STEVE JOBS, APPLE VISIONARY, DIES AGED 56

Steve Jobs made technology fun. The co-founder of Apple died on October 5, 2011 at the age of fifty-six. Mr Jobs had announced he was suffering from pancreatic cancer in 2004 and fought for all these years against it (He had a liver transplant five years later). Mourners gathered outside his house in Palo Alto, California, and Apple stores around the world.

                               

Tim Bajarin is president of Creative Strategies, said: "If you actually look at a tech leader, they’re really happy if they have one hit in their life. Steve Jobs has the Apple II, the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad and Pixar.”

Steve Jobs was a college dropout. He was adopted by a machinist and his wife, an accountant. They supported his early interest in electronics.

He and his friend Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer - now just called Apple - in 1976. They stayed at the company until 1985. That year, Steve Wozniak returned to college and Steve Jobs left in a dispute with the chief executive.

Mr. Jobs then formed his own company, called NeXT Computer. He rejoined Apple in 1997 after it bought NeXT. He helped remake Apple from a business that was in bad shape then to one of the most valuable companies in the world today.

Steve Wozniak, Apple´s co-founder, remembered his longtime friend as a "great visionary and leader" and a "marketing genius."

President Obama said in a statement: "By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the Internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it," said Mr. Obama."

David Carroll is a professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City. He says Steve Jobs not only revolutionized technology, he also revolutionized American business. He sais: “The fact that he was able to redesign American commerce top to bottom and across is really stunning. He probably will be considered an industrial giant on the scale of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, so one of the great of all time.”

Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple's chief executive in August 2011 because of his health.

Apple's new chief, Tim Cook, will also have to deal with the new Kindle Fire tablet computer from Amazon.com. It costs less than half as much as an iPad but also does less.