Before Steve Jobs: 5 Corporate Innovators who Shaped Our World
The former head of Apple comes from a long line of American innovators who changed society
- By Joseph Stromberg
- Smithsonian.com, August 26, 2011
(Monica M. Davey / epa / Corbis)
Editor's Note: Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011 due to complications from pancreatic cancer. This story has been edited to reflect the recent news. When Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO from Apple, he did so as one of the most remarkable innovators of our time. From the personal computer to the iPod to the iPhone, he has played a significant role in shaping devices that wed impressive functionality with superior design, redefining what we imagine technology can do in our lives.
“To me, Jobs is best known for really sensing the pulse of what was going to be cool, and take it to the next level of the use of technology in society in technology,” says David Allison, a curator at the American History Museum who specializes in information technology. “It’s not so much satisfying demand, it’s creating demand for stuff that you didn't even think you wanted.”
Jobs is one of the latest in a series of innovators in American history who have remade the technological landscape through expertise and imagination.
Comments (15)
Also by you not allowing people to vote makes u miss two things in Your company (no disrespect) Lack of conversation (we leave in Social media and your lacking of that! As well as sharing this Article In social Pages.... Your Welcome!
Posted by carlos on February 17,2013 | 06:04 AM
Beautiful article, short briefs are soo good for news. People love to read short brief stories, now... I'm an Innovator myself, or at least I like to think I am and your missing a big one... Kinda like You talked about Spiderman, Thor, Hulk, and forgot to talk about The Iron Man! Come on! Like Upset you did not Include Larry Ellison!
Posted by carlos castro alcedo on February 17,2013 | 06:00 AM
henry ford and steve jobs were ultimate innovators for they gathered the people around them and motivate them for the thing to invent which was literally imposssible the long time before
wright brothers comes after them i think
Posted by hemant on December 20,2011 | 02:20 AM
They forgot one of the giants...Cyrus McCormick. The man who, more than anyone else, turned this country from an agricultural one to an industrial one with his invention of the mechanical reaper. He also helped the Union win the Civil War. While the South largely grew cash crops (tobacco, cotton), the Midwest mostly grew foodstuffs. With many of the Midwestern farmers off fighting the Civil War, one man with a team and a reaper could keep dozens of soldiers fed.
Posted by Stuart Lutz on October 6,2011 | 02:46 PM
" Bill Gates is no Steve Jobs". Both of them are on this list on their own right. The personal computer became a household item because of Gates' vision. Jobs, in iPhone, put together in one package what Palm and blackberry had been doing already, but with his creative touch. Just like Edison had made the technology that Tesla has been nurturing accessible to the masses. Those who know the history, in the past Microsoft's investment in Apple helped the company flourish. To be appreciative of Steve's work, you do not have to discredit others - in doing that, you are taking away from what this innovator rightfully deserves on his own merit.
Posted by Debargha Sengupta on October 6,2011 | 01:08 PM
henry ford should be in the list. so are the railroad barons. they might have been ruthless but they changed the way people lived.
Posted by minnie on October 6,2011 | 12:33 PM
I think Ford raised his worker's pay to $5.00 a day so they could buy a Ford. Even a short list should include the true industrialist like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Railroad magnates, the Dukes, and a few others who truly changed the way our society functions.
Posted by d. Martin on September 14,2011 | 09:31 AM
Seems to me that Lee Iacocca is standing in front of the name of one of the top three innovators this country has ever seen; Henry Ford. Ford, Edison, and the Wright brothers built much of the industrial wealth of this country with their vision, determination, and innovations. Iacocca was more of a marketing man in my opinion.
Posted by Claude Schlecker on September 2,2011 | 06:32 AM
Bill Gates is no Steve Jobs. He did nothing innovative. He was a ruthless business man. If he couldn't buy a company, he put them out of business. He is aligned with the likes Henry Ford and Rockefeller.
Posted by Gil Hansen on September 1,2011 | 06:32 PM
Excellent choices all but no such list is ever really complete. I would add Henry Ford who, like Jobs, had the vision to imagine what technology can do in our lives. Jobs imagined a computer in every home and Ford imagined a car in every driveway. Radical ideas both.
Ford redefined the concept of a car for a generation of Americans with his Model T. No longer was a car a toy or sport for the wealthy but a new mode of transportation for the "great multitude" as he put it.
Ford's mass production system for the Model T enabled the $5 day which created a large, new middle class customer for his products. Marketing genius !
Posted by Steve Harris on September 1,2011 | 03:32 PM
Jobs did all this without dressing up or making a fool of people.
He demonstarted that you could be sincere, love your work and enjoy what you do.
Kiran Frey MD
Posted by Kiran Frey on September 1,2011 | 01:00 PM
Edison made "toys" for profit....Tesla made the technology
Posted by Michael J. on September 1,2011 | 11:51 AM
Thank you Steve Jobs, for blessing us with incredible technology. I love my Apple MacBookPro. May the good Lord bless you with a turnaround in your health and bring you peace.
May God Bless You!
Posted by Ellen Laprise on August 31,2011 | 01:50 PM
Shameful that you mention Robert Noyce but ignore Jack Kilby. Jack Kilby was instrumental in growth of TI. He had the chip invention 6 months before Robert Noyce, who was working for Fairchild at the time.
Just like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, in opposite camps innovated.
Posted by dkslc on August 27,2011 | 04:28 PM