The visionary that brought Apple from the brink died on Wednesday, 5 October 2011.

All around the world people have been saddened by his passing.  Twitter was all aflutter trending #stevejobs, #isad and #thankyousteve, Apple shops were strewn with candles and flowers and major leaders, including Obama, weighed in.

"He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world," Obama said in a statement.

Jobs was 21 when he founded Apple Computer in 1976 with his friend Steve Wozniak. Together they developed the Macintosh, which became the first commercially successful small computer with a graphical user interface.

Jobs resigned his post as chair of the board and left Apple in 1985 after a scuffle with the then CEO John Sculley. Jobs went on to start the company NeXT, which was bought by Apple in 1997, then on the brink of collapse. Having come full circle, Jobs sat as interim CEO and eventually became the fully fledged CEO in 2000.

They went on to develop the Mac OS X, the iPhone, iPod and finally, the iPad, all of which were hugely successful products.  Apple's profits began to soar; in July, Apple's second quarter profit hit $7.31 billion on revenue of $28.57 billion.

Jobs passing is a hard blow to Apple, whose board of directors expressed distress and grief: "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read their statement, "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Bob Iger of the Walt Disney Company, all expressed sorrow and sympathy for Jobs, his family and his colleges. But mostly these and the public in general expressed the manner in which Jobs has inspired them with his inventiveness — Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 338 US patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies — and vision.

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