Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 October 5, 2011) was an American business magnate and inventor.

. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs was co-founder and previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. In the late 1970s, Jobs along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula and others designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets.

In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucas film Ltd, which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He was credited in Toy Story (1995) as an executive producer. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1 percent until its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, making Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder at seven percent and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. Apple's 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he cofounded, and he served as its interim CEO from 1997, then becoming permanent CEO from 2000 onwards, spearheading the advent of the iPod, iPhone and iPad From 2003, he fought a eight-year battle with cancer, and eventually resigned as CEO in August 2011, while on his third medical leave. He was then elected chairman of Apple's board of directors. Jobs died at his California home around 3 p.m. on October 5, 2011, due to complications from relapse of his previously treated islet-cell

neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer resulting in respiratory arrest.

Apple Inc. Formerly Apple (Computer, Inc.) is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple software includes the Mac OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser; the ILife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivity software; Aperture, a professional photography package; Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and filmindustry software products; Logic Studio, a suite of music production tools; the Safari web browser; and iOS, a mobile operating system. As of October 2010, the company operates 317 retail stores in ten countries, and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. As of September 2011, Apple is the largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalization and the largest technology company in the world by revenue and profit. Established on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California, and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was previously named Apple Computer, Inc., for its first 30 years,

but removed the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007, to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers. As of September 2010, Apple had 46,600 full time employees and 2,800 temporary full time employees worldwide and had worldwide annual sales of $65.23 billion. For reasons as various as its philosophy of comprehensive aesthetic design to its distinctive advertising campaigns, Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry. This includes a customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand, particularly in the United States, Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008 and in the world in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The company has also received widespread criticism for its contractors' labor, environmental, and business practices.

Apple's first logo, Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. Almost immediately, though, this was replaced by Rob Janoff's "rainbow Apple", the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the "bitten" logo, and Jobs immediately took a liking to it. While Jobs liked the logo, he insisted it be in color to humanize the company. The Apple logo was designed with a bite so that it wouldn't be recognized as another fruit. The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible, and to represent the fact the monitor could reproduce images in color. The logo is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing, with the bite mark a reference to his method of suicide. Both the designer of the logo and the company deny that there is any homage to Turing in the design of the logo. In 1998, with the roll-out of the new iMac, Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use monochromatic themes, nearly identical in shape to its previous rainbow incarnation, on various products, packaging and advertising. An Aqua-themed

version of the monochrome logo was used from 20012003, and a Glass-themed version has been used since 2003. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were Beatles fans, but Apple Inc. had trademark issues with Apple Corps Ltd. a multimedia company started by The Beatles in 1967, involving their name and logo. This resulted in a series of lawsuits and tension between the two companies. These issues ended with their most recent law suit in 2007.

The original logo with Isaac Newton under an apple tree

The rainbow "bitten" logo, used from late 1976 to 1998

The monochrome logo, used since 1998

The Apple I, Apple's first product, was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and a wooden case. Apple was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. They were hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips)less than what is today considered a complete personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($2,572 in 2011 dollars, adjusted for inflation.) Apple was incorporated January 3, 1977 without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multi-millionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple.

The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its major rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because it came with character cell based color graphics and an open architecture. While early models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface, the Disk II. The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first "killer app" of the business worldthe VisiCalc spreadsheet program. VisiCalc created a business market for the Apple II, and gave home users an additional reason to buy an Apple IIcompatibility with the office. According to Brian Bagnall, Apple exaggerated its sales figures and was a distant third place to Commodore and Tandy until VisiCalc came along. By the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line. The company introduced the ill-fated Apple III in May 1980 in an attempt to compete with IBM and Microsoft in the business and corporate computing market. Jobs and several Apple employees including Jef Raskin visited Xerox PARC in December 1979 to see the Xerox Alto. Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100,000 shares (800,000

split-adjusted shares) of Apple at the pre-IPO price of $10 a share. Jobs was immediately convinced that all future computers would use a graphical user interface (GUI), and development of a GUI began for the Apple Lisa When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires (about 300) than any company in histor.

(The Apple I, Apple's first product, was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, monito0r, and case. The owner of this unit added a keyboard and a wooden case.)

