Editor's Note: Steve Jobs died at the age of 56. We're reprising this article as we look back at his extraordinary life.
Corrections & Amplifications
After what many would call a brilliant career, Apple's Steve Jobs said late last night that he would step down as CEO. Though he will stay on as Chairman and still hold sway over the company, much of Apple's day-to-day operations will fall to his successor Tim Cook. In his resignation letter, Jobs said that Apple has its best days ahead. While that may be true, now seems like as good a time as any to give credit where credit due.
Here are 10 things to give thanks to Steve Jobs for:
1. The iPod and iTunes. For many consumers, the pint-sized gadget that first hit the scene in 2001 was their first entrée into digital music. At the time, there were other digital music players but none had the staying power of Apple's iconic iPod, its subsequent versions and offshoots like the iPod Touch. But perhaps even more revolutionary was Apple's iTunes, the digital media player that launched in 2001. That platform didn't just become the ubiquitous means by which music was bought, sold and shared, it broke down the old music model that gave record companies ultimate reign over the radio waves. Suddenly, independent musicians and artists didn't need a record deal to be heard; they can now reach their audiences directly.
2. Not doing it for the money. Long before Citigroup's CEO Vikram Pandit was taking home $1 a year, Steve Jobs earned a measly $1 annual paycheck. When he rejoined the company in 1997 after being let go from Apple in 1985, Jobs set his salary at just $1. Though the tech pioneer is well-known for his wealth -- thanks to his investments in Apple and Disney, among others -- he has been quoted as saying "I never did it for the money." In 2010, his total compensation was again $1, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
3. Focusing on design. The original Macintosh computer aside, Jobs' focus on sleek, light-weight and resilient design has led to a concerted effort among the technology community to deliver similarly ergonomic technologies. Under his reign, dial-up modems, floppy drives and the fax machine got the ax, just to name a few.
4. Inspiring others. Not only do legions of entrepreneurs list Jobs as a source for inspiration, Apple's ecosystem has helped fuel thousands of other businesses. At present, there are more than 500,000 applications listed on iTunes, and countless other technology firms have sprung up to furnish ancillary products. From iPod battery-life extender Mophie to Apple-accessories supplier Speck to app development firm Sweb Apps, Jobs' creations for Apple have become critical to so many other businesses. Furthermore, applications developers and programmers have been building off the platform's specifications for years.
5. The iPad. E-readers, computers and mobile devices were already in existence when the iPad launched last January, but the newfangled gadget nonetheless caught on -- and beat record sales figures quarter after quarter. Apple's iPad -- which is expected to get a refresh in early 2012 -- also gave rise to new business concepts and uses. More than 90,000 applications have been developed for the iPad alone. Furthermore, other technology firms have since developed their own tablets but none have come close to touching Apple's success. Hewlett-Packard last week slashed the price of its TouchPad to $99 from the original sale price of $499, as it announced that it would discontinue the product.
Related: Remembering Apple's Steve Jobs
6. Wowing investors. A decade ago Apple’s stock was worth $9 a share; today, it’s $372. Second only to oil giant Exxon Mobil, at $345 billion, Apple is one of the world's most valuable companies.
7. Being a visionary. Just ask HP and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion if Jobs' laser-like focus on design has been tough to beat. Though, notorious for being a stubborn micromanager, Jobs has managed to steer Apple in the direction of excellence. He is a visionary in the sense that he developed products for consumers that he thought they needed -- and they confirmed his hunches again and again.
8. Forcing other corporate giants to be innovative. Thanks to the launch of iTunes, which demanded that songs sell for the low-low price of $1, record companies that wanted to reach consumers on iTunes were forced to comply. In 2007, Cingular moved to redesign its voice-mail system for the iPhone’s visual voice mail. And in 2009, the typically guarded AT&T agreed to offer consumers a month-by-month data plan for the iPad without requiring a signed contract.
9. For proving that a dramatic turnaround can be possible. Once again in charge of Apple in 1997, Jobs struck a deal with Microsoft to help ensure Apple's survival. Under the arrangement, Microsoft invested $150 million for a nonvoting minority stake in Apple, and the companies agreed to "cooperate on several sales and technology fronts." Next, Jobs installed the G3 PowerPC microprocessor in all Apple computers, making them faster than competing Pentium PCs. He also spearheaded the development of the iMac, a new line of affordable home desktops, which debuted in August 1998 to rave reviews. Under Jobs' guidance, Apple quickly returned to profitability, and by the end of 1998, boasted sales of $5.9 billion.
