Steve Jobs’ Greatest Achievements
Steve Jobs has changed the technology landscape with the founding of Apple which has become the most valuable technology company in the world.
Introduction of the Apple I and formation of Apple
In the 1970s, computers were big bulky machines that would take a huge amount of space and often be seen for business use. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had an idea to make computers more accessible for the everyday user and easy to use without programming knowledge. They introduced the Apple I which was more portable than computers in its day. The Apple I sold 200 units in the first year of its launch.
Apple II
Following the success of the Apple I computer, Steve Jobs and his colleagues designed the Apple II which had an integrated display and a graphical interface that you can navigate via a mouse. The launch of the Apple II was a success with 6 million units sold.
Apple departure and Pixar
In 1985, Steve Jobs lost his job at Apple. In 1986, Jobs acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd and renamed it Pixar Animation Studios where he became a majority shareholder at 50.1% until being acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Jobs turned Pixar into a leading animation company that produced its first feature-length animation movie called Toy Story in 1995.
Apple Resurgence
Following his departure, Apple started to perform very badly and consequently, Apple’s stock prices started to go down throughout the 1990s. The existence of Bill Gates and his Microsoft company provided tough competition to Apple. The company struggled to innovate and produce products with the Apple DNA. In 1997, Apple purchased NeXT Computers which was owned by Jobs. Upon the purchase of NeXT Computers, Jobs was made CEO of Apple again and his first objective was to turn the company's fortunes around. Jobs’ first steps were to streamline operations at Apple by eliminating unprofitable business projects and products. Within just under a year, Job successfully turned Apple into making profits again. Since then Apple has always made a profit to become a trillion-dollar company.
Products that defined Apple
During Steve Jobs’ time, he ushered a lot of technology and digital defining products that have changed the industry for the long term. Here are some of those products.
Apple iPod
In 2001, Jobs introduced the Apple iPod that allowed users to store thousands of songs in a small, fun, and simple device. The iPod became the number one selling portable digital music player in the world.
iTunes
Along with the introduction of the iPod, Apple introduced iTunes which turned music distribution on its head by offering consumers an easy and affordable way to download songs to their computer and iPods. During that time, music piracy was plaguing the music industry and Apple helped provide a legal alternative music download platform.
Stylish Personal Computers
When Jobs took the helm at Apple again and needed to turn the company around, he introduced the Apple iMac G3 in 1998. The Apple iMac introduced a semi-transparent colour shell, which was available in several colours. This made the iMac G3 unique and different to the usual beige coloured computers at the time. Since then Apple continues to introduce elegantly designed Macs and Macbooks. The introduction of the super-thin Macbook Air highlighted the capability of laptops to be super sleek and compact which some say probably kick-started the Ultrabook era.
iPhones – Smartphone revolution
In 2007, Steve Jobs would introduce a product that would make a huge impact on the mobile phone industry. Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone which would merge cellular phone capabilities into an iPod. This landmark device changed the industry to what it is today; the iPhone allowed a full internet browsing experience, take pictures, and had a multi-touch screen interface to interact with the media. Soon after the release of the iPhone many companies started to develop their version to catch up with Apple.
App Store
Alongside the iPhone, Steve Jobs introduced the App Store ecosystem that allowed consumers to download apps on the iPhone or iPod touch that best suit the user. The introduction of an App Store changed the way that software applications are distributed and gave a platform for developers to write and sell mobile programs to consumers online.
iPad – Setting a new trend
Steve Jobs introduced the iPad to the world that was a larger vision of the iPhone which allowed better media consumption and productivity for business tasks. The iPad set a new type of device that would be unique and enable productivity on the go. Apple would later develop the product further to be more powerful to handle more CPU heavy tasks such as image processing and video editing.
Summary
Steve Jobs changed the technology and digital industry to focus more on consumers and build products that will enable customers to be creative and complete everyday tasks with ease. The ethos embedded within Apple by Steve Jobs continues to exist, even after his unfortunate passing, through the products from Apple.