2011-10-07 12:12:26
By Mike Wehner, Tecca | Today in Tech Wed, Oct 5, 2011
Apple's former CEO made furthering technology his passion
Steve Jobs died Wednesday at the age of 56. The former Apple CEO was a
visionary in the world of computing and is largely responsible for the level at
which computers are integrated with our everyday lives. There's a very good
chance that you're reading this story on a computer, tablet, or smartphone that
Jobs either invented or inspired, and that's something that is unique to his
legacy.
The original Macintosh mouse
How it all started
Jobs along with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple in 1976. The
first computers were simplistic but revolutionary for their time. Then in 1984,
the company introduced the Macintosh 128K, the first mainstream computer that
abandoned text-only commands in favor of a graphical user interface. Along with
it came the mouse, a device which is so crucial to modern computing that it
hasn't changed in nearly three decades.
In 1986, during a brief hiatus from the company he helps created, Jobs snatched
up a little-known division of film studio Lucasfilm. He renamed this computer
animation company Pixar, after the expensive computer imaging technology that
his team created. Shortly thereafter, he negotiated a deal with Disney to
produce Pixar's first full-length feature, Toy Story. After a string of
record-breaking films, he sold the company to Disney for approximately $7.4
billion.
The iMac changed everything
Return to Apple
When Jobs eventually returned to Apple, the company was in shambles. Competing
manufacturers held Apple software licenses and were making clones of the
company's hardware, undermining the brand. Jobs immediately cancelled the
program and brought all Apple development back under one roof.
From there he slowly built up Apple's credibility amongst computer users and
eventually oversaw the launch of the iMac and iBook, two of the most iconic
Apple products in the company's history. The somewhat unusual look and
candy-colored combinations of Apple's hardware began to give the company an
edgy appeal, and consumers ate it up. Apple's stock seemed to have no ceiling,
as each new product brought new customers into the company's dedicated fan
base.
Jobs revolutionized mobile computing
iPod, iPhone, and iPad
Apple launched the iPod in 2001, and along with the iTunes software, Jobs'
company revolutionized the way we listen to music. Digital music players can be
found in every corner of the globe, and the iPod line is by far the most
popular of them all. Apple made purchasing and listening to music so affordable
and easy that over 220 million iPod devices have been sold since its
introduction.
In 2007 Jobs launched what is undoubtedly the best-selling Apple product to
date: the iPhone. His vision of a smartphone was far different than what most
wireless consumers were used to, but now it's hard to imagine a world without
it. As competitors did their best to catch up, Jobs stayed the course, always
standing by his promise to create useful products on Apple's terms, and without
influence from the rest of the tech world.
Once the iPhone was firmly a market leader, Jobs took his dream of mobile
computing one step further by introducing the iPad a tablet that didn't try
to be a computer. Both the iPhone and iPad product lines have seen massive
success and after 4 versions of Apple's smartphone and two iPads, the company
is the most valuable brand name in consumer electronics, and has flirted with
being the most profitable company on earth.
We'll never forget
Through it all, Steve Jobs gained millions of fans. His relaxed appearance and
style during the frequent Apple keynotes is legendary, and even as new CEO Tim
Cook takes over, we can't help but miss the black shirts and blue jeans we were
used to seeing for so many years.
Wednesday, pancreatic cancer claimed his life, a disease which he first
announced to the public 2004. Through various treatments, Jobs continued to
perform his duties at Apple, promising only to step down when he felt the time
was right. Just a few short months ago, on August 24, Steve Jobs officially
walked away from his post as CEO, and today he is no longer with us.
As the face of Apple for so many years, Jobs became part of the very fabric of
the company's products. His legacy will live on with every iPod, iPhone, Mac,
and iPad that graces a desk or coffee table around the globe. The next time you
power on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, spare a moment for Steve Jobs,
one man who made advancing technology his life's work.
[Image credit: acaben, raneko]
This article was written by Mike Wehner and originally appeared on Tecca
Steve Jobs' Estranged Father Never Got Phone Call He Waited For
By COLLEEN CURRY | ABC News
Steve Jobs' estranged father, who had given up his infant son for adoption, had
been hoping that his grown son would call him. That hope died today.
Abdulfattah John Jandali had emailed his son a few times in a tentative effort
to make contact. The father never called the son because he feared Jobs would
think the dad who had given him up was now after his fortune.
And Jobs never responded to his father's emails.