Related: Why Entrepreneurs Love Steve Jobs
10. Boosting employment. In 1997, the company and its world-wide subsidiaries had just 8,437 regular employees, and an additional 1,739 temporary or part-time contractors and employees, according to SEC filings. As of last September, Apple had approximately 46,600 full-time equivalent employees and an additional 2,800 full-time equivalent temporary employees and contractors.
Corrections & Amplifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the year in which iTunes was released, which was 2001. The story also misstated the year that Cingular/AT&T revamped its network to support visual voicemail. It was 2007.
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Comments:
It seems that his successes only seem to fulfill the goal of getting money to Apple. I must ocnfess, most of his stuff is unusable in a corporate environment...and costly.
steve jobs is a boss i love my ipod ipad and mac
something new about the laser tecnology i found hare.
get ur facts straight.... from 1997 to 2011 i.e. till his death... Jobs only held a ceremonial 1 share in Apple Inc... and it was one of the founders share... which he had held since the inception of Apple!!!
Steve Jobs is giant!
The world is a better place with S.J in it. Death at 56? what a life, He will for ever be remembered His peaceful revolution to improve quality of Human Life especially on technology. Unparalleled achievements in COMMUNICATION, MOVIES, MUSIC, and MOBILE makes him lives on. It is well with his soul. Peace and Love.!!!!
Your points speak to his genius as a businessman. Apple sells less than 5% but worth over 300 billion? To your point of problems with PCs, do you own an apple PC? Do you own an iphone? Never had to ctrl-alt-del an apple or ever got a virus. Never had a force close apps on an iphone. Can't say the same for android. Apple builds quality products with much more engineering and thought put into them. When own a PC or android and you use an apple product, it's like driving a cadillac for a week and going back to your ford fiesta.
Anymore, Apple's desktop/laptop computers aren't really pulling their own weight. If you look at their sales record in the last couple years, the iPad and iPhone have taken over a majority of their sales, as one might expect given the booming smartphone and tablet market. Many feel that the age of the desktop computer is over, and that laptops will be replaced by tablets. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but if you go by the numbers, the theory holds water.
True, usually Apple products are a nuisance to people who crawled out of a rock!
11. Dignity in Death. Personally, I think his example of how to carry on despite all the odds, without public complaint, is one of his biggest accomplishments. I'd thank him for that.
He was a true genius. He inspired everyone that uses its creations. We will miss his brilliance and good taste in electronic gadgets that are part of our lives. Found this interesting also: http://raisingasmartkidtoday.blogspot.com/
The reality is that not many of these highly touted gadgets actually add real value to society. great inventor, yes, for the geek squad. But as business tools, his share of market says it all. If texting and tuning stopped tomorrow, my life would change not a whit, so it's tough to call his gadgets (other than the original Apple) life changing....more like nuisance.
Steve mad his money from PIXAR and Disney when he sold that company and got stock in disney... why are people so salty that he was brilliant with his money and investments?? to say jobs didnt have an impact on our society as a whole, whether you like it or not, is just bogus. Oh and WALTER DURANTY, please get your facts straight, jobs DID work for a dollar a year, because he could courtesy of Disney, Do you hate Walt Disney too?
haha for nothing? you have obviously never owned a Mac Computer... i have used EVERY computer manufactured in this country (i work for best buy's geek squad) and hands down Apple products destroy any competition for longevity and innovations that made Mac easier to use, i would like to know what your PROFESSIONAL experience is with Apple or PCs to justify your ignorance...
#9...whoa...how many entrepreneurs can get their chief rival to invest? He died too young.
Everything above is just BS if you are not concerned about people. Just ask Steve when he found out what all his money would buy him. Nothing.
