Dictionary of Computers - Jobs, Steve(n) Paul

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US computer entrepreneur. He co-founded Apple Computer Inc. with US electronics engineer Stephen Wozniak in 1976. He created the Apple II personal computer (PC) in 1977 and the Apple Macintosh in 1984. He established the animated film production company Pixar in 1986, and with its sale to the Disney Company in 2006 Jobs became Disney's largest shareholder.

The introduction of the Apple II was so successful it set an industry standard in PCs, and when the company went public in 1980 it had a market value of US$1.2 billion. Although the introduction of the Apple Lisa in 1983, intended for business use, proved a failure, it did introduce the graphical user interface, subsequently used by the Apple Macintosh, which followed in 1984, and was marketed as ‘the computer for the rest of us’. Jobs was ousted from the Apple board in 1985 and subsequently co-founded NeXT Technology Inc. (NeXT). He sold the company to Apple in 1996 and rejoined Apple, becoming its chief executive officer in 1997.

Jobs was born in Los Altos, California. He met Wozniak attending a series of lectures at Hewlett-Packard while still at school, and gained a summer job at the company. In 1974 he dropped out of Reed College, Oregon, after one semester, to work for Atari designing computer games, but left after a few months to travel in India. Returning to California he joined a computer club and persuaded Wozniak to work with him, initially in his garage, to design and build a personal computer.

When the computer started selling, Jobs set up the Apple Computer Company and incorporated it in 1977 to market the product.

As well as being awarded the National Medal of Technology by former US president Ronald Reagan in 1985, and the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 1987, Jobs was named Entrepreneur of the Decade by Inc. magazine in 1989. In 2003, Jobs was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Executives in the IT industry by CMP Media's CRN magazine.

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