Steven Jobs - Early Life, 1955-1975, Professional Life Began In 1975, Jobs Separates From Apple, 1985-1995
As the founder and CEO of Apple Computer Co., the prolific Steve Jobs was at the very heart of the computer revolution. The early Apple computers played an integral part in opening the personal computer market. Through the years, as Jobs shifted his focus to his myriad side projects, Apple's market strength dissipated. By the 2000s, however, Jobs was back in command at Apple, and was busily positioning the company to regain its position atop the personal computer market.
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Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco and raised by adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Jobs. The Jobs family moved in 1961 to Mountain View, California, the heart of what would become Silicon Valley. Jobs reportedly saw his first computer when he was about 12 years old. After graduating from high school, Jobs briefly attended Reed College in Oregon. He soon dropped out of …
Jobs returned to California and the family home in Los Altos in 1975. He began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with other computer professionals and hobbyists, including his friend Steve Wozniak. In 1976 Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple Computer Co. Jobs handled most of the business aspects of the company, including marketing and sales, while Wozniak was responsible for computer and…
Jobs and Wozniak both left Apple in 1985 after Jobs hired John Sculley from PepsiCo to run the company. Jobs immediately started a new computer company, NeXT Computer Inc. At first NeXT built computers for colleges and universities. After the computers failed to become big sellers, the company turned to creating software. It developed an operating system, NextStep, which was soon overshadowed by M…
As Windows became the dominant operating system in the 1990s, Apple was struggling with dwindling sales and market share. In December 1996 Jobs sold NeXT to Apple for $400 million and returned to the company as a consultant. After then-CEO Gilbert Amelio was forced out by Apple's board of directors, Jobs assumed an expanded role as a key advisor to the company. Morale at the company returne…
In January 2001 Apple announced its first quarterly loss since Jobs returned to the company. For the quarter ending December 30, 2000, Apple reported a $247 million loss from operations, due largely to the poor performance of the G4 Cube. It was the end of a disappointing year for Apple. Critics noted that Apple had anticipated strong demand for video, building DVD drives into its computers and in…
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