( CNN ) -- Steve Jobs , the visionary who led a mobile computer revolution with the creation of wildly popular devices such as the iPhone , was mourned Thursday by admirers and competitors as much of the world awoke to news of his death . Jobs ' death was announced Wednesday by Apple , the Silicon Valley company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak . He was 56 . `` Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius , and the world has lost an amazing human being , '' Apple said in a statement on its website . `` Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor . '' iReport : Share your memories of Jobs . The hard-driving executive pioneered the concept of the personal computer and of navigating them by clicking onscreen images with a mouse . In more recent years , he introduced the iPod portable music player , the iPhone and the iPad tablet -- all of which changed how digital content was consumed . Live blog : Reaction around the world . More than one pundit , praising Jobs ' ability to transform industries with his inventions , called him a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci . `` Steve Jobs is one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism , '' New York Times columnist Joe Nocera said in August . `` His intuition has been phenomenal over the years . '' Fortune : 10 ways Jobs changed the world . Others championed his leadership skills.. `` He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or a Henry Ford , and set the mold for many other corporate leaders in many other industries , '' wrote Walter Mossberg , a tech columnist for The Wall Street Journal . `` He did what a CEO should : Hired and inspired great people ; managed for the long term , not the quarter of the short-term stock price ; made big bets and took big risks . '' Jobs ' death , while dreaded by Apple 's legions of fans , was not unexpected . He had battled cancer for years , took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August because he could `` no longer meet ( his ) duties and expectations . '' The spiritual side of Jobs . Born on February 24 , 1955 , and then adopted , Jobs grew up in Cupertino , California -- which would become home to Apple 's headquarters -- and showed an early interest in electronics . As a teenager , he phoned William Hewlett , president of Hewlett-Packard , to request parts for a school project . He got them , along with an offer of a summer job at HP . Jobs dropped out of Oregon 's Reed College after one semester , although he returned to audit a class in calligraphy , which he says influenced Apple 's graceful , minimalist aesthetic . He quit one of his first jobs , designing video games for Atari , to backpack across India and take psychedelic drugs . Those experiences , Jobs said later , shaped his creative vision . While at HP , Jobs befriended Steve Wozniak , who impressed him with his skill at assembling electronic components . The two later joined a Silicon Valley computer hobbyists club , and when he was 21 , Jobs teamed with Wozniak and two other men to launch Apple Computer Inc. `` It 's like there is a big hole left in you , '' Wozniak said on CNN 's AC360 after learning of Jobs death . `` And it 's very hard to go back and ... reflect on the feelings ... and what it means . '' Timeline of career . It 's long been Silicon Valley legend : Jobs and Wozniak built their first commercial product , the Apple 1 , in Jobs ' parents ' garage in 1976 . Jobs sold his Volkswagen van to help finance the venture . The primitive computer , priced at $ 666.66 , had no keyboard or display , and customers had to assemble it themselves . The following year , Apple unveiled the Apple II computer at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire . `` Steven Jobs was , and still is , an inspiration to many individuals and companies all over the world . His passing is a loss to innovators and visionaries everywhere , '' said Jong-seok Park , president of LG Electronics . Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described him as `` one of the founders of our industry and a true visionary . '' Opinion : One thing we owe to Steve Jobs . Jobs was among the first computer engineers to recognize the appeal of the mouse and the graphical interface , which let users operate computers by clicking on images instead of writing text . Apple 's pioneering Macintosh computer launched in early 1984 with a now-iconic , Orwellian-themed Super Bowl ad . The boxy beige Macintosh sold well , but the demanding Jobs clashed frequently with colleagues , and in 1986 , he was ousted from Apple after a power struggle . Then came a 10-year hiatus during which he founded NeXT Computer , whose pricey , cube-shaped computer workstations never caught on with consumers . Jobs had more success when he bought Pixar Animation Studios from George Lucas before the company made it big with `` Toy Story . '' In 1996 , Apple bought NeXT , returning Jobs to the then-struggling company he had co-founded . Within a year , he was running Apple again -- older and perhaps wiser but no less of a perfectionist . And in 2001 , he took the stage to introduce the original iPod , the little white device that transformed portable music and kick-started Apple 's furious comeback . Thus began one of the most remarkable second acts in the history of business . Over the next decade , Jobs wowed launch-event audiences , and consumers , with one game-changing hit after another : iTunes ( 2003 ) , the iPhone ( 2007 ) , the App Store ( 2008 ) , and the iPad ( 2010 ) . Tears and tributes in China . Observers marveled at Jobs ' skills as a pitchman , his ability to inspire godlike devotion among Apple `` fanboys '' ( and scorn from PC fans ) and his `` one more thing '' surprise announcements . Time after time , he sold people on a product they did n't know they needed until he invented it . And all this on an official annual salary of $ 1 . He also built a reputation as a hard-driving , mercurial and sometimes difficult boss who oversaw almost every detail of Apple 's products and rejected prototypes that did n't meet his exacting standards . By the late 2000s , his once-renegade tech company , the David to Microsoft 's Goliath , was entrenched at the uppermost tier of American business . Opinion : How Jobs saw the future . Apple now operates more than 300 retail stores in 11 countries . The company has sold more than 275 million iPods , 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads worldwide . Jobs ' climb to the top was complete in summer 2011 , when Apple listed more cash reserves than the U.S. Treasury and even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world 's most valuable company . But Jobs ' health problems sometimes cast a shadow over his company 's success . In 2004 , he announced to his employees that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer . He lost weight and appeared unusually gaunt at keynote speeches to Apple developers , spurring concerns about his health and fluctuations in the company 's stock price . One wire service accidentally published Jobs ' obituary . Jobs had a secret liver transplant in 2009 in Tennessee during a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple . He took another medical leave in January this year . Perhaps mindful of his legacy , he cooperated on his first authorized biography , scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in November . Jobs is survived by his wife of 20 years , Laurene , and four children , including one from a prior relationship . He always spoke with immense pride about what he and his engineers accomplished at Apple . `` Your work is going to fill a large part of your life , and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work . And the only way to do great work is to love what you do , '' he said while delivering a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University . `` If you have n't found it yet , keep looking . Do n't settle . As with all matters of the heart , you 'll know when you find it . And , like any great relationship , it just gets better and better as the years roll on . '' CNN 's Augie Martin contributed to this report .
Columnist : Steve Jobs `` one of the great innovators in the history of modern capitalism '' and a man who has been called by many to be the greatest living American entrepreneur. ` He did what a CEO should : Hired and inspired great people , '' columnist says . Company has sold more than 275 million iPods , 100 million iPhones and 25 million iPads .