"I really don't have anything to say," Jandali, vice president at Boomtown
Hotel Casino in Reno, Nev., told the International Business Times.
Jandali, a Syrian immigrant, had been quoted by the New York Post recently
saying he didn't know until just a few years ago that the baby he and his
ex-wife, Joanne Simpson, gave up grew to be Apple's CEO.
Jandali told the Post that had it been his choice, he would have kept the baby.
But Simpson's father did not approve of her marrying a Syrian, so she moved to
San Francisco to have the baby alone and give him up for adoption.
Steve Jobs Secretive Private Life
Jandali, who is 80, said at the time that he would have been happy to just have
a cup of coffee with the son he never knew before it was too late. Stories of
Jobs' battle with a form of pancreatic cancer and his liver transplant were
public and Jobs' health had deteriorated to the point where he was forced to
resign as CEO of Apple.
He was quoted as saying, "This might sound strange, though, but I am not
prepared, even if either of us was on our deathbeds, to pick up the phone to
call him."
Though he was one of the world's most famous CEOs, Steve Jobs has remained
stubbornly private about his personal life, ignoring the media and the public's
thirst for knowledge about him ever since he co-founded Apple Computer in 1976.
He was so successful at keeping the details of his life out of the celebrity
pages that a Pew poll in June 2010 found that only 41 percent of Americans
correctly identified Jobs as head of Apple. A CBS poll that year concluded that
69 percent of Americans didn't know enough about Jobs to have an opinion about
him.
Jobs personal life was a story of extremes. Given up for adoption, he created a
worldwide giant of a company in his garage, dated movie stars, and had a child
out of wedlock who he denied for many years.
Many fans know that Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, have been married for
more than 20 years; the two were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite
National Park in 1991, live in Woodside, Calif., and have three children: Reed
Paul, Erin Sienna, and Eve.
Less well-known are the other members of his family. He has a daughter, Lisa
Brennan Jobs, born in 1978 with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan.
His sister is Mona Simpson, the acclaimed writer of books like "Anywhere But
Here." Jobs did not meet Simpson until they were adults, when he was seeking
information on his birth parents. Simpson later wrote a book based on their
relationship. In the book, "A Regular Guy," Simpson shed light on Jobs's
relationship with Brennan and his daughter, Lisa.
Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, at one
point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could not have
children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfare for a
time to support the child, until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.
The college dropout was a millionaire by the age of 25 and on the cover of Time
by 26. By 30, he was starting a second company, NeXT.
During those years, though, Jobs also lived an exciting personal life. He also
began a relationship with singer Joan Baez, according to Elizabeth Holmes, a
friend and classmate. In "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells
biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobs broke up with his serious girlfriend to
"begin an affair with the charismatic singer-activist." Holmes confirmed these
details to ABC News.
Deutschman's book also says Jobs went on a blind date with Diane Keaton; went
out with Lisa Birnbach, author of "The Preppy Handbook;" and hand delivered
computers to celebrities he admired.
9 things you didn t know about the life of Steve Jobs
By Taylor Hatmaker, Tecca | Today in Tech
Steve Jobs leans against his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs (Lea Suzuki/San
Francisco Chronicle/Corbis)
For all of his years in the spotlight at the helm of Apple, Steve Jobs in many
ways remains an inscrutable figure even in his death. Fiercely private, Jobs
concealed most specifics about his personal life, from his curious family life
to the details of his battle with pancreatic cancer a disease that ultimately
claimed him on Wednesday, at the age of 56.
While the CEO and co-founder of Apple steered most interviews away from the
public fascination with his private life, there's plenty we know about Jobs the
person, beyond the Mac and the iPhone. If anything, the obscure details of his
interior life paint a subtler, more nuanced portrait of how one of the finest
technology minds of our time grew into the dynamo that we remember him as
today.
1. Early life and childhood
Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. He was adopted shortly
after his birth and reared near Mountain View, California by a couple named
Clara and Paul Jobs. His adoptive father a term that Jobs openly objected to
was a machinist for a laser company and his mother worked as an accountant.
Later in life, Jobs discovered the identities of his estranged parents. His
birth mother, Joanne Simpson, was a graduate student at the time and later a
speech pathologist; his biological father, Abdulfattah John Jandali, was a
Syrian Muslim who left the country at age 18 and reportedly now serves as the
vice president of a Reno, Nevada casino. While Jobs reconnected with Simpson in
later years, he and his biological father remained estranged.
