Steve Jobs is probably one of the most well know of all the “cell phone” gurus in the world as the co-founder and CEO of Apple. Although he is one of the rich and famous, he is an extremely smart man that has helped to invent many of the different gadgets that we have come to depend on today for everything from personal computers to cell phones. And, believe it or not, but he’s also had a major hand in many of the Pixar movies that we love as well as sitting on the board of The Walt Disney Company after they purchased Pixar in 2006.
In the mid to late 1970’s, Steve Jobs (along with several others) designed and developed one of the very first commercially successful lines of personal computers in the world, the Apple II series. As these personal computers took off and truly became popular around the world, Jobs began to see a need for the first mouse-driven graphical user interfaces. This led to the creation of the Macintosh computer and it’s huge success throughout the world as more and more people picked up on the idea of the Mac computer. In 1985, Jobs lost a power struggle with the board of directors of Apple and went on to found NeXT, which was a computer platform design and development company. This new company specialized in higher education and business markets instead of the home computer business. During his time at NeXT, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd, called Pixar. He remained their CEO and majority shareholder until 2006, when it was acquired by Disney. In 1996, when Apple bought out NeXT, it brought Jobs back to the company that he had founded and he has been their CEO ever since.
Of course, everyone already knows that Steve Jobs is rich. They already know that he runs Apple. But how about all of those great inspirational things that he has done throughout his lifetime that people can really learn from? For example, did you know that he is listed as either the inventor, or co-inventor, for over 230 patents and patent applications that range from computers and portable devices to user interfaces to keyboards, staircases, clasps, sleeves, packages, lanyards, power adapters, and even speakers?
One other thing that is extremely interesting about Jobs is that he has always been very intelligent when it came to building different computers and other technical items, and was always interested in learning about them. When he was in high school, he would hit all of the after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company close to where he lived and eventually got a job working there. After high school, he went on to college at Reed College in Oregon, but dropped out after one semester. Although he did keep some classes, such as calligraphy and credits that one class as being the main reason that the Mac had multiple typefaces as well as proportionally spaced fonts on the computer system.
Although he helped to develop and create the first Apple and Macintosh computers, he is also a major player in some of our favorite movies and kid’s movies. He acquired The Graphics Group, which was renamed Pixar later, from Lucasfilm Ltd in 1986, with the intentions of turning it into a high-end graphics hardware designer. But, this proved to be unprofitable and the company contracted with Disney to produce several computer animated films that Disney would co-finance and distribute. To the joy of children and adults everywhere, “Toy Story” was released in 1995. This sent Pixar’s stocks soring and scored them several other movies that have become dear to our hearts, such as: “A Bug’s Life”, “Monsters, Inc.”, “Finding Nemo”, “The Incredibles”, “Cars”, WALL-E”, and “Up”. Although Disney has acquired Pixar now, Jobs still sits on the board of directors.
Even though his touch through Pixar might be felt to some of the youngest around the world, other people rely on the technology that he has helped to design over the years in our daily lives. From the Apple and Mac computers to the iPhone and other “must have” Apple devices, millions of people around the world depend on these things to help them do business, keep in touch with family and friends all over the world, and stay connected to the world through the Internet on their computers, phones, and iPads.
About the author: David C. is the webmaster of Famous Quotes Index, a website containing close to 30,000 famous quotes, including Steve Jobs quotes and inspiring biographies from renowned authors.
