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Jobs
In Reed College, in 1974, the high tuition costs force Steve Jobs to drop out, but Dean Jack Dudman allows him to sit in on classes. Jobs is particularly interested in a calligraphy course. Influenced by Baba Ram Dass 's book Be Here Now and their experiences with LSD, Jobs and his friend Daniel Kottke spend time in India. His philosophical ideas lead Jobs to the decision not to wear any footwear.
Two years later, Jobs is back in Los Altos, California, living with his adoptive parents Paul and Clara. While working for Atari, Inc. as a video game developer, Jobs develops a partnership with his friend Steve "Woz" Wozniak. Jobs is charged by his boss Al Alcorn to re-develop arcade video game Breakout, which he ends up having Wozniak build in his place. The job is such a success that Alcorn presents it to President Nolan Bushnell, but Jobs inequitably distributes the salary for Breakout 's development between Wozniak and himself.
Later, Jobs discovers that Wozniak built a prototype for the Apple I, a " personal home computer " which he expresses interest in commercializing. They name their new company Apple Computer. After a failed sale at his employer company HP, Wozniak reluctantly demonstrates the Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club to a bored audience. Jobs is later approached by store owner Paul Terrell who shows interest in the Apple I. Jobs persuades his father Paul to let them set up their new company in the family's garage workshop. Jobs also recruits Kottke, fellow engineer Bill Fernandez, and young neighbor Chris Espinosa to the Apple team.
Terrell's disappointment in the Apple I (in his opinion, being only a motherboard and not a full computer as promised), inspires Jobs to restart with a second model. He hires Rod Holt to re-conceptualize the power supply for what will be called the Apple II. Venture capitalist Mike Markkula notices Jobs and Wozniak's work, and also joins Apple. The Apple II is released at the 1977 West Coast Computer Faire, where it is a success.
Apple's success causes Jobs to distance himself from his friends. Upon learning that his high-school girlfriend Chrisann Brennan is pregnant, Jobs ends their relationship. Brennan gives birth to Lisa, whom Jobs denies is his child. Kottke (now an Apple II Plus repairer) meanwhile leaves the company after acknowledging that Jobs (who hardly even has any time to talk to him) is not rewarding the Apple I team with any Apple stock. John Sculley is recruited as CEO of the company. As Jobs' behavior grows more erratic, Jobs is moved from the Apple Lisa development team to the Macintosh Group, where he works with Bill Atkinson, Burrell Smith, Chris Espinosa, and Andy Hertzfeld. Despite the change, his behavior does not change: he forces out Jef Raskin, the original Macintosh group leader, and then takes his place. Later, he phones Microsoft founder Bill Gates, legally threatening him because their Word software is, in his opinion, a plagiarism of Apple's word processor. Wozniak, still part of the Apple IIe team, decides to leave the company, feeling that it has lost its way.
Though the Macintosh is introduced with great fanfare in 1984, including a high-budget commercial, it is seen as a failure due to the disproportionately high cost (as compared to IBM PC compatibles). Jobs, convinced that the error is the limited random-access memory of the system, launches a more advanced version, but Sculley forces him out of the company in 1985.
In 1996, Jobs is married to Laurene Powell and has accepted Lisa as his daughter (she now lives with them). He has a son, Reed, and also runs NeXT. When Apple buys NeXT, then-CEO Gil Amelio asks Jobs to return to Apple as a consultant. Jobs is named the new CEO, fires Amelio and relieves the Board of Directors. Jobs becomes interested in the work of Jony Ive, particularly during the design of the iMac and strives to reinvent Apple. Jobs later records the dialogue for the Think Different commercial in 1997. In 2001, Steve Jobs introduces the iPod at an Apple Town Hall meeting.