Reed College
2. College dropout
The lead mind behind the most successful company on the planet never graduated
from college, in fact, he didn't even get close. After graduating from high
school in Cupertino, California a town now synonymous with 1 Infinite Loop,
Apple's headquarters Jobs enrolled in Reed College in 1972. Jobs stayed at
Reed (a liberal arts university in Portland, Oregon) for only one semester,
dropping out quickly due to the financial burden the private school's steep
tuition placed on his parents.
In his famous 2005 commencement speech to Stanford University, Jobs said of his
time at Reed: "It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on
the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to
buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night
to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple."
Breakout for the Atari
3. Fibbed to his Apple co-founder about a job at Atari
Jobs is well known for his innovations in personal computing, mobile tech, and
software, but he also helped create one of the best known video games of
all-time. In 1975, Jobs was tapped by Atari to work on the Pong-like game
Breakout.
He was reportedly offered $750 for his development work, with the possibility
of an extra $100 for each chip eliminated from the game's final design. Jobs
recruited Steve Wozniak (later one of Apple's other founders) to help him with
the challenge. Wozniak managed to whittle the prototype's design down so much
that Atari paid out a $5,000 bonus but Jobs kept the bonus for himself, and
paid his unsuspecting friend only $375, according to Wozniak's own
autobiography.
4. The wife he leaves behind
Like the rest of his family life, Jobs kept his marriage out of the public eye.
Thinking back on his legacy conjures images of him commanding the stage in his
trademark black turtleneck and jeans, and those solo moments are his most
iconic. But at home in Palo Alto, Jobs was raising a family with his wife,
Laurene, an entrepreneur who attended the University of Pennsylvania's
prestigious Wharton business school and later received her MBA at Stanford,
where she first met her future husband.
For all of his single-minded dedication to the company he built from the ground
up, Jobs actually skipped a meeting to take Laurene on their first date: "I was
in the parking lot with the key in the car, and I thought to myself, 'If this
is my last night on earth, would I rather spend it at a business meeting or
with this woman?' I ran across the parking lot, asked her if she'd have dinner
with me. She said yes, we walked into town and we've been together ever since."
In 1991, Jobs and Powell were married in the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite
National Park, and the marriage was officiated by Kobin Chino, a Zen Buddhist
monk.
5. His sister is a famous author
Later in his life, Jobs crossed paths with his biological sister while seeking
the identity of his birth parents. His sister, Mona Simpson (born Mona
Jandali), is the well-known author of Anywhere But Here a story about a
mother and daughter that was later adapted into a film starring Natalie Portman
and Susan Sarandon.
After reuniting, Jobs and Simpson developed a close relationship. Of his
sister, he told a New York Times interviewer: "We're family. She's one of my
best friends in the world. I call her and talk to her every couple of days.''
Anywhere But Here is dedicated to "my brother Steve."
Joan Baez
6. Celebrity romances
In The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, an unauthorized biography, a friend from
Reed reveals that Jobs had a brief fling with folk singer Joan Baez. Baez
confirmed the the two were close "briefly," though her romantic connection with
Bob Dylan is much better known (Dylan was the Apple icon's favorite musician).
The biography also notes that Jobs went out with actress Diane Keaton briefly.
7. His first daughter
When he was 23, Jobs and his high school girlfriend Chris Ann Brennan conceived
a daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs. She was born in 1978, just as Apple began
picking up steam in the tech world. He and Brennan never married, and Jobs
reportedly denied paternity for some time, going as far as stating that he was
sterile in court documents. He went on to father three more children with
Laurene Powell. After later mending their relationship, Jobs paid for his first
daughter's education at Harvard. She graduated in 2000 and now works as a
magazine writer.
8. Alternative lifestyle
In a few interviews, Jobs hinted at his early experience with the psychedelic
drug LSD. Of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Jobs said: "I wish him the best, I
really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader
guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."
The connection has enough weight that Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who
first synthesized (and took) LSD, appealed to Jobs for funding for research
about the drug's therapeutic use.
In a book interview, Jobs called his experience with the drug "one of the two
or three most important things I have done in my life." As Jobs himself has
suggested, LSD may have contributed to the "think different" approach that
still puts Apple's designs a head above the competition.
Jobs will forever be a visionary, and his personal life also reflects the
forward-thinking, alternative approach that vaulted Apple to success. During a
trip to India, Jobs visited a well-known ashram and returned to the U.S. as a
Zen Buddhist.
