By NED POTTER (@NedPotterABC) and COLLEEN CURRY
Oct. 5, 2011
Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died in California. Jobs was 56.

The homepage of Apple's website contained a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."

Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.

Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications.

In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple's chief executive.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

One of the world's most famous CEOs, Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.

"He's never been a media person," said industry analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, after Jobs resigned. "He's granted interviews in the context of product launches, when it benefits Apple, but you never see him talk about himself."

The highlights of Jobs's career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple with Wozniak in his parents' garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appeared on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in 1984.

In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXT computers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.

He was described as an exacting and sometimes fearsome leader, ordering up and rejecting multiple versions of new products until the final version was just right. He said the design and aesthetics of a device were as important as the hardware and software inside.

In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back by buying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on a remarkable upward path.

By 2001 the commercial music industry was on its knees because digital recordings, copied and shared online for free, made it unnecessary for millions of people to buy compact discs.

Jobs took advantage with the iPod -- essentially a pocket-sized computer hard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so that one could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunes online music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99 cents each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they liked one song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.

In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apple's iPhone, with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and -- almost incidentally -- cell phone. Major competitors, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-apple-ceo-dies/story?id=14383813

I'm sorry who cares? Wars are happening and our country is going downhill.
I think we should worry about the current mess we are in,instead of a powerful rich man dying. Just my two cents.

A lot of people care! We care because while wars are happening and countries are going downhill like you say there are few people bringing positive change to the world. Steve Jobs was one of those people. The technological advancements that were brought on by him made a difference in a lot of people's lives. Why would we only focus on the mess we're in and forget to show support to those trying to do things to give the world possibilities that didn't exist before?

@Valencia

No one should be handed sympathy etc just because they are rich.

But if you look at the revenue from sales and taxes from the sale of Apple products you'll see that without them there would be quite a big hole in the American economy, not just from their revenue, but there would also be a large number of people without jobs.

@ valencia:

Wars are happening, unemployment is high, and you could argue that the country is going downhil. However, Steve Jobs contributed to the world in a positive manner, changing our lives for the better with the devices he created. That in itself merits some mourning.

Sounds like someone's jealous.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did more for computer technology in the United States and the rest of the world than you seem to be aware of. So... who cares about your opinion, you ignorant little brat?

why would you assume that i am an ignorant little brat? just because i dont share everyone view. No i am not jeolous i was just stating that why should i care about some rich powerful person,if that makes me such a bad person then so be it, i dont care what you think of me.

You don't even know me and I am not ignorant thank you very much,very much educated!! I am allowed to dislike whomever
i want and if you don't agree with me then that is awesome,

you are free to disagree with me and
'
i won't call you a ignorant little brat!!!!

Oh, excuse me, I didn't know you were "very much, very much educated." Since you've said so, now I guess that settles that matter.

To be fair, the first "very much" was part of the phrase "thank you very much". That was not immediately obvious, of course, because the paragraph lacked any evidence of the "very much educated".

Gosh, do you actually dislike Steve Jobs? I'm curious why. Did you buy an iPod that went wrong and ruined your life?

Kinda daft logic, since worrying doesn't achieve anything, so there's not even any point in worrying about the current mess you see yourself in - surely better to actually take positive steps to do something constructive (which is, funnily enough, what Steve Jobs did).

And I don't see anyone worrying that Steve Jobs is dead - you can't worry about something that's already happened. An announcement that someone has died doesn't constitute worry.

If you're annoyed that the media announces the deaths of famous people - well, gosh, that is kind of a pointless thing to 'worry' about. The media will continue to do this, because most people like to be informed of the deaths of famous/influential people - you see, it saves talking about them as if they are still alive, and assuming they will continue to do whatever they did, and then wondering where they got to!

Where is your lack of empathy for the family? This person PASSED away. Regardless of who he was it is still a loss and that family is mourning.

I really, really dislike Apple. Their products are brilliant, but in a simple, dumbed-down way. It's kind of sad. But Steve himself was a very powerful, intelligent man. I just hope Tim Cook runs the company the way Steve would've wanted.

Simple doesn't mean the same as dumbed down. It takes a lot more skill to make the complex simple than to leave it as complicated. Having used both a Mac and PC, I don't find the Mac to be any less complex in what it can do - more that it's simpler to use, which seems to me to be a positive thing. Seems a bit daft to choose a complicated way over a simple way to get the same result.

I don't hate anyone,people assume I do because of my views.
I just feel like we have other stuff we should care more about than aCEO. That is just my view and I never buy apple products and probebly never will. I am sure he was a nice person and everything but I don't think we have to make this huge deal about it,and I am not just talking about here on bloop talking about the news and everything.

Ah, so when you said 'I'm allowed to dislike whomever I want', you were speaking hypothetically about a situation that had nothing to do with the present discussion?

The odd thing is, no one was making a huge deal of it here (well, other than you! ;D) - someone had simply copied and pasted a news article. And as I said earlier, it is the norm for the media to announce the deaths of famous people. And if the person is someone who had a significant impact on society, then it is the norm for the media to commemorate their life and their achievements. It's a longstanding tradition, regardless of the fact that not every member of the public will have liked the famous person who died. And as a tradition, it going to continue, and the media aren't going to pay attention to random people on diary sites declaring that they don't think the tradition has to happen!

Obviously not everyone is going to care that Steve Jobs died - but, like, isn't it a bit presumptuous to declare that you think everyone should share your view, and that everyone should be spending their time worrying about the sad state of America? It'd be like someone coming to your diary and scolding you for wasting time worrying about your weight and your classes, when you should be worrying about the economy of Italy instead.

How are their products 'simple' or 'dumbed down'? Yes, majority of people can pick them up and use them right off the bat but surely that is the beauty of them? Nobody wants to read a 100 page manual on how to add a contact into your phone!

@ Puck & Acid Fairy: I wouldn't want to read a 100 page manual either. However, 'intellectual' devices are more challenging and thus more of an interest to me than something I can pick up and use without any sort of contemplation further than "I wonder how long it'll take me to load an app?" ..but I'm the kind of person that watches Jeopardy for fun and actually wants to learn all the answers, so maybe I'm just a geek that needs to put away my Windows (which I also dislike) and start playing with Linux instead.

@Aiure - Ah, so you like a device where you're working out how to use it? For me, computers are a means to an end - I'm not interested in pulling 'em apart, but in using them as a tool for creativity and learning. Maybe that is the difference - whether you're using it as a tool for other creative/intellectual stuff or if the computer itself constitutes your learning.

Wow some people forgot to take their happy pills today! How very pathetic you are making yourself sound.

Steve Jobs was not just rich and famous. He was influential. He helped make what the world is today. That's pretty significant. Maybe that is why he is being remembered.

I am anti-apple. I will never own an ipod, or any Apple product for that matter. I, however, see the huge loss the world has just been slapped with. It has been said that he had so may more ideas to improve the world, not only in cell phones, but in other areas as well. We have lost a great man. RIP!

My husband and I are "droid" folks all the way - definitely not Apple folks here.. but I have to say that it's sad when ANYONE dies - their family still mourns the loss even if none of us do. A loss is a loss is a loss is a loss. Whether I like Apple products or not, Steve Jobs was a smart guy who made amazing changes in smart media. For the tech world (which effects me, since my Husband is an IT guy) - it IS a loss.

Does anybody else get tired of having the same exact argument every time someone famous dies?

Jesus Christ.