The man who was Apple and how he became the global guru of gadgets

STEVE Jobs was a charismatic leader and inspiring mentor who had a love-hate relationship with his own fame, according to his biographer Alan Deutschman. He wanted it both ways: enjoying celebrity and the access it gave him, but at the same time wanting to control every scintilla of information relating to his image and that of Apple. In terms of profile and “cool”, Jobs was untouchable; his persona was intertwined completely with the desirable, sleek simplicity of the products he helped to create and marketed so masterfully.

Jobs, whose company Apple has transformed everyday technology with products that ranged from the iMac home computer to the iPod, iPhone and iPad computer, has died peacefully at home. A statement from the board of Apple said: “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were a source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.”

Barack Obama, other political leaders, fellow CEOs and fans of the man and the technology queued up to pay fulsome tribute to a man who did not just follow the zeitgeist; he spent his life creating it. The word most used about him is “visionary”.

When he spoke at Apple presentations, almost always in faded blue jeans, trainers and a black sweater, legions of Apple acolytes hung on every word. In later years, Apple investors watched these appearances for clues about his health. Jobs revealed in 2004 that he had been diagnosed with a very rare form of pancreatic cancer, but underwent surgery and said he had been cured.

In 2009, following weight loss he initially attributed to a hormonal imbalance, he abruptly took a six-month leave. During that time, he received a liver transplant. He took further medical leave in January this year and resigned as CEO in August, though he stayed on as chairman. Consistent with his penchant for secrecy, he did not refer to his illness in his resignation letter. He was succeeded by Tim Cook, formerly Apple’s chief operating officer.

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco to Joanne Simpson, a graduate student, and Abdulfattah Jandali, a student from Syria. Ms Simpson gave him up for adoption. Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs of Los Altos, California, a working-class couple who nurtured his early interest in electronics. He saw his first computer terminal at Nasa’s Ames Research Centre when he was around 11, and landed a summer job at Hewlett-Packard while still at school. He dropped out of college in 1972.

“All of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it,” he said in 2005. “I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.” Jobs worked for video game maker Atari and attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of computer hobbyists, with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend. Wozniak’s homemade computer drew attention from other enthusiasts, but Jobs saw its true potential.

The pair started Apple Computer Inc in Jobs’s parents’ garage in 1976. Their first creation was the Apple I – essentially the guts of a computer without a case, keyboard or monitor. The Apple II, which hit the market in 1977, was their first machine for the masses. It became so popular that Jobs was worth $100m by the age of 25. During a 1979 visit to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre, he again spotted mass potential in a niche invention: a “mouse” that controlled a computer without typed commands.

He ordered his engineering team to copy what he had seen. It foreshadowed a propensity to take other people’s concepts, improve on them and market wildly successful products. Apple did not invent computers, digital music players or smartphones – it reinvented them for people who did not want to learn computer programming or negotiate the technical hassles of keeping their gadgets working. “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas,” he said in an interview in 1996.

Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985 after clashes with colleagues and a fall in sales and share price, but returned in 1997 to rescue the company from a worse financial situation. During his second stint the share price eventually climbed to $400, which at one point made Apple the world’s most valuable company. Cultivating Apple’s counter-cultural sensibility and a minimalist design ethic, Jobs rolled out one sensational product after another, each launch cloaked in secrecy followed by a messianic presentation by the high priest of cool technology.

He helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist’s obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home, and in the process he upended not just personal technology but the mobile phone and music industries. For transformation of American industry, he has few rivals. Perhaps most influentially, in 2001 Jobs launched the iPod, which offered “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Over the next 10 years, its white earphones and thumb-dial control seemed to become more ubiquitous than the wristwatch.

In 2007 came the touch-screen iPhone, joined a year later by Apple’s App Store, where developers could sell iPhone “apps” which made the phone a device not just for making calls but also for managing money, editing photos, playing games and social networking. At all times Jobs encouraged users to “think different”.

During his break from Apple Steve Jobs bought film company Pixar and later sold it to the Walt Disney Corporation for $ 7.4 bn, in a deal that got him a seat on Disney’s board and 138 million shares of stock that accounted for most of his fortune. Forbes magazine estimated Jobs was worth $7bn in a survey last month.

In 2005, following cancer treatment, Steve Jobs gave a speech at Stanford University. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” he said. “Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Apple’s core products

Steve Jobs had no formal engineering training, yet he’s listed as the inventor or co-inventor on more than 300 US patents. Here are just a few:

Apple I (1976) – a computer for hobbyists and engineers designed by Steve Wozniak.

Apple II (1977) – One of the first successful personal computers, designed as a mass-market product.

Lisa (1983) – The first commercial computer with icons, windows and a cursor controlled by a mouse.

Macintosh (1984) – Cheaper and faster than Lisa.

iMac (1998) – When Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, the company was foundering but the radical iMac was the first step in reversing the slide. It was strikingly designed as a bubble of blue plastic.

iPod (2001) – The first successful digital music player with a hard drive. The iPod’s success prepared the way for the iTunes music store.

iPhone (2007) – The iPhone did for phones what the iMac did for personal computing.

iPad (2010) – Others, including Apple, had created tablet computers before the iPad, but none caught on. The iPad finally cracked the code.

Tributes to a visionary of technology

US President Barack Obama: “He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair: “As much as anyone in any walk of life in the early 21st century he changed people’s lives simply by imagination and determination.”

Bill Gates, founder of rival company Microsoft and Mr Jobs’s friend: “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.”

Tim Cook, who replaced Mr Jobs as Apple chief executive: “Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

Irish premier Enda Kenny: “Steve Jobs was a creative genius who broke down walls in business and opened doors in people’s minds.”

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.”

Writer and comedian Stephen Fry: “He changed the world. I knew him a little and admired him entirely.”

Comedian Patrick Kielty: “By now Moses will have the Commandments on an iPad. RIP Steve Jobs.”