Life and Deeds of Steve Wozniak - Essay Example

Steve Wozniak (Co-Fonder of Apple) Table of Contents Steve Wozniak (Co-Fonder of Apple Table of Contents 2 0History of Steve Wozniak 3 2.0 Lifeand Education 3 3.0 Family Background 4 4.0 Obstacles 4 5.0 Why Do You Admire Steve Wozniak? 6 6.0 Inventions of Steve Wozniak 6 7.0 Impact of Steve Wozniak’s Invention in the World 7 References 8 1.0 History of Steve Wozniak Steve Wozniak is also famously known as ‘Wizard of Woz’. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs had contributed towards the revolutionary technology of computer and established the Apple Computers Inc which has greatly affected the people and industry. He was born in the year 1950 and spent his childhood in a city named Sunnyvale at California (Spaulding, n.d.). His father was an engineer from whom he was influenced to innovate newer things. His succeeding creativity and creation was the basis of modern computer race that the present generation is experiencing at its best (Cohen, 2011). 2.0 Life and Education Since childhood, he was devoted to electronics items. He had completed the high school education in the year 1968 from California at ‘Homestead High School’. He started the college education in the University of Colorado, and subsequently changed the university; and in the year 1971, Steve Wozniak got admission in the University of California in the city of Berkeley with major in Engineering. At that time, he started to team up with Steve Jobs to create ‘Blue Boxes’ which permit individuals to ‘make long distance call’ (A&E Television Networks, 2011) & (National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2002). 3.0 Family Background Steve Wozniak belongs to a simple family background. His father was an engineer in the Lockheed Martin, a security and IT organization of the US and his mother was a housewife. When he was only seven years old, his family was transferred to Sunnyvale at California. He got vast knowledge about electronics and other scientific areas from his father. Because of his huge potential and curiosity in inventing electronics materials, Steve Wozniak’s parents had given him electronics sets which included things such as lights, switches and timers. The most vital knowledge he gained from his father was information about transistor, logic circuit and idea about creation of basic gates (AND, OR) which were useful for development of his experience in the field of electronics (Hyman, n.d.). 4.0 Obstacles There were many obstacles that Steve Wozniak faced in his way of creation. He always endeavored to achieve peak position in his creation. After getting employed in the Hewlett Packard for making calculators, he realized it is a type of computer and subsequently knew about the chip and how it works. Finally, he got an idea of making computer with that chip. As Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak did not have enough money to buy computer, they had developed their individual computer named Apple I, which was a prototype. The plan of making Apple I was generated from designs of TV and typewriter. Wozniak was a member of ‘Homebrew Computer Club’. Both Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs together met with technology sorcerers from the ‘Homebrew Computer Club’. In order to raise the money required to make computer, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs had sold many of their precious assets. By selling the scientific calculator of HP brand and ‘Microbus’ of Volkswagen both had gathered 1300 USD. The money was not enough for making computer which made them to request credit from the home electronic suppliers and consequently arranged their first product line (Srivastava, 1996). The Apple Company was established in the year 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. They had faced several arguments because of the name ‘Apple’. The first creation of the company was ‘Apple I’ which was sold at 666 USD. Quite rapidly the ‘Apple I’ stroke in the market and they got an order of 50,000 USD. By evaluating the demand of ‘Apple I’, Steve Wozniak had upgraded it and developed ‘Apple II’ which was much superior with regard to time of response and picture quality. Within three years, Apple II had gathered 139,000,000 USD which was top selling computer brand at that time. The company had experienced development rate of almost 700%. In the year 1980, the market worth of Apple brand was 1.2 billion USD. However, Apple III failed to evolve and at that time IBM had achieved bigger share in the market (Srivastava, 1996). In the year 1981, Steve Wozniak got injured due to crash of his personal flight. This incident had made him temporarily unable to develop new ideas for Apple Inc. During the period, he had faced many obstacles. He took a time off from Apple Inc and determined to complete the engineering and computer science degree which he was unable to finish previously. In the year 1985, Steve Wozniak had left Apple Corporation and moved out of sight of the public. He had left approximately private assets of about 45 million USD in Apple Inc. For many years, Steve Wozniak had devoted himself in educating computer to tutors and students of fifth and eighth standards which was one of his objectives in life (Srivastava, 1996). 5.0 Why Do You Admire Steve Wozniak? The reason I admire Steve Wozniak is that he helped to make computer accessible for every organization, school and person by creating cost effective methodology of making PC. His proposals and ideas were quite unique and just in time when the world needed innovative technology. His innovation had helped in faster processing of data, easy managing and storing and accurate decision making. He has made the foundation for developing computer and upgrading it in new ways. His efforts and identifications of proper usage of technology had been the driving forces behind several of the new innovations that the world has seen today. At present, the mobile phones, iPods, music players, and many digital devices are made by using the chip platform and it makes it easy for consumers to enjoy multimedia at lower cost with lesser limitations. 6.0 Inventions of Steve Wozniak Steve Wozniak had innovative traits from childhood. When he was only in 6th class he had invented his private ‘radio station’. When he was only 13, he had created his first computer at high school. Because of his great intelligence, he was the head of electronic association in high school. In the year 1970, Steve Wozniak had invented calculator chips. From the idea gained by calculator chips, Steve Wozniak invented first computer with sole board which included RAM and ‘video interface’ inside it. In 1977, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs both invented modified computers which had colorful pictures and all the electronic parts were situated inside a synthetic holder. He had created many applications for Apple II, which was one of the vital reasons for Apple II’s success. In the year 1979, the Apple Inc had invented Lisa Computer and hit the computer market. The flight crash incident had weakened Steve Wozniak’s ability and subsequently he took a time off from Apple and started to teach students and teachers. He had subsidized various educational programs in the US. In the year 1985, Steve Wozniak had established an organization named CL 9 and invented ‘remote control’ buttons. In the year 2001, after closure of CL 9 he had jointly created ‘Wheels of Zeus’ also known as ‘WOZ’. He had invented the ‘wireless GPS system’. In the year 2006, WOZ had shut down and after that, Gil Amelio and Steve Wozniak jointly invented ‘Acquicor Technology’. These inventions helped to make revolution in the computer market (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007) & (National Inventors Hall of Fame, 2002). 7.0 Impact of Steve Wozniak’s Invention in the World Steve Wozniak had entirely transformed the shape of the computer world. Before the invention of Apple, the computer was quite costly. Both Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs had invented technology for cost-effective computers which made easier for individuals to purchase a computer. It had made faster computer experience with less cost and soon every organization and school started using computer because of smart handling. The invention of calculator chip by Steve Wozniak had it made easy to incorporate the whole CPU into one chip. In present day, the music devices, notebook PCs, mobile technology and other portable players are based on the chip technology invented by Steve Wozniak. It has affected the uses of computers by people and has made a revolution in the technology industry. References A&E Television Networks, (2011). Stephen Wozniak Biography. Bio. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://www.biography.com/articles/Stephen-Wozniak-9537334 Cohen, S. L., (2011). The History of Steve Wozniak. Demand Media. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/about_5372240_history-steve-wozniak.html Hyman, J. A., (No Date). Steven Wozniak: A Pioneer of Silicon Valley and Beyond. American University’s Computing History Museum. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://www.computinghistorymuseum.org/teaching/papers/biography/biopaper-jhyman.pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (2007). The Personal Computer. MIT School of Engineering. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/apple.html National Inventors Hall of Fame, (2002). Microcomputer for Use with Video Display Personal Computer. Invention Impact. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/155.html Srivastava, M., (1996). Steven Wozniak. National Science Foundation. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/WOZNIAK.HTM Spaulding, A., (No Date). Stephen Wozniak. From the Garage to the Gigabyte. Retrieved Online on July 01, 2011 from http://www.landsnail.com/apple/local/woz_gig/woz.html Read More