Steve Jobs was one of the greatest innovators of our time, a visionary who redefined personal technology and the way we interact with the digital world. He co-founded
Apple and his products (the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad) revolutionised personal computing, music listening, telephony and the consumption of digital content.
In 1976 Jobs, together with S. Wozniak (a former high school friend turned engineer and inventor of his own computer logic board) and Ronald Wayne founded the Apple Computer
Company. Their first product, the Apple I, was essentially a hand-assembled logic board.
Thanks to Jobs' ability to attract investors and promote the product, the Apple II, an attractively designed computer with a keyboard, was launched shortly afterwards.
In the late 1970s, Jobs demonstrated a unique ability to recognise the potential of emerging technologies. A visit to the Xerox PARC research centre, for example, brought him face to
face with the concept of the graphical user interface, which revolutionised the way people interacted with computers using a pointer and mouse.
This idea took shape in the Macintosh,launched in 1984, which is considered the first mass-produced computer with a GUI (Graphical User Interface).
The commercial failure of the Macintosh led Jobs to clash with Apple's board of directors. After leaving Apple in 1985, Jobs personally invested $12 million to start a new hardware and software company called NeXT Inc. Steve Jobs and the first Macintosh
The company unveiled its first computer in 1988, but the excessively high base price put the machine well out of reach of most potential buyers. In 1996, Apple, in serious financial
difficulties due to poor management and the development of questionable products, acquired NeXT. From that moment on, Jobs led Apple on the road to rebirth. Under his leadership,
Apple introduced revolutionary products such as the Macbook Air, the iPod (which made purchasing digital songs accessible) and the iPhone (which combined a mobile phone, a
media player and a laptop into a single product), charting the course of hi-tech evolution.

Thematic showcase with related texts at the MFN Science Library, edited by Serena Ratti and Roberta Scordamaglia