After more than two years as interim CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs told
the Macworld Expo conference in San Francisco last week that he was
to become permanent, writes Caroline Davis.
Jobs provided details of Apple's new operating system, Mac OS X,
which will ship in the middle of this year. It boasts an interface
called Aqua which makes extensive use of colour.
There is also a built-in e-mail facility and an application
called the Dock, similar to the Windows Taskbar. From January 2001,
OS X will come preloaded on all Macintosh systems.
Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976, but left in 1984 to set
up NeXT Software. In 1986 he jointly established Pixar, the
animation studio which produced Toy Story and A Bug's Life.
Jobs returned to Apple in December 1996 when Apple bought NeXT.
He became interim CEO of Apple in September 1997 after then-CEO Gil
Amelio was ousted. He remains CEO of Pixar.
Mac supporters cheered the news. Jobs was the business brain
behind Apple's success in the 1980s. When he rejoined, he turned an
$878m (£534m) loss in 1997 into a $414m profit in 1998 following
the launch of iMac and Power Mac G3 ranges.
Steve Jobs
- 1972: Drops out of college and starts work at
Atari
- 1976: With Steve Wozmick sets up Apple. Co-designs Apple
II which leads to Macintosh in 1984
- 1984: Resigns from Apple and establishes NeXT
- 1997: NeXT Software sold to Apple Computer. Gil Amelio
ousted as CEO, Jobs becomes interim CEO
- 1998: From $878m loss in 1997, Apple makes $414m profit.
Jobs is credited with Apple's turnaround