Steven Jobs

Computer designer and corporate executive Steven Jobs (born 1955) is cofounder of Apple Computers. With his vision of affordable personal computers, he launched one of the largest industries of the past decades while still in his early twenties and remains one of the most inventive and energetic minds in American technology.

Born in 1955, Steven Jobs was adopted shortly thereafter by a California couple, Paul and Clara Jobs. Jobs showed an early interest in electronics and gadgetry. As a high school student, he boldly asked William Hewlett, co-founder and president of the Hewlett-Packard computer firm, for some parts he needed to complete a class project. Hewlett was impressed enough to give Jobs the parts and offer him a summer internship at Hewlett-Packard.

Dropped Out of College

After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, for two years before dropping out, partly to ease his family's financial burden and partly to find himself. He hoped to visit India and study eastern spiritualism, but lacking necessary funds, went to work part-time for Atari Computers. He was able to save enough money to finance a trip to India in the summer of 1974. While there, he practiced meditation, studied eastern culture and religion, and even shaved his head. But by the fall, he became ill with dysentery and was forced to return to the United States.

For a short time, Jobs lived in a California commune but soon became disenchanted with the lifestyle. In 1975, he began associating with a group of computer aficionados known as the Homebrew Computer Club. One member, a technical whiz named Steve Wosniak, whom Jobs had first met at Hewlett-Packard, was trying to build a small computer. Jobs became fascinated with the marketing potential of such a computer, and in 1976 he and Wosniak formed their own company. The team was content to sell circuit boards designed by Wosniak until the computer prototype was complete. That same year, Wosniak succeeded in designing a small computer, and using Jobs's parents' garage, the two men worked to refine and market the product.

Cofounded Apple Computer Co.

Jobs saw a huge gap in the existing computer market, as no product was targeted for home use. Wosniak improved his initial computer while Jobs lined up investors and bank financing. Marketing manager A. C. Markkula eventually invested $250,000 and became an equal partner in the Apple Computer Company. With new capital, Jobs and Wosniak refined the prototype. The redesigned computer— christened the "Apple II"—hit the market in 1977, with impressive first year sales of $2.7 million. In one of the most phenomenal cases of corporate growth in U.S. history, the company's sales grew to $200 million within three years. Jobs and Wosniak had opened an entirely new market, that of personal computers, bringing the computational speed of business systems into people's homes and beginning a new era in information processing.

By 1980, the personal computer era was well underway. Apple was forced to continually improve its products to remain ahead in a growing marketplace. Competitors such as Radio Shack, Commodore, and IBM were gaining sales from Apple's market. In 1980, Apple introduced the Apple III computer, and improved version of the Apple II, but the new model suffered technical and marketing problems. It was withdrawn from the market, but was later reworked and reintroduced.

Jobs continued to be the marketing force behind Apple. He admitted that mistakes were made with the Apple III, but looked for innovative ways to meet new and existing consumer needs. Early in 1983, Jobs unveiled Lisa, another new computer, aimed this time at business executives. Lisa was designed for people possessing minimal computer experience. The model did not sell well, however, because of its high price and increased competition from IBM personal computers. By 1983, it was estimated that Apple lost half of its market share to IBM.

Macintosh falls, Jobs resigns

Faced with a declining market share, Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984. In designing the model, Jobs apparently paid more attention to appearances than function. Although the Macintosh had "user-friendly" software and on-screen displays, Jobs failed to equip it with either a letter-quality printer or a hard disk drive. Lacking these features, the Macintosh did not sell well to businesses. The failure of the Macintosh signalled the beginning of Jobs's downfall at Apple Computer Company. In 1985, following a highly publicized showdown at Apple, Jobs resigned from the company he had founded, though he retained his title as chairman of its board of directors.

It was not long before Steve Jobs resurfaced, however. Soon after leaving Apple, he hired some of his former employees to begin a new computer company. The company was called NeXT, and Jobs invested $7 million of his own money to get it started. For three years, Jobs and his employees worked to produce the first NeXT computer, which was aimed at the educational market. Late in 1988, the NeXT computer was introduced at a large gala event in San Francisco. Initial reactions were generally good; the product was user-friendly, with very fast processing speed, excellent graphics displays, and an outstanding sound system. Other innovations included an optical disk drive instead of floppy disks, and a special sound chip to provide the fidelity of a compact disc. Judging from initial reactions, many critics were convinced that Steve Jobs had brought another revolutionary product to American consumers.

Despite the warm reception, however, the NeXT machine never caught on. It was too costly, had a black-and-white screen, and couldn't be linked to other computers or run common software, Joseph Nocera wrote in a biting profile of Jobs in Gentleman's Quarterly. Nocera argued that Jobs's charisma and persuasive charm duped his employees, the press, and Jobs himself into believing he could not fail—despite strong evidence to the contrary. "Jobs started NeXT with an unshakable faith in his own press clips, in which his mistakes were always overlooked while his supposed triumphs were always wildly oversold," Nocera wrote.