Apple is not some "Mom and pop" store where you can throw the kid $100 off the books and nobody will notice, there is almost no way that money can be paid tax free to a person of his stature and go unnoticed. His obvious motivation came from increasing the value of the company thus increasing the price of the stock, which he owned a significant amount of. Steve taking a $1 annual salary and only getting compensated based on the stock price of Apple going up is a very noble move and guaranteed that he was held accountable for his actions and performance and he only made money when whatever his new project was became a hit. There are 100's of other companies that the CEO makes 7 figures while the company tanks and his performance means nothing, sure he has shares of the company but that's just their bonus. I believe that if other American companies followed Jobs lead and CEO's, along with other top execs, were paid ONLY based on how much value they added to the company we would see a breakthrough in American business similar to the industrial revolution.
Let us not forget that Jobs was among those who exported tens of thousands of technology jobs to other countries and had his products made under horrendous conditions in China and other places. Vikram Pandit of Citigroup did not work for $1 a year. Before ever joining Citigroup, he was compensated something like $146 million. Citi bought his hedge fund for some $120 million before he became CEO [and he pirated his partner's share.], and on becoming CEO, he closed the fund down as a piece of junk. I'm sure Jobs didn't work for $1 a year - had he acquired significant shares of Apple before he took the $1, which went up in value as he 'innovated' how to steal workers' livelihood? And how much of the 'innovation' brought about by Jobs was so much time-wasting junk? Like the device some idiot was using when she rear-ended me on an interstate at high speed? Just another bad apple of the corporate world. Too many of the overgrown teenagers don't realize that people like Jobs eliminated meaningful employment for them or created conditions that threaten that employment now.
You have been paying too much attention to our POLITICIANS method of operation - Mr. Jobs had millions from his other investments - did not suck the blood out of his Company like our Bankers, Wall street and Corporate CEO's
We should have had him running our Country !!
The things you mentioned were invented a Xerox park, Jobs didn't invent any of them, but he successfully marketed them.
Jobs got huge stock options from Apple when he returned. The gave him an executive jet with an allowance for maintaining it and even gave him enough to offset his tax liability. He sold all his Apple stock (bar one, so he could go to stockholder meetings) before he went back to Apple. He took Apple to fame only by making gadgets. Apple still sells less than five percent of all computers worldwide. Apple in 2011 is a maker of clone PCs with a different operating system. Had they not lied consistently about the power of their machines and the "problems" of using a PC, they would have gone bust long ago. And now you pay twice as much as a Windows machine . . . for nothing.
Now his company needs to earn bragging rights for bringing real JOBS to America!!!! Don't outsource! Keep the country Steve loved with real JOBS from Steve Jobs!!! Bring the $ home so it can be spent here making that company & America strong!!!
$1, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing...Anyone believing he did not get under the table $$$ is crazy!!!!! He is not stupid - he didn't want it all to go to taxes...We get the score!
You forgot to mention; the mouse, windows type operating system and multi-tasking. I'm not really a computer type but I expect there are many more operational modes he gave us.
Thank you so much for the great article. It helps me learn more about Mr. Jobs whom becomes my second hero. Abraham Lincoln and Steve Jobs passed away at the age of 56, which were the coincident events. Don’t you mind when I post it on my blog, “My Knowledgeable Bank?” Thank you.
im addicted to my Ipod Touch and can never leave the home without it. Its such a useful piece of a device, completely worthwhile carrying. All thanks goes to the genius. =)
A True Genius in very sense...Thanks Steve Jobs for changing the world around us
If he didn't out source to China, Apple products would be even more expensive. You should thank him for that.
i love his product he madde or created we cant live with out some of them..if your smart you should have AAPL stock
the most important is when he knew he will not make a recoverey and still he was ready to do miracles fo APPLE :)
This is like saying, "But what about all the good things Hitler did?"
You may not understand "the market." 200% profit is ridiculous, but let's not begin to convince ourselves that Apple's kit wasn't overpriced for dated technology. Paying a bleeding edge premium, regardless of R&D, business costs and logistics is ridiculous when the technology is far from bleeding edge....6 months removed in most cases.
Unfortunately, "innovation" is defined as invention. So a completely original idea is innovative, something derived from something else isn't. It's an enhancement. FYI, tablet devices existed before the iPad thus it isn't innovative. Apple has never been innovative. The Newton was the closest they came to innovation and that's a stretch. A plane would of course be innovative. Flying isn't an invention, but giving people the ability to fly is.
