On Wed 24th August Steve Jobs, 56 years old CEO and co-founder of Apple submitted his resignation in which he recommended Tim Cook, Apple COO, as his successor. Tim Cook has already been managing the company since January while Steve Jobs was on medical leave. Steve Jobs will continue to serve Apple in his new role as chairman of the Apple board.
This change is not surprising and is unlikely to have any significant impact in the short term with product road maps already planned and Steve Jobs in his role as chairman likely to remain actively involved. However in years to come will anyone be able to match the singular vision of product development and design of Steve Jobs which has made Apple so successful and their products so desirable?
What this event has done is give everyone reason to look back at the one of the most successful and extraordinary careers in the technology industry. Steve Jobs practically began the personal computer industry and in more recent years has reshaped the mobile phone, music, movie and animation businesses. Here are some of the key moments along the way:
1969 Steve Jobs meets Steve Wozniak.
1975 Steve and Woz start assembling Apple I computers in the Jobs' garage, and sell them to hobbyists.
1976 Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne.
1977 Apple makes a huge sensation at the West Coast Computer Faire with a prototype Apple II.
1978 The Apple II becomes the first mass-market personal computer, a huge hit all around the US.
At Apple, work starts on Apple III and Lisa
1979 Steve Jobs is shown the first working graphical user interface at Xerox PARC.
1980 Apple goes public, increasing Steve Jobs' net worth to over $200
1981 IBM launches the IBM PC, the biggest threat to Apple's future.
1982 Steve ends up on the cover of Time Magazine.
1983 Launch of the Lisa computer. PepsiCo CEO John Sculley becomes Apple's CEO.
1984 Macintosh is launched in great fanfare at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting.
1985 Apple's board sides with John Sculley and strips Steve off all executive duties.
Steve Jobs resigns from Apple. Apple announces it will sue Steve's future company, NeXT.
1986 Jobs buys a division of George Lucas' ILM for $10 million and incorporates it as Pixar.
1987 Ross Perot invests $20 million in NeXT, valuing it at $125 million.
1988 NeXT and IBM form a partnership to have NeXT’s system run on IBM machines.
Pixar releases Tin Toy (1988's Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film).
1989 Canon invests $100 million in NeXT, now worth $600 million.
1991 Pixar signs a deal with Disney to make a computer-animated feature film.
1992 NeXT licenses its operating system, NeXTSTEP.
1993 NeXT fires 300 employees as it discontinues hardware and becomes NeXT Software Inc.
Jeffrey Katzenberg puts a halt to the development of Toy Story.
1994 Pixar resumes work on Toy Story.
1995 Steve becomes President & CEO of Pixar Animation Studios.
One week after Toy Story is out, Pixar goes public. Steve Jobs worth $1.5 billion.
1996 Steve Jobs negotiates a breakthrough deal between Pixar and Disney with Michael Eisner.
Apple buys NeXT for $400 million. Steve Jobs is named "informal adviser" to CEO Gil Amelio.
1997 Gil Amelio is ousted by the Apple Board. Steve Jobs is named interim CEO.
Steve Jobs introduces Apple's new Board and a peace treaty with Microsoft at Macworld.
1998 Apple is profitable again.
Steve Jobs introduces Apple's revolutionary iMac.
1999 Steve Jobs introduces the new Power Mac G3 and the color iMacs at Macworld San Francisco.
The original iBook is unveiled at Macworld New York with the tagline "iMac to go".
Introduction of iMovie, Apple's first Digital Hub app.
2000 Steve Jobs officially becomes Apple’s CEO and demos Mac OS X at Macworld.
2001 Apple opens its first Retail Stores in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California.
Steve Jobs unveils the first iPod.
2002 Steve unveils the iMac G4 and the fourth iApp, iPhoto, at Macworld San Francisco.
Steve Jobs introduces the first Windows-compatible iPods at Macworld NY.
2003 Apple opens the online iTunes Music Store in the US.
Opening day of Finding Nemo, Pixar’s first Best Animated Feature Academy Award winner.
Steve Jobs unveils the Power Mac G5, the world’s fastest computer, at WWDC.
"The day hell froze over": Steve Jobs introduces iTunes for Windows.
Steve Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
2004 Steve unveils the iPod mini and the iLife suite at Macworld.
Steve Jobs has his pancreatic tumor removed by surgery.
2005 At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveils iWork, the Mac mini, and the iPod shuffle.
Steve Jobs announces that Apple is going to use Intel processors in the future Macs at WWDC.
Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford University.
2006 Steve Jobs introduces the first two Intel Macs at Macworld, the iMac and the MacBook Pro.
The Walt Disney Company acquires Pixar for $7.4 billion, and Steve joins the board.
2007 Steve Jobs introduces Apple TV and iPhone at Macworld. Apple Computer becomes Apple Inc.
iPhone is released in the US, the same day as Pixar’s Ratatouille.
Steve Jobs is inducted in the California Hall of Fame by Gov. Schwartzenegger.
2008 Steve Jobs introduces the world’s thinnest notebook, the MacBook Air, at Macworld.
Apple announces it will open the iPhone platform to outside developers with the App Store.
2009 Steve Jobs takes a medical leave of absence for six months.
Steve has surgery for a liver transplant.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt leaves Apple's board because of conflicting interests due to Android.
Steve Jobs makes his first public appearance of the year at an Apple Music Event.
2010 Steve Jobs unveils iPad, the much-anticipated Apple tablet.
2011 Steve Jobs launches the iPad 2 in March
iCloud is launched at the Apple Wordwide Developer Conference
Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO on 24th Aug
This definitely marks the end of an era, but in no way the end of Apple.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.og/wiki/Steve_Jobs
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/steve-jobs.html
http://www.allaboutstevejobs.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Macintosh_models
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Apple_Inc._products
