06 Oct 2011
Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and former CEO, has died at the age of 56.
The front page of Apple's web site has been replaced with an image of its former chief, which links through to the following statement.
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.
"Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
President Barack Obama led the tributes when news of Jobs' death broke on Wednesday.
“[Jobs was] among the greatest of American innovators — brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it,” the president said in his statement.
"By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the Internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun.”
In his tribute to his industry rival, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote:
"I want to express my deepest condolences at the passing of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of our industry and a true visionary. My heart goes out to his family, everyone at Apple and everyone who has been touched by his work."
Jobs has been widely credited for much of Apple's success, with the company enjoying strong sales of its iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad during his tenure. It also changed the way humans interfaced with modern computing, with the successes of its mouse and graphical windows-based operating system.
Jobs had been on medical leave since January this year.
Steve Jobs’ legacy will be that of his leadership and vision for Apple. Much of Apple’s success is attributed on a personal level to Steve Jobs and it certainly appears to be true that by making leadership a priority, Jobs understood that Apple’s technology would gain a competitive advantage. What will happen next for the technology giant is anyone’s guess.
What is certain is that while others ask for hard work, it is the leaders among us who ask that we follow. As MD of a growing tech business, I can see the wisdom in Jobs’ idea that in order to outperform your competitors, you don’t need smarter people, you need to become the type of person that smarter people will follow.
Posted by: Peter Gradwell 07 Oct 2011
Not only did he dominate the technology industry, building a company which briefly ranked as the biggest in the world, but he dominated it without recourse to any of the consumer testing and hedging of bets that proliferates in the rest of the sector. Along with a relentless pursuit of beauty in Apple's designs and slick technology, Jobs had a steely backbone that saw him rely, resolutely, on his own gut instinct. The way he saw it, Apple's role was not to follow or second guess what people wanted from their gadgets. It was to lead them, and by doing so, to create the market. So the world began to crave iPods, then iPhones and finally the iPad which, as many analysts pointed out earlier this week, met with a lacklustre reaction when it was first unveiled, but has quickly spawned an entirely new industry. This "I know best" outlook could have seemed arrogant in anyone else, but Jobs got it so exactly right every time that it allowed Apple to seduce users into an entire ecosystem that changed the way many of us lived. To think that such a small line up of products can have created a company of Apple's size and influence is, by anyone's book, astonishing. But perhaps Mr Jobs' influence as an individual is even more remarkable than his prominence through Apple. Before Jobs, the drop out arts student, turned his hand to technology, the hardware industry was often dismissed by the mainstream or creative industries as a deeply unglamourous sector populated by unremitting scientists and so-called "geeks". By combining technology with beautiful design, Jobs not only brought technology into the mainstream, making it cool and covetable – he also inspired a generation of talent from diverse backgrounds to eye technology up as a sector to work in. For creative, marketers, graphic designers and product designers, Apple is one of the most desirable companies to work in, and technology has transformed from the annexe of the uncool to one of the most rapidly changing and creatively challenging industries there is. He may have gone, and his absence may rattle Apple, but his legacy in energising a generation of talent is unlikely to fade at all.
I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA
Posted by: Firozali A.Mulla DBA 06 Oct 2011
As a budding technology entrepreneur myself, Steve Jobs was my greatest inspiration and role model. He demonstrated a rare mixture of both creative and business genius, and by creative I include the aesthetic as well as the technological. To have lost his brilliance at such a young age when his inventions are now truly transforming our daily lives is tragic. He was our generation's Leonardo da Vinci.
Posted by: Kate Craig-Wood 06 Oct 2011
Have your say on this article
Newsletters
Latest stories from Corporate
You may also like
Corporate jobs
Technology Patent Wars
Case studies from large organisations across all sectors
... And rich media, and flexible working, and peaks in traffic ...
Upcoming Events
Join us for this Computing web seminar, in which the Head of BI at the Co-operative Group Nick Colebourn will be explaining just how he reigned in the Group’s sprawling database estate and how significant savings were realised and data quality improved as a result.
Date: 31 May 2012
Time: 11:00 AM
Live June 13th 11:00am: Register now. During this web seminar we will be looking at the sorts of incidents that can bring data centres grinding to a halt and what can be done about them.
Date: 13 Jun 2012
Time: 11:00 am
Receive the latest jobs direct to your inbox
Are you being paid what you are worth?
