My deep condolences to the loss of one of the most visionary leader on earth….
Steve Jobs, the visionary who led a mobile computer revolution with the creation of wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, was mourned Thursday by admirers and competitors as much of the world awoke to news of his death.
Jobs' death was announced Wednesday by Apple, the Silicon Valley company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak. He was 56.
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," Apple said in a statement on its website.
"Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor."
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The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse.
In more recent years, he introduced the iPod portable music player, the iPhone and the iPad tablet — all of which changed how digital content was consumed.
More than one pundit, praising Jobs' ability to transform industries with his inventions, called him a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci.
"Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism," New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August. "His intuition has been phenomenal over the years."
Others championed his leadership skills..
"He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or a Henry Ford, and set the mold for many other corporate leaders in many other industries," wrote Walter Mossberg, a tech columnist for The Wall Street Journal.
"He did what a CEO should: Hired and inspired great people; managed for the long term, not the quarter of the short-term stock price; made big bets and took big risks."
Jobs' death, while dreaded by Apple's legions of fans, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years, took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could "no longer meet (his) duties and expectations."
Born on February 24, 1955, and then adopted, Jobs grew up in Cupertino, California — which would become home to Apple's headquarters — and showed an early interest in electronics. As a teenager, he phoned William Hewlett, president of Hewlett-Packard, to request parts for a school project. He got them, along with an offer of a summer job at HP.
Jobs dropped out of Oregon's Reed College after one semester, although he returned to audit a class in calligraphy, which he says influenced Apple's graceful, minimalist aesthetic. He quit one of his first jobs, designing video games for Atari, to backpack across India and take psychedelic drugs. Those experiences, Jobs said later, shaped his creative vision.
While at HP, Jobs befriended Steve Wozniak, who impressed him with his skill at assembling electronic components. The two later joined a Silicon Valley computer hobbyists club, and when he was 21, Jobs teamed with Wozniak and two other men to launch Apple Computer Inc.
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