Steve Jobs Dead
:o CNBC REPORTS HE HAS PASSED AWAY
TIME TO SHORT APPLE?!?!?
srry shift key was stuck
Steve Jobs, the visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon Valley garage, built it into the world's leading tech company and led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.
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 we consume content in the digital age.
More than one pundit, praising Jobs' ability to transform entire 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."
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 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.
"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future," he told Stanford University graduates during a commencement speech in 2005. "You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
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.
It's long been Silicon Valley legend: Jobs and Wozniak built their first commercial product, the Apple 1, in Jobs' parents' garage in 1976. Jobs sold his Volkswagen van to help finance the venture. The primitive computer, priced at $666.66, had no keyboard or display, and customers had to assemble it themselves.
The following year, Apple unveiled the Apple II computer at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire. The machine was a hit, and the personal computing revolution was under way.
Jobs was among the first computer engineers to recognize the appeal of the mouse and the graphical interface, which let users operate computers by clicking on images instead of writing text.
Apple's pioneering Macintosh computer launched in early 1984 with a now-iconic, Orwellian-themed Super Bowl ad. The boxy beige Macintosh sold well, but the demanding Jobs clashed frequently with colleagues, and in 1986, he was ousted from Apple after a power struggle.
Then came a 10-year hiatus during which he founded NeXT Computer, whose pricey, cube-shaped computer workstations never caught on with consumers.
Jobs had more success when he bought Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas before the company made it big with "Toy Story." Jobs brought the same marketing skill to Pixar that he became known for at Apple. His brief but emotional pitch for "Finding Nemo," for example, was a masterful bit of succinct storytelling.
In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, returning Jobs to the then-struggling company he had co-founded. Within a year, he was running Apple again -- older and perhaps wiser but no less of a perfectionist. And in 2001, he took the stage to introduce the original iPod, the little white device that transformed portable music and kick-started Apple's furious comeback.
Thus began one of the most remarkable second acts in the history of business. Over the next decade, Jobs wowed launch-event audiences, and consumers, with one game-changing hit after another: iTunes (2003), the iPhone (2007), the App Store (2008), and the iPad (2010).
Observers marveled at Jobs' skills as a pitchman, his ability to inspire godlike devotion among Apple "fanboys" (and scorn from PC fans) and his "one more thing" surprise announcements. Time after time, he sold people on a product they didn't know they needed until he invented it. And all this on an official annual salary of $1.
He also built a reputation as a hard-driving, mercurial and sometimes difficult boss who oversaw almost every detail of Apple's products and rejected prototypes that didn't meet his exacting standards.
By the late 2000s, his once-renegade tech company, the David to Microsoft's Goliath, was entrenched at the uppermost tier of American business. Apple now operates more than 300 retail stores in 11 countries. The company has sold more than 275 million iPods, 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads worldwide.
Jobs' climb to the top was complete in summer 2011, when Apple listed more cash reserves than the U.S. Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world's most valuable company.
But Jobs's health problems sometimes cast a shadow over his company's success. In 2004, he announced to his employees that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. He lost weight and appeared unusually gaunt at keynote speeches to Apple developers, spurring concerns about his health and fluctuations in the company's stock price. One wire service accidentally published Jobs' obituary.
Jobs had a secret liver transplant in 2009 in Tennessee during a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple. He took another medical leave in January this year. Perhaps mindful of his legacy, he cooperated on his first authorized biography, scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in November.
Jobs is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurene, and four children, including one from a prior relationship.
He always spoke with immense pride about what he and his engineers accomplished at Apple.
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do," he told the Stanford grads in 2005.
"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-steve-jobs/…
Sad Sad
This is sad and shocking. 56 is too young. RIP.
No significant gains from shorting APPL on this news. Steve Jobs related info was already priced in to the value when he stepped down from his CEO post and it was known his healthy was declining.
i disagree titan now you have a the i phone 5 flop and he death, what should make me think that this company wont become what it was in 3 years back 20 years
also notice the statement comes from aapl and not his wife
Beat me to it. RIP
what a sad day.. RIP.
aapl is going to tank tomorrow, 100% guaranteed.
