How Steve Jobs left his mark on technology

With the sad news that Steve Jobs has passed away, we'd like to bring you our article about how the tech leader left his mark on technology once again...

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started selling the Apple Computer, originally from a garage. By the next year,with the release of the Apple II, Apple had made its mark on the computing world. By 1984, Apple stepped things up a notch with the release of the Macintosh. Who could forget the commercial 1984 which debuted during that year's Super Bowl game? Even though other companies developed the graphical interface and the mouse, it was Apple that brought them together successfully in a commercially viable product.

After Jobs left Apple in 1985 in a Coup de tat, he joined software company Next which developed the software that later became OS X and the mobile operating system that became iOS. And while not heavily publicized, Steve Jobs is actually the largest shareholder of Disney thanks to his term as Chairman and CEO of the motion picture animation company Pixar. If you don't think that Pixar changed the way animation is done in Hollywood, then you haven't been to see too many cartoons on the giant screen lately

When Next was purchased by Apple, it gave Steve Jobs an entry back inside Apple, which was dangerously close to going under at the time. It was 1997 and Jobs helped the company turn out the iMac, a unique egg-shaped computer with a translucent, colored case covering the monitor. It was a huge hit and Apple was out of ICU. The Apple iMac G4 put all of the guts of the computer in a single base with the monitor attached via a metal, swinging arm. It too was a big hit.

The next area that Steve Jobs helped change was the portable MP3 player. On November 10, 2001 Apple launched the Apple iPod. The amazing success of the iPod gave Jobs the confidence to go after the next piece of technology on his list-cell phones. On January 9, 2007, after nearly 2 years of rumors, Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPhone which was launched June 29, 2007. Yes, there were some mistakes made such as the lack of 3G connectivity, no MMS and other little flaws. But from the moment that the Apple iPhone was released, the smartphone was never the same. And of course, it was Jobs who introduced the Apple iPhone 3G, the 3GS and the current Apple iPhone 4. His name has  become practically synonymous with the iPhone. Today's touchscreen smartphone, with a YouTube app, super-responsive screen and of course, an online app store, can all be traced back to Apple.

You would think that having changed the home computer, movie animation, mobile operating systems and the smartphone would have been enough for anyone. But Jobs changed the laptop industry with the introduction in April 2010 of the Apple iPad tablet. 3 million units were sold in the first 80 days and just as with the iPhone, other companies started producing their own tablets using the Apple tablet as a template. In March 2011, the Apple iPad 2 was released leaving Apple with a stranglehold in the tablet arena.

And regardless on where you stand on Apple the company, Steve Jobs the individual is responsible for the designs and features of many of the products that we all use today whether they are made by Apple or a competitor. And for that we say, Thanks Steve.

source: AllThingsD