Steve Jobs Dead at 56, Visionary Apple Founder

Steve Jobs Dead: Apple Inc. chairman and co-founder Steven P. Jobs,  personal computer pioneer who changed the way people think about and use technology, died Wednesday, 5 Oct. 2011, age 56.

It’s hard to imagine how many jobs have been created because of the imagination of Steve Jobs.

There are whole categories of employment — desktop publishing, for example — the exist because of the Macintosh personal computer.

Did Apple invent desktop publishing?

Heck no.

Has Apple consistently made a computer platform that graphics professionals swear by be they working in print, for video or the web?

Yes. And that’s just one example.

Music is another area where Jobs and Apple changed the world.

Jobs created iTunes, saving the record industry by figuring out a way to make people pay for digital copies of music. He also enabled technology used to create music. Plenty of hit records have been recorded on Apple computers using ProTools software.

Apple as a company has had a famous mercurial life, at one point kicking out Steve Jobs and sinking to the point of near extinction.

But Jobs came back and so did Apple, pouring out more innovation than ever before and expanding into totally new markets like phones and retail stores.

The effects of Jobs and his sometimes forceful and controversial personality will be felt well into the future and will have an impact on people who never heard of him and who only know an apple as a piece of fruit. Apple’s release on Jobs’s death says it nicely.

From Apple’s press release:

“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” the company said. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”
Coverage:

San Jose Mercury News

Steve Jobs is dead

San Francisco Chronicle

Apple co-founder and savior Steve Jobs dies at 56

Steve Jobs Over The Years – nice photo essay from the Chron.

The Los Angeles Times

His legacy of blockbuster products includes the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, Jobs’ other firm, Pixar, revolutionized computer animation. He had been battling pancreatic cancer and stepped down as CEO in August.

The New York Times

Jobs, Apple Co-Founder and Visionary, Is Dead