Did you see the picture of him a few months ago? I doubt he was playing an integral part in the decision making at Apple for a few months now. It's too early to tell what direction Apple will go though.
Either way, I have to pay my respects to a true visionary. RIP
This. I think some people take their love for Apple too far, but they were great products and the fact that Apple was able to get so many nerds so obsessed with them is still something I'm trying to figure out and am very impressed with.
As somebody very interested in both technology and business, this is a sad day where we've lost one of the best in both of those domains.
RIP
It's a publicity stunt to promote the lagging sales on iPhone 4S
Dude, classless man. He had a family, not something to really joke about. As someone who lost a family member recently to cancer, these type of posts really show what fucking morons there are out in the world. As if I didnt think you were a giant douche to begin with.
I didn't know anyone from his family was reading WSO and this thread in particular. I also didn't realize universities graduated people who would construct a sentence such as this: "As someone who lost a family member recently to cancer, these type of posts really show what fucking morons there are out in the world." And you flatter me, kind sir. Certainly, being the giant pussy you are, you would be accustomed to much bigger douches.
RIP
apple might turn into just another tech company without jobs.
Beat me to it. RIP
RIP, greatest marketer of our generation. I wonder if he actually just died, or if they were keeping it quiet until the 4S was released...I'm sure this will be debated until the death cert is made public...
R.I.P Jobs.
Very sad
Considering Apple's mkt cap could this bring the mkt lower tom.?
If you don't think the market will react to this news you're crazy. Shorting aapl tomorrow and closing your position before the end of the day will definitely net you some change. Can't really predict longer then that.
Yeah if you can 'short' before all the market makers short it. You may be able to grab a percent or less gain, but then you have upside risk as well. You can never really know exactly how the market is going to react. Timing these things is always risky.
Not like any of this matters.
RIP Steve
I think this may be the catalyst for a major dividend...
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life - steve jobs IMO He's the MLK Jr of the Tech world. HE led a revolution. God bless everyone especially those w/ cancer.
I'm the strongest apple hater I know but respect to him. His marketing was bar none, his shoes will be hard to fill.
This hits home. His 2005 graduation address to Standford
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
and
" No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Sad news, he's a real Horatio Alger story.
"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The ones who see things differently. While some may see crazy, we see genius." -Steve Jobs
Damn Those Cancerous Cells!!!
http://www.youtube.com/embed/768h3Tz4Qik
May he rest in peace
I hate apple as much as anyone else, but hearing this made me quite sad. RIP.
Regarding the stock, I predict a slight drop at most (0.5% in excess of industry moves), but a spike in volume as retail investors sell off to hungry professionals who know that this was priced in.
such sad news. America lost a great icon today.
i saw a recent picture of him, and any logical person would have seen this coming. i didn't... i was really hoping that he would pull through again.
The good die young.
R.I.P. Steve Jobs
His death is very sad and unfortunate.
With regards to the stock, I think we may see a sell off at the opening, but I think this very unfortunate event will result in an increase in sales. I for one was disappointed by the the 4s; I was expecting a 5... But Job's death will have people flocking to apple products. Q4 should be very rewarding to AAPL Investors
Sad, sad news. A true marketing genius, innovator, perfectionist, and visionary. Was the face of remarkably one of the best business comeback stories, and in his own right becoming one of the best CEO's and leaders in decades.
RIP, Steve Jobs.
Sad, but unfortunately not shocking. I don't think the world will see another CEO quite as brilliant as him for a while.
Why hasn't it tanked?
More buyers than sellers.
But...
The number of buyers must always equal the number of sellers at a given price for the market to clear at that price.
Westboro Baptist Church will be picketing Steve Jobs funeral.....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/westboro-baptist-chu…
What a ridiculous group of people.
RIP Steve Jobs.
Have they found out yet that Tim Cook is gay?
People need to just stop talking about them.
RIP Steve
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