Brief History of Steve Jobs | Biography, Education, Apple, & Facts

The Macintosh:

In 1984 Apple introduced a revolutionary new model, the Macintosh. The on-screen display had small pictures called icons. To use the computer, the user pointed at an icon and clicked a button using a new device called a mouse. This process made the Macintosh very easy to use. The Macintosh did not sell well to businesses, however. It lacked features other personal computers had, such as a corresponding high quality printer. The failure of the Macintosh signaled the beginning of Jobs’s downfall at Apple. Jobs resigned in 1985 from the company he had helped found, though he retained his title as chairman of its board of directors.

NeXT:

Jobs soon hired some of his former employees to begin a new computer company called NeXT. Late in 1988 the NeXT computer was introduced at a large gala event in San Francisco, aimed at the educational market. Initial reactions were generally good. The product was very user-friendly, and had a fast processing speed, excellent graphics displays, and an outstanding sound system. Despite the warm reception, however, the NeXT machine never caught on. It was too costly, had a black-and-white screen, and could not be linked to other computers or run common software.

Toy Story:

NeXT was not, however, the end of Steve Jobs. In 1986 Jobs purchased a small company called Pixar from filmmaker George Lucas (1944–). Pixar specialized in computer animation. Nine years later Pixar released Toy Story, a huge box office hit. Pixar later went on to make Toy Story 2 and A Bug’s Life, which Disney distributed, and Monsters, Inc. All these films have been extremely successful. Monsters, Inc. had the largest opening weekend ticket sales of any animated film in history.

NeXT and Apple:

In December of 1996 Apple purchased NeXT Software for over $400 million. Jobs returned to Apple as a part-time consultant to the chief executive officer (CEO). The following year, in a surprising event, Apple entered into a partnership with its competitor Microsoft. The two companies, according to the New York Times, “agreed to cooperate on several sales and technology fronts.” Over the next six years Apple introduced several new products and marketing strategies.

In November 1997 Jobs announced Apple would sell computers directly to users over the Internet and by telephone. The Apple Store became a runaway success. Within a week it was the third-largest e-commerce site on the Internet. In September of 1997 Jobs was named interim CEO of Apple.

In 1998 Jobs announced the release of the iMac, which featured powerful computing at an affordable price. The iBook was unveiled in July 1999. This is a clam-shaped laptop that is available in bright colors. It includes Apple’s AirPort, a computer version of the cordless phone that would allow the user to surf the Internet wirelessly. In January 2000 Jobs unveiled Apple’s new Internet strategy. It included a group of Macintosh-only Internet-based applications. Jobs also announced that he was becoming the permanent CEO of Apple.

In a February 1996 Time magazine article, Jobs said, “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.” Jobs has worked hard to translate his ideas into exciting and innovative products for businesses and consumers. He was instrumental in launching the age of the personal computer. Steve Jobs is truly a computer industry visionary.

1955: Steven Paul was born in San Francisco, the son of Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble. He is quickly adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs

1960: The Jobs family moves from San Francisco to Mountain View, a suburban town in Santa Clara county, more famous under the name Silicon Valley

1968: 13-year-old Steve Jobs calls up Bill Hewlett and gets a summer job at the HP factory

1969: Steve Jobs meets Steve Wozniak, 5 years older, through a mutual friend. Woz and Steve share a love of electronics, Bob Dylan, and pranks

1973: Steve spends the fall semester at Reed College, Oregon, then drops out. He will stay on campus and attend the classes that interest him for a while, then move to a hippie commune

1974: Steve gets his first job at video game maker Atari, and later makes a trip to India to ‘seek enlightenment’ with his college friend Dan Kottke

1976: Woz and Steve show the early Apple I board at the Homebrew Computer Club

1976: Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne. Steve and Woz start assembling Apple I computers in the Jobses’ garage, and sell them to computer hobbyists, including 50 for the Byte Shop

1976: Steve Jobs and Woz show off the Apple I at the Personal Computing Festival in Atlantic City, with help from Dan Kottke

1977: Former Intel executive turned business angel Mike Markkula invests in Apple and hires former colleague Mike Scott as CEO. Woz is forced to leave HP to join Apple full time

1978: The Apple II becomes the first mass-market personal computer, with impressive sales around the US. Apple becomes a symbol of the personal computing revolution. At the company, work starts on the Apple III and the Lisa, while Jef Raskin begins writing The Book of Macintosh.

