NAME: Steven Paul Jobs
BORN: Feb. 24, 1955, in San Francisco
DIED: Wednesday at 56. Apple announced his death without giving a specific cause.
EDUCATION: Graduated from high school in 1972 and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Ore., but dropped out after six months.
FAMILY: Wife, Laurene Powell; their three children, Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve; plus daughter,Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from different relationship.
CAREER: Worked for video game maker Atari before founding Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976 in Jobs' garage. Launched the Mac in 1984. But a year later, Jobs was pushed out as Apple's chairman. He returned to advise the company in 1996. After a stint as interim CEO, he took the helm of Apple Inc. permanently in 2000 and oversaw the launch of the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.
Took third medical leave in January 2011 and resigned as CEO in August. Elected Apple chairman.
Apple's Steve Jobs has died from cancer at the age of 56, a premature end for a visionary who revolutionized modern culture and changed forever the world's relationship to technology through inventions such as the iPad and iPhone.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," the California-based gadget-maker's board of directors said in a statement released after his death on Wednesday, surrounded by his family.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."
Tributes flowed in from around the world for Jobs, while Apple fans flooded social networking sites to voice their sorrow at the passing of the man who helped put mini computers in the shape of phones in millions of pockets.
Ordinary people, many of whom learned of his death on their iPhones and iPads, swamped Twitter using the trending hashtag #thankyousteve to pay tribute to Jobs "for all you have done for this generation," as one person tweeted.
Another called on Jobs to make an "iHeaven to connect us with God."
Jobs was just 21 when he founded Apple Computer in 1976 with his 26-year-old friend Steve Wozniak in his family garage.
From such humble beginnings the company, with its ubiquitous trademark of an apple with a bite taken out of it, grew to eventually become one of the world's most valuable firms.
In July, Apple's second quarter profit hit $7.31 billion on revenue of $28.57 billion.
US President Barack Obama paid tribute to one of America's "greatest innovators."
"He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world," Obama said in a statement.
Wozniak told CNN he was "dumfounded" by news of the death of his former partner, comparing it to the untimely and traumatic loss of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King in the 1960s, and saying it had left "a big hole."
"I'm a little bit, like, awestruck, just dumbfounded, and I can't put my mind into gear, I can't do things," a distressed Wozniak, now 61, said.
"Here is a guy that created tools that everyone in the world -- billions of people -- just love, and feel happy and good about."
Microsoft boss Bill Gates along with other titans of the high-tech industry agreed, with some people hailing Jobs as a modern-day Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb.
"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come," Gates said in a statement.
The two men were rivals in the race to dominate the market at the start of the personal computer era.
But while personal computers powered by Microsoft software ruled work places, Jobs envisioned people-friendly machines with mouse controllers and icons to click on to activate programs or open files.
Tim Cook -- who had been handling Apple's day-to-day operations since Jobs went on medical leave in January, and was made CEO in August after his resignation -- led the praise for the Silicon Valley legend.
"Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple," he said in a statement.
Apple turned its home page into a tribute to Jobs, posting a large black-and-white photo of the bearded high-tech maestro in his trademark black turtleneck and small round glasses. The only caption: "Steve Jobs, 1955-2011."
Jobs's family also issued a statement, saying he had lost his long battle with pancreatic cancer surrounded by his relatives.
"In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family," it said.
Born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco to a single mother and adopted by a couple in nearby Mountain View at barely a week old, Jobs grew up among the orchards that would one day become the technology hub known as Silicon Valley.
Under Jobs, Apple introduced its first computers and then the Macintosh, which became wildly popular in the 1980s.
He was elevated to idol status by ranks of Macintosh computer devotees, but left Apple in 1985 after an internal power struggle and started NeXT Computer company specializing in sophisticated workstations for businesses.
He co-founded Academy-Award-winning Pixar in 1986 from a former computer graphics unit he bought from movie industry titan George Lucas.
Apple's luster faded after Jobs left the company, but they reconciled in 1996 with Apple buying NeXT for $429 million and Jobs ascending once again to the Apple throne.
Apple went from strength to strength as Jobs revamped the Macintosh line, launching a "post-PC era" in which personal computers give way to smart mobile gadgets -- the iPod, iPhone and the iPad, as well as the popular iTunes site.
His passing will raise doubts over whether the Cupertino, California-based company can continue its dominance in the hugely competitive technology sector.
His death comes only a day after Cook presided over the launch of the new iPhone 4S in a move that failed to dazzle investors.
Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene, with whom he had three children. He also had a daughter with a woman he dated prior to marrying.
NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Jobs had no formal schooling in engineering, yet he's listed as the inventor or co-inventor on more than 300 U.S. patents. These are some of the significant products that were created under his direction:
1. Apple I (1976) — Apple's first product was a computer for hobbyists and engineers, made in small numbers. Steve Wozniakdesigned it, while Jobs orchestrated the funding and handled the marketing.
