Steve Jobs : The Man and His Apple Computers
Steve Jobs was a self-made billionaire, who brought personal computers into the homes of nearly every American in the country. He is credited with developing the technology that has personalized the computers. Jobs, along with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, co-founded Apple Computers in 1976, working out of Jobs’ garage.
Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 to parents who gave him up for adoption shortly after birth. He was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs. His father was a machinist who liked to spend time with his son taking electronic components apart, and reassembling them. This is when and where Jobs developed his interest in mechanical reconstruction. Jobs was not the best student in high school. He was known as a class clown, although he was very intelligent. It was in high school that he met Wozniak.
Both Jobs and Wozniak had a great interest in electronics, and the pair was known for making computer technology smaller, cheaper, and more accessible to average persons. Jobs got his start working as a video game designer for the Atari Corporation. Once Jobs got Apple going, he sold his first computers, which were called the Apple I, for $666.66 each. The Apple I earned Jobs nearly $800,000 its first year, and that was just the beginning. The Apple II earned the fledgling company nearly $140 million, and by 1980, the company was worth $1.2 billion.
Jobs branched out his financial kingdom venturing into other businesses such as Pixar Animation Studios, which was also very successful. He briefly left Apple to found the NeXT Corporation, which produced both software and hardware, but NeXT floundered, and Jobs went back to Apple to develop iPhone and iPad. Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, and eventually lost his battle with cancer in October, 2011.
