Wizardly sense of what people wanted

STEVE Jobs cultivated Apple’s countercultural sensibility and minimalist design ethic as he rolled out one best-selling product after another, even in the face of the current recession and his own failing health.

He helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist’s obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home, and in the process he upended not just personal technology but the mobile phone and music industries.

For transformation of American industry, he has few rivals. He has long been compared to his personal computer-age contemporary, Bill Gates, and creative geniuses such as Walt Disney. Jobs died as Walt Disney Co’s largest shareholder, a by-product of his decision to sell computer animation studio Pixar in 2006.

Perhaps most influentially, Jobs in 2001 launched the iPod, which offered “1,000 songs in your pocket”. Over the next ten years, its white earphones and thumb-dial control seemed to become more ubiquitous than the wristwatch.

In 2007 came the touch-screen iPhone, joined a year later by Apple’s App Store, where developers could sell iPhone “apps” that made the phone a device not just for making calls but also for managing money, editing photos, playing games and social networking.

And in 2010, Mr Jobs introduced the iPad, a tablet-sized, all-touch computer that took off even though market analysts said no-one really needed one.

By 2011, Apple had become the second-largest company of any kind in the United States by market value. In August, it briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company.

Under Jobs, the company cloaked itself in secrecy to build frenzied anticipation for new products. Jobs had a wizardly sense of what customers wanted. When he spoke at Apple presentations, almost always in jeans and a black turtleneck, legions of acolytes listened to every word. He would boast about Apple successes, then coyly add, “one more thing”, before introducing its latest ambitious idea.