Steve Jobs dies, aged 56

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56, the company has said.

The visionary leader behind the Macintosh, iPod and iPhone was suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Jobs stepped down from his role as CEO on August 24th this year following a long hiatus. He had vowed to continue working with the company as chairman of the board.

A statement on the company website says: "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

"His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

Family statement

In a separate statement, his family added: "Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family.

"In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve's illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.

"We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief"

Bill Gates leads tributes to Steve Jobs

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has released a statement paying tribute to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died on Wednesday.

The former head of Microsoft said he was "truly saddened" to hear of Jobs' passing and saluted the "profound impact" he had on the world.

"I'm truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs' death," said a statement released through his spokesperson.

"Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

"Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

"The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will 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 honor. I will miss Steve immensely."

Storied rivalry

Microsoft and Apple have, of course, had a storied rivalry lasting over 30 years.

Jobs and Gates had locked horns while the rival Macintosh and Windows platforms went head-to-head throughout the 80s and 90s, and right up until Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO in 2008.

Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen also released a statement calling Jobs a "unique pioneer and auteur."

Allen said: "My condolences to Steve Jobs' family and friends. We've lost a unique tech pioneer and auteur who knew how to make amazingly great products. Steve fought a long battle against tough odds in a very brave way. He kept doing amazing things in the face of all that adversity. As someone who has had his own medical challenges, I couldn't help but be encouraged by how he persevered."

Barack Obama, Disney thank Jobs

US President Barrack Obama tweeted: "Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. From all of us at #Obama2012, thank you for the work you make possible every day—including ours."

Also among those paying tribute was Bob Igner, president and CEO of Disney, where Jobs was on the board.

"Steve Jobs was a great friend as well as a trusted advisor, he said. "His legacy will extend far beyond the products he created or the businesses he built. It will be the millions of people he inspired, the lives he changed, and the culture he defined."

Schmidt: 'One of the greatest'

"Steve Jobs is the most successful CEO in the U.S. of the last 25 years," says Google's executive chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt.

"He uniquely combined an artists touch and an engineers vision to build an extraordinary company. One of the greatest American leaders in history."

We'll have more tributes to Steve Jobs as the inevitably roll in from within and beyond the world of tech.

Steve Jobs dies: Apple CEO Tim Cook's email to employees

Apple CEO Tim Cook emailed Apple employees on Wednesday to inform them that company co-founder and iconic leader Steve Jobs had passed away.

Cook, who was handed the reins of the company by Jobs when he stepped down in August, says the company is planning a celebration of his life.

The new CEO who was hired by Steve Jobs in 1998, shortly after Jobs' return to the company had previously served as chief operating officer.

Cook paid tribute to his mentor as an 'amazing human being' and told employees that his spirit will forever live on at Apple.

'Honour his memory'

The email in full is below:

"Team,

"I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

"We are planning a celebration of Steve's extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

"No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve's death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim."

We'll continue to bring you tributes that flood in from the tech world following this sad news.

Opinion: Steve Jobs: 'insanely great'

I've just found out about Steve Jobs passing away and I'm stunned. I wouldn't say I was totally surprised – after all, Jobs had been suffering from ill health for some time, but it's still a shock.

It's almost unbelievable that it's so soon after he stepped down from being CEO.

Jobs decided to relinquish is role of CEO in August after first being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004. He had been the recipient ofa liver transplant in 2009. He is survived by his wife and four children and died peacefully surrounded by them.

Various TV news channels seem concerned with whether Apple will continue on the same tack. It will, of course, and although the shadow left by its former CEO will loom large, Apple's future seems assured.

Here, I think we should focus on what Jobs gave us. And for that, there's one voice more qualified than the others. Bill Gates.

Gates and Jobs on stage at the All Things Digital conference in 2007 is one of my all time favourite moments in tech. Two giants of technology, two different but sometimes similar paths. But still a shared appreciation of each other's strengths and what each had brought to the industry.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Z7eal4uXI

"For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honour," said Gates. "Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives,"

"I'm truly saddened to learn of (his) death," he said. "Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Jobs founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and released the world's first so-called PC, the Apple II.

