Remembering Steve Jobs – a Technological Visionary

The name Steve Paul Jobs wouldn’t mean anything to many ordinary Papua New Guineans but to the techies and geeks he was the closest thing to a technology god.

His life was the epitome of rags to riches story.

Born in San Francisco in 1955 to unmarried college graduates Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah John Jandali, he was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs and named Steven Paul.

His biological parents would later marry and have a biological daughter Mona Simpson – a successful novelist.

He also has an adopted sister named Patti.

In April of 1976, he along with long-time friend Steve Wozniak launched their own computer called Apple in his parents’ garage. Wozniak took charge the assembly while Jobs took control of marketing, and the rest is history. However, at the end of May 1985, Jobs was unceremoniously dumped from the company he co founded.

This was probably a bad idea and soon the apples started to rot as the company slumped to its lowest. At that time the company experimented with a number of failed products including digital cameras, portable CD players, TV consoles and appliances.

This resulted in a massive layoff after attempts to reinvent the company failed.

Jobs had also founded another company in 1984 called NeXT Computer whose workstation was essentially technologically advanced at the time and dismissed as cost-prohibitive. The company would transition to a full software development in 1993 after only selling 50, 000 units. However, the NeXT computer was used by Tim Berners-Lee as the World’s first World Wide Web server.

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT which brought Jobs back into the Apple circle where he became de facto chief after then CEO Gil Amelio was ousted.

This also saw NeXT technology being assimilated into Apple most notably the Max OS X which evolved from NeXTSTEP. He was also almost single-handedly responsible for changing the course of Apple’s fortunes.

In 2004 he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had a surgery to remove the tumor. However, it resurfaced and in 2007 he underwent a liver transplant.

Also that year Jobs unveiled the Apple iPhone for the first time and started what would become a crazy in smart-phone technology.

He officially resigned as CEO of Apple Inc., in August this year and handed the reins to incumbent Tim Cook who unveiled the iPhone 4S on the 4^th of October. A day later he succumbs to his battle against pancreatic cancer.

Jobs leaves behind wife Lauren whom he married in 1991, son Reed and daughters Erin, Eve and Lisa-Brennan and also a wide range of technological gadgets that have changed our lives and Pixar Animation which revolutionized the animation industry.

All that we can say now is thank you and may you rest in peace. Farewell Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson is available for on Amazon in hardcover and kindle.