Jobs was also a pescetarian who didn't consume most animal products, and didn't
eat meat other than fish. A strong believer in Eastern medicine, he sought to
treat his own cancer through alternative approaches and specialized diets
before reluctantly seeking his first surgery for a cancerous tumor in 2004.
9. His fortune
As the CEO of the world's most valuable brand, Jobs pulled in a comically low
annual salary of just $1. While the gesture isn't unheard of in the corporate
world Google's Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt all pocketed the
same 100 penny salary annually Jobs has kept his salary at $1 since 1997, the
year he became Apple's lead executive. Of his salary, Jobs joked in 2007: "I
get 50 cents a year for showing up, and the other 50 cents is based on my
performance."
In early 2011, Jobs owned 5.5 million shares of Apple. After his death, Apple
shares were valued at $377.64 a roughly 43-fold growth in valuation over the
last 10 years that shows no signs of slowing down.
He may only have taken in a single dollar per year, but Jobs leaves behind a
vast fortune. The largest chunk of that wealth is the roughly $7 billion from
the sale of Pixar to Disney in 2006. In 2011, with an estimated net worth of
$8.3 billion, he was the 110th richest person in the world, according to
Forbes. If Jobs hadn't sold his shares upon leaving Apple in 1985 (before
returning to the company in 1996), he would be the world's fifth richest
individual.
While there's no word yet on plans for his estate, Jobs leaves behind three
children from his marriage to Laurene Jobs (Reed, Erin, and Eve), as well as
his first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
[Image credit: Ben Stanfield, Heinrich Klaffs]
This article originally appeared on Tecca
Steve Jobs' Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES | ABC News
Long before Steve Jobs became the CEO of Apple and one of the most recognizable
figures on the planet, he took a unconventional route to find himself -- a
spiritual journey that influenced every step of an unconventional career.
Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer, was the
biological child of two unmarried academics who only consented to signing the
papers if the adoptive parents sent him to college.
His adoptive parents sent a young Jobs off to Reed College, an expensive
liberal arts school in Oregon, but he dropped out and went to India in the 1973
in search of enlightenment.
Jobs and his college friend Daniel Kottke, who later worked for him at Apple,
visited Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram. He returned home to California
a Buddhist, complete with a shaved head and traditional Indian clothing and a
philosophy that may have shaped much of his corporate values.
Later, he was often seen walking barefoot in his trademark blue jeans around
the office and reportedly often said that those around him didn't fully
understand his way of thinking.
"I wouldn't say Steve Jobs was a practicing Buddhist," said Robert Thurman, a
professor of Buddhist studies at Columbia University, who met Jobs and his
"Tibetan buddies" in the 1980s in San Francisco.
"But he was just as creative and generous and went outside the box in the way
that he looked to Eastern mental discipline and the Zen vision, which is a
compelling one."
"He was a real explorer and very much to be mourned and too young at 56," said
Thurman. "We will remember the design simplicity of his products. That
simplicity is a Zen idea."
Thurman met Jobs in San Francisco in the 1980s with Grateful Dead drummer
Mickey Hart and actor Richard Gere. The discussion was about Tibet.
"It was before the Dalai Lama, and he was very sympathetic and had advice for
the Tibetans," he said. "But he was into his own thing and didn't become a
major player."
Jobs used Dalai Lama in one of Apple's most famous ad campaigns: "Think
Different."
"He put them up all over Hong Kong," Thurman said of the computer ads. "But
then the Chinese communists squawked very violently and as my son says, 'He had
to think again.'"
Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa married Jobs and his now widow, Laurene
Powell, in 1991.
Jobs could have just as easily taken his philosophy from the hippie movement of
the 1960s. The Whole Earth Catalogue was his bible, with founder Stewart
Brand's cry, "We are as gods."
The catalogue offered an integrated and complex world view with a leftist
political calling. Jobs later adopted the catalogue's mantra: "Stay hungry.
Stay foolish."
Buddhism a Wake-Up Call for Steve Jobs?
The catalogue also delved into spirituality. In one 1974 article, author Rick
Fields wrote that Buddhism is "a tool, like an alarm-clock for waking up."
That may have been the case for Jobs. He said in his now-famous 2005
Commencement speech at Stanford that he lived each day as if it were his last,
admonishing graduates not to "live someone else's life."
"Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other
people's thinking," Jobs said. "Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown
out your own inner voice."
