Patricia Sullivan of the Washington Post is reporting that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died. In a brief statement, Apple announced the death but did not say where he died. He suffered from a rare form of pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant in 2009, and he stepped down as Apple’s chief executive officer on Aug. 24, 2011.
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Sullivan reports:
An original thinker and astute businessman who helped create the Macintosh, one of the most influential computers in the world, Mr. Jobs also reinvented the portable music player with the iPod, launched the first successful legal method of selling music online with the creation of iTunes, and reordered the cellphone market with the wildly popular iPhone. The introduction of the iPad also jump-started the electronic tablet market and now dominates the field.
He also started a highly successful chain of retail stores and almost single-handedly pushed consumers away from their dependence on floppy disks and CDs.
Cool, charismatic and calculating that people would be willing to pay a premium price for products that signal creativity, Mr. Jobs had a genius for understanding the needs of consumers before they did.
He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Laurene Powell and four children from a previous marriage and relationship. He was 56.
Read more at the Washington Post.
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