First, where are you getting these profitability numbers? Do you even understand what that term means??? Second, the fact is that a salary of $1 isn't the same as total compensation. The fact is he made more than $1 per year. Any CEO that takes a $1 per year salary is making incentives. Only an idiot works for free. Would you? Also, what philanthropic money? Providing jobs to people that help add to the bottom line and your paycheck isn't philanthropy, it's called business. Your comments are ridiculous. He didn't impact technology, he bought and stole it. He even admitted as such. Good artists borrow, great artists steal.
Lol. If you really think he worked for $1 total compensation per year, you're sadly deluded.
He didn't force innovation. He bought it and stole it. Nokia was already moving on from Symbian prior to iOS. That smooth GUI is a knock off of Symbian which was a knock off of Palm...no innovation there.
Really? Humble and improving the quality of lives of Foxconn employees? Check that again nubcakes.
Started everything from scratch??? You realize that Apple never actually created anything that wasn't already available on the market, right? LOL at U
Apple invented nothing. Apple rarely uses the "best technology." Foxconn is far from "best." And their stupid product cycles guarantee their technology is always 6 months behind what is "best," yet idiots buying Apple kit still believe it is magic and "best." Easy to use is subjective as you noted, and yet I've seen people struggle with OSX when moving from Windows and vis-a-versa. His "vision" was weak and he did nothing to progress technology. He was about the bottom-line, and the marketing drove the iNubs to buy the dated technology in droves.
we are happy to have a guy like Steve. we understand that a day will come to get ourselves out from our accomplished business. The time is just come for Steve. we know that he will turn his vision to something else and we are waiting. Steve, we are prod of you!
to bad most of those jobs were in china so much for not doing it for the money.
Being a marketing professional, I always cherished the style with attire of Steve Jobs, He did which we perhaps even think in dreams... specifically when he presented in simple Jeans, roundTs and sport shoes, an approch of simplicity penetrates the consumes directly into their pockets. Continuing research on his marketing techniques, product strategies and implementation to the core was remarkable. I pray for his rest in piece.
A cool guy.. though, I'm all about the Android and PC, what he has created was just brilliant. My first use of a computer at uni was the Apple......so miss that little cream color computer.... what a look back!
Of Apple By Steve For the People Kudos Steve!!!
I can't help believing that Jobs would have been further along than all of the research labs operating today. The fight against cancer has been going on for almost an entire century. I've come to believe that the cancer industry is too large, too many people working in it to find a cure. They would lose funding and jobs if they released a cure.
I started in business at the same time the two Steves invented Apple. They were right down the street. I remember going to Los Gatos for lunch and seeing a new computer store opening. Everyone thought it was a joke. Who wanted to buy a computer? Who would pay thousands of dollars for it? What would we do with it? I knew a secretary who worked at Apple from the beginning. She waived her salary for almost two years. We laughed. in 1981, I bought a used Apple III from a dentist for $3,000. In 1983, that secretary came to my investment firm with over 10 million dollars from the stock she took in lieu of salary. Did I make a monster mistake in not investing in Apple? Or Microsoft? I often kicked myself, but I thoroughly enjoyed using Apple products and never went to Microsoft OS. Steve Jobs was directly responsible for building a machine that I used to retire at the old age of 49. Without Macintosh, I don't know how I could have been a business success. We relied on that machine and do so today. Thanks Steve, both of you.
I loved the way he looked at corporate business, shirt and jeans man the uniform of his company brilliant!
I thought so
Just a remark for #3, Design is not only sleek, resilent and light, the highest impact from my humble point of view is "easy to use" (intuitive and simple) as well as puting together the best available technology in an innovative useful device, Apple invented very few things but changed the way we live by seeing further than everybody else. Praise Steve Jobs for his vision and determination but mainly for getting there against all the odds.
If necessity was the mother of invention, Steve Jobs was the father.
one thing to add all these is that his products and himself are definitely capable to do what they promise.
