It's been a good run but Steve Jobs, head of Apple, calls it quits. It was a really amazing ride. This man single-handedly changed the face of Apple as a company and the way we use modern technology as consumers and professionals. He and his company brought multiple innovations to the forefront like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Let's not even forget how this journey began with the introduction of the Apple Lisa which was a design based from Xerox's graphical user interface system.
The graphical user interface was such a good idea that it influenced Bill Gates and his company Microsoft to basically copy the idea and integrate it into their Windows 1.0 operating system. That later infuriated Apple which took Microsoft to court over the use of the GUI technology. Both companies would later resolve the matter by having Microsoft not implementing the technology into their Windows 1.0 OS. The resolution did not state that Microsoft could not integrate it into their future operating systems.
Jobs was very essential to Apple. He had a genuineness that drew you in to what whatever he was selling and promoting. Not to mention he did have some really good stuff to sell. He lost a power struggle from the board of directors of Apple and excommunicated himself from the company in 1984. He later started his new company called NeXT which was computer company that specialized in the education and business markets. Jobs came back into the picture via a buyout of his company by Apple's then current CEO Gil Amelio. Steve served as an adviser to the company. Amelio was later ousted by Apple's board of directors due to the company's three year decline in stock prices and financial loss from 1994 to 1997.
After the departure of Amelio and near bankruptcy, Jobs was made interim CEO and began restructuring the company's product line. Jobs and company began to work their magic first by a joint venture with Microsoft in 1997 to Microsoft Office software to Macintosh systems. In 1998 Apple introduced the iMAC which was an all in one system. The iMac featured a unique and modern design with modern technology to match. 800,000 units were sold with in the first 5 months.
Apple also jumped back into the profit game by acquiring software titles like Macromedia's Final Cut, which within 1 year of the purchase turned out iMovie for consumers and Final Cut Pro for digital media professionals. Other software purchases such as Nothing Real's Shake, a digital composition application, and Emagic's Logic, used for music productivity, led to a consumer-level development project named GarageBand.
In March of 2001 Apple released their new operating system called Mac OS X. The operating system featured a heavily overhauled graphic user interface running Unix in the background. The system was created for consumers and professionals alike. The system was more user friendly with a modern and ergonomic feel. Everything was made simple. The system was based on Steve Jobs former company NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD Unix. Apple would later release future Mac OS X operating systems in the name of animals from the feline species such as, (referring to Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.7), Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and the recently released Lion.
In the same year in May Apple opened up its first Apple store and purchased Spruce Technologies, which is a DVD authoring company, in July. In October the company unveiled the IPod, a digital music player. This was one of Apples biggest innovations, if not the biggest, selling over 100 million units in 6 years. 2003 started the opening of the iTunes Store which offers music downloads for 99 cents and seamless integration with the IPod via iTunes software.
In 2006 Apple started using Intel processors in they're systems. The first systems to get the upgrade from their product line were the Macbook Pro and the iMac which received the Intel Core Duo processor. Other systems would be integrated with Intel processors within the same year. In 2007 Apple changed it's company name to Apple Inc. due to the fact that they no longer focused just on computers. The company had extended its brand to the mobile phone market. At the Mac World Expo, January 9th, 2007 Jobs announced the innovations of the iPhone and Apple TV. The next day Apple's stock price rose to an all time high of $97.80 and later surpassed the $100 mark in May of the same year.
Apple's latest and greatest innovation would be that of the iPad which was basically a giant iPhone. The iPad runs the same touch based operating system as the iPhone and is compatible with many of the iPhone applications. With it's release April 3rd, 2010 more that 300,000 units of the iPad device were sold in the United States on the first day and reached upwards over 500,000 the first week.
Over the years Jobs's health appeared to be deteriorating. In 2004 he announced to his employees that he had pancreatic cancer. He successfully had the tumor removed in July of the same year without the need of chemotherapy. In his absence Tim Cook, head of worldwide sales and operations, upheld his role as CEO.
In 2009 Steve addressed to his Apple employees of his worsening health in a company memo which also announced his six month leave of absence. In April of the same year he underwent a liver transplant which was also a success. Earlier this year in January Jobs was granted medical leave by Apple to focus on his health leaving Tim Cook in charge of daily operations once again. Despite Steve's health scare and medical leave he was able to attend the iPad 2 launch event in March and the WWDC keynote address in June unveiling the iCloud.
"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."
With that announcement yesterday Steve Jobs announced his resignation electing Tim Cook to be CEO of the company. With Cook replacing him as CEO he would serve as Apple's chairman of the board. It's very sad to see him go this way. The guy is an innovative genius that change the face of technology for both consumers and professionals and changed the game for other companies. He and his company made innovations that worked seamlessly and ergonomically for customers. After Jobs's resignation Apple witnessed a 5 percent drop in their share price.
The mobile market is a bull market largely in part due to the addition of the iPhone allowing other companies to compete against Apple with touch based operating systems such as the Android OS. Apple even single-handedly created the mobile tablet market with their iPad creation forcing other companies to join in the frey and produce their own versions of the innovation. You can't help but wonder where Apple's future lies. Sure they have their new CEO in place but he's no Steve Jobs. You've gotta have a collective group of people to match his innovative mind and business savvy. It's gonna be interesting to see how Apple handles their business without Steve's complete involvment.
