ITEMInformation Transmission Evolution MapA visual history of human information
Person

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was an American entrepreneur and product leader who co-founded Apple and helped direct several influential computing and digital-media products.

Period
1955–2011
Known for
Product leadership in personal, media and mobile computing
Historical contribution

What Jobs contributed

Jobs’s historical role was chiefly integrative: identifying product directions, assembling teams and insisting that hardware, software, interface, industrial design and distribution work as one experience. That approach shaped the Macintosh, NeXT systems, iPod and iTunes, iPhone and the App Store.

Why it mattered

These products helped make graphical personal computing, digital media libraries, touch-based smartphones and app ecosystems ordinary consumer experiences.

Connected topics

Where this fits in ITEM

Electronic digital computersSmartphonesPodcasts and on-demand audio
Organisations

Associated institutions

Apple
Evidence

Sources and further reading

  1. Steve Jobs: From Garage to World’s Most Valuable Company

    Computer History Museum · Computer History Museum · 2011

    Open source ↗

  2. Apple Computer, Inc.: Selling the Computer Revolution

    Computer History Museum · Computer History Museum

    Open source ↗

  3. Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone

    Apple · Apple Newsroom · 2007

    Open source ↗