He was a perfectionist and kept to his ideals – he didn't want Apple products on the market if he didn't believe in them. He didn't bow to commercial pressures.

He wasn't on his own though; as my colleague Patrick Goss says, Sony founder Akio Morita was "renowned as a man with a spark of genius and the capacity to change his company's direction if he though it appropriate." This guy went against the recommendation of his engineers to put the Walkman on the market.

Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement speech was typically Jobsian: smart, funny and serious. "Have the courage to follow your heart and your intuition," Jobs said, explaining how his cancer diagnosis had affected his worldview. "They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

I think that, in time, Jobs will be remembered as the guy who invigorated the mobile phone market with the iPhone - he certainly gave its competitors something to think about. We wouldn't have Windows Phone 7 without the iPhone. Would we have Android? It's doubtful.

Apple certainly also reinvented the MP3 player market with the iPod in 2001, but because of the explosion of the phone as an entertainment device, that may be left as a footnote.

What cannot be in dispute is that he returned to Apple in 1997 after the acquisition of NeXt - when it was virtually bankrupt - and completely reinvented the company.

Over the last decade-and-a-half, Jobs' stewardship has seen Apple produce one of the most stunning comebacks in business history, culminating with overtaking Exxon Mobil as the world's most valuable company in August.

As Gary Marshall said then, it was the beginning of one of the most incredible chapters the technology industry's ever seen. "On his first day back... he asked executives to tell him what was wrong with the stricken Apple. After some mumbled replies, he jumped in: 'It's the products!'"

And it was the products he reinvented. The original iMac was first, followed by the iPod in 2001. But it was in January 2007 he really made us rock with the original iPhone announcement. I remember being at CES in Las Vegas when the Macworld press conference was ongoing. Suddenly everything else seemed like dust.

That was an incredible moment. I can't describe how different it felt from everything that had gone before. It made me sit back from my laptop and simply think: everything has changed.

It showed that Jobs cared about what products looked like. He cared about how people used them. He was a brilliant guy and his legacy will be felt, as Gates says, for "generations to come."

Steve Jobs, former Apple CEO, born February 24, 1955, died October 5, 2011

Is Apple's 'iAd' Steve Job's 'next big thing'?

While all of the current wave of Apple pre-launch hype is focused on next week's iPad launch, it is rumoured that Steve Jobs' "next big thing" is going to be a personalised mobile advertising platform, possibly called 'iAd'.

Online Media Daily reports that Apple's new mobile ad platform will be officially unveiled to the ad execs on New York's Madison Avenue on April 7 and has been described as "revolutionary" and "our next big thing" by Steve Jobs.

Jobs on Madison Avenue

As ever, Apple is not responding to requests from press for further information, but the fact that Apple bought mobile advertising developer Quattro back in January for nearly $300 million surely means that the Cupertino computing giant has some plans in the mobile ad arena.

"The war has been mounting ever since Google introduced its Android mobile operating system to compete with Apple's iPhone, and agreed to acquire mobile ad firm AdMob for $750 million, but it is expected to reach ballistic proportions following Apple's April 7th announcement, which insiders say will be every bit as important as other recent marketplace introductions, including the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad launches," writes MediaPost's Joe Mandese.

"Apple appears to have been more successful in its revenue diversification, developing substantial software and service businesses, including iTunes downloads, iPhone wireless subscriptions, and App Store downloads. And while advertising has always loomed as a huge possibility for Apple, it had essentially been unexploited as a business model until Apple acquired Quattro."

Jobs and Schmidt spotted in coffee shop

Is this why Steve Jobs was spotted chatting over lattes with Google chief and former Apple board member Eric Schmidt the other day?

The smart money is on Apple offering advertisers a hypertargeting capability for location-based advertising so that consumers get ads based on their locality at any given time.

"Everyone will be following this very closely," says Josh Lovison, the mobile lead at Interpublic's Emerging Media Lab, adding: "Given the way that Apple is able to package things up, with very slick presentations, it will be interesting to see what they do with that advertising."

Via MediaPost.com