Not doing it for the money...are you kidding? Do you not know the famous story of how he ripped off Wozniak back in the day, how apple charge you pretty much for anything, their inflated price model for their (although good) products, the ridiculous amount they charge for spare parts, the joke that was the battery replacement scandle. Most shocking of all is that the company has one of the healthiest bank sheets in the world but yet has a laughable philanthropy record. At least Bill Gates has pledged his wealth to a cause that hasnt affected anyone in his family. This is not an attack on the man, he was a great visionary but lets all not forget he was as fierce a coperate CEO as any Bank, Pharma or Oil company - which is not necesarily bad but saying not doing it for the money? Come off it!
thats the duty of Apple hospital doctors
Steve Jobs our technology hero
a true symbol of prestige, dedication, determination and a role model for those who want to turn their sick units in world most profitable enterprises! Sir Jobs..RIP
wonderful and charismatic human being on THIS earth coz SELLING VERY COSTLY MECHINARY MATERIALS ON NAME OF fruit APPLE.
The death of Mr.Steve Jobs is a huge loss not only for Apple but for millions of his fans worldwide. People used to eagerly wait for his latest product releases year after year with so much awe unmatched by anyone else in the modern era. No matter what he worked on he used to convert it to gold. That shows the immense passion,dedication and hard work he put in what he did. Of course, like what he said in Standord University, he really loved what he did. His life is an example for all of us and for future generations. Will miss him forever. God bless him.
untouchable in the world of technology
Apple should make it their mission to cure cancer.
Thank you so much for this. Steve Jobs was responsible for creating an industry (a few to be exact). We put together our own little Thank-You to him as well. http://www.magmito.com/blog/thank-you-steve-jobs-the-founder-of-our-industry-r-i-p
Great job done by Jobs, May Almighty God bless his soul in rest.
The Only Mobile Phone i really like and be addict to was Iphone. Thanks Steve. your really amazing. will miss you always
Steve Jobs is a great source for inspiration and , a genius who started everything from scratch and today has left a mark which is difficult to forget, He has won a place in the millions of people world over. Hail the Genius , Who has left us and continues to live within us.. Vidyasagar Tallavajhulla Hyderabad
a great visionary and great person, will always be in our heart.-
Steve gave me the opportunity to learn and fix his PCs. I meet him once and I hummbled with the founders of the company. He was only 6 six years ahead of me. RIP Steve.
jobs is our hero and we will miss him forever...
Thank you Steve. we miss you.
I will always keep Finding Nemo and remember you when i watch it!
he made the first commercial PC that taught me to fix them. RIP Steve.
Steve captures what many believe Leaders should look like. Intelligent, humble, inspiring, gets things done and improves the quality of life of people.
Solute to the LEGEND.
Good points! And don't forget "The Regal 200A"! That was seminal!
Jobs, u'll always b remembered........... May ur soul RIP
An absolutely inspirational man, who lived to inspire and motivate until the very end... May his soul rest in peace.
u live in the h8 soul of gautam buddha..........peace life
Steve Jobs was a legend and will be a tough act to follow!
Hats off to Steve, for - Forcing other corporate giants to be innovative... Without him, we would have been stuck to Nokia with Symbian, small screen Sony mp3 player with 4GB space, I admire most apple product for their smooth GUI, but nothing more than that. I own iPhone 3GS, but prefer Motorola Defy to it. I hate iTunes.
Hats off to Steve Jobs !
Steve Jobs ... One in a Billion !!! You are a Legend ...
