Apple today commemorates its co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs ten years after he passed away from pancreatic cancer. The company’s homepage has been adorned with images of Jobs throughout his years at Apple, as well as an official film and a statement from the Jobs family.
“We miss him profoundly,” the statement reads. “We were blessed to have him as a husband and father.”
Celebrating Steve
Every once in a while Apple.com’s homepage ditches the many marketing materials that promote its newest products and instead dedicates itself to remarkable figures who truly put a dent in the universe. And for Apple and its fans, few deserve that more than the man who started it all.
“Celebrating Steve” reads the headline that greets you when you visit Apple.com today. Images of Jobs throughout his iconic and momentous years at Apple rotate in the background, while a statement from the Jobs family slowly reveals itself as you scroll down the page.
The statement reads:
For a decade now, mourning and healing have gone together. Our gratitude has become as great as our loss.
Each of us has found his or her own path to consolation, but we have come together in a beautiful place of love for Steve, and for what he taught us.
For all of Steve’s gifts, it was his power as a teacher that has endured. He taught us to be open to the beauty of the world, to be curious around new ideas, to see around the next corner, and most of all to stay humble in our own beginner’s mind.
There are many things we still see through his eyes, but he also taught to look for ourselves. He gave us equipment for living, and it has served us well.
One of our greatest sources of consolation has been our association of Steve with beauty. The sight of something beautiful — a wooded hillside, a well‑made object — recalls his spirit to us. Even in his years of suffering, he never lost his faith in the beauty of existence.
Memory is inadequate for what is in our hearts: we miss him profoundly. We were blessed to have him as husband and father.
Watch the film
Apple has also produced an official film to commemorate Jobs. It runs for just under three minutes and features the same photos seen on Apple.com, as well as footage of Jobs speaking during keynotes and other events while an emotive tune plays in the background.
The film also features snippets from some of Jobs’ biggest product launches, including the original MacBook Air and iPhone, which he famously teased as “an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator” in one.
Check out Apple.com today to watch the film and see the images; they’re well worth a few minutes of your time.
Where it all began
Jobs founded Apple alongside Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. The Apple I, the company’s first product, played a huge part in the personal computer revolution, while the original Macintosh, launched in 1984, brought the mouse and graphical interface to consumer machines for the first time.
It wasn’t always plain sailing, with Apple on the brink of bankruptcy in 1997, 12 years after Jobs was pushed out by the company’s board. But following Jobs’ return to Cupertino, Apple went on to release a series of hit products that revolutionized a number of industries.
The iMac, iPod, iPad, and iPhone all helped cement Apple as one of the biggest and most important names in tech. Today, Apple is the most valuable company in the world, with a market cap that is significantly larger than those of Microsoft, Amazon, Google parent company Alphabet, and Facebook.
