Steve Jobs, Apple ‘visionary’, dies aged 56

Steve Jobs, co-founder and former chief executive of US technology giant Apple, has died at the age of 56.
 
Apple said he had been “the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives” and had made the world “immeasurably better”.
 
Mr Jobs had announced he was suffering from pancreatic cancer in 2004.
Tributes have been made by technology company bosses and world leaders, with US President Barack Obama saying the world had “lost a visionary”.
 
“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it,” said Mr Obama.
A statement from Mr Jobs’s family said they were with him when he died peacefully on Wednesday.
 
In pictures: Apple fans mourn JobsCan Apple stay ahead without Jobs at its core?Steve Jobs: Photos of your tributes”In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family,” they said, requesting privacy and thanking those who had “shared their wishes and prayers” during his final year.
 
Apple said the company had “lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being”.
Tim Cook, who was made Apple’s CEO after Mr Jobs stood down in August, said his predecessor had left behind “a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple”.
 
Flags are being flown at half mast outside the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, while fans of the company have left tributes outside Apple shops around the world.
 
“What he’s done for us as a culture, it resonates uniquely in every person,” said Cory Moll, an Apple employee in San Francisco.
 
“Even if they never use an Apple product, the impact they have had is so far-reaching.”
 
At the company’s Shanghai shop, customer Jin Yi said Mr Jobs had created gadgets which had “changed people’s perceptions of machines”.
 
Rivals’ tributes
 
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will remember Mr Jobs for “knowing what made sense in a product”The heads of other leading technology companies have also paid tribute, including Microsoft boss Bill Gates, who said Mr Jobs’s “profound impact” on the world of technology would “be felt for many generations to come”.
 
“For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely.”
 
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg thanks Mr Jobs for “showing that what you build can change the world” while Sony Corp president and CEO Howard Stringer said: “The digital age has lost its leading light.”
 
South Korea’s Samsung, which is involved in an ongoing legal battle with Apple over patents, praised Mr Jobs for his “numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry”.
 
Source: BBC.co.uk (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15193922) @ 06/10/11 21:00