2. Apple II (1977) — One of the first successful personal computers, the Apple II was designed as a mass-market product rather than something for engineers or enthusiasts. It was still largely Wozniak's design. Several upgrades for the model followed, and the product line continued until 1993.
3. Lisa (1983) — Jobs' visit to Xerox Corp.'s research center in Palo Alto inspired him to start work on the first commercial computer with a graphical user interface, with icons, windows and a cursor controlled by a mouse. It was the foundation for today's computer interfaces, but the Lisa was too expensive to be a commercial success.
4. Macintosh (1984) — Like the Lisa, the Macintosh had a graphical user interface. It was also cheaper and faster and had the backing of a large advertising campaign behind it. People soon realized how useful the graphical interface was for design. That led "desktop publishing," accomplished with a Mac coupled to a laser printer, to soon become a sales driver.
5. NeXT computer (1989) — After being forced out of Apple, Jobs started a company that built a powerful workstation computer. The company was never able to sell large numbers, but the computer was influential: The world's first Web browser was created on one. Its software also lives on as the basis for today's Macintosh and iPhone operating system.
6. iMac (1998) — When Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, the company was foundering, with an ever shrinking share of the PC market. The radical iMac was the first step in reversing the slide. It was strikingly designed as a bubble of blue plastic that enclosed both the monitor and the computer. Easy to set up, it captured the imagination just as people across the world were having their eyes opened to the benefits of the Internet and considering getting their first home computer.
7. iPod (2001) — It wasn't the first digital music player with a hard drive, but it was the first successful one. Apple's expansion into portable electronics has had vast ramifications. The iPod's success prepared the way for the iTunes music store and the iPhone.
8. iTunes store (2003) — Before the iTunes store, buying digital music was a hassle, making piracy the more popular option. The store simplified the process and brought together tracks from all the major labels. The store became the largest music retailer in the U.S. in 2008.
9. iPhone (2007) — The iPhone did for the phone experience what the Macintosh did for personal computing — it made the power of a smartphone easy to harness. Apple is now the world's most profitable maker of phones, and the influence of the iPhone is evident in all smartphones.
10. iPad (2010) — Dozens of companies, including Apple, had created tablet computers before the iPad, but none caught on. The iPad finally cracked the code, creating a whole new category of computer practically by itself.
NEW YORK (AP) — It was the 1980s, relatively early in his career, and Steve Jobs was traveling in Japan. In a hotel lobby, a gaggle of girls came up and asked for his autograph.
Jay Elliot was an Apple executive at the time, traveling with Jobs. "I was thinking, wow, how many CEOs have girls coming up and asking them for autographs?" Elliot says now.
Over the next few decades, Jobs' fame only increased, of course, and exponentially.
By the time he died on Wednesday, after years of medical problems, Jobs had appeared on some 100 magazine covers and had numerous books written about him, not to mention an off-Broadway play, an HBO movie, even a "South Park" episode. He wasn't the first celebrity CEO, and he won't be the last. But he may have been the first in modern times to transcend the business world and become a veritable pop culture icon.
And yet Jobs, who seemingly enjoyed the access his celebrity brought, also appeared deeply conflicted about his fame, zealously guarding the smallest details of his private life. And though he appeared smiling on countless magazine covers, he had a prickly relationship with the media and those who sought to write about him.
"Steve had a love-hate relationship with his own fame," says Alan Deutschman, author of "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," an unauthorized biography. "He wanted it both ways. He clearly enjoyed the celebrity and the access it gave him, but he wanted total control over his image."
And he largely got it. "Steve was masterful," Deutschman says. "No one has come close to Steve in his ability to control and manipulate the media and get what he wants."
Where does Jobs fit in the pantheon of celebrity CEOs? Analysts struggle to find apt comparisons in the business world.
"He's on another plane," says Robert Sutton, a professor of management science at Stanford University. "He reached a level in the public consciousness that's beyond that of anyone in modern times. I mean, my mother doesn't know the name of (former General Electric CEO) Jack Welch."
Sutton and others find that they have to reach back into history for comparisons: to Henry Ford, for example, who revolutionized transportation with the Model T automobile, or to Thomas Edison, the master inventor who similarly transformed the way we live. Or to Walt Disney, with his vast influence in entertainment.
It's Edison's name that pops up the most often, partly because he wasn't only a visionary but, as Sutton says, "He could really sell. He was very good at his external image."
Like Jobs, whose name is well known to children as young as 6 or 7 (even if they're too young to read business magazines or, let's hope, to see that edgy "South Park" episode), Edison was emulated by young children of his time, says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management.
Sonnenfeld, who studies business leaders, compares Jobs — and his fame — to other "folk heroes" who've emerged in various fields at times of great change in our history, be it politics, culture, or, in this case, technology.
