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Steve Jobs Would Have Celebrated His 70th Birthday Today

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Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, so today would have marked his 70th birthday if he hadn't passed away in 2011 at the age of 56.

Steve-Jobs-Holding-iPhone.jpeg

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer Company to market Wozniak's Apple I, a pioneering personal computer. Their collaboration led to the introduction of the Apple II in 1977, which significantly influenced the personal computing industry.

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, notable for its graphical user interface and the iconic "1984" Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott. However, internal conflicts led to Jobs' departure from Apple in 1985. He then founded NeXT Inc., focusing on advanced computer platforms.

In 1997, Apple acquired NeXT, bringing Jobs back to the company as interim CEO. Under his leadership, Apple revitalized its product line and introduced groundbreaking products like the iMac, iPod, and iPhone. Apple Computer Company was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics.

Jobs remained at the helm until his death in 2011, during which time Apple transformed into one of the world's leading technology companies.

As expected, Apple CEO Tim Cook has shared his thoughts about Steve on X (Twitter):

We miss you, Steve!

Article Link: Steve Jobs Would Have Celebrated His 70th Birthday Today
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2025/02/24/steve-jobs-would-have-been-70-today/
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I’m one of the people who is happy to see him still being celebrated, but also not quite sure how long we should be fixated like this or stuck in the past. It’s important to celebrate individuals who have had massive impact, to remember them. But it comes a point where you have to look to the future without them. Not think what it would be had they still been here.

Steve was undoubtedly the biggest person in Apples history with others close behind and still alive today. But it starts to get a bit macabre when you say he would have been 70 today. 80, 90? When do you stop.

I don’t think of people in this way. Family or other famous people.

Just my two cents. 😀
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
I’m one of the people who is happy to see him still being celebrated, but also not quite sure how long we should be fixated like this or stuck in the past. It’s important to celebrate individuals who have had massive impact, to remember them. But it comes a point where you have to look to the future without them. Not think what it would be had they still been here.

Steve was undoubtedly the biggest person in Apples history with others close behind and still alive today. But it starts to get a bit macabre when you say he would have been 70 today. 80, 90? When do you stop.

I don’t think of people in this way. Family or other famous people.

Just my two cents. 😀
Click to expand...
I understand where you are coming from, but I think there is a simple explanation for recurring thoughts of what things would be like if he were here: No one else has come forward who comes close.

No one can deny what Cook has done to grow Apple’s market cap, but to long-time Apple consumers, the company no longer has its finger on the pulse of consumers’ tastes like it once did, they no longer prioritize attention to detail across all aspects of daily interactions with their products like they once did, and there is no excitement about innovating anything like there was when Jobs was there. And that is without even getting into individual traits like the confidence, charisma, and intensity Jobs displayed during public announcements. I expect wondering “what things would be like if” will continue for some time.
 
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And look what's he's holding ... a brilliant SMALL phone! We'd have a fantastic premium iPhone mini today if Steve and Jonny were around today, instead the accountants are spending their time counting money instead of doing anything creative.
 
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Those who think Jobs never had any impact on the tech world just need to take a look at the competition’s products. I’ll never forget the famous response from the Google engineer working on Android...

"Chris DeSalvo's reaction to the iPhone was immediate and visceral. “As a consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google engineer, I thought 'We're going to have to start over."

They did start over and that’s when Android, to this day. became an inferior iOS knockoff like Windows knocked off macOS.
 
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Steve was a flawed human being who wasn't always the nicest, kindest or even right sometimes. But boy did he have a vision and i feel apple has lost that vision. Heres the thing about steve that made him stand out beyond just a company figurehead. He seems relatable. He seemed like he was a common man who just had a talent for making great products and he seemed like he genuinely cared about his costumers. He wasn't aways right, and like i said could come off as a major jerk sometimes....but he never acted like alot of the modern CEO's do like he was above people.

Case in point the way he presented his products. I miss the on stage personal presentations ya know. I miss him joking respectfully about the other guys, and i miss his "Reality Distortion Field" where he presented the products in a human fashion.

Go back and watch when he first announced the iPod or iPhone or iPad...you still want those old devices based off of how he presented them to you as items that would enrich your life, despite the fact we are many generations deep into those products that are way beyond anything steve announced, yet they feel so dull and borning now.

Steve had a way of humanizing technology that Tim cook seems to try to emulate but lacks. Dont get me wrong i like Tim Cook as a person, he seems to be a decent guy, he doesn't strike me as a egotistical jerk like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerburg do, but he lacks that touch steve had. Steve could sell you the same exact phone year after year with minor improvements but he would make you feel like those minor improvements meant something. Like you were watching a product grow and evolve as if it was alive, like a child maybe....Tim, its just specs and features. Its all dispassionate and dispersonal now with the video releases.

I miss steve up on the stage talking about the products or when things went wrong (like the wifi issue) how he would react. He was human. He was a guy just making great products telling you how they can enrich your life and how they strive to make them even better.

Apple lacks that now. Apple is just another company with an ego now who wants to sell you another phone or tablet thats slightly better (in theory) then the last one with no real innovation and doesnt really empahize how the new features will help you

I miss steve even though i never met him cause despite his many flaws, you could tell he wanted the best for the product and the consumer!

Thats something apple lacks now.
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
I’m one of the people who is happy to see him still being celebrated, but also not quite sure how long we should be fixated like this or stuck in the past. It’s important to celebrate individuals who have had massive impact, to remember them. But it comes a point where you have to look to the future without them. Not think what it would be had they still been here.

Steve was undoubtedly the biggest person in Apples history with others close behind and still alive today. But it starts to get a bit macabre when you say he would have been 70 today. 80, 90? When do you stop.

I don’t think of people in this way. Family or other famous people.

Just my two cents. 😀
Click to expand...

70 is not too far. Especially for someone like Steve. Steve and Apple essentially invented modern computing. So many things we take for granted in all of personal computing have their roots in Apple's early work.

I get what you're saying, he was only human. But there were not many humans like him.

And people are going to miss him more than most because he was taken too soon. We can't help but ask what if because he died right in the middle of his second revolution. He so clearly had so many more ideas.
 
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Hard to envision what Apple would be today if Steve were still around, but I would expect that a few of those who left the company over the years (such as Ive, Riccio, Mansfield, Johnson, and possibly Forstall) would still be involved in some capacity.
 
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