Every day, humans are using technology to make their daily lives easier. One technology that our society has implemented and become increasingly reliant on is the use of personal computers (PCs). Since the introduction of the first personal computer in 1975, the Altair 8800, our society has set itself on a road leading to technologic innovation and has never taken a look back (Rosa, 2000). Among all of the important people that have contributed to the world of personal computing, there is one individual that is arguably the most influential in our everyday life. Most people know of his company and its products, but few can match a face with the genius that is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco, California and was adopted shortly after Paul and Clara Jobs. From the moment that Steve Jobs left his mother’s womb, the aptitude that he had for electronics was clear. In high school, Jobs took an intense interest in building electronic devices. During a search for rare computer parts for one of his projects, Jobs’ was offered a summer job from Hewlett-Packard. Later, after attending only one semester, Jobs dropped out of Reed College located in Portland, Oregon. Jobs once again found himself with a position at a leading electronics company when he was hired at Atari in 1972. The time that Jobs spent at Atari was shorted lived, however. When he and a group of friends saved enough money, they traveled to India in search of enlightenment.
The enlightenment that Jobs found while in India came as one lucid, resounded conclusion: “Thomas Edison had done more for the betterment of humanity than all of the gurus in the world” (Answers, 2010). With the help of one of his high school friends, Steve Wozniak, and his newly found enlightenment, he was on his way to revolutionizing the personal computing environment. Wozniak and Jobs, in a garage, assembled a basic computer that consisted of a circuit board, microprocessor, a video screen, and a type-writer style keyboard. This computer, the Apple I, became a popular item. With the efforts of Jobs and Wozniak, over 600 Apple I computers were sold, bringing in approximately $774,000 (Angelelli, 1994).
Jobs, known for his charisma and talent, began to encounter problems at the workplace. Despite his genius, he sometimes belittled his colleagues, causing them to resent and avoid him. Because of the ill feelings felt by Jobs’ coworkers, Jobs found himself with no power of the decisions at Apple and, as a result, quit Apple in 1985 (Answers, 2010).
Newly unemployed, Jobs started to develop another one of his business ventures in 1986 with the founding of NeXT. In 1989, the NeXT computer was released. Costing a whopping $9,950, the NeXT computer was a flop and only 50,000 units were sold. Consequently, NeXT began to feel a financial strain.
Shortly after founding the NeXT company, Jobs purchased a computer animation studio from a film great, George Lucas. This purchase proved to be a success in 1995 with the release of an intensely popular animated film, Toy Story (Apple, 2010). Toy Story grossed 360 million in its first release causing the worth of Pixar to increase dramatically. Shares for Pixar rose from $22 to $39 making Steve Jobs a millionaire with his 80 million shares (Answers, 2010).
Despite Jobs’ success with his latter business ventures, one of his older ventures was beginning to feel the test of time. In 1996, Apple’s sales had dramatically decreased and it seemed as though Apple needed a miracle.
Apple received this miracle, in the form of Steve Jobs, in 1997 when Jobs was named interim CEO of Apple. By this time, Jobs realized the value of other’s opinions and was much more receptive to his coworker’s ideas unlike his former, more belittling self. He completely changed the work environment at Apple, once again making it fun to create new technologies.
The iMac was released in August 1998. The design was risky, as it was drastically different than most of the other computers on the market, the iMac was modern, yet classy, and was designed to work well with the Internet (the “i” in iMac stood for internet). With the immense success of the iMac computer, Apple had been revived of its financial slump (Angelelli, 1994).
With a new confidence in his once forsaken company, Jobs began to open a chain of Apple stores. The same year, a product that has become a household name, was released the iPod. The iPod attracted consumers because of its ease of use and its sleek style, but also because of its revolutionary software iTunes. Jobs, in an act of brilliance, convinced record companies to sell Apple rights to songs, despite the scare of piracy. After obtaining the rights, Apple began to sell songs on iTunes for a price of 99 cents per song. This process allowed iPod users to legally and efficiently download music for the iPods (Answers, 2010).
Apple is a company that has survived decades and continues to amaze us as consumers. Steve Jobs is a name that you many never have heard of. However, the next time you log on to your MacBook, you call your friend on your iPhone, you blast music through your iPod, think about the man behind the legend. Think about the genius that is Steve Jobs.
Sources:
-Steve Jobs: Biography. Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/steve-jobs.
-Angelelli, Lee (1994). Steve Paul Jobs. Virginia Tech. Retrieved from http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Jobs.html.
-Apple (2010). Steve Jobs. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/jobs.html.
-Rosa, Jerry. Dr. H Edwards Roberts: Inventor of the Altair. Retrieved from http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18812196;jsessionid=J05JNM5XGNKF3 QE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN
No comments:
Post a Comment