Investing.com - Today, Steve Jobs is revered as the man who created the iPhone and changed the way people interact with technology. However, his road to success and mainstream recognition took a few detours before reaching its final destination.
Jobs was born in 1955 in San Francisco, California. Born to a young, unmarried couple, his biological mother decided to give him up for adoption, and he ended up being adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs.
In 1972, Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. However, he soon dropped out because of the financial strain tuition costs put on his working class parents. Over the next few years, Jobs hitchhiked around the West Coast and ended up traveling to India, where he spent seven months.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was born in 1976, when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak built the Apple 1 computer. A year later they introduced the Apple 2, which was the first consumer product sold by Apple. Apple 2 was one of the first highly successful mass produced microcomputer products. The first Macintosh was unveiled in 1984, but was outshined by IBM (NYSE:IBM)'s PC and various clones.
Arguments about Apple's future led to Jobs departure in 1985, and he created NeXT Inc. For a decade, Jobs worked on his own vision of the personal computer, but the company only sold 50 thousands machines, and transitioned to software development. NeXT was acquired by Apple in 1997. During his time at NeXT, Jobs also funded the spinout of The Graphics Group from Lucasfilm, which was later renamed Pixar. Pixar created several box office hits over the years, including Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo.
Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997, and the iPhone was created under his watchful eye, in 2007. Today, Apple sold more than 1.2 billion iPhones, and this invention is the number one reason Apple is the most valuable company in the world today.
In October 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Over the next 8 years, Jobs battled with his health condition, but ultimately succumbed to complications after a relapse. Nevertheless, his legacy lives on today in the pocket of the many millions iPhone users.