"What heroes do is personify complex change," Sonnenfeld says. "It's a shorthand that we use. It reduces things to the level of an individual." Jobs' ability to channel technology into products people didn't even know they wanted — but then had to have — is "almost unfathomable," he says.
Unfathomable, uncanny, otherworldly — such adjectives have frequently been used to describe Jobs. But there's another side to it all. Can being a celebrity be detrimental to one's performance as a CEO?
"It's a huge problem when the boss becomes the brand," Sonnenfeld says. "The upside is, it gives the brand human terms. The downside is that none of us are immortal. These branded bosses often start to believe in their own immortality."
Sonnenfeld, like some others, believes that Jobs should have stepped down as CEO earlier than he did because of his health.
On the other hand, one could argue that no rules or generalizations apply to Jobs and Apple. Sutton, at Stanford, wrote years ago that there was evidence that the more famous CEOs were distracted by all that public scrutiny, to the detriment of their companies. But, he says, "Jobs clearly doesn't fit into that category."
Compounding Jobs' astonishing fame was the early age at which he achieved it. He spent virtually his entire career in the public eye, co-founding Apple at age 21. His first magazine cover came just five years later, at 26, on Inc. magazine, with the headline: "This man has changed business forever." Four months later he was on the cover of Time.
One of the covers he wanted most, though, was one he didn't get. A front-runner for Time's 1982 Man of the Year, Jobs instead lost out to a machine — the computer. An accompanying article about him included descriptions of him as a sometimes fearsome boss, and the fact that he had a daughter, Lisa, by a former girlfriend, whom he had not acknowledged and was not supporting. (He later acknowledged Lisa, and she became part of his family.)
"Steve was incensed," says Deutschman, the author, who also teaches journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. "Ever since then he has been extremely controlling of everything — except for small, handfed amounts of carefully managed information."
Of course, that only led to huge curiosity about Jobs, compounding his fame. "He wasn't flaunting it like Donald Trump," says Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at the NYU Stern School. "He didn't do Architectural Digest. Do you even know what his wife looks like?" Indeed, Laurene Powell Jobs, whom Steve married in 1991, was rarely photographed with him, their children even less so.
Yet Jobs also showed early on how he enjoyed his fame.
At the 1999 Macworld Expo, he was the star of the show, coming out in his trademark black mock turtle, jeans and sneakers, hands clasped together as if in prayer, giving a pep talk about "the resurgence of Apple." But actually it wasn't Jobs at all — it was actor Noah Wyle, of "ER" fame, who had played Jobs in the HBO movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley."
Then the real Jobs, who had asked Wyle to make the appearance, came onstage, jokingly telling the actor his imitation was all wrong, all to the delight of the crowd. It ended with Jobs asking Wyle for a part on "ER."
As a celebrity himself, Jobs had easy access to other celebrities. Before his marriage, he was said to have dated Joan Baez, and, at one point, Diane Keaton.
Yet there were times that Jobs did appear to eschew his fame. Deutschman describes an incident where Jobs was helping a woman who had fallen on the street in Palo Alto, Calif., not far from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. Her reaction: "Oh my God, it's Steve Jobs!" Deutschman says the incident left Jobs deeply upset.
However Jobs may have felt about his fame, there's no question that one key element of it was his struggle with — and triumph over — adversity.
It was a truly American story in many ways: First, achieving success despite humble beginnings. Then failure — getting pushed out of his own company. And finally, a return to grace, first at Pixar, then by returning to Apple for a string of huge successes that continue to this day.
"Our heroes are only truly heroic if they suffer crushing defeat — then come back from it," Sonnenfeld says. And again, the comparisons to Edison, Ford, Disney apply: Each suffered failures before their ultimate triumphs.
There was also, of course, Jobs' illness in his later years — a final bout with adversity. In keeping with his penchant for secrecy, few details were shared. However, his determination to keep working — even as he appeared increasingly and alarmingly thin — buoyed many, Galloway says.
"Everyone in America over 30 has had their life touched by illness in some way," he says. "This humanized him. You just felt for the guy. It was hard not to pull for him."
After years of opposing attempts by writers to capture his life — not only declining to cooperate in biographies but actively discouraging them — Jobs finally agreed in 2011. Simon & Schuster announced in April that Walter Isaacson, who'd written biographies of Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein, would come out with "iSteve: The Book of Jobs" in early 2012. (The release date was later moved up to November.)
As one small measure of the intense interest in Jobs, news of his first authorized biography was the top story on blogs that week — a rare occurrence for a technology story — and the second top story on Twitter that week, according to the Pew Research Center.
"There are very few business people who've been cultural heroes, icons, heroic figures to ordinary people — and we desperately want these heroes," Deutschman says.
