Steve JobsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the person. For the 2011 biography, seeSteve Jobs (book). For the 2012 documentary, seeSteve Jobs: The Lost Interview. For the 2015 biographical film, seeSteve Jobs (film).Steve Jobs

Jobs in 2007

BornSteven Paul JobsFebruary 24, 1955San Francisco,California, U.S.

DiedOctober 5, 2011(aged56)Palo Alto, California

Causeof deathCancer

NationalityAmerican

EthnicityGermanandSyrian

EducationHomestead High School('72)Reed College(dropped out)

Occupation Cofounder, Chairman, and CEO ofApple Inc. FundedPixar Founder and CEO ofNeXT Inc.

KnownforPioneer of thepersonal computer revolutionwithSteve Wozniak

Board memberof The Walt Disney Company[1] Apple Inc.

Religion Zen Buddhism (previouslyLutheran)[2]

Spouse(s)Laurene Powell(m. 19912011; his death)

Partner(s)Chrisann Brennan(high school girlfriend and Lisa's mother)

Children Lisa Brennan-Jobs(with Chrisann) Reed (with Laurene) Erin (with Laurene) Eve (with Laurene)

Parent(s) Paul and Clara Jobs (adoptive parents) Joanne Schieble Simpson and Abdulfattah Jandali (biological parents)

Relatives Mona Simpson(biological sister) Patty Jobs (adopted sister)

Steven Paul"Steve"Jobs(/dbz/; February 24, 1955 October 5, 2011) was an American pioneer of thepersonal computer revolution of the 1970s(along with engineer, inventor, andApple Computerco-founder,Steve Wozniak). Shortly after his death, Jobs' official biographer,Walter Isaacsondescribed him as the "creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing."[2]Adopted at birth inSan Franciscoand raised in theSan Francisco Bay Areaduring the 1960s, Jobs'countercultural lifestyle was a product of his time. As a senior atHomestead High School, inCupertino, California, his two closest friends were the older engineering student (and Homestead High alumnus)Steve Wozniakand his countercultural girlfriend, the artistically inclined Homestead High juniorChrisann Brennan. Jobs briefly attendedReed Collegein 1972 before dropping out,deciding to travel through Indiain 1974, andstudy Buddhism.In addition, Jobs' proximity toSilicon Valleyinfluenced his interest in the buddingpersonal computer industry of the 1970s. After a brief period atAtari, Inc., he co-founded Apple in 1976 in his parent'sLos Altoshome on Crist Drive in order to sell Wozniak'sApple Ipersonal computer. "Jobs and Woz" gained fame and wealth a year later for theApple II(which was designed primarily by Wozniak, but Jobs oversaw the development of its unusual case andRod Holtdeveloped the unique power supply) one of the first highly successful mass-produced personal computers. The Apple II dominated the personal computer market until it was destabilized by the introduction of theIBM-PC(powered byMS-DOS) in 1981.In 1979, after a tour ofXerox Park, Jobs saw the commercial potential of theXerox Alto(which wasmouse-driven and had agraphical user interfaceor GUI). After failing to create such a device with theApple Lisa(which Jobs named after his daughter with Chrisann,Lisa, a fact that Jobs would only admit years later after he initially denied paternity), he turned to the strugglingMacintosh team. In January 1984, Jobs launched theoriginal Macintosh(the first mass-produced computer with a graphical user interface) with the1984 commercial broadcast during the Super Bowl. The Macintosh also instigated the sudden rise of thedesktop publishingindustry in 1985 with the addition of the AppleLaserWriter, the firstlaser printerto featurevector graphics.Despite the fanfare, the Macintosh was an expensive machine that did not sell well and the board of directors at Apple blamed Jobs for its poor financial performance. After a long power struggle, the board forced him out of the company in September in 1985. In November 1985, Macintosh sales continued to plummet after the release ofWindows 1.0(created by The Macintosh's software partner,Bill Gatesand his then-developing company,Microsoft), anoperating systemwhich replicated the features of the Macintosh. Cheaper and lower quality IBM PC clonesthus transitioned to Windows worldwide, allowing them to dominate the market. In addition, Windows made Gates (who had already amassed a fortune from MS-DOS) one of the most powerful and wealthiest individuals in the world.Jobs underwent a number of changes during the period of 1985-1996. After leaving Apple, he subsequentlytook a few of its members with himto foundNeXT, acomputer platformdevelopment company specializing instate of the art, higher end computers for higher-education and business markets. A few years later in 1990,Tim Berners-Leewould use a NeXT Computer to create thefirst browser for the World Wide Web. In addition to NeXT, Jobs helped to instigate the development of thevisual effectsindustry whenhe purchased the computer graphics divisionofGeorge Lucas' companyLucasfilmin February 1986. The new company, renamedPixar, would eventually produce the first fully computer-generated animated film,Toy Story,an event made possible in part due to Jobs' financial support.Jobs also focused on his family during this time period. After the passing of his adoptive mother from cancer in 1986, he found his birth mother and discovered that his biological sister is the authorMona Simpson. He also fully acknowledged paternity for Lisa, and had her name legally changed toLisa Brennan-Jobs. Finally, in 1991, Jobs marriedStanford Business School graduate,Laurene Powellin a Buddhist ceremony and had three more children with her.By 1997, Apple was nearly bankrupt. Jobs thus negotiated Apple's purchase of NeXT (theNeXTSTEPplatform wouldbecome the foundationforMac OS X) which would allow him to return as the company's interim CEO. He would eventually became Apple's CEO and bring the company back to profitability by 1998. Beginning in 1997 with theThink differentcampaign, Jobs began to work closely with designerJonathan "Jony" Ivetowards a line of devices (named by ad executive Ken Segall) that would have larger cultural ramifications: theiMac(1998);iTunes, theApple Stores, and theiPod(2001); theiTunes Store(2003); theiPhone(2007); theApp Store(2008); and theiPad(2010).