Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder (with Steve Wozniak) of Apple Computer. He is also regarded as a pioneer in computing for seeing the potential in a Xerox PARC demonstration of the GUI and mouse, thus causing Apple Computer to unleash the Apple Lisa and later, the Apple Macintosh.

Born to Joanne Simpson and an Egyptian Arab father (name not known). His biological sister is the novelist Mona Simpson. Steve was adopted soon after birth by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, Santa Clara County, California.

After graduating from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, in 1972 Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he dropped out after one semester. In the autumn of 1974, Jobs returned to California and began attending meetings of the "Homebrew Computer Club" with Stephen Wozniak. He took a job at Atari Inc., designing computer games with his friend, Wozniak.

In 1976, Jobs, then 21, and Wozniak, 26, founded Apple Computer Co in the Jobs' family garage. Jobs and Wozniak put together their first computer, called the Apple I. They marketed it at a price of $666.66. In 1983, Jobs lured John Sculley from Pepsi-Cola to run Apple by telling Sculley that he could accomplish something more than just "selling sugar water". In 1985, after an internal power struggle, Jobs was stripped of his duties by Sculley and ousted from Apple. He departed to found NeXT Computer later that decade.

In 1986 Jobs bought Pixar, an Emeryville, California computer animation studio, from its founder George Lucas for $10 million. In 1991 Jobs married Laurene Powell; they have three children. In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $200 million, and in 1997 Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO after the departure of Gil Amelio. In 2000, Apple dropped the "interim" from Jobs' title after he had worked for several years at an annual salary of $1 and Apple returned to profitability.

External link