25 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Left Apple

[maflynn]

gizmodo

On September 16, 1985, seven years after he had started the company with his friend Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs resigned as chairman of Apple Computer. Twelve years later to the day, the company announced that he was back.

Wow its been that long since he initially was forced out, err um, resigned.

 

[Hellhammer]

I didn't even know he had resigned It would be interesting to know where Apple would stand today if Steve hadn't come back

 

[bartelby]

I didn't even know he had resigned It would be interesting to know where Apple would stand today if Steve hadn't come back

It wouldn't exist today.

 

[iBookG4user]

I didn't even know he had resigned It would be interesting to know where Apple would stand today if Steve hadn't come back

If it weren't for Steve Jobs I believe the question should be "It would be interesting to know if Apple would be standing today"

 

[maflynn]

Steve himself had stated he learned a lot from being fired from the company he and Woz started. So much so, if he won the power struggle with John Sculley, who knows how he and apple would have continued.

 

[ucfgrad93]

It wouldn't exist today.

Agreed. Apple was on the brink of extinction when Steve came back.

 

[billzy]

If I recall, he went on to be a principle figure in NeXT, a very visionary platform. Bits and pieces of NeXTStep also find its way into the first run of OS X? If so, it all comes back 'round.

 

[KnightWRX]

Bits and pieces of NeXTStep also find its way into the first run of OS X? If so, it all comes back 'round.

Uh ? OS X is basically NeXTSTEP 2.0. Cocoa is basically the NeXTSTEP APIs, hence all the NS prefixes to the classes.

Your comment is kind of an understatement.

 

[macquariumguy]

I'm not sure Apple would have survived if Jobs had won that power struggle in 1985. I think he would have killed Apple's cash cow (the Apple II) and I don't think the Macintosh would have evolved in even slightly the same way as what happened.

He obviously learned a great deal from his NeXT experience. It's like he left at the right time and came back at the right time. Saved Apple twice, as it were.

 

[elmo151]

there should be a national holiday to celebrate the
day he returned.

 

[iBookG4user]

there should be a national holiday to celebrate the
day he returned.

I think that's taking things a bit far...

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Steve himself had stated he learned a lot from being fired from the company he and Woz started. So much so, if he won the power struggle with John Sculley, who knows how he and apple would have continued.

I believe SJ even admits if he was not fired back then he would of killed Apple computers and it would just be a foot note in history at this point.

Some ways SJ is both the greatest strength and weakness of the company. Currently I think he is more of a weakness now since the control when the company was smaller might be hurting it more than helping it now days.

 

[jaw04005]

I believe SJ even admits if he was not fired back then he would of killed Apple computers and it would just be a foot note in history at this point.

I don’t think he has ever said anything like that. In fact, if you read some of the interviews he’s done he basically said Apple’s management while he wasn’t there ran the company into the ground.

From Triumph of the Nerds,

JOBS: Ehm what can I say? I hired the wrong guy.

Q: That was Sculley?

JOBS: Yeah and he destroyed everything I spent ten years working for. Ehm starting with me but that wasn't the saddest part. I would have gladly left Apple if Apple would have turned out like I wanted it to.

http://www.pbs.org/nerds/part3.html

However, he has said that leaving Apple allowed him to experience one of the most creative periods of his life because he bought Pixar, formed NeXT, and got married within those years.

From Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech,

"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts

It is rather amazing that the main technology they created and refined at NeXT is at the core of every Apple product today. Also, Apple’s current software chiefs Scott Forstall (iOS) and Bertrand Serlet (Mac OS X) are from NeXT.

 

[*LTD*]

Some ways SJ is both the greatest strength and weakness of the company. Currently I think he is more of a weakness now since the control when the company was smaller might be hurting it more than helping it now days.

WTF are you talking about.

Apple is posting record profits and unit sales quarter-for-quarter. Nearly every quarter for the past two years.

Market cap:

1. Exxon Mobil (XOM) - $310.45B
2. Apple (AAPL) - $252.66B
3. Microsoft (MSFT) - $219.19B
4. Berkshire-Hathaway (BRKA) - 206.70B
4. Wal-Mart (WMT) - $193.28B

ALL under SJ's watch.

Apple's future is more than secure, because the way Apple approaches tech and the way people should interact with it makes it so, as it has for the past decade. The magnitude of what Steve Jobs and Apple have accomplished is just beginning to dawn on most people.