Nocera said he also fell victim to the Jobs myth when he visited NeXT in 1986. He witnessed Jobs brutalize employees who worshipped him, obsess over mindless details, and indulge his expensive tastes—yet Nocera reported none of the contradictions. "The point is," he wrote in 1993, "my willingness to be seduced by Steve Jobs caused me to miss what I was seeing with my own eyes. Even in 1986, the evidence strongly suggested that lightning was not going to strike twice. The incongruities were too severe, the dreams too farfetched…. You'd ask the people at NeXT how, exactly, their computer was going to change the world and they would lapse into gobbledygook; they really had no idea what they were trying to accomplish with this new machine."

Bought Pixar, Made Toy Story

NeXT was not, however, the end of Steve Jobs. Lightning, indeed, struck a second time. In 1986, Jobs paid filmmaker George Lucas $10 million for a small firm called Pixar that specialized in computer animation. "Over the next six years Jobs poured another $40 million of his own money into the company … as it set out to make the first-ever computer-animated feature film," Time magazine reported in February 1996. That film was Toy Story, a huge box office hit. Pixar's initial public stock offering was an enormous success. The share price climbed dramatically, and Jobs's 80 percent stake in Pixar suddenly was worth $1 billion.

"Jobs makes the point that Pixar, like other (initial public offering) overnight successes, was really anything but an overnight success," said the Time article. "-The things I've done in my life have required a lot of years of work before they took off,' he says. He and Wosniak started work on Apple in 1975. -So it was really six years of work before we went public. And Pixar has been 10 years…. The thing that drives me and my colleagues … is that you see something very compelling to you, and you don't quite know how to get it, but you know, sometimes intuitively, it's within your grasp. And it's worth putting in years of your life to make it come into existence."'

In December of 1996, Apple announced that it was purchasing Next Software for over $400 million. Jobs returned to Apple as a part-time consultant to CEO Gilbert Amelio. The following year, in August, Apple entered into a partnership with archrival Microsoft, in which the two companies, according to the New York Times, "agreed to cooperate on several sales and technology fronts." The alliance was an unprecedented one for the industry, but analysts predicted that Microsoft's support will ultimately save Apple, a company that had in the late 1990s come to serve a much more niche market than Microsoft. "We want to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose," Jobs said. In September of 1997, Jobs was named interim CEO of Apple while a replacement for the ousted Amelio was sought.

Further Reading

Butcher, Lee, Accidental Millionaire: The Rise and Fall of Steven Jobs at Apple Computer, Paragon House, 1987.

Young, Jeffrey S., Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward, Scott, Foresman, 1988.

Esquire, December, 1986, pp. 84-101.

Fortune, February 20, 1984, pp. 86-88.

Gentleman's Quarterly, October 1993, pp. 105-111.

Newsweek, January 30, 1984, pp. 54-57; September 30, 1985, pp. 46-50; October 24, 1988, pp. 46-51.

Rolling Stone, April 4, 1996, pp. 51 °.

Time, February 15, 1982, pp. 40-41; January 3, 1983, pp. 25-27; January 30, 1984, pp. 68-69; February 19, 1996, pp. 43-47.

Business Week March 17, 1997, pp. 116. □

JOBS, STEVEN PAUL

Computer designer and corporate executive Steven Jobs (1955–) was the co-founder of Apple Computers. He helped create one of the first affordable personal computers for home use and launched one of the largest industries in the United States. Jobs, with his friend, Steve Wozniak (1950–), pioneered the design and development of desktop computers.

Born in 1955 and adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountainview, California, Steven Jobs grew up in the comfortable environment his adoptive parents provided. His father was a machinist, and his mother an accountant. Steve attended high school in Los Gatos, California, where his family had moved. While in high school he became involved with electronics projects and worked a summer job at a nearby computer firm, Hewlett Packard. After graduating in 1972 Jobs attended Reed College for two years before dropping out. He worked for the Atari computer company part time where he earned enough money to visit India to study Eastern spiritualism. While in India he practiced meditation and studied Eastern culture, but he became ill with dysentery after three months and was forced to return to the United States for adequate medical treatment.

In 1975 Jobs began associating with a group of computer aficionados known as the Homebrew Computer Club. There he met a technical whiz named Steve Wozniak, who was working on building a small computer. Jobs and Wozniak teamed up and formed Apple Computer Corporation in 1976. Wozniak finished the design of his small computer and, working out of Steve Jobs' parents' garage, the two men worked at refining and marketing their product.

Jobs saw a huge gap in the existing computer market at that time because no computer was yet targeted for home use. While Wozniak improved his initial computer, Jobs lined up investors and bank financing.

The redesigned computer, called the "Apple II," hit the marketplace in 1977. The first year sales reached $2.7 million and within three years had grown to $200 million. Jobs and Wozniak successfully and importantly opened an entirely new market—the home, or personal, computer. They brought the computational speed of business systems into people's homes and started a new era in information processing.