In that speech he told students to relish the time to follow their passions,
recounting the time after he dropped out, but continued to audit non-credit
classes like calligraphy. The elegant typefaces -- serif and sans serif -- were
later introduced for the first time in the Macintosh.
"I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I
returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with, and I would
walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week
at the Hare Krishna temple," he said. "I loved it."
Jobs was also influenced by Richard Baker, who was head of the Zen Center in
San Francisco from 1971 until 1984, when Baker resigned after a scandalous
affair with a wife of one of the center's benefactors. But Baker helped the
center grow to one of the most successful in the United States.
Jobs was receptive to Baker's message of change, "helping the environment and
empowering the individual."
Jobs admitted to experimenting with the hallucinogenic drug LSD, which he has
said was "one of the two or three most important things" in his life.
In an unauthorized biography by Alan Deutschman, a college friend said that
Jobs had even been a lover of folk singer Joan Baez, who was 41 at the time,
and the attraction was largely because she had also been intimate with another
'60s icon, Bob Dylan.
He was a fan of the Beatles, who also embraced spirituality and made a similar
pilgrimage to India. Jobs told television's "60 Minutes" he modeled his own
business after the rock group.
"They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they
balanced each other," he said. "And the total was greater than the sum of the
parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a
team of people."
Jobs said that "focus and simplicity" were the foundation of Apple's ethic.
"Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking
clean to make it simple," he told Businessweek in 1998. "But it's worth it in
the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."
Even the minimalist design of his products -- from the first Macintosh to the
sleek iPad have a "aesthetic simplicity and keenness of line" that smacks of
Japanese Zen, according to Columbia's Thurman.
Former Pepsico President John Sculley, who eventually fired Jobs, said walking
into Jobs' apartment had the same design feel.
"I remember going into Steve's house, and he had almost no furniture in it,"
Sculley said in a 2010 interview with Businessweek."He just had a picture of
Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a
bed. He just didn't believe in having lots of things around, but he was
incredibly careful in what he selected."
Jobs reportedly convinced Sculley to work for Apple when he asked, "Do you want
to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance
to change the world?"
Jobs Gave People Computer Power
Thurman contends Jobs' greatest success was not necessarily financial.
"It was his initial role in making the PC available to individuals to give them
computer power," said Thurman. "He was democratizing computer power. It was his
own inspiration of things and not accepting the status quo and breaking through
the power of the people."
Though Jobs may not have been a devout practitioner of Buddhism, his personal
and corporate vision certainly struck the same tone -- "wisdom and compassion,"
he said.
"Zen vision is that human beings can understand reality if they focus their
mind on it and develop wisdom," said Thurman. "When you do, you have the
greater capacity to arrange the nature of things and to help people."
But the irony of Jobs' spirituality was that as much as it reflected the most
beautiful aspects of the products he made, those very "machines" have in some
ways enslaved a generation of users, according to John Lardas Modern, a
professor of religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College in
Pennsylvania.
Jobs made computers and hand held devices that have allowed people to become
"disembodied" on a certain level -- "to escape and transcend the mundane
reality of bodily existence," according to Modern.
Such spirituality begs for freedom from the trappings of tradition, he said,
but they have a down side.
"These machines are amazing," said Modern. "For the last 12 hours, I have been
seeing people on Facebook and Twitter in praise of how the devices he made
allow ease and convenience and empowerment."
"I love my iPad, precisely because it feels like an extension of my mind and I
can't live without it," said Modern. "The irony is, these products ground us in
a chair behind a desk, behind a computer and in a sense they have pushed us
inward?and you don't have physical connections with others."
"It cuts both ways," he said.
Tributes for Apple 'visionary' Steve Jobs
1984-2011: Three decades of innovation at Apple
World and business leaders have paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs,
who has died at 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said Mr Jobs
had changed the world.
Microsoft's Bill Gates said it had been "an insanely great honour" to work with
him. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg remembered his "mentor and friend".
The Twitter microblog site struggled to cope with the traffic of tributes.
Apple itself said Mr Jobs had been "the source of countless innovations that
enrich and improve all of our lives" and had made the world "immeasurably
better".
Thousands of celebrities and ordinary people went on Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube to record their tributes and memories of the man behind products such
as the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad.
An iPhone displays an image of Steve Jobs at a makeshift memorial outside an
Apple Store in New York on 5 October 2011
In pictures: Apple fans mourn Jobs
What made Steve Jobs unique?
Can Apple stay ahead without Jobs at its core?