While discontinuing Apple's licensing of its operating system to third-party computer manufacturers, one of Jobs's first moves as new acting CEO was to develop the iMac, which bought Apple time to restructure. The original iMac integrated a CRT display and CPU into a streamlined, translucent plastic body. The line became a sales smash, moving about one million units each year. It also helped re-introduce Apple to the media and public, and announced the company's new emphasis on the design and aesthetics of its products.More recent products include the iBook, the Power Mac G4, and the AirPort product series, which helped popularize the use of Wireless LAN technology to connect computers to networks. In 1999, Apple introduced the Power Mac G4, which utilized the Motorola-made PowerPC 7400 containing a 128-bit instruction unit known as AltiVec, its flagship processor line. Also that year, Apple unveiled the iBook, its first consumer-oriented laptop that was also the first Macintosh to support the use of Wireless LAN via the optional AirPort card that was based on the 802.11b standard.

Delivering his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would from that point on be known as Apple Inc., because computers were no longer the main focus of the company, which had shifted its emphasis to mobile electronic devices. The event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV.The following day, Apple shares hit $97.80, an all-time high at that point. In May, Apple's share price passed the $100 mark. In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without DRM (which would allow tracks to be played on third-party players) if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On April 2, 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in the iTunes Store, effective in May. Other record labels followed later that year.

In July of the following year, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Within a month, the store sold 60 million applications and brought in $1 million daily on average, with Jobs speculating that the App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple. Three months later, it was announced that Apple had become the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world due to the popularity of the iPhone. On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that after over 20 years of attending Macworld, 2009 would be the last year Apple would be attending the Macworld Expo, and that Phil Schiller would deliver the 2009 keynote in lieu of the expected Jobs. Almost exactly one month later, on January 14, 2009, an internal Apple memo from Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence, until the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health and to allow the company to better focus on its products without having the rampant media speculating about his health. Despite Jobs' absence, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter (Q1 FY 2009) during the recession with revenue of $8.16 billion and a profit of $1.21 billion. After years of speculation and multiple rumored "leaks" Apple announced a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. The iPad runs

the same touch based operating system that the iPhone uses and many of the same iPhone apps are compatible with the iPad. This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch even with very little development time before the release. Later that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than 300,000 units on that day and reaching 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May of the same year, Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989. Apple released the fourth generation iPhone, which introduced video

calling, multitasking, and a new uninsulated stainless steel design, which acts as the phone's antenna. Because of this antenna implementation, some iPhone 4 users reported a reduction in signal strength when the phone is held in specific ways. After a large amount of media coverage including mainstream news organizations, Apple held a press conference where they offered buyers a free rubber 'bumper' case, which had been proven to eliminate the signal reduction issue. Later that year Apple again refreshed its iPod line of MP3 players which introduced a multi-touch iPod Nano, iPod Touch with FaceTime, and iPod Shuffle with buttons which brought back the buttons of earlier generations.

In October 2010, Apple shares hit an all-time high, eclipsing $300. Additionally, on October 20, Apple updated their MacBook Air laptop, iLife suite of applications, and unveiled Mac OS X Lion, the latest installment in their Mac OS X operating system. On January 6, 2011, the company opened their Mac App Store, a digital software distribution platform, similar to the existing iOS App Store. Apple was featured in the documentary Something Ventured which premiered in 2011.

In May 2001, after much speculation, Apple announced the opening of a line of Apple retail stores, to be located throughout the major U.S. computer buying markets. The stores were designed for two primary purposes: to stem the tide of Apple's declining share of the computer market, as well as a response to poor marketing of Apple products at third-party retail outlets.

. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle. iPod Classic models store media on an internal hard drive, while all other models use flash memory to enable their smaller size (the discontinued Mini used a Microdrive miniature hard drive). As with many other digital music players, iPods can also serve as external data storage devices. Storage capacity varies by model, ranging from 2 GB for the iPod Shuffle to 160 GB for the iPod Classic. The iPod line was announced by Apple on October 23, 2001, and released on November 10, 2001. All of the models have been redesigned multiple times since their introduction. The most recent iPod redesigns were introduced on September 1, 2010. Apple's iTunes software can be used to transfer music to the devices from computers using certain versions of Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems.[2] For users who choose not to use iTunes or whose computers cannot run iTunes, several open source alternatives are available for the iPod.[3] iTunes and its

alternatives may also transfer photos, videos, games, contact information, e-mail settings, Web bookmarks, and calendars to iPod models supporting those features. For iOS versions prior to iOS 5, the iPod branding is also used for the media player applications included with the iPhone and iPad; the iPhone version is essentially a combination of the Music and Videos apps on the iPod Touch. (As of iOS 5, separate apps named 'Music' and 'Video' are to be standardized across all iOS-powered products.[4]) In either event, the iPhone and iPad have essentially the same mediaplayer capabilities as the iPod line, but they are generally treated as separate products. Discontinued models of the line include the iPod Mini and the iPod Photo, the former being replaced by the iPod Nano, and the latter reintegrated into the main iPod line (now the iPod Classic).

