"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."Jobs was a visionary who saw gaps in markets which he took advantage of to make Apple one of the most profitable companies in the world. He was behind Apple creating products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
The iPod, essentially a pocket-sized computer hard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so that one could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunes online music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99p each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they liked one song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.
The iPhone with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and a mobile phone. Major competitors, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared.
Apple's iPad began to cannibalize its original business, the personal computer. The iPad was a sleek tablet computer with a touch screen and almost no physical buttons. It could be used for almost anything software designers could conceive, from watching movies to taking pictures to leafing through a virtual book.
Steve Jobs was a man who didn't want to own the world, he wanted to change it fo the better, which like his devices he was successful in doing.
