Over the past fourty years, the computer industry has taken fantastic leaps and bounds to where it is today. One of the most influential people during this time was Steve Jobs. Not only was Jobs an integral part of the rise in personal computing, but he was an excellent motivator for those working under him and those inspiring to be like him.
Job's introduction to computers was through a summer job at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California. Here, Jobs met Steve Wozniak, an electronics guru. Although both Jobs and Wozniak were both extremely talented, they dropped out of their respected colleges soon after meeting. [Halliday, 1983, p. 205].
When Jobs turned 21, he got together with Wozniak and told him his idea of a personal, user-friendly, home computer. Wozniak's job, being the electronics guru that he was, was to help Jobs design and build this dream. In 1976, the Apple I was released. Within one year, the Apple II was released. The Apple II had built-in circuitry allowing it to interface directly to a color video monitor. Jobs encouraged independent programmers to invent applications for Apple II. The result was a library of some 16,000 software programs. [Halliday, 1983, p. 206] Jobs" dream of a personal computer had become a reality and with it motivated others to design software.
Jobs" innovative ideas of user-friendly software for the Macintosh changed the design and functionality of software interfaces created for computers. The Macintosh's interface allowed people to interact easier with computers, because they used a mouse to click on objects displayed on the screen to perform some function. The Macintosh got rid of the computer command lines that intimidated people from using computers.
Over the past seven years of Apple's creation, Jobs had created a strong productive company with a growth curve like a straight line North with no serious competitors. From 1978 to 1983, its compound growth rate was over 150% a year.