Steve Jobs and Apple Computer

Source : A Touch of Business.com

Before, only those who were loyal to their Apple Computer PCs were aware of who Steve Jobs was.

Nowadays, nearly everybody knows him thanks to that phenomenon called the iPod.

Steve Jobs and Apple Computer have had a love-hate relationship even ending at one time with Jobs being booted from the firm only to return in 1996 and completely turn the company around and back to profitability.

This achievement definitely merits Steve Jobs to be included in America's greatest business leader list.

Steve Jobs ' Beginnings Steve Jobs was born to a Syrian father and an American mother, who gave him up for adoption immediately after he was born. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of California and spent his 'schooling days' in Cupertino, CA, where he often went to the after-school lectures of the Hewlett-Packard Company. Not surprisingly, he was later hired by HP and worked with Stephen Wozniak.


Steve Jobs' First 'Business Deal'

In the mid-1970's, Jobs, then working at Atari, was approached by its founder Nolan Bushnell and offered $100 for every chip that he can reduce for a new circuit board for the game Breakout. He made a deal with Wozniak to share the bonus 50 50. Wozniak amazed everybody by reducing the number of chips by 50. His 'bonus'? $250... Jobs wasn't exactly truthful; he told Wozniak that Artari only gave them a $500 bonus (instead of the $5000 he received).


Steve Jobs and Apple Computer

In 1976, Jobs founded Apple Computer with Wozniak after he saw a computer the latter designed for himself. The company's first product was called the Apple I. The next product was aptly called Apple II and it became such a hit that Apple II is credited to be the best selling computer in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1984, the firm introduced the Macintosh, which was the first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface. It was so successful that Apple abandoned further developments on Apple II.

Alas, not all was smooth sailing. An internal power struggle in Apple ended with Jobs being stripped of his duties in 1985 and so he left the company and founded NeXT Computer. NeXT was not an instant hit but it reflected Jobs' perfectionist side that it garnered its own following.

In 1993, it would transition into a software development firm. Meanwhile, Apple Computer has been struggling and in 1996, it bough NeXT for US$402 million, bringing Jobs back at the helm of the firm he founded. Apple Computer has since then regained its foothold in the computers and electronics industry and has even successfully branched out into the portable music business with the iPod MP3 player, iTunes digital music software and the iTunes Music Store.


The Steve Jobs Quick Bio

• Full name: Steven Paul Jobs
• Birth date: February 24, 1955
• Birth place: San Francisco
• Key success traits: a man of action, an innovator, a true over comer of obstacles
• Company: Apple Computer
• Industry: Computers & Electronics

Additional:

• Former Chairman and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios , which is popular for its production of animated films such as The Incredibles and Toy Story . The firm was recently bought by Walt Disney Studios for $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs the biggest individual shareholder at Disney.

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