Steve Jobs resigned as chief executive of Apple on the evening of August 24, 2011, six weeks before he lost his long battle against pancreatic cancer. But his ideas live on in the iconic technology company he co-founded in a garage.
?I believe Apple?s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it,? Jobs wrote in his open resignation letter as, with a heavy heart, he was forced by ill-health to relinquish his leadership of Apple. Debilitated by the long fight with cancer, his body was no longer able to cope with the daily stress of running a multi-national that had just eclipsed oil giant Exxon Mobil as the publicly traded company with the world?s biggest market valuation.
Spurred by the success of the iPhone, Apple has gone on to become the most valuable company in the history of stock markets. This week, Apple?s surging sales and new products on the horizon propelled the company?s value to 624 billion dollars, topping Microsoft?s 1999 record market capitalization at the height of the internet bubble. Hollywood could not have scripted Apple?s history better.
The college dropout Jobs builds one of the first home computers in a garage with friend Steve Wozniak. The company grows quickly, but a rift in management leads to Jobs? ouster from his own company in 1985. In 1997, with Apple facing oblivion in the face of rival Microsoft?s dominant Windows operating system, Jobs returns as the saviour, redesigning the once-revolutionary Macintosh computer as the iMac and making it cool once again.
The first glimpse of Jobs? greater goal emerges with the success of the iPod digital music players, and Apple?s iTimes ushers the company into the business of marketing music and later films and books. Apple is now more than a simple computer manufacturer.? The first iPhone was introduced in 2007. Initially laughed at by competitors such as Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, Apple turned the entire mobile-phone market upside down with its smartphone.
The iPhone?s touch screen quickly became standard, and industry giants such as Nokia and Blackberry-maker Research In Motion began to shudder at the market power of Apple. PC manufacturers learned to fear Apple in 2010 when the company launched the iPad. Rather than trying to claw back long-lost market share in the computer industry that he helped pioneer, Jobs innovated PCs into obsolescence and positioned Apple to dominate the next big thing: mobile computing.
Apple is still reaping the profits from the ideas and decisions of its founder, with the iPhone raking in profits while the iPad is the growth engine. Yet new Apple chief Tim Cook has managed to step out of the shadow of his long-time mentor. While Jobs often ruled like an emperor in his kingdom, Cook has made the company more transparent.
Cook heeded criticism of work conditions for employees of Apple?s Chinese suppliers, putting in place reforms at the company?s manufacturing contractors. He has listened to calls from shareholders for the payment of a dividend and did a u-turn after coming under fire for dropping out of an environmental rating system. By comparison, Jobs was famous for letting such pressure simply bounce off him.
Since Cook took the helm at Apple, the company?s value has doubled to more than 600 million dollars. Investors will speculate over the coming months about the new iPhone, a smaller iPad and a broader entry by Apple into the television business.? ?We simply remain true to our basic principles and build the best products,? Cook said recently. ?And because we are doing that, we are convinced that good times lie ahead for us.? ? dpa
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Source: http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/08/30/steve-jobs-legacy-best-still-to-come-from-apple/
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