I was just about to turn off my machine for the night when the news came through that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had lost his battle against cancer. 

Apple are a company that, in a relatively short space of time, have become a household name with their products known (and much-desired) by almost everybody. Almost all of that enviable reputation is down to the marketing genius of Jobs himself. His initial successes with the Apple II in 1977, then the Macintosh of 1984, were impressive enough but it was only when he returned to the company in the 1990s that things really took off for the company.

It is easy to forget that in the 1990s, Apple were struggling badly. Jobs had been ousted in a power struggle some years earlier and despite some success in the early 1990s, the company had begun to flounder with a succession of failed products. Meanwhile their chief rivals in the personal computer operating system market, Microsoft, were going from strength to strength with their Windows operating system available to a wide variety of personal computers. Apple's operating system ran only on their own machines, and Apple largely missed out on the PC boom of the 1990s with their comparatively expensive hardware.

Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, when the company he founded after his departure from Apple (NeXT) was purchased by Apple in a deal worth $429 million, plus 1.5 million shares in Apple stock. Jobs was brought back into the fold, initially as an advisor, but soon found himself restored as interim CEO after sustained losses prompted the removal of the previous incumbent Gil Amelio.

The introduction of the iMac G3 in 1998 saw a revival of the company's fortunes; conceived by British designer Jonathan Ive and available in a range of translucent colours it established itself as a 'lifestyle' product. Future Apple devices would follow this trend throughout Jobs's tenure as chief executive, with newer versions of the iMac adopting innovative, eye-catching designs and running the Mac OS X operating system, built on technology brought over from NeXT when Apple purchased the company.  With Ive in charge of designing the company's products from the iPod to the Macbook Pro, the company gained a reputation for innovation allied to sleek design.

The real value of Jobs to the company was his forceful personality; able to get everyone to pull in the same direction and also able to market the firm's products brilliantly, his keynote presentation  speeches which announced their latest product became major events in themselves. When the first iPhone was released in 2007, there were queues around the block. The company had managed to cultivate a fanbase of its own; people would queue for the new Apple gadget in the same way they might queue for a chance to buy a ticket for a concert by their favourite band.

Although the restrictions on Apple devices such as the iPhone and later iPad did irritate some people, their look, sleek design, ease of use and sheer desirability won over the masses. The company became synonymous with its chief executive as each new device was presented to the public by Jobs, his easygoing stage presence making him something of a technology 'rock star'.

When Jobs stepped down as chief executive in August, the company had recently been reported as having more cash reserves than even the United States government - a phenomenal turnaround from the late 1990s when the company was in danger of collapse. Today there are Apple stores in many major cities in the world; brightly-lit, welcoming places where people can actually see and touch the devices for themselves. Giving people the chance to experience the intuitive nature of Apple's devices for themselves is a strong incentive to want to purchase the devices. 

Steve Jobs has left Apple in a far better state than he found it in 1998; his company's devices have found their way into almost every home over the past decade and his impact on the world of technology is colossal.

The 1984 advertisment heralding the original Macintosh:

Steve Jobs unveils the Macintosh:

The iPhone 4 unveiling: