Steve Jobs' Legacy Honored On Apple Site With Obituary, Photo

In the wake of the death of visionary Apple co-founder Steven P. Jobs the company has posted a tribute to him directly on its site.

As news broke of his death, Apple.com's homepage was changed to feature a black-and-white photo of Steve Jobs and a link to a short obituary posted by the company.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," Apple wrote. "Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

As you can see in the screenshots below, Apple is also encouraging people to pay their respects and share their condolences by emailing [e-mail].

The 56-year-old received a liver transplant in 2009, and had been battling cancer since 2004 according to the Associated Press. Six weeks ago he resigned as CEO, leaving then COO Tim Cook to run the company.

Jobs' family has also released a statement, which you can read here along with other updates.

Apple's board issued the following statement about Jobs' death:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

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.

Apple's Tribute To Jobs:

Comments

[liberalcynic]

06:21 AM on 10/07/2011

Here's is some dirt, and it ought stick.
http://digg.com/story/r/the_infrequent_rant_steve_jobs_a_top_bloke_after_death

[tleb]

01:56 PM on 10/06/2011

An amazing human being who: After resuming control of Apple in 1997, Jobs eliminated all corporate philanthropy programs... ... and also the amazing human being who:In 2005, Jobs responded to criticism of Apple's poor recycling programs for e-waste in the U.S. by lashing out at environmental and other advocates at Apple's Annual Meeting in Cupertino in April. However, a few weeks later, Apple announced it would take back iPods for free at its retail stores

[2crudedudes]

12:54 PM on 10/06/2011

"amazing human being"? seriously?

[VoiceofTreas0n]

03:30 PM on 10/06/2011

Relative to the vast majority? I'd say yes. Say what you want about apple products - you can't dispute that Jobs was a visionary.

[2crudedudes]

04:20 PM on 10/06/2011

He was the best salesman ever, I'll give you that.

[BoFo]

12:41 PM on 10/06/2011

Thousands of loyal fans are setting up camps outside of Apple stores around the world to await the resurrection, which is scheduled for Saturday.

[tleb]

01:56 PM on 10/06/2011

They call that a re-boot!

[SpeakupNation]

04:03 PM on 10/06/2011

Well at least we know there was no 'blue screen of death'.

[deanleto]

12:11 PM on 10/06/2011

been a mac owner since the first power mac...

But Mr. Jobs was not Einstein nor was he an Edison.

He was a modern day Henry Ford, who did not invent the car, but made it accessible to the world....

[yinkadlb8]

09:00 AM on 10/06/2011

So many wonderful accolades and adjectives have been used to describe the passing on of one our great innovators of our time. A person with quality and rare exceptional virtues like Steve Jobs only comes once in a century. That doesn't mean he is superhuman, but his philosophy and thinking patterns is beyond the generality of most people. He forsees, produces and markets technological devices in ways other people still wonder at. He is the face and mind of new technological processes and products especially in the communications field. Adieu Steve Jobs.

[inguatu]

08:14 AM on 10/06/2011

and here I thought Apple would offer free apps or mp3s in their respective application stores.

[FanaticRealist]

03:55 AM on 10/06/2011

I'm English living in the UK.

This was not the news I expected to wake up to, even though a recent photo of Steve made it clear that his departure from Apple was a precursor to something more final.

I've been a user of Apple products since 1987 and have promoted them tirelessly (in fact, I'm due to demo the Mac software I resell in 3 hours).

The "Jobs effect" isn't that he was the inventor or a master of a soldering iron. It's that he had a "vision" of how hardware and software should work together as a coherent whole with as little configuration or maintenance as possible and he used every man-management technique in the world to get those who worked for Apple to understand the importance of those factors.

His other enduring legacy, Pixar, was similarly blessed: Pixar was a sleepy, geeky backwater of the Lucasfilm empire until Jobs purchased the company and gave John Lasseter the opportunity to fulfil his dream of making a full-length CGI movie. In that respect, Pixar was doubly blessed - Jobs' eye for commercial details is equally matched by Lasseter's principles that the story is more important than the technology.

RIP Steve, you have changed more than you could ever realise.

[DoctorDirector]

03:21 AM on 10/06/2011

Really, really sad. This guy was amazing. I've used Macs consistently since 1985. This person I never met has affected my life so much.

[shameshameshame]

02:50 AM on 10/06/2011

I will forever miss you, mr steve jobs :-( I hope and pray that you did not suffer in your last hour.

[raviandsonia]

01:52 AM on 10/06/2011

Cry not America
For Steve has not left us
He continues to live in our hearts
And in our memories ..... forever.

[arrgh]

01:11 AM on 10/06/2011

I feel a lot like I did when Jim Henson died. Such a powerful creative force, gone too soon.

[David Danio Jr]

12:49 AM on 10/06/2011

This could probably the ending and beginning of new one..

[Phil Campbell]

12:16 AM on 10/06/2011

Indeed Mr. Jobs will be Remembered as an Exceptional Visionaire and detail Oriented Character despite of Years of Misunderstandings, Defeats & Mass Media attention, no matter What, He Continued to Create Wonderful Products we Couldn't Live Without / R.I.P. Steve.

[jaynes]

12:11 AM on 10/06/2011

such an amazing person to my generation; we just lost one of the few and we know it.