanted to work on the desktop, for example with windows, folders, clicking and wanted to try out cut&paste. “Lisa" stands for "Local Integrated Software Architecture", but not only that it was also the name of Job’s daughter. In 2001, Apple released OS X, which is the first version of its next generation operating system. On April 29th 2005 Mac OS X TIGER was released another great operating system and now mid 2007 all the Mac users are waiting for Leopard to come out, another great new operating system. On may 1998 Apple and Jobs introduced and presented the iMac. The iMac is a colorful computer. It was a stunning success for Apple. Seven months after it came out in five colors.
Apple was designed to be easy and very simple. If computers were complex then no one would buy them. They wanted to make their machine safe and simple. These two things are very important. People need simple stuff that is easy to learn and Apple’s goal was to do this they also need to be safe, the computers must be strongly protected by passwords, viruses etc. OS X was designed with a high security system, so that hackers and viruses won’t bother it. Apple is a friendly and safe computer.
In October 23, 2001 Steve introduced the iPod, which changed the entire music industry. The iPod is a small computer with 5 buttons and a click wheel. The iPod is replacing MP3 players and Sony Walkman. In 2003 they presented the iPod mini which was a small iPod that came out in 5 colors and now in 2007 they released the new iPod nano with colors replacing the Ipod mini and previously iPod nano 1st generation. The diffrence between them is that they are smaller, thinner and have stronger battery power. Another big shock was the iPhone which now apple wants to reinvent the phone. It is going to be a phone which will be like a palm desktop (a PDA). It is going to be a wide screen iPod, it is going to have apple’s original webroweser (Safari). It is going to have google maps and much more fantastic new software for it. The release of the iPhone is going to be mid june 2007. An other great product that he presented was Apple TV, it is a product that promises to bring your digital entertainment life on your TV. Just from your computer. Could you imagine that you would be carrying maximum 75 thousand songs in your pocket?
Steve Jobs is a great leader and innovator. He created the company and then came back to rescue it in 1996. Apple needed a great creative leader to be with them to create new great products and he was the best leader in the world to do this. Steve Jobs made it to the top again and Apple was making money. Steve Jobs has made history, he is about to enter and change new industries. Apple without Steve Jobs wouldn’t be the Apple Company that we all know today.
Hard Copy:
Murray, Alan. "If Steve Jobs is to be punished, can shareholders be spared?." The Wall Street Journal (2007): 26.
Riddle, John, and Jim Whiting. Stephen Wozniak and the story of Apple Computer. Unlocking the secrets of Science, 2002.
Electronically:
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Wikipedia, "Steve Jobs." Wikipedia. 10 Mar 2007 <>.
Kopplin, John. "An Illustrated History of Computers." Computer Science Lab. 2002. 10 Mar 2007 <>.