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Piers Morgan Live
Apple's Steve Jobs Dies
Aired October 05, 2011 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, I'm Wolf Blitzer, sitting in for Piers.
You're looking at a live picture right now of Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. There's breaking news tonight, sad news.
Steve Jobs, the man who put the world in the palm of your hand, has died. The 56-year-old Apple co-founder was the father of the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod. The man who started Apple in a Silicon Valley garage and built it into the world's leading tech company. In the process he started a worldwide computing revolution.
Jobs' family says he died peacefully today, surrounded by his loved ones. Apple announced Jobs passing on its Web site, saying, and I'm quoting now, "Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
Dan Simon has the story of Steve Jobs' incredible life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE JOBS, APPLE FOUNDER AND CEO: Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steve Jobs was a modern-day Thomas Edison.
JOBS: You can do multi-finger gestures on it and, boy, have we patented it.
SIMON: He didn't have a patent on his own look but he was rarely seen without tennis shoes, Levi's and a black shirt. He was legendary for his flair and showmanship.
JOBS: Amazing. And the screen literally floats in midair.
SIMON: Stephen Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco. His mother, an unwed college student, put him up for adoption. He developed an early interest in computers. Going to after-school lectures at Hewlett-Packard. After high school, he attended Reed College but only for one semester. At just 20 years old, he started Apple Computer in his garage with friend Steve Wozniak. JOBS: We worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees.
SIMON: That was Jobs in 2005. Giving the commencement address at Stanford University.
JOBS: You have to trust in something. Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path. And that will make all the difference.
SIMON: In 1984, Apple introduced a machine that changed our lives forever. The Macintosh. Revolutionary because it made computers easier to use. It had a funny little thing called a mouse that allowed users to change fonts. But the Mac was expensive and sales were sluggish.
In 1985, Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple. But it turned out he was just warming up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Buzz Light Year, space ranger.
SIMON: In 1986, he both Pixar Animation Studios which later produced hits like "Toy Story." He also started a computer company called Next.
JOBS: I hope you get a chance to look at this a little later. It's the most beautiful print and circuit board I've ever seen in my life.
SIMON: The technology was so innovative that in a twist of fate, Apple bought Next and Steve Jobs went back to work for the company he started.
His second act, considered one of the greatest CEO tenures of all time.
JOBS: It's called the iPod Touch.
SIMON: Who knew that a computer company would change how we listened to music? Steve Jobs introduced the iconic iPod.
JOBS: Just slide it across. Boom.
SIMON: The iPhone, and later what some believe would be his grandest achievement, the iPad.
JOBS: That's what it looks like. Very thin.
SIMON: Apple dropped the computer from its name to reflect the company's expansion into consumer electronics.
JOBS: Now I'm going to take this morning and talk about the iPhone. SIMON: In recent years, Jobs no longer appeared his usual self. He was noticeably thin and frail. And investors and Apple faithful grew alarmed because of Jobs' past struggle with pancreatic cancer.
In 2009 Jobs revealed he had a liver transplant after taking a six-month leave of absence. But he returned to the stage with his usual vigor.
JOBS: It is our new MacBook Air and we think it's the future of notebooks.
SIMON: Eventually, though, his struggle with ill health led him to step down as CEO. In a letter to the Apple Board of Directors, Jobs wrote, "I have always said if there ever came a day when could I no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."
"I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple," he added. "And I thank you for all the many years of being able to work alongside you."
Steve Jobs' legacy can be found in his devices. Long anesthetics and attention to detail. He followed his heart, and with his technology --
JOBS: We are calling it iPhone.
SIMON: -- changed the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: He changed the world indeed.
And Dan Simon is joining us now from San Francisco.
Dan, earlier in the day, there were these reports -- you probably saw some on Twitter -- that a lot of cars were outside the home. So this obviously does not come as a huge surprise. And we know how ill he's been over these many months.
But what's the reaction where you are? And as you're speaking, I want to show our viewers a live picture of the Apple Store in New York. But go ahead, Dan.
SIMON: Well, exactly, Wolf. We knew that this day was going to come. Unfortunately. And I was actually in Cupertino at Apple's headquarters yesterday for the unveiling of the new iPhone.
And looking back at that event, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for his fellow employees, for his fellow senior executives, to go up on the stage and introduce that new product while probably knowing that the end was near for Steve Jobs.
In terms of the reaction, you know, this is a person who will never be replaced. He is the single most important figure in Silicon Valley. What he has done -- what he did over the last 30 years is truly incredible. You know I said in my piece, he was a modern-day Thomas Edison. And that's not an exaggeration.
The fact that over -- you know, a span of three decades that he was able to produce hit after hit after hit, you know, bears that to be true. The fact that he invented the personal computer with the Apple II, then some years later with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. That's truly what sets Steve Jobs apart from anybody else.
That over, you know, his career, he was able to produce, you know, these new technologies that had never been replicated, that had never been seen before. And you know he just produced hit after hit -- Wolf.
BLITZER: He was amazing in every aspect of his life.
Dan, standby.
Our own chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us now.
Sanjay, talk a little bit about the pancreatic cancer. It's been a battle he's had for, what, eight years. It's a very, very difficult type of cancer to deal with.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's no question about it. I mean pancreatic cancer is one of those cancers that we don't have great treatments for, let alone a cure.
I will tell you, though, you know, he tells a very poignant story about when he got diagnosed, Steve Jobs does. They found a lesion on his pancreas. They were pretty convinced that it was pancreatic cancer. He ended up having a biopsy. And he talks about this in the speech that he gave at Stanford where during the biopsy, the doctors literally started to cry because they saw the type of tumor that it was and realized that it wasn't the most aggressive form of pancreatic cancer but, rather, what's known as a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
Now, Wolf, I'll tell you, that the pancreatic -- the aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, the numbers are absolutely abysmal. Twenty percent one-year survival rate. Just think about that. But even with this variant of pancreatic cancer, the five-year survival rates aren't terrific, around 40 to 50 percent.
