Apple fans from New York to Australia gathered to mourn the death of Steve Jobs, leaving Apple products, bouquets and heartfelt messages in tribute to the man who transformed their lives. Flags outside Apple's headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, flew at half-mast as a group of mourners flocked to a nearby lawn. Distraught Apple fans left flowers in tribute and a man played the bagpipes.

"In my mind there is no difference between him and a Pasteur," said Chitra Abdolzadeh, a healthcare worker in Cupertino, in reference to French chemist Louis Pasteur.

Engineer Ben Chess, 29, a former Apple intern, drove to the Apple HQ from San Francisco after work. He laid a bunch of flowers. "It's the right thing to do," he said.

At the downtown San Francisco Apple store, people held up pictures of Jobs on their iPads and taped greeting cards and post-it notes to the store window saying "thank you Steve" and "I hate cancer".

In New York, a makeshift memorial made out of fliers featuring pictures of Jobs was established outside an Apple store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.