Steve Jobs The great American computer hippie

Pre-Apple Steve Jobs was born 1955 in Los Altos CA. He was orphaned and went through several foster homes before going out on his own and attending Berkley University. He dropped out his Sophmore year and met Steve Wozniak. They worked at Atari for awhile making games, but eventually wanted to go out on their own.

Apple With the completion of the Apple I, Jobs and Wozniak had started their own company. In the years to come, they would make several more computers including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Lisa. Lisa was named after Job’s illegitimate child and was over priced. Through several blunders such as the Lisa, and mismarketing of the Macintosh, then Apple president John Scully would force Jobs to step down from his position in the company.

Post-Apple After Apple, Steve Jobs formed neXt. neXt was devoted to making easy to use education software, but failed miserably because the software was overpriced and required computer systems that the average school wouldn’t own. From there, Steve Jobs formed Pixar. Pixar dealt in making computer animation. It was a huge success, making films for Disney such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Finding Nemo. These would become some of Disney’s largest grossing films in their company’s history, and would restore the business world’s faith in Jobs.

Present In 1998, Steve Jobs was called back to be the interim CEO of Apple. Apple had had a humiliating early 90’s and was on the verge of becoming bankrupt. Job’s managed to turn the company around, and with such innovations as the iMac, g5, and the iPod mp3 player, he has managed to make Apple a top contender in the computer market again. In 2002, the company rehired him as the full fledged CEO. Pixar has also managed well, with many movie studios attempting to urge the company to sign an exclusive deal with them.

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