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Uncategorized Wednesday, October 5th 2011 at 8:33 pm

Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple and Tech Visionary, Has Died

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Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple computers and icon of the consumer electronics industry, has died. His visionary leadership of the company he founded, and the products produced under his tenure, have created and defined new markets that have changed the very landscape of technology.

There was much speculation about Jobs’ health when, not two months ago, he stepped down as CEO of Apple. He’d held that position since 1996 when he returned to the company after being forced out in 1985. Though the founding of the company with Steve Wozniak is the stuff of Silicon Valley legend, it was his return that fostered a rebirth in the then floundering company. What followed were a series of fantastically successful and innovative products, such as the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010. Under his leadership as CEO, the company has seen record profits and was briefly the most valuable company in the United States.

The spectre of Jobs’ ill health has hung over the company since 2004, when he announced that he had pancreatic cancer. He underwent a liver transplant in 2009, and took what would be the last of his leave of absences from the company in January 2011. In August of the same year, Jobs announced that he was no longer capable of fulfilling his duties as CEO, and that Tim Cook would take his place.

This evening, Apple released a statement saying that Jobs had died at the age of 56. The company has made an email address, rememberingsteve@apple.com, where the public is invited to share their memories and send condolences. Jobs is survived by four children and his wife Laurene.

(image and story via Apple)

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  • Carol

    :(

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=687991878 Dave Diem Martinez

    ‎*le grand sigh*I am very sad. I remember driving to Los Angeles from Lancaster, CA, sometime in the 80′s to go buy an Apple IIe (with a dual external floppy disk so we could copy disks!) from Egghead’s. I was so excited the night before I couldn’t sleep. I remember being part of the High Desert Computer Club, and playing a version of Defender on it, and also convincing the little LOGO turtle to do my bidding. I remember swapping to PC in college–cause I had to :-(I remember buying an ancient (read:1999) orange-colored iBook off Joey when I lived at the deep house, and couldn’t believe such an old machine (6GB hard drive? 466mhz?) could run OSX 10.4. But it did. And well.I remember saying fuck it, and spending waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much on a shiny new PowerBook, and then a Macbook Pro, and never, ever regretting it. Number of times my computer has crashed during a performance = 0.I remember sitting in the backyard of a friend’s house in 1996, and her saying “I’m working on putting the internet on cell phones”, and me laughing, and saying “who the hell wants the internet on a cellphone?”.I remember the day I got my iPhone in 2007, and knowing full well that calls were the last thing this would do. This was an entirely new method of communication as a society–which we’re still figuring out the rules for. I remember when the iPad was announced, and making fun of the name along with 56% of the planet, and saying to Angel “you know what? No one’s going to care what the name is. And even though I can’t figure out what I need one for he’ll end up right”. And he did. Again.Godspeed Steve. I’m quite sure that wherever you are headed, you’ll figure out how to make it better. Thank you for sharing your dream and changing the way we think.

  • http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 Edcedc8
  • Andrew Teece

    You sicken me. Steve Jobs dies, and all you can do is point out an article for a company in China that Steve Jobs outsourced to.

  • http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 Edcedc8

    you sicken me a lot more.

  • Blah

    Why is one death more sad than another? Steve Jobs was just a man like the rest of us.

  • Plginmkr

    Because he was richer?

  • http://www.facebook.com/amedeus8 Nick Gotshall

    And Mac hipsters everywhere cried out in anguish.

  • Theworld

    Alright….Steve Jobs died and everyone is shocked. Im sad to tell you, but every 5 seconds hundreds of children dies of hungry on Africa, and nobody cares.

  • http://www.facebook.com/TheNegotiator Rob Scott

    Mac is hardly hipster anymore.  That’s Ubuntu now buddy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/TheNegotiator Rob Scott

    People die everyday.  It’s a fact of life.  The reason why people pay attention to this more is because Steve Jobs and his companies (Apple and Pixar) have hugely shaped the world of today.  It’s a moment to step back a realize what he’s does and contributed to the world around us.

  • http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 Edcedc8

    one death isn’t more sad then someone else dying though, thats my point, blah.
    where was the 10[!] google pages for the 10[!] workers that killed themselves because apple wanted to maximise their profits?
    Jobs was a billionaire, he had a great life, 10 people hunched over a belt drilling screws into something they will never be able to afford, getting fined for toilet breaks, that’s a life that deserves 10909039030 different geekosystem headlines.

  • http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 Edcedc8

    nah, still mac. ubuntu requires learning. only nerds and old guys use linux.

  • http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 Edcedc8

    pixar contributed theft of intellectual property. fuck them.