US media pay tribute to ‘visionary’ Steve Jobs

WASHINGTON—US media paid tribute Thursday to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, hailing him as a visionary whose works helped usher in the digital age.

The death of Jobs on Wednesday after losing a long battle to cancer “stuns and saddens Apple workers and fans” throughout the world, the Los Angeles Times said.

For the Chicago Tribune, Apple lost “a visionary leader who inspired personal computing and iconic products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, which made Jobs one of the most significant industry leaders of his generation.”

In addition to being a genial creator, the 56-year-old who founded Apple Computer in 1976 with friend Steve Wozniak in his family garage was also a shrewd businessman, The Wall Street Journal recalled.

“The way he marketed and sold those products through savvy advertising campaigns and Apple’s retail stores helped turn the company into a pop-culture phenomenon,” it added.

Noting that Jobs calculated that people were willing to pay more for creative products, The Washington Post said he “had a genius for understanding the needs of consumers before they did.”

Jobs, who also provided critical funding to help start the now widely successful Pixar Animation Studios, “helped usher in the era of personal computers and then led a cultural transformation in the way music, movies and mobile communications were experienced in the digital age,” The New York Times said.

Jobs, who was fired from Apple in the 1980s, returned to the helm of the company in 1997 to oversee the launch of innovative digital products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

These digital tools, the Times said, “transformed not only product categories like music players and cellphones but also entire industries, like music and mobile communications.”

Comparing the executive’s impact to that of Walt Disney and auto magnate Henry Ford, USA Today warned that the death of Jobs “raises questions about the company’s ability to continue to amaze consumers with new, must-have products that have helped to define a generation.”