Born: 24 February 1955
Died: 5 October 2011
Nationality: American
Steve Jobs was best known as the co-founder, chairperson and chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc; CEO and largest shareholder of Pixar Animation Studios; founder, chairperson and CEO of NeXT and a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors. Together with Steve Wozniak, Jobs is widely recognised as a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s with his Apple brand. He was famously described as the creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive transformed six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing.
Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionising the computer industry by democratising technology and making machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive, and accessible to everyday consumers. Wozniak conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers that Apple initially priced at $666.66 each. The Apple I earned the corporation around $774,000. Three years after the release of Apple's second model, the Apple II, the company's sales increased by 700% to $139 million.
Just as Steve Jobs instigated Apple's success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalising the company in the 1990s. With a new management team, altered stock options and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. His ingenious products, effective branding campaigns and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again.
Apple created such revolutionary products as the Macbook, iPod and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of modern technology. Thus, Steve Jobs was a great utopian given that his vision, work and creativity transformed the technology that society uses and benefits from today.