Matt Doeden - Steve Jobs: Technology Innovator and Apple Genius

Text copyright 2012 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Doeden, Matt.

Steve Jobs : technology innovator and Apple genius / by Matt Doeden.

p. cm. (Gateway biographies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9781467702157 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

ISBN 9781467702164 (eBook)

ISBN 9781467759786 (Audisee ISBN)

1. Jobs, Steve, 19552011Juvenile literature. 2. Computer engineersUnited
StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. InventorsUnited StatesBiography
Juvenile literature. 4. BusinesspeopleUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature.
5. Apple Computer, Inc.Juvenile literature. I. Title.

QA76.2.J63D64 2012

338.761004092dc23 [B]

2011046268

Manufactured in the United States of America

2 BP 9/1/13

The images in this book are used with the permission of: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Images, pp. 2, 6, 8, 37; Seth Poppel Yearbook Library, p. 11; Apic/Hulton Archive/
Getty Images, p. 12; Mickey Pfleger/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, p. 13; DPA/
Landov, pp. 17, 23; SiliconValleyStock/Alamy, p. 18; Kim Kulish/CORBIS, p. 19;
Owen Franken/CORBIS, p. 20; Tom Munnecke/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, p. 21;
Marilyn K. Yee/New York Times/Archive Photos/Getty Images, p. 27; Blake Sell/
Reuters/Landov, p. 28; Brian Ach/WireImage/Getty Images, p. 29; Buena Vista
Pictures/Everett Collection, p. 30; Gabe Palacio/Getty Images, p. 32; Randall Quan/
Bloomberg via Getty Images, p. 33; David Paul Morris/Getty Images, p. 35; Ian
Gavan/Stringer/Getty Images, p. 36; Joe Raedle/Getty Images, p. 38; Kevork
Djansezian/Getty Images, p. 39.

Front cover: Reuters/Robert Galbraith.

Main body text set is Rotif Serif Std 55 Regular 14/17

Typeface provided by Agfa

Contents

Steve Jobs unveils the iPad on January 27, 2010.

O n January 27, 2010, Apple chief executive officer (CEO) Steve Jobs stepped calmly onto a stage in San Francisco, California. Jobs wore his trade-mark jeans and black turtleneck as he addressed an enthusiastic crowd of eight hundred Apple employees, business partners, and journalists.

Everyone was there to see Jobss latest, greatest creationthe iPad. Jobs had already reached a near-godlike status among technology buffs. Hed introduced the world to gadgets from the Macintosh computer to the iPod to the iPhone. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, and rumors about the iPad had been circulating for months.

As Jobs showed off the newest piece of Apple wizardry, some were cautious. The iPad was a tablet computera slim, flat, touch-screen computer without a dedicated keyboard. Tablets had been around for decades. Consumers had rejected them time and again. Why would the iPad be any different? the skeptics wondered.

Others knew why. The iPad would succeed because it was a creation of Steve Jobs. Jobs wasnt an engineer

Jobs explores and
demonstrates the features
of the iPad as he speaks at
an Apple special event.

or a programmer. He was a man who understood technology and understood how people wanted to use it. For Jobs, everything was about the user experience. And the iPad was no exception. Anyone could pick one up and understand instantly how to use it. The elegant, simple design was inviting and,

some argued, almost addictive.

[The iPad is] so much more intimate than a laptop, and its so much more capable than a smartphone with its gorgeous screen, Jobs told the crowd. Its phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands.

Once again, Jobs was correct. The iPad was a hit, and soon a wave of copycat tablets was flooding the market. It was the perfect example of Jobss genius. He took a product that had been around for decades and put his own spin on it. Then he turned it into a product that suddenly everyone seemed to want to own. Once again, Jobs and Apple had struck gold. And once again, Jobs had turned the computer industry on its ear.

Finding a Family

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California. His birth parents, Joanne Schieble and Abdulfattah John Jandali, were graduate students at the University of Wisconsin. Joanne feared that her family would reject a baby born out of wedlock. So she chose to give up her unnamed child for adoption.