1979: Sales of Apple II skyrocket after pioneer spreadsheet software Visicalc is introduced

1979: Steve Jobs is shown the first working graphical user interface at Xerox PARC

1980: Jef Raskin’s Macintosh project is green-lighted. Lisa evolves into a GUI-computer, in part because of Steve Jobs’ demands

1980: Apple launches the Apple III, which will prove a disastrous flop

1980: Apple goes public, increasing Steve Jobs’ net worth from dozens of millions of dollars to over $200 million

1981: Jef Raskin is forced out of his Macintosh project as Steve Jobs takes over

1981: Black Wednesday: 50 Apple employees laid off by CEO Mike Scott without notice. The board asks him to leave shortly afterwards. Mike Markkula becomes interim CEO

1981: IBM launches the IBM PC, the biggest threat to Apple’s future yet

1983: Time instead makes The Computer ‘machine of the year’ and publishes a hatchet job on Steve Jobs, who becomes furious and suspicious of journalists for the rest of his life. Launch of the Lisa computer. The Lisa team later merges with the Mac team under Steve Jobs’s leadership

1983: PepsiCo CEO John Sculley becomes Apple’s CEO after having been wooed by Steve Jobs for several months

1985: Steve Jobs celebrates his 30th birthday with Ella Fitzgerald as guest singer for the night

1985: Palace coup: Apple’s board sides with John Sculley and strips Steve off all executive duties. Alan Kay first introduces the Pixar team to Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs resigns from Apple and starts NeXT with five other refugees from Apple. Apple announces it will sue NeXT

1986: Steve’s mother Clara dies. A couple months later, Steve discovers his biological mother Joanne and his sister, novelist Mona Simpson. They will become very close

1986: Jobs buys the computer division of George Lucas’ ILM for $10 million and incorporates it as Pixar. Pixar unveils John Lasseter’s short film Luxo Jr. at SIGGRAPH. It is praised by the expert audience as one of the first computer-animated work of art

1987: Ross Perot invests $20 million in NeXT, based on a $125 million valuation. The startup has still to release a product

1988: NeXT and IBM form a partnership to have NeXT’s system run on IBM machines. Steve Jobs introduces the NeXT Cube in San Francisco to great critical acclaim, pitching it as a workstation for higher education. Pixar launches its new computer graphics workstation, the Pixar Image Computer II, and starts working on the RenderMan computer animation software. At SIGGRAPH, Pixar releases its new short Tin Toy. It will end up winning 1988’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film

1989: NeXT partners with retailer Businessland to sell to corporate America in addition to higher ed. Steve Jobs is named ‘Entrepreneur of the decade’ by Inc. magazine. Steve shuts down all of Pixar’s hardware operations. Canon invests $100 million in NeXT, now valued at $600 million. Steve introduces the cheaper NeXTstation in San Francisco, to boost the modest sales of NeXT hardware

1991: Steve Jobs fires almost half of Pixar’s staff and takes back all of the employees’ stock in an effort to cut costs, as the company is still in the red 5 years after its launch

1992: NeXT licenses its operating system, NeXTSTEP, to run on x86 machines

1993: NeXT fires 300 employees as it discontinues all its hardware operations and becomes NeXT Software Inc. This is the nadir of Steve’s career. NeXT COO Peter Van Cuylenburg betrays Steve Jobs by trying to have the company bought by its giant competitor Sun. Sun CEO Scott McNealy warns Steve Jobs instead. Steve’s father, Paul Jobs, dies. Jeffrey Katzenberg puts a halt to the development of Toy Story because of creative disagreements

1994: Pixar resumes work on Toy Story

1995: Steve starts focusing less on NeXT and more on Pixar before Toy Story is released. He becomes President & CEO of Pixar Animation Studios. Laurene gives birth to Erin Siena Jobs, her second child with Steve

1996: Steve’s biological sister Mona Simpson publishes her third novel, A Regular Guy, whose main character Tom Owens is largely based on her brother. Steve Jobs negotiaties a breakthrough deal between Pixar and Disney with its CEO Michael Eisner. The deal includes landmark rights for a studio, such as equal billing. Apple, which was desperately looking for a modern operating system to buy, eventually buys NeXT for $400 million. Steve Jobs is named “informal adviser” to Apple CEO Gil Amelio

1997: Gil Amelio is ousted by the Apple Board of directors after a disastrous quarter. Steve Jobs is named interim CEO in his place and installs his NeXT executive team at the top of Apple. Steve Jobs introduces Apple’s new board of directors and a truce with Microsoft at Macworld Boston. Apple starts its Think Different campaign to restore its damaged brand image. The new slogan will quickly enter popular culture and define the company for the next five years

1998: At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announces that Apple is profitable again, thanks to sales of the new Power Macintosh computers. Eve Jobs, Laurene and Steve’s youngest daughter, is born

