Jobs on patents for many iconic gadgets
— -- Steve Jobs, the name synonymous with innovation, is listed on 313 Apple patents. He is widely credited for shaking up or creating six industries: digital publishing; personal computers; music; animated movies; phones; and tablet computing. Here's a closer look at some of the areas he pioneered and patented at Apple.
Graphical user interface
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) researchers may have invented the graphical user interface, but Steve Jobs popularized it.
Apple replaced command- and text-based set-up computers with easily understood graphics. It was the first mass-market user interface that allowed consumers to simply point and click, says Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg. "Apple dove into graphics-based computing and now touch-based computing," he said.
The Macintosh
Apple's Macintosh was one of the first computing devices that focused on form as well as function at a time all computers looked the same. "It looked like it had a personality instead of just being a machine," says Gartenberg. With the Macintosh, Apple had a design for a computer contained in a single unit: monitor and central processing unit, or CPU, together. The CPU is the brains of a computer. It "really created the category of the all-in-one device," Gartenberg says.
The iMac
The iMac continued the Macintosh tradition of focusing on design. Getting the iMac up and running was so quick and easy that all it took, after taking it out of the box, was a couple of clicks to get users going. Consumers could immediately understand how it worked.
The iPod
Simply called a "media player" on Jobs' patent, the iPod was a giant leap forward in the way people listened to music on the go. It started the digital music revolution. Along with iTunes, the iPod turned the bricks-and-mortar music retail business on its head. The iPod was "probably one of the more revolutionary products," says Gartenberg. "It redefined music for a generation." Before the iPod, mobile music was synonymous with Sony's Walkman.
Touch screen
Jobs applied for a patent for a touch screen that could interpret the commands users wanted to perform by sensing the touch of their fingers on the device. Consumers no longer had to rely on a pen or a stylus to use their phones. Apple created the movements users now find second nature, such as pinching fingers together to resize screens and swiping to move forward and backward. "None of these things had really existed before," Gartenberg said.
The iPhone
The iPhone is described simply as an "electronic device" on Jobs' patents, but it means much more to the world of smartphones. "It redefined what a smartphone was," Gartenberg says.
"While smartphones existed before the iPhone, today's smartphone market explosion is largely attributable to Apple," says Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin. Other companies that make smartphones would not have enjoyed the growth they've seen without Apple's successes, he said.
Mobile applications also existed before the coming of the iPhone and App Store, but Apple has caused an explosion in opportunities for developers, Golvin says. "Among its many results is a shift in the job market, with mobile development now among the hottest skills that engineers and designers can possess."
The iPad
With the patent for this "portable display device," Apple took its tablet the way of cellphones, making the device thin, lightweight, dynamic and easy to carry. "It was the first successful device to live between the personal computer and the phone," says Gartenberg. People said at the time that that market didn't exist, he said. "But Apple proved there was quite a big market there," Gartenberg says. The iPad turned computing into an experience in which consumers could carry the devices with them and take advantage of a battery life that lasted all day, he said. "It represents the first post-PC device for consumers to embrace. And embrace it they have."
