BACKGROUND: How Steve Jobs shaped modern technology

Oct 6, 2011, 2:50 GMT

San Francisco - In the hours after the death Wednesday of Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs, tributes poured in noting his unmatched influence on the computer, film, music and mobile phone industries.

The following is a timeline of key moments in Jobs' career that also marked historic moments in the development of modern technology:

1974 - Jobs and Steve Wozniak collaborate on the development of the landmark video game Breakout at Atari. 'If he had never done anything else in life, I would've said, 'You are the greatest genius of the past 100 years,'' columnist James Altucher said on AOL Money.

1976 - Jobs and Wozniak found Apple in a Silicon Valley garage to build and sell a computer designed by Wozniak. Within a few months, Jobs sells 50 units to a local electronics store, and Apple is on its way to selling one of the first popular computers.

1984 - After visiting the famed research and co-development company Xerox PARC, where he saw prototypes of a graphical user interface that used a mouse and a point-and-click system, Jobs refines the concept for use in the Macintosh - the first computer to dispense with the command line interface.

1985 - Jobs is fired from Apple after a boardroom power struggle. He later calls it 'the best thing that could have ever happened to me' as he goes on to found NeXT Inc, a computer company that would later form the basis of Apple's modern operating systems.

1986 - Jobs buys the graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd to develop computer animation techniques. He renames it Pixar, and it produces the first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, in 1995.

1996 - Jobs returns to an ailing Apple, which is close to bankruptcy. He outlines a strategy based on the development of products for an integrated digital lifestyle in which media, communications and data would be accessible over networked devices.

1998 - Apple introduces the iMac, an influential all-in-one computer.

2001 - Apple introduces the iPod portable media player, which is closely integrated with iTunes software. iTunes quickly comes to dominate the online music market, and the iPod sounds a death knell for CDs, thanks to its intuitive controls. Within seven years, Apple had sold more than 10 billion songs through the iTunes store.

2007 - Apple introduces the iPhone, the first mass-market portable device to use touch-screen controls and gestures. It revolutionizes the smart phone industry and makes billions of dollars in profits for the company, which has sold more than 130 million units around the world. It is expected to sell 84 million units this year and as many as 120 million units in 2012.

2010 - Apple announces the iPad, a tablet computer that uses the same touch-screen controls as the iPhone and becomes an overnight success as it redefines the personal computer market. Apple sells 500,000 iPads in its first week and is expected to sell 30 million this year.