Steve Jobs, The Apple of Our iPod, iPhone, iPad

Steve Jobs, The Apple of Our iPod

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”- Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, The Apple of our iPod was an icon that changed the world and put a computer inside a phone. On October 4, 2011, Apple Computers introduced their newest iPhone without Jobs. He died the very next day. 120 million pockets now hold the iPhone.

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955 to unwed graduate students Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Carole. Steve was put up for adoption when he was just an infant, and taken in by Paul and Clara Jobs who raised him on a ranch in Los Altos. Paul was a machinist and provided young Steve with a space of his own in the garage to use for his projects. Then, a neighbor who worked for Hewlett Packard, showed Jobs a few electronic tricks when he was 12, which further fueled his dreams. This undoubtedly, was the beginning of a whole new world.

After graduating from Homestead High School in 1972, Steve attended Reed College for 6 months. Although he had dropped out of a formal curriculum, he bummed around the college for another year; mostly barefoot. He slept on friends’ floors and collected bottles for their deposits to support him while he read about Zen Buddhism at the library, attended random classes, conducted personal experiments, and indulged in whimsies. During this time, Jobs became intrigued with Arnold Ehret, a 19^th century Prussian physician who believed that the key to fabulous health came in the form of mucus elimination. This prompted Steve to become a fruitarian and conform to a diet of figs, honey, nuts, and grated horseradish.

Due to financial difficulties, Jobs was relegated to abandon his desire to study Buddhism in Asia, and returned to San Francisco. Once back on his home turf, he settled into the lobby of video game maker, Atari, and refused to leave until he was given a job. Steve lied and told them he was working for HP, and could turn the HP 45 calculator into a stopwatch. Atari’s chief engineer, Al Alcorn, examined the filthy, long haired, hippy-kid and decided to give him a shot.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976

Immediately, Jobs’ co-workers took a disliking to him; stating that he was arrogant and weird, with very poor personal hygiene. Steve’s atrocious body odor was a result of his misguided belief that it wasn’t necessary for him to bathe due to his fruitarian diet. However, Alcorn wasn’t ready to dismiss him yet, so he scheduled Jobs to work at night as a resolution to the many complaints of the other employees.

The nightshift worked out well for Jobs as it allowed him to regularly sneak in Steve Wozniak, an HP employee with a terrible video game addiction; the two had been classmates in high school. In exchange for late night gaming, Wozniak helped Jobs with his work. At first, it seemed like a fair trade, but it later came to light that Jobs had lied to Wozniak about the fee they had been paid for a job. Wozniak had done all of the actual work while Jobs sat back and collected more than 2/3 of the money.

One of the first projects that the two Steves collaborated on was called “blue box”, a device designed to make free international phone calls. While testing the box, they used it to prank call the Vatican. They soon realized that there was a bit of money to be made through the sales of such a product. In a 1996 PBS documentary entitled Triumph of the Nerds, Steve Jobs stated “I don’t think there would ever have been an Apple computer had there not been blue boxes.”

Soon after, Wozniak and Jobs developed a contraption for bragging rights among their Homebrew Computer Club friends; this motherboard was Apple I. A local hobby store purchased 50 of them; however, the new owner would still need a keyboard, monitor and housing for the device itself. Although Jobs saw an enormous future in his ideas, he still longed for spiritual enlightenment.

Jobs set sail for India, where he found a Sufi saint, went barefoot, and shaved his head. Due to India’s extreme poverty, he soon came down with dysentery and scabies. He returned home but still longed for spiritual truth and his thoughts drifted to Japan. Seeking advice, he consulted with a Japanese Zen master in Berkeley who found his dilemma amusing, to say the least. The consensus was that Jobs was better suited for the business world, than a monastic life of meditation in search of the truth. Apple Computer was officially launched on April 1, 1976 by Wozniak and Jobs.

Commodore, Osborne and RadioShack began selling personal computers in the late 1970’s for hobbyists. They were very limited in the actions they could perform and difficult to operate. Such was the case of The Altair, which required tedious labor to connect, which ultimately resulted in something comparable to a child’s Light Bright toy. This was nowhere good enough for Steve Jobs, and he made up his mind to construct Apple II as a tool. His belief was that computers should help people become more efficient, like a “bicycle for the mind” as Jobs put it.

In 1977 they launched Apple II, and for the next seven years the company would thrive from the huge splash it made. Then in 1980, Apple went public; however by this time, Steve Wozniak had for the most part, already stepped out of the picture.

On January 24, 1984 Jobs introduced the Macintosh computer to the world. Just a little over a year later, on May 31, 1985 Steve Jobs was forced to resign from Apple. He fell into a depression but bounced back just a month later with the idea to start a company called NeXT.

His vision for NeXT was that of an educational tool for students. And as was Jobs’ style, he loaded his new computer with all the bells and whistles. The end result was a computer that cost 10k to create, but couldn’t deliver its return on investment. Despite his growing opposition, Jobs refused to see it as a failure and pushed on with his vision to change the world.

In 1986, Graphics Group, part of Lucasfilm Computer Division, was purchased by Steve Jobs for $10 million. At the time, Jobs had little to no interest in animated movies; however, he hired John Lasseter, a former Disneyanimator, to produce 3 minute animated shorts.

Steve Jobs purchased Graphics Group in 1986, which later became Pixar. Jobs hired John Lasseter to create 3 minute animated shorts. These short films featured metal objects like a unicycle, drummer boy and lamp that came to life. Eventually the lamp was adopted as the logo.

Although Steve was barely amused by these shorts, but thrilled everyone who attended the annual graphics convention. Eventually Graphics Group would come to be known as Pixar. And the 3 minute shorts that Jobs could have cared less about, would evolve into a feature film that would grant him a membership into the B-club (Billionaire). The movie was called Toy Story.

Despite his success, Jobs’ NeXT computer hardware company was failing miserably and in early 1993, he announced that the company was shifting its focus to software instead. Because he had delayed the move for so long, by 1995 he was preparing for bankruptcy.

Then in 1996 Jobs negotiated a deal with his Alma Mater – Apple. Both companies were in dire straits and a merger seemed to be the best option for both. The final price for the sale of NeXT was $430 million. Because of the exorbitant amount, Jobs was accused by some as having “cast a homoerotic spell” on Apple’s CEO, Gil Amelio, and board members.

Steve Jobs had been MIA from Apple for 11 years and many things had changed, including him. Amelio was dismissed in July 1996 and Jobs stepped in as iCEO, or interim CEO until a replacement could be found.

The company once again changed its position and product line. All developmental efforts were now going towards the creation of the iMac. Not long after, Steve would give the Ok on research & development for the iPod.

Long gone were the days of a wildly brash long haired hippie kid. Jobs now had the air of refinement about him, but he still possessed the same intense passion as always. His charismatic nature was at an all-time high with the ability to mystify and captivate all those in his presence. Jobs was so compelling that no contracts could be signed while he was in the room due to the ‘Reality Distortion Field’ he generated.

In a Microsoft dominated world, Apple had to find a niche to exploit. In October 2001, Steve Jobs gave the world the iPod.

At the end of 2003, Steve Jobs gathered his management team for their regular Monday morning meeting. However, this time he gathered them close and let them in on a secret. Jobs had an operable, but rare, type of pancreatic cancer. The room suddenly darkened.

Jobs had a liver transplant in March 2009, after having turned over control of the company to COO Tim Cook. After a 5 month leave from Apple and a very positive prognosis, he resumed his role as CEO.