By 1980 the personal computer era was well underway and Apple had plenty of competition from Radio Shack, Commodore, and IBM. Fierce competition proved a good thing for the consumer public, but the Apple corporation stumbled in its efforts to stay ahead of the competition. When the Apple III was introduced to the public in 1980 it suffered from technical and marketing problems. In 1983 Jobs' introduction of the new computer Lisa failed in the marketplace because of its high price and stiff competition from IBM. Apple lost half of its market share in 1983. The Macintosh was introduced in 1984 and continued Apple's trend of poor marketplace performance. By 1985, following internal conflicts at Apple Corporation, Steve Jobs resigned from the company he had founded, retaining only his title as chairman of the board of directors.

That same year, Jobs sold his shares of Apple stock to launch another business in Redwood City, California, called "NEXT." The goal of NEXT was simple: to build a breakthrough computer that would revolutionize research and higher education. Jobs used $100 million of his own assets from Apple shares to start NEXT, and other entrepreneurs, like Texas billionaire Ross Perot (1930—), invested an additional $20 million in the project. Canon Corporation also invested heavily, $100 million in 1989, and an additional $15 million extended in credit to NEXT in 1992. The NEXT did not live up to its goals and Jobs was criticized by the business media as being more of a business huckster than a consistently productive business entrepreneur. However, lightning did strike twice for Jobs.

In 1986 Jobs had purchased a small firm from filmmaker, George Lucas (1945–), called PIXAR, a business specializing in computer animation. During the next six years Jobs put $40 million into PIXAR and set out to make the first-ever completely computer animated film. In 1996 the film "Toy Story" was released. Produced completely with PIXAR computer animation, it was an enormous success. PIXAR's market value for Steve Jobs, who owned 90 percent of the company, climbed suddenly to $1 billion.

Within a short time after PIXAR's success Jobs made headlines again. In 1995 Apple bought Jobs' NEXT company for $400 million and rehired Jobs as advisor to G.F. Amelio, the Apple chief executive officer (CEO). Jobs was also officially re-appointed to Apple's board of directors. Apple understood that it could not hope for a better salesman than Jobs. His genius for infecting others with his enthusiasm was recognized by critics and admirers alike.

By 1997 lightning struck Jobs a third time. Jobs and Bill Gates (1955–), CEO of Microsoft Corporation, announced that their companies were joining forces. Microsoft would invest $150 million for a nonvoting minority stake in Apple and the two companies would cooperate in several marketing and technology fronts. This alliance made Microsoft and Apple the two largest players in the still growing computer industry. Steve Jobs regained his former position as one of the richest and most successful people in the revolutionary marketplace of home and business computers.

See also: Computer Industry, Stephen Wozniak

FURTHER READING

Butcher, Lee. Accidental Millionaire: The Rise and Fall of Steven Jobs at Apple Computer. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1987.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998, s.v. "Jobs, Steven."

Rose, Frank. West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer. New York: Viking, 1989.

Sculley, John. From Pepsi to Apple. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Stross, Randall. Steve Jobs and the Next Big Thing. New York: Atheneum, 1993.

Young, Jeffrey S. Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1988.

Steven Paul Jobs , 1955–2011, American computer-industry executive, b. San Francisco. He dropped out of Reed College (1972), and working with Stephen Wozniak, helped launch the personal-computer revolution by founding (1976) the Apple company and introducing (1977) its first product, the Apple II computer. Jobs later successfully established Apple's line as a sleek, user-friendly, graphically oriented alternative to the IBM-Microsoft personal computer and an important factor in desktop publishing . He resigned in 1985 after losing a corporate power struggle.

In 1985 he founded the NeXT Computer Company and in 1986 bought Pixar Animation Studios, a computer animation firm founded by George Lucas . When Pixar went public in 1995, Jobs became an overnight billionaire. In 2006 Pixar was purchased by the Walt Disney Company, making Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney.

In 1996, Apple acquired NeXT and Jobs returned to the company, serving as chief executive from 1997 (interim CE0, 1997–2000). He played a key role in reviving the financially ailing company, and reconfirmed his reputation as an industry visionary. Jobs oversaw the development of elegantly designed digital music players, smartphones, and computer tablets whose enormous success also led Apple to become a significant music and software vendor. Seriously ill, he stepped down as chief executive in 2011 and was briefly Apple's chairman before he died.

Bibliography: See biography by W. Isaacson (2011); L. Butcher, Accidental Millionaire (1988); J. Young, Steve Jobs (1988); S. Levy, Insanely Great (1994); A. Deutschman, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs (2000); D. A. Price, The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company (2008).

STEVEN JOBS

At the age of 21, Steven Jobs was persuaded by his friend Stephen Wozniak to help him create an "insanely great" personal computer that anyone could use. When the stock of their company went public five years later, Jobs made $256.4 million.

After ten years with Apple, Jobs left to start a new computer company, NeXT. He also bought Pixar, Inc., a small computer animation company, from George Lucas. Pixar produced Toy Story, the first feature- length computer animated film, using computers from SGI, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun. When Pixar's stock went public in January 1995, 30-year-old Jobs became a billionaire.

In 1997 Jobs returned to Apple and shortly thereafter assumed the role of CEO, a title he also holds at Pixar. Jobs is credited with the development of the very popular iMac computer.