Read Who Was Steve Jobs? Online
Authors: Pam Pollack,Meg Belviso
Who Was Steve Jobs? (7 page)
For Steve, having the power to do things the way he wanted was more important than having a huge amount of money. He wasn’t that interested in buying expensive things. The house where he lived with his family didn’t look like the house of a billionaire.
Steve had mixed feelings about returning to Apple. He had bad memories of the way he’d been treated at Apple. He was already the head of a very successful company at Pixar. He and Laurene had a daughter Erin Sienna, born in 1995. Did he really want to take on a struggling company? If it had been any other company, the answer might have been no. But Apple was his baby. He couldn’t just sit by and watch it die.
Steve agreed to act as the head of Apple, but only for a while. Apple had to look for someone else to become his permanent replacement. He gave himself a salary of one dollar per year.
Right away, Steve made big changes. In Boston in 1997, he announced to an audience full of Mac lovers that Apple was going to team up with Microsoft.
Apple and Microsoft were going to work together? This was unheard of! But Steve said that all Apple computers would use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser.
Behind Steve onstage was a giant TV screen. When Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, appeared on the screen, the audience booed. But Steve knew that the one-hundred-fifty-million-dollar deal would help Apple. He was right. The company’s value rose.
Steve made other changes. He got rid of products that weren’t selling. He cut costs. He laid off so many workers that Apple employees were afraid of riding an elevator with him. They were scared that they would no longer have a job by the time they got to their floor. Steve still claimed that he was only a temporary CEO. In 1997, he told
TIME
magazine, “I’m here almost every day, but just for the next few months. I’m really clear on it.” But he was making changes for the future.
BILL GATES
BILL GATES BECAME FASCINATED BY COMPUTERS AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME AS STEVE JOBS. HE GREW UP IN SEATTLE AND WENT TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY BUT DID NOT GRADUATE. IN 1974, HE FOUNDED HIS OWN COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, MICROSOFT. IN 1980, MICROSOFT WAS MAKING SOFTWARE FOR IBM COMPUTERS. IBM WAS THE MAIN COMPETITOR OF APPLE. BILL AND STEVE KNEW EACH OTHER. SOMETIMES THEY WERE EVEN FRIENDS. BUT THEY OFTEN DISAGREED.
IN 1985, MICROSOFT STARTED SELLING WINDOWS, AN OPERATING SYSTEM THAT COULD RUN ON MANY DIFFERENT BRANDS OF COMPUTERS. JUST LIKE APPLE, IT USED A MOUSE TO CLICK ON PICTURES AND TEXT. STEVE ACCUSED BILL OF RIPPING OFF APPLE. BILL REPLIED THAT THEY HAD BOTH TAKEN THE IDEA FROM XEROX. STEVE HAD JUST STOLEN IT FIRST.
BILL STEPPED DOWN AS HEAD OF MICROSOFT IN 2000. EVENTUALLY, HE STARTED WORKING FULL-TIME AT THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION HE RAN WITH HIS WIFE. IT IS THE LARGEST PRIVATE CHARITY IN THE WORLD. IT GIVES MONEY FOR EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. IT WORKS TO END POVERTY AND HUNGER. IT ALSO PROVIDES HEALTH CARE ALL OVER THE WORLD.
Think Different
In 1997, in cities across America, a series of posters appeared on buildings, buses, and billboards. The posters showed photos of famous people known for doing something new. There was a poster of Alfred Hitchcock, the famous movie director. Another poster was of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, stars of
I Love Lucy
. Another poster showed Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog. In the corner of each poster was the Apple logo and two words: T
HINK
D
IFFERENT
.
The ad campaign was the brainchild of Steve Jobs. He wanted to show what Apple stood for—new ideas, not the “same old, same old.” The posters didn’t advertise any particular product. But they told the public to be ready because something exciting was happening at Apple.
What was happening was the iMac—short for Internet Macintosh. This new personal computer was inexpensive and easy to use. In the 1990s,
there was a brand-new pastime—surfing the Web. Steve wanted people to surf on iMacs. He also wanted iMacs to look different. The iMac came in a plastic case in five bright colors inspired by Steve’s visit to a jelly bean factory: blueberry, grape, lime, strawberry, and tangerine.