"We needed Steve's story."
Google, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft — corporate giants that have all been bruised in dustups with Jobs' baby, the technology prodigy Apple — put their rivalries aside Thursday to remember the man behind the iconic products that define his generation: the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad.
"Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
Fans for whom the Apple brand became a near-religion grasped for comparisons to history's great innovators, as well as its celebrities, to honor the man they credit with putting thousands of songs and the Internet in their pockets.
"I was so saddened. For me it was like Michael Jackson or Princess Diana — that magnitude," Stephen Jarjoura, 43, said at the flagship Apple store in Australia's biggest city, Sydney. He said Jobs' legacy would surpass that of even Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.
"The digital age has lost its leading light, but Steve's innovation and creativity will inspire dreamers and thinkers for generations," Sony Corp. President and Chief Executive Howard Stringer said in a statement.
Few companies felt Apple's rise more than Japan's Sony, whose iconic Walkman transformed the music listening experience in the 1980s but which proved no match for Apple's iPod after it launched in 2001.
President Barack Obama said Jobs exemplified American ingenuity. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon bemoaned the loss of "one of the most visionary minds of our times." India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was "deeply saddened."
Steve Wozniak, who started Apple in a Silicon Valley garage with Jobs in 1976, said his co-founder "had the ability to think out new ways of doing things, not just ways to improve what we have ... but to do it in a totally different way that the world would swing toward."
News of Jobs' death Wednesday, after years spent battling pancreatic cancer, spread swiftly in the online world, which was alight with expressions of sympathy. Zuckerberg's comments on Facebook were "liked" by more than 215,000 people within hours. The most heavily trending topics on Twitter in the hours after Jobs' death included the phrases "RIP Steve Jobs," ''thankyousteve" and "iSad."
Internet search behemoth Google starkly listed Jobs' name and the years of his birth and death on its home page, with a link leading to a Jobs memorial on Apple's home page.
Thousands of celebrities and fans took to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to leave remembrances about him. Many noted that they had learned of his death via one of his products, such as the iPhone.
Amalia Sari in Jakarta, Indonesia, said when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer just over a year ago, she decided to go on a monthlong pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. She bought an iPad for her mom to look at photos sent home and to keep in touch via Apple video conference.
"Without Steve Jobs and his crazy inventions, that kind of thing would never have been possible," she said, adding that after getting the first tweet about Job's death she logged off because she couldn't bear to hear more about it.
"I was really sobbing. It is great loss for me, and for the world as well," she said.
In China, one of Apple's fastest growing markets, Henry Men Youngfan said he was shocked by the news that his hero had died, remembering how he felt when he entered graduate school at Peking University's college of engineering.
"My teachers asked me what kind of person I wanted to be and I told them I wanted to be like Steve," Men said in Beijing.
Li Zilong, who was listening to his iPod in front of a Beijing Apple store, worried that Apple's innovation may have died along with its co-founder, whose charisma and showmanship were an essential part of the company's sales pitch.
"Jobs was a legendary figure; every company needs a spiritual leader," said the 20-year-old university student. "Without Jobs, I don't know if Apple can give us more classic products, like the iPhone 4."
Competing companies that watched as Apple's sales — and its stock price — took off over the past decade posted messages of admiration.
"Steve Jobs was a great visionary and a respected competitor," said Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, co-CEOs of Blackberry-maker Research in Motion.
"For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it's been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely," Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said.
The chief executive officer of Samsung, which is locked in an intensifying court battle with Apple over patent rights, called Steve Jobs an "innovative spirit" who will be remembered forever.
The South Korean electronics giant momentarily put aside its rivalry with Apple to praise Jobs as the man who "introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry," G.S. Choi said in a statement.
Also in Seoul, 16-year-old student Yu Yong-hyun said he was devastated that the world lost a talented CEO so early.
"People my age think using Apple makes them look more cool," Yu said, adding that his iPhone organizes his life and connects him to the Internet while his iPod is always attached to his ears.
In Tokyo, Apple aficionados gathered at an iStore for a sunset vigil organized via Twitter, holding up virtual candles on their iPhones and iPads.
"I knew I had to come," said university student Hideki Fujita, 18. "I just needed to be here."
In Lagos, Nigeria, technology specialist Gbenga Sesan said people will remember Jobs every time they use "an iPhone, iPad, iTouch, or an i-anything"
"Even though Steve is gone, Steve is still with us," Sesan said.
Even the White House mourned. Obama remembered Jobs as one of America's greatest innovators and said the world had lost a visionary.
In a tweet sent separately from his statement, Obama said, in his words, "There may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."
___
Associated Press writers Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Michael Peng in Beijing, Tomoko A. Hosaka in Tokyo, Annie Huang in Taipei, Jiyoung Won in Seoul, Emily Fredrix in New York and Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
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