1.2 The Greatest IT People

Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive of Apple Computer, topped the Computer Weekly 40th anniversary poll due to the devoted following he has generated through his pioneering work in personal computing and product design. Jobs was born in 1955 in San Francisco, and during his high school years he showed his early enthusiasm for computing by attending after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California.

In the autumn of 1974, Jobs, who had dropped out of university after one term, began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak. At the age of 21 Jobs saw a computer that Wozniak had designed for his own use and convinced his friend to market the product. Apple Computer was founded as a partnership on 1 April 1976. Though the initial plan was to sell just printed circuit boards, Jobs and Wozniak ended up creating a batch of completely assembled computers, and entered the personal computer business. Their second machine, the Apple II, was introduced the following year and became a huge success, turning Apple into an important player in the nascent personal computer industry.

In 1983 Apple launched the Lisa, the first PC with a graphical user interface – an essential element in making computing accessible to the masses. It flopped because of its prohibitive price, but the next year Apple launched the distinct, lower priced Macintosh and it became the first commercially successful GUI machine. Despite his success in founding Apple, Jobs left following a boardroom row in 1985. Jobs moved on to found Next Computer. Much of Next’s technology had limited commercial success, but it laid the foundation for future computing developments. Without Jobs, Apple had stumbled. Market share to buy Jobs’ company Next, together with its innovative operating system, and welcome back its charismatic former CEO.

On returning to Apple, Jobs drove the company ever deeper into the consumer electronics and computing market, launching the iMac and iPod. Whether Jobs’ next creation changes the world like the Apple II, or turns out to bomb like the Apple Lisa, his place in computing history is guaranteed.