Development of the iPhone began in 2005 with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' direction that Apple engineers investigate touchscreens. He also steered the original focus away from a tablet, like the iPad, and towards a phone. Apple created the device during a secretive collaboration with AT&T MobilityCingular Wireless at the timeat an estimated development cost of US$150 million over thirty months. Apple rejected the "design by committee" approach that had yielded the Motorola ROKR E1, a largely unsuccessful collaboration with Motorola. Instead, Cingular gave Apple the liberty to develop the iPhone's hardware and software in-house and even paid Apple a fraction of its monthly service revenue (until the iPhone 3G), in exchange for four years of exclusive U.S. sales, until 2011. Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007 at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time, while hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide. The passionate reaction to the launch of the

iPhone resulted in sections of the media christening it the 'Jesus phone'. The original iPhone was made available in the UK, France, and Germany in November 2007, and Ireland and Austria in the spring of 2008. On Tuesday, September 27, Apple sent invitations for a press event to be held October 4, 2011 at 10:00AM at the Cupertino Headquarters to announce details of the next generation iPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007. The 5th generation iPhone, the iPhone 4S, was announced on October 4, 2011, and released on October 14, 2011, two days after the release of iOS 5.0, the Apple operating system for handheld devices. An iPhone can function as a video camera (video recording was not a standard feature until the iPhone 3GS was released), a camera phone, a portable media player, and an Internet client with email and web browsing capabilities, can send texts and receive visual voicemail, and has both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard rather than a physical one. Third-party as well as Apple application software is available from the App Store, which launched in mid-2008 and now has over 500,000 "apps"

approved by Apple. These apps have diverse functions, including games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, security and advertising for television shows, films, and celebrities. There are five generations of iPhone models, each accompanied by one of the five major releases of iOS (formerly iPhone OS). The original iPhone was a GSM phone that established design precedents like screen size and button placement that have persisted through all models. The iPhone 3G added 3G cellular network capabilities and A-GPS location. The iPhone 3GS added a compass, faster processor, and higher resolution camera, including video recording at 480p. The iPhone 4 has a rear facing camera (720p video) and a front facing camera (at a lower resolution) for FaceTime video calling and for use in other apps like Skype. The iPhone 4 featured a higher-resolution 960x640 display; it was released on June 24, 2010. In the U.S., AT&T was the only authorized carrier until February 10, 2011, when a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 launched for Verizon. On October 4, 2011, Apple announced the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S added a higher resolution camera (8 megapixel) with 1080p video recording, face detection, and video stabilization, a faster, dual core processor, world phone capability (allowing a single handset to

operate on networks based on both GSM/UMTS and CDMA technologies), GLONASS support and a natural language voice control system called Siri. It will be available in 16 GB and 32 GB as well as a new 64 GB capacity. It was also announced that in the U.S. Sprint would begin carrying the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S and C Spire Wireless announced that it would be carrying the iPhone 4S as well

The iPhone 3GS is the third generation of iPhone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was introduced on June 8, 2009 at the WWDC 2009 which took place at the Moscone Center, San Francisco. Its features primarily consist of faster performance, a camera with higher resolution and video capability, voice control, and support for

7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA downloading (but remains limited to 384 kbps uploading as Apple had not implemented the HSUPA protocol). It was released in the U.S., Canada and six European countries on June 19, 2009, in Australia and Japan on June 26, and internationally in July and August 2009. The iPhone 3GS runs Apple's iOS operating system, as is used on the iPad and the iPod touch. It is primarily controlled by a user's fingertips on a multitouch display.

The iPhone 3GS is preceded by the iPhone 3G and succeeded by the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 is a touchscreen smartphone developed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation iPhone, and successor to the iPhone 3GS. It is particularly marketed for video calling (marketed by Apple as FaceTime), consumption of media such as books and periodicals, movies, music, and games, and for general web and e-mail access. It was announced on June 7, 2010, at the WWDC 2010 held at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, and was released on June 24, 2010, in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. The iPhone 4 runs Apple's iOS operating system, the same operating system as used on previous iPhones, the iPad, and the iPod Touch. It is primarily controlled by a user's fingertips on the multi-touch display, which is sensitive to fingertip contact. The most noticeable difference between the iPhone 4 and its predecessors is the new design, which incorporates an uninsulated stainless steel frame that acts as the device's antenna. The internal components of the device are situated between two panels of chemically strengthened aluminosilicate glass. It has an Apple A4 processor

and 512 MB of eDRAM, twice that of its predecessor and four times that of the original iPhone. Its 3.5-inch (89 mm) LED backlit liquid crystal display with a 960640 pixel resolution is marketed as the "Retina Display". The latest operating system release is iOS 5.0. In October 2011, the iPhone 4S was announced, which retains the same form factor but includes many upgrades such as the A5 processor, iOS 5, and an improved camera.

