SAN FRANCISCO: While saving Apple, Steve Jobs changed the world. Jobs guided Apple from the brink of financial ruin to a lofty place among the world's most valuable companies before stepping down as chief executive this week, apparently due to health woes.
But thinking of Jobs merely as the man behind Apple's resurrection would be on par with thinking of The Beatles as just a band that made cool music.
As did the Fab Four, Jobs altered the rhythm of modern life.
"His legacy goes way beyond Apple," Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said of Jobs, who ceded his chief executive role on Wednesday to chief operating officer Tim Cook.
Forrester analyst Charles Golvin's "laundry list of the tendrils" Jobs has extended into our lives dates back to the 1970s, when Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple and introduced home computers.
"The whole idea that a computer is something that a consumer might want comes from him," Golvin said.
"The way we compute today wouldn't be what it is without Steve Jobs."
While personal computers powered by Microsoft software ruled work places, Jobs envisioned people-friendly machines with mouse controllers and icons to click on to activate programs or open files.
Jobs is even credited with raising the standard for animated films by bringing his vision to Pixar, a movie studio he founded while exiled for a time from Apple due to an internal conflict.
"At Pixar he redefined what a movie could be like with computers," Gartenberg said of the studio, which has since churned out a series of blockbusters such as "Cars" and "Toy Story."
Jobs also transformed the music industry with iPod MP3 players and the iTunes online shop, where people could buy digitized music.
Prior to iPods and iTunes, the music industry grappled with how to make money selling digital music and struggled to stave off piracy made possible by easy file sharing on the Internet.
With the iPod, Apple gave music lovers a hip new way to listen on the go and provided recording labels and artists a controlled distribution channel for songs.
"Jobs reinvented the music business model," Gartenberg said. "Not only did he have a consumer electronics hit with iPod, but iTunes became the most successful music retailer on the planet."
With the launch of the iPhone, Jobs set in motion a shift to mobile computing on handheld gadgets that Internet giants such as Google and Facebook have embraced as the future.
"Apple really created the modern smartphone era, not just for business but for the consumer," Gartenberg said. "Prior to the iPhone, smartphones were about keyboards, not touchscreens; it was a business device."
And with the iPhone came an "app economy" of smartphone software programs to play games, monitor health, track exercise, navigate and more.
But thinking of Jobs merely as the man behind Apple's resurrection would be on par with thinking of The Beatles as just a band that made cool music.
As did the Fab Four, Jobs altered the rhythm of modern life.
"His legacy goes way beyond Apple," Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said of Jobs, who ceded his chief executive role on Wednesday to chief operating officer Tim Cook.
Forrester analyst Charles Golvin's "laundry list of the tendrils" Jobs has extended into our lives dates back to the 1970s, when Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple and introduced home computers.
"The whole idea that a computer is something that a consumer might want comes from him," Golvin said.
"The way we compute today wouldn't be what it is without Steve Jobs."
While personal computers powered by Microsoft software ruled work places, Jobs envisioned people-friendly machines with mouse controllers and icons to click on to activate programs or open files.
Jobs is even credited with raising the standard for animated films by bringing his vision to Pixar, a movie studio he founded while exiled for a time from Apple due to an internal conflict.
"At Pixar he redefined what a movie could be like with computers," Gartenberg said of the studio, which has since churned out a series of blockbusters such as "Cars" and "Toy Story."
Jobs also transformed the music industry with iPod MP3 players and the iTunes online shop, where people could buy digitized music.
Prior to iPods and iTunes, the music industry grappled with how to make money selling digital music and struggled to stave off piracy made possible by easy file sharing on the Internet.
With the iPod, Apple gave music lovers a hip new way to listen on the go and provided recording labels and artists a controlled distribution channel for songs.
"Jobs reinvented the music business model," Gartenberg said. "Not only did he have a consumer electronics hit with iPod, but iTunes became the most successful music retailer on the planet."
With the launch of the iPhone, Jobs set in motion a shift to mobile computing on handheld gadgets that Internet giants such as Google and Facebook have embraced as the future.
"Apple really created the modern smartphone era, not just for business but for the consumer," Gartenberg said. "Prior to the iPhone, smartphones were about keyboards, not touchscreens; it was a business device."
And with the iPhone came an "app economy" of smartphone software programs to play games, monitor health, track exercise, navigate and more.
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