Background music Steve Jobs: We're going to make some history together today.
Narrator: Steve Jobs has made history many times and he's changed the way we communicate and are entertained. His vision will continue to define our digital lives for many years to come. And the story of his life in technology has played out in three acts. Act one. It's 1977, and Jobs and Apple cofounder, Steve Wozniak, introduce the Apple Two, the first successful personal computer. But 1984 brought a much bigger milestone. The first personal computer that was really personal. Steve Jobs: Today, for the first time ever I'd like to let Macintosh speak for itself.
Macintosh: Hello. I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag.
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Narrator: With a graphical interface, mouse, creative software, and whimsical design, it was a completely different animal from the sterile machines coming from Microsoft and Intel. Just as different was the TV commercial that announced the Mac. One they still talk about in the ad business today and which showed Jobs knew technology sells better with a little type. But none of that would be enough to hold back the juggernaut of Intel and Microsoft, and the difficulties Apple faced in growing the Mac business led to Jobs being shown the door at his own company in 1985. Steve Jobs: I was basically fired from Apple when I was 30. That was difficult when it happened but maybe the best thing that ever happened to me.
Narrator: Act two. Shortly after Jobs' ouster he founds next to produce a new kind of advanced work station computer that runs on an object orientated software architecture which would be become the basis of a dramatically new and better Mac OS years later. Similarly telling was the design of the next machine, stylish, austere, and breaking convention. Sound familiar? In 1986, Jobs also acquired the graphic arts division of LucasFilm, turning it into Pixar, the studio that mainstreamed animated features and can boast that its films deliver the highest average gross revenue of any studio in the film industry. But in classic form, act three was Jobs' biggest. He retook the helm of a nearly bankrupt Apple and introduced the iMac the following year with what was the first of what we now call a Steve note. Steve Jobs: iMac comes from the marriage of the excitement of the internet with the simplicity of Macintosh.
Narrator: It was the first personal computer designed around the internet. What Bill Gates and Microsoft were to the PC era, Jobs was about to become to the internet and eventually mobile era. Steve Jobs: Morning. We've got a lot of incredible stuff to show you today.
Narrator: His presentation skills at events such as Mac World would become legendary examples in showmanship and star power in industry. Steve Jobs: It's really beautiful. This is what it looks like.
Narrator: Detractors would derive Jobs' hype as a reality distortion feel, but the iMac worked and Apple began to turn around. But Jobs' single biggest course change for Apple was not a computer but the iPod. Steve Jobs: What is iPod? I happen have one right here in my pocket as a matter of fact. There it is right there.
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Narrator: Introduced in October, 2001, it was small in size, spacious in capacity, and looked good. But more importantly it diversified Apple away from head on competition with the Wintel computer makers while luring away their customers when iTunes launched Windows support in October, 2003. Steve Jobs: I'm here to report to you today that this has happened.
Laughter
Narrator: Apple began to rewrite the music business, become a major media player, and got its first taste of market dominance. But in terms of financial success nothing tops the Apple product that was built on the shoulders of the iPod. Steve Jobs: Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone and we are calling it iPhone.
Narrator: But Jobs and Apple show and uncanny ability to, once again, get the formula right, appear the originator, and make a piece of technology seem simple, magical, and fashionable. With that same DNA, the iPad arrived in April, 2010. Steve Jobs: We'd like to show it to you today for the first time. And we call it the iPad.
Narrator: And again legitimatized a category that companies had only nibbled at the edges of for years. Steve Jobs: It's so much more intimate than a laptop and it's so much more capable than a smart phone.
Narrator: Apple has had its share of flops, but they mostly pale in comparison to its hits. And they were always notes of hubris around the latter day company, seen most in Jobs almost dismissing documented problems with the iPhone 4's antenna. Steve Jobs: We think it's affecting a small percentage of users. And we think some of that problem is inherent in most every smart phone.
Narrator: But mostly Apple since Jobs' return has been a culture changer as much as a technology company. One of the biggest success stories in American business, and virtually indivisible from the identity of its CEO. Music
