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Contemporary · Americas

Steve Jobs

1955-2011 CEArtist

Apple co-founder who fused design, technology, and storytelling to create category-defining products.

Overview

Steve Jobs was adopted by a machinist and his wife in Mountain View, California. He dropped out of Reed College after one semester, slept on floors, returned Coke bottles for food money, and dropped in on a calligraphy class that would later inspire the Mac's beautiful typography. In 1976, he and Steve Wozniak started Apple in his parents' garage; a decade later, he was forced out of his own company.

That failure became his liberation. He built NeXT (whose technology would eventually power every Mac, iPhone, and iPad) and Pixar (which revolutionized animation). When Apple bought NeXT in 1997, Jobs returned to a company ninety days from bankruptcy and transformed it into the most valuable on Earth. The iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, each seemed impossible until he made it inevitable.

Steve Jobs’s world, year by year

19552011

Dated facts

Account · checked against Wikipedia Read the source

  1. 1955Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.
  2. 1972He enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in September 1972 and dropped out after one semester.
  3. 1976On April 1, 1976, he founded Apple Computer Company with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne at his parents' home.
  4. 1984He launched the Macintosh on January 24, 1984, a mass-market personal computer with a graphical user interface and mouse.
  5. 1985After leaving Apple in 1985 following a power struggle, he founded NeXT that year and bought Pixar in 1986.
  6. 1997He returned to Apple as CEO in 1997 after Apple acquired NeXT.
  7. 2007Apple introduced the iPhone, a multi-touch mobile phone, on June 29, 2007.
  8. 2011He resigned as Apple's CEO on August 24, 2011, and died at his Palo Alto home on October 5, 2011, after a pancreatic tumor relapse.

Alive at the same time

Overlap Same years; not influence

Wars during this life

  • Guatemalan Civil War 1960–1996
  • Eritrean War of Independence 1961–1991
  • The Troubles 1968–1998
  • Aceh Insurgency (GAM) 1976–2005
  • Angolan Civil War 1975–2002
  • Sri Lankan Civil War 1983–2009

Primary works and follow-on reading.

  • Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
  • Becoming Steve Jobs - Brent Schlender & Rick Tetzeli

Frequently asked questions about Steve Jobs.

Who was Steve Jobs?

Steve Jobs was adopted by a machinist and his wife in Mountain View, California. He dropped out of Reed College after one semester, slept on floors, returned Coke bottles for food money, and dropped in on a calligraphy class that would later inspire the Mac's beautiful typography. In 1976, he and Steve Wozniak started Apple in his parents' garage; a decade later, he was forced out of his own company. That failure became his liberation. He built NeXT (whose technology would eventually power every Mac, iPhone, and iPad) and Pixar (which revolutionized animation). When Apple bought NeXT in 1997, Jobs returned to a company ninety days from bankruptcy and transformed it into the most valuable on Earth. The iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, each seemed impossible until he made it inevitable.

What was Steve Jobs best known for?

Steve Jobs is best known as a artist. Apple co-founder who fused design, technology, and storytelling to create category-defining products.

When did Steve Jobs live?

Steve Jobs lived 1955-2011 CE, born in 1955 and died in 2011, during the contemporary period.

Can I chat with an AI version of Steve Jobs?

Yes, free. Anyone can ask Steve Jobs, and a first question needs no account. Every answer is a Simulation in character, grounded in Steve Jobs’s real life, work and era. A good first question is: "My product does a lot of things, how do I know what to cut?"

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What Steve Jobs is best at.

  • Product Strategy: Focus, narrative, and end-to-end design
  • Launch Craft: Telling a simple, compelling story

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Cite this page

“Steve Jobs.” HistorIQly. https://historiqly.com/ai-historical-figures/steve-jobs/

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Reference profile on WikipediaSources, evidence and AI