Apple plans Jobs commemoration
The death of Mr Jobs could create a record for Twitter traffic.
Thousands of people all over the world have also been attending Apple stores to
leave flowers, notes, and apples with a bite taken from them to mimic the
company's logo.
Apple's leading rivals such as Microsoft, Google, Sony and Samsung all chipped
in with glowing tributes.
GS Choi, chief executive of Samsung, which is embroiled in a major court battle
with Apple on patents, said Mr Jobs was an "innovative spirit" who "introduced
numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry".
In his statement, Bill Gates said: "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. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's
been an insanely great honour."
At the scene
Peter Jackson BBC News, London
A single bunch of flowers - still in their plastic wrapper - were the only
outward sign of the passing of Steve Jobs outside Apple's flagship London store
in Covent Garden.
Ginnie Leatham, a brand director in the media industry, from West Sussex, hand
delivered a single red Gerbera to staff inside the store.
She said: "I was really sad when I woke up this morning. I had a real lump in
my throat and felt quite tearful.
"I was thinking about it on my commute into work. I always walk past the Apple
store and I just thought 'I'm going to stop'.
Flowers and eulogies for Steve Jobs
Mr Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook: "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."
His comments were "liked" by more than 200,000 people within hours.
In his own tweet, Barack Obama wrote: "There may be no greater tribute to
Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on
a device he invented."
Web users in China have reportedly posted almost 35 million online tributes.
Tim Cook, who was made Apple's CEO after Mr Jobs stood down in August, said his
predecessor had left behind "a company that only he could have built, and his
spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple".
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Steve Jobs transformed the way we work
and play; a creative genius who will be sorely missed."
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the US had "lost a genius who will
be remembered with Edison and Einstein".
News Corp's Rupert Murdoch said: "Steve Jobs was simply the greatest CEO of his
generation."
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will remember Mr Jobs for "knowing what made
sense in a product"
People also gathered outside Mr Jobs's home in California's Silicon Valley to
lay floral wreaths, while flags were flown at half mast outside the Apple
headquarters in Cupertino, California.
A statement from Mr Jobs's family said they were with him when he died
peacefully on Wednesday.
"In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he
cherished his family," they said, requesting privacy and thanking those who had
"shared their wishes and prayers" during his final year.
Face of Apple
Mr Jobs built a reputation as a forthright and demanding leader who could take
niche technologies - such as the mouse and graphical user interface, using
onscreen icons rather than text - and make them popular with the general
public.
Life of Steve Jobs
Born in San Francisco in Feb 1955 to students Joanne Schieble and Syrian-born
Abdulfattah Jandali - adopted by a Californian working class couple
Had a summer job at Hewlett-Packard while at school - later worked at Atari
Dropped out of college after six months and went travelling in India, where he
became a Buddhist
Launched Apple with school friend Steve Wozniak in 1976 - first Apple computer
sold the same year
Left Apple amid disputes in 1985 but returned in 1996 and became CEO in 1997
Bought Pixar animation company in 1986 for $10m
Married in a Buddhist ceremony in 1991 - has three children with his wife and a
daughter from a previous relationship
Had a personal wealth estimated at $8.3bn ( 5.4bn) in 2010
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, and after three periods of sickness
leave, resigns as Apple CEO in August 2011
Obituary: Steve Jobs
Career in pictures
'Remarkable' cancer fight
He introduced the colourful iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad to
the world. His death came just a day after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 4S
model.
With a market value estimated at $351bn ( 227bn), Apple became the world's most
valuable technology company.
More than almost any other business leader, Mr Jobs was indistinguishable from
his company, which he co-founded in the 1970s.
As the face of Apple, he represented its dedication to high-end technology and
fashionable design.
And inside the company he exerted a level of influence unheard of in most
businesses.
Mr Jobs also provided major funding to set up Pixar Animation Studios.
In 2004, Mr Jobs announced that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. He had
a liver transplant five years later.
In January, he took medical leave, before resigning as CEO in August and
handing over his duties to Mr Cook.
In his resignation letter, Mr Jobs said: "I believe Apple's brightest and most
innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and
contributing to its success in a new role."
However, Mr Jobs stayed on as Apple's chairman.
Despite his high profile, he remained fiercely protective of his private life.
He married his wife Laurene in 1991, and the couple had three children.
Mr Jobs also leaves a daughter from a previous relationship, and as an adult he
discovered that he had a biological sister, US novelist Mona Simpson.