1999: Steve Jobs introduces the new Power Mac G3 and the color iMacs at Macworld San Francisco. Pirates of Silicon Valley, a TV movie starring Noah Wyle as young Steve Jobs, airs. The original iBook is unveiled at Macworld New York with the tagline iMac to go. Steve Jobs invites Noah Wyle on stage to impersonate him again. Introduction of the iMac DVs and of iMovie, the first of Apple’s first Digital Hub app

2001: Steve Jobs unveils Apple’s Digital Hub Strategy at Macworld: the Mac is to become the center of consumers’ emerging digital lifestyles. After four years of hard work, Mac OS X 10.0, the new incarnation of NeXTstep, ships. Apple opens its first Retail Stores in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California. After an 8-month crash development program, Steve Jobs unveils iPod at a small media event on the company’s campus. He has no idea how it will tranform Apple

2002: Steve unveils the iMac G4 and the fourth iApp, iPhoto, at Macworld San Francisco. Apple starts its popular ‘Switch’ campaign with ads picturing PC users that switched to the Mac. Steve Jobs introduces the first Windows-compatible iPods at Macworld NY

2003: Apple opens the revolutionary online iTunes Music Store in the US, after negotiating landmark deals with all major music labels. Opening day of Finding Nemo, Pixar’s first Best Animated Feature Academy Award winner. Following increasing tension with Michael Eisner, Steve Jobs announces that Pixar is seeking a new distributor to replace Disney after its contract expires

2003: Steve Jobs unveils the Power Mac G5, the world’s fastest computer, at WWDC. “The day hell froze over”: Steve Jobs introduces iTunes for Windows and further demonstrates Apple’s growing lead over its competitors in the digital music business. Steve Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but stubbornly refuses any modern medical treatment for months. He tries alternative diets instead

2004: Steve unveils the iPod mini and the iLife suite at Macworld. The iPod mini will soon become the world’s best-selling MP3 player and truly establish Apple as a consumer electronics powerhouse. Steve Jobs finally has his pancreatic tumor removed by surgery

2005: At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveils Apple’s productivity suite iWork, the new Mac mini, and the iPod shuffle, the cheapest iPod ever at $49. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is released. A stable, fast release, it is immensely popular and marks the end of the four-year transition from the old Mac OS to UNIX-based Mac OS X

2005: At WWDC 2005, Steve Jobs announces that Apple is going to switch away from Motorola’s and IBM’s PowerPC architectures, and use Intel processors in its future Macs instead. This move will further help the growing adoption of the Mac. Steve Jobs makes a memorable commencement speech at Stanford University. History will remember its closing remarks, Steve’s advice to the young students: ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’, a quote from the last page of the Whole Earth Catalogue from his youth

2005: Steve introduces the Motorola ROCKR, an iTunes-compatible cell phone, and the iPod nano. Steve Jobs invites Disney’s new CEO Bob Iger on stage at an Apple Music Event where he also introduces the new iPod videos and the iTunes movie store

2006: Steve Jobs unveils the first two Intel Macs at Macworld, the iMac and the new MacBook Pro

2006: Apple releases its first living-room product, the iPod hi-fi, discontinued a year and a half later

2006: Steve Jobs announces Apple’s intention to erect a second campus in Cupertino. Apple starts its famous ‘Mac vs PC’ campaign, a series of TV commercials featuring Justin Long as Mac and John Hodgman as PC. The campaign will last for three years and mark popular culture. Apple completes the transition of its entire product line to the Intel platform with the new Mac Pro

2008: At Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs introduces MacBook Air, with the tagline ‘the world’s thinnest notebook’. Three years later, it will come to redefine all of Apple’s notebook product line

2009: Steve Jobs announces he will not speak at Macworld 2009 because of his health, and takes a six-month medical leave of absence. Steve receives a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He was weeks away from dying when he got the surgery. Google CEO Eric Schmidt leaves Apple’s board because of conflicting interests due to Android

2009: Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, stripped off any code from the original Mac OS. Back at Apple, Steve Jobs makes the first public appearance after his transplant to introduce new iPods at the ‘It’s Only Rock’N’Roll’ event

2011: Jobs surprises the world by announcing his new medical leave of absence, without any end date. Despite his medical leave, Steve Jobs takes the stage to unveil the new iPad 2.

2011: On 5 Oct Steve Jobs dies at home, surrounded by his family. On 16 Oct 2011 A private service is held at Stanford University’s Memorial Church in memory of Steve Jobs, attended by many of his friends, former colleagues and industry peers.

2011: On Oct 24 After two years of work, and forty interviews with Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson publishes his authorized biography of the Apple and Pixar co-founder, simply named Steve Jobs.