What Is Steve Jobs?
Steve Jobs was a pretty smart guy. He co-founded Apple, NeXT Computers, and Pixar and was the CEO of all three companies. What did he do before that? Well, that's where it gets interesting. Before becoming the CEO of Apple, Jobs was a college dropout who moved back in with his parents to work on an alternative to the TV remote control. This project led him to invent the mouse he incorporated into the Xerox Alto computer system at PARC in Palo Alto, California. Jobs also worked briefly at Atari under Nolan Bushnell, where he designed games like Breakout and Missile Command. Still, Atari fired him after arguing with other employees about how much money should be spent on design versus programming. Steve Jobs was the man who made computers cool. It's hard to imagine now, but computers were considered nerdy and clunky before Apple came along. But then Steve Jobs took over as CEO of Apple, and everything changed. The Apple I and II were designed for hobbyists for people who wanted to learn about computers in a fun way. Jobs' vision was that everyone should be able to use these machines, so he created them with an eye toward simplicity and ease of use. The success of these products helped spur the creation of the personal computing market. Throughout his later career, Jobs and Apple were viewed as a foil to Bill Gates and Microsoft. The image of Apple as a company that designed slick devices for the savvy consumer was one that Jobs worked tirelessly to maintain. Jobs' final tenure as Apple's CEO saw the company release multiple products that dominated their markets and drove Apple's stock price so high that it was jockeying with Exxon for the title of the world's largest publicly-traded company. After leaving Atari and returning to Apple as CEO in 1997 (John Sculley had fired him), Jobs oversaw the return of Apple's focus on innovation and creativity with products like the iPod and iPhone. In 2001, Apple launched iTunes; by 2007, they sold 25 million songs per day through this platform alone!
Related Terms by Others
Join Our Newsletter
Get weekly news, engaging articles, and career tips-all free!
By subscribing to our newsletter, you're cool with our terms and conditions and agree to our Privacy Policy.