Steve Jobs Dead at 56
Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56, Apple has confirmed.
Jobs had resigned his post as CEO of Apple just six weeks prior. He was replaced by Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook. Jobs himself moved into the position of chairman of Apple's board of directors concurrent with his resignation.
Jobs was one of the original founders of Apple, along with inventor Steve Wozniak, and contributed to the development of some of Apple's earliest and most recent technologies, with more than 300 inventor or co-inventor credits to his name from patents held by Apple. He was forced out of the company in 1985 by former PepsiCo President John Sculley, who'd stepped into the role of Apple CEO in 1983 largely at the urging of Jobs himself.
That same year Jobs founded NeXT, which manufactured high-end workstations, and a year later acquired Pixar (then known as the Graphics Group). NeXT was eventually acquired by Apple in 1996, and Jobs returned as a consultant for Apple shortly after that while NeXT's core operating system--NeXTSTEP--was being reworked into the system that would eventually become Mac OS X, the OS that currently powers all of Apple's servers, professional workstations, consumer desktops, and laptops. Jobs became interim CEO in 1997 and formally took the permanent role of CEO in 2000.
The company has posted a memorial on its site, which reads, "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
Further details about Jobs's death were not available at press time.
Apple is asking those who wish to share their memories or condolences to send mail to [email protected].
| Editor's note: This article has been modified since its original publication to correct a factual error related to the date of Steve Jobs's resignation as CEO of Apple, which was in fact 42 days prior to his death. [Last updated Oct. 7, 2011 at 1:55 p.m.] --David Nagel |