Apple’s Jobs dead at 56

Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs died Wednesday at age 56 after a long bout with cancer.

He stepped down as Apple’s CEO in August fueling speculation that his health was deteriorating. He had pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant in 2009.

While most Apple products were slow to gain much traction in the government space for most of the company’s history, the iPhone and the iPad are gaining wider use among agencies.

Large government contractors such Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. as well as smaller players such as Agilex Inc. are developing applications for agencies that rely on Apple products, particularly the iPad with its large touch screen. 

During an open house at Lockheed’s demonstration center in Arlington, Va., the company was showing off a mapping application on an iPad that it was developing for the Defense Department.

Jobs leaves a long list of groundbreaking products that he and Apple ushered onto the market such as the iPod, the iTunes store, which revolutionized how people buy music and movies, and the app store where people buy and download applications.

The products were known as much for their simple and elegant design as they were for their innovative use of technology.

In keeping with that concept of simplicity, the home page of the Apple website was stripped of its usual product promotions and replaced by a black and white photo of Jobs, his name and the years of his birth and death.

A click on his name goes to a second page with short statement from the company and an email link for those who want to share a memory.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being” is how the statement opens.

Jobs will be remembered as pioneer who brought innovative products and technologies to the market. Use the comment field below to share your thoughts on Jobs legacy and the impact Apple has had in the government market.