1. Diminishing audio to crappy MPEG 3 files so that people listen to album tracks out of context. 2. AFTER he made money, it was easy to say he was never 'in it for the money'. 3. Apple blatantly ripped off all the sleek designs of Braun's incredible designer: Deiter Rams. 4. An ego the size of all the Apple sweatshops in China, Jobs paid incredible sums for daily PR. 5. By helping to kill newspapers, ipads force publishers into stringent text codes -- while slashing journalistic details and entire reporting staffs -- in order to make room for incredibly expensive *apps* that replace ads and are slowly killing SEO. 6. Corporate US still hasn't realized they're a nation of media-controlled zombies made up of conformist yuppies ( some with - gasp! - tattoos but conformists nonetheless) and everyone is frozen in time. Since we have let technology change, while people stay the same every year since 1992, we now are supposed to worship technology. This all started with crappy ipods. 7. Being PR/media-morphed into a so-called *visionary* means you can steal ideas from orignators the masses forgot (like, say, the name and likeness of 'Apple' stolen from the Beatles' record label - just sayin'...) Meanwhile, conformist yuppies stay asleep at the wheel, voyeuristically soaking up decades of the pithy Steve Jobs Apple PR machine. 8. Again, since yuppies all over corporate US are just consumer zombies -- in love with their new products to help them define themselves rather than really changing themselves -- of course everyone rushes to match Apple BECAUSE THEY ALL BOUGHT INTO IT! More so, where are your 7,000 ipod songs now? You can't re-sell 'em. They're a digital garbage heap of songs whose intangible songfiles cannot be touched or held. Files have no cover art to enjoy. You look at a long list of helvetica type -- so files even all LOOK the same to your visceral exprience with the artists. Your Apple is virtually nothing real! Corporate giants are NOT any more innovative due to Apple it's just made all digital life the same old, same old. 9. By crafting sneaky strategies to rip-off Microsoft and by repeatedly stealing design ideas (once again, ripping off Braun's elegant and simplistic designs) Jobs knew he could fake out the US again with no problem. First clue: In 1997, #1 song in America was Elton John's "Candle in the Wind"...proof of how easy it is to swindle a country when they'll buy into a song about a movie star who - even then - was dead for 35 years. Whatta buncha morons! 10. Sadly, yes - Apple employs an additional 2,800 " full-time equivalent temporary employees and contractors"..and many of them comitted suicide making i-phones 14 days without a day off...at the price of no more than $35.00 per phone -- and sold to you for $ 700.00 -- while your all of your text messages, downloads, messages and physical movements are tracked and stored for YEARS! Thanks Steve for n-o-t-h-i-n-g. Thanks US fools who think he helped anyone -- but himself.
add cost of development (huge, which also has to cover R&D for products that never make it into the stores, and others that do but fail), regulations and standards for the various markets, packaging in different languages, shipping, marketing, the list is endless. Ignorant. Price is essentially dictated by the market. The market does not agree with you.
Edison already said: "I will start where the last man left off." Innovation is just that, a new original thought derived from an existing one, OR a completely new original thought perhaps. Alas, most of what you might consider original and new is a mere derivative of something else that you just did not know already existed in some other form, or chose to ignore in that other form... Why did Sharp not come up with the iPad? Because it is more than just a touch screen. There had been numerous touch screen devices in operation for decades. But no iPad, no iPod, no iPhone. Steve Jobs has set the path for apple, he led innovation in the technology sector that reaches far beyond simple consumer electronics, pushed that whole sector out of a coma and inspired a whole generation and those to come. I guess a plane is no achievement in your mind either when you look outside the window and see a bird fly by. Small mind.
...#11. You can beat the odds.
The greatiest creative and innovative human being is no more! Difficult to believe. The mankind (includes all fields) would do well to emulate him. Harnessing of technology for improvement of life of the mankind has to be learnt from him
Great and wonderful
The fact that you keep trying to convince yourself that he didn't do any of this for money is hilarious.
No you don't.
Keep telling yourself it wasn't about the money...
Owning a patent doesn't make you an inventor, nor does it make you an innovator. It just means you filed the patent.
I love that people are still pushing the USB BS. You realize that Apple had nothing to do with the invention of the USB port, right? MS was part of the group that developed USB. The Mouse wasn't created by Apple...fail. Innovation is something new...Great artists steal according to Steve, and he viewed himself as a great artist.
Because there were plenty of touchscreen smartphones already on the market? It's the same reason the ipod wasn't "innovative." Mp3 players existed already.
No he wasn't. Innovation is invention of new products. Nothing Apple has created was new. The Newton was the closest thing, and it's debatable that the Newton was innovative. If you don't think he was pushing the bottomline you're deluded. He may have had a salary of $1, but then CEOs don't really make their money from their salary.
I would not have made it through engineering school if it waqs not for my MAC SE, still have it, still runs great. Thank you Steve J.
LOL..... Come on.
Of course it isn't. It was his job, and he was wrong most of the time.
Apple ripped off every idea. They are the least innovative company out there. Hell, Steve even admitted to stealing. It's what "great artists" do.
Steve Jobs was truly the most talented and visionary CEO of modern times. He knew what his customers wanted, and he delivered flawlessly. He will be missed.
he was a great man
Do you think Bill Gates would work for a $1.00? Steve Jobs you will be missed!