Siri is a personal assistant application for iOS. The application uses natural language processing to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to an expanding set of web services. Siri claims that the software adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results, as well as accomplishing tasks such as making dinner reservations and reserving a cab. Siri was originally introduced as an iOS application available in the AppStore. Siri was acquired by Apple Inc. on April 28, 2010. Siri had announced that their software would be available for BlackBerry and for Android-powered phones, but all development efforts for non-Apple platforms were cancelled after Apple's purchase. Siri is now an integrated part of iOS 5, and available only on the iPhone 4S, launched in October 2011. Independent developers claim that they ported Siri to iPhone 4.However, some news sites consider that the videos they posted for proof only show the User interface of the

application, excluding any voice commands, to conclude that they did not prove anything.

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. Its size and weight fall between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad runs the same operating system as the iPod Touch and iPhoneand can run its own applications as well as iPhone applications. Without modification, the iPad will only run programs approved by Apple and distributed via the Apple App Store (with the exception of programs that run inside the iPad's web browser). Like iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is controlled by a multitouch displaya departure from most previous tablet computers, which used a pressuretriggered stylusas well as a virtual onscreen keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. The iPad uses a wireless local area network ("Wi-Fi") connection to access local area networks and the Internet. Some models also have a 3G wireless network interface which can connect to HSPA or EV-DO data networks and on to the

Internet. The device is managed and synced by iTunes running on a personal computer via USB cable. Apple released the first iPad in April 2010, and sold 3 million of the devices in 80 days. During 2010, Apple sold 14.8 million iPads worldwide, representing 75 percent of tablet PC sales at the end of 2010. By the release of the iPad 2 in March 2011, more than 15 million iPads had been sold selling more than all other tablet PCs combined since the iPad's release. In 2011, it is expected to take 83 percent of the tablet computing market share in the United States.

The iPad 2 is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and is available in black or white (shown). Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2, the second generation of the device, at a March 2, 2011, press conference, despite being on medical leave at the time. About 33% thinner than its predecessor, the iPad 2 has a better processor, a dual core Apple A5 that Apple says is twice as fast as its predecessor for CPU operations and up to nine times as fast for GPU operations. It includes front and back cameras that support the FaceTime video calling application, as well as

a three-axis gyroscope. It retains the original's 10-hour battery life and has a similar pricing scheme. The iPad 2 has been available for purchase, depending on stock availability, since March 11, 2011, at Apple retail stores in the United States, as well as to United States customers shopping online at Apple's retail website. The iPad 2 was released internationally in 25 other countries on March 25, 2011, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom, but not Japan as originally scheduled due to the earthquake and tsunami.

Timothy D. "Tim" Cook (born November 1, 1960) is the new chief executive officer of Apple Inc., having joined the company in March 1998. He was named the CEO of Apple after Steve Jobs announced his resignation on August 24, 2011. Cook spent six months at Compaq as VP for Corporate Materials before he was hired by Steve Jobs to join Apple. He initially served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations. Prior to that, Cook served as the chief operating officer (COO) of the computer reseller division of Intelligent Electronics and spent 12 years in IBM's personal computer business as the director of North American Fulfillment. Cook is credited with pulling Apple out of manufacturing by closing factories and warehouses around the world. This helped the company reduce inventory levels and streamline its supply chain, dramatically increasing margins. In January 2007, Cook was promoted to COO.Cook served as Apple CEO for two months in 2004, when Jobs was recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. In 2009, Cook again served as Apple CEO for several months while Jobs took a leave of absence for a liver transplant.

In January 2011, Apple's Board of Directors approved a third medical leave of absence requested by Jobs. During that time, Cook was responsible for most of Apples day-today operations while Jobs made most major decisions. Following the resignation of Jobs, Cook was made CEO of Apple Inc. on August 24, 2011. Cook also serves on the board of directors of Nike.

(new CEO of apple inc.)