Apple's visionary Steve Jobs dies

“Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” said the Apple Inc board, announcing the death. Yashwant Raj reports. OBIT: Steve Jobs 'may never be equaled' | All you wanted to know about Steve Jobs| Tributes | In pics: Steve Jobs journey | Steve Jobs dies | How do you think Jobs changed the world?

The screens simply said: Steve Jobs, 1955-2011.

The assistant at a Washington suburb Apple store was sure it was not what the screens of displayed devices said when he had last checked. He looked lost fleetingly, and then snapped back. All business, “How can I help you, sir?”

Steven Paul Jobs, Apple founder, inventor, marketer and visionary, died Wednesday evening. He was 56. His family said in a statement Jobs died peacefully, surrounded by his family.

“Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” said the Apple Inc board, announcing the death. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve,” it added.

Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO late August saying he was unable to carry on. The announcement didn't give reasons, but he was losing the battle against pancreatic cancer, first diagnosed in 2003.

The top job passed on to his deputy Tim Cook, who made his first product launch on Monday: an upgrade of iPhone 4, the iconic device that, as Jobs had once promised, has changed the way people use the phone.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” Cook said in an email to Apple employees.

Jobs was 21 when he founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976, working out of that greatest of American launch venues: a garage. That company became the world's most valued company in 2011, beating oil giant Exxon.

Continued from page 1: Along the way Apple ceased to be merely a computer company as it had started. It was now a company making an entire range of lifestyle products, each more popular than the previous: Mac, iPod, shuffle, iPhone and iPad.

The company, on Jobs's watch, straddled the widely disparate worlds of business and personal computing. The personal computer was truly personal, topped up with a steady supply of even more personal computing devices.

“He was a perfectionist,” said John Sculley, in a television interview, of the man he infamously fired from the company he had founded. Sculley and Jobs never spoke again. | | | | | | | | Tributes