But to your point, Wolf, he fought like crazy. I mean, he had an operation. He got to therapy for this. He had a liver transplant, as you remember, Wolf, back in 2009. People didn't even know about this liver transplant until two months after the transplant was done. He traveled to Switzerland to try some other more unconventional treatments, stepping down a couple of times.
But he really did fight quite hard. You know his appearance even, Wolf, losing all that weight, very characteristic of these pancreatic tumors. People become gaunt. They sort of develop this wasting phenomenon in part because the tumors make so many hormones.
But you're absolutely right, Wolf, eight years and functioning at a pretty high level for most of that time, Wolf.
BLITZER: And Sanjay, he didn't only do the traditional treatment, the chemotherapy, the surgery, the -- the radiation treatment. He did, as you point out, some unconventional treatment as well, indeed, involving herbs.
GUPTA: Yes, that was quite striking. I remember now, you know, his story dates back even before that where he would -- he had traveled the world. He learned about all sorts of different therapies in different countries around the world. And when he was first diagnosed, again, prior to the operation, he said this is something that I think, you know, maybe can be treated with unconventional therapies.
A lot of herbal-type medications. He tried this for about a year. A little less than that, Wolf. And it didn't work for him. The tumor was still there. And that's when he ended up having the surgery. But you're right, and even in Switzerland, he was going there for some therapies that, you know, were not peer-reviewed therapies, things that had been written up.
But he wanted to give it a shot, but I think the theme to it, Wolf, was that he really -- he was fighting all along. No point I think did he really ever give up. And this is, again, a difficult cancer. It can be a painful cancer. Obviously tough to treat. But up until August of this year, you know, when he officially stepped down and said he was not coming back, he was really fighting this.
BLITZER: Stand by, Sanjay, our chief business correspondent Ali Velshi is with us as well.
You know there's no doubt, Ali, that the enormous impact he's had on the business world out there. He's such a visionary. But such a creative genius at the same time. Give us a little perspective.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you a few things. One is when the world first learned that he was sick, there was a lot of conversations in the investing world about what he should do about it. In other companies when you hear a CEO is sick, you assume that there's some kind of a succession plan in place and things will go on.
But I remember sitting around thinking how many company, how many major important companies, are so associated with one person creatively? And you could probably say that at one point Microsoft was that associated with Bill Gates. But in terms of companies that really matter, and are real game-changers, this was the real one.
So there was a real question as to what does Apple look like without Steve Jobs. "Fortune" magazine did a cover on Tim Cook, the new CEO, a couple of years ago calling him the creative genius at Apple. But that was hard for the public to believe. Because these product launches, as we keep seeing, were Steve Jobs coming out there and introducing something to you that was so new, as it was to be beyond most people's comprehension. And you know, Wolf, to be fair, there were some misses. In Steve Jobs career, there were several misses. The Lisa computer didn't sell well. The Newton didn't sell well. Even some of the newer generation stuff. You know they'd expect a big announcement of a new iPhone or a new iPod, and they'd get something else, some other device.
But Steve Jobs always bounced back. Everybody wanted Steve Jobs to win. When there was some sense that Steve Jobs might be leaving the scene, it upset creative types and it upset investors at the same time.
BLITZER: You know, and Ali, stand by, Erin Burnett is with us. She's covered this story for a long time as well.
Erin, his theory was, if you're going to introduce a new product, it's can't just be a normal new product. It's got to be something amazing. It's got to be a breakthrough. And he had all of those breakthroughs. And a lot of people are wondering right now, can Apple continue that without him.
ERIN BURNETT, ANCHOR, CNN'S OUTFRONT: You know, it's interesting, because as Ali was referring to, that was always the discussion on Wall Street. You know you look at Apple, which has become the second most valuable company in America. At sometimes this year has been the most valuable, more valuable than ExxonMobil. And the reason for that was his ingenuity. His imagination.
He's creating something that we all ended up wanting before we even knew we wanted it. A few years ago, the word "app" meant nothing. Now there have been 18 billion apps downloaded and apps really are essential part of a lot of people's lives. So that ability to see what you want before you want it, that's something that no one's sure whether they're going to have.
Tim Cook, who's running Apple, is a person that Steve Jobs admired, respected and so do investors. But the whole concept of Apple and American exceptionalism is a big question.
I just want to say, Wolf, you know, six stores in China. And I was just in Shanghai recently. The Apple Store is mobbed. And when I asked children what they like about America, because we spent some time with kids, I mean, it was iPhone, and they would all yell it.
I mean that's -- that is, really, a synonym for America. And at a time when our country is taking a hit reputationally from a financial crisis, it was Apple that really stood for what's wonderful about America around the world. So this is something that will matter to a lot of people far away from here.
BLITZER: It certainly will. His impact, not only the United States, as you point out, around the world.
All right. Everyone, stand by. We're following the very sad breaking news tonight, the death of Steve Jobs. We'll talk to more people who knew him well when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOBS: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be. Because death is very likely the single best invention of life. Its life change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Very chilling words indeed. That was Steve Jobs back in 2005, giving the commencement address at Stanford University in California.
Very sad breaking news we're following. Steve Jobs dead today at the age of 56.
Jack Welch ran General Electric. He's now joining us on the phone to talk about Steve Jobs. His impact on the business world.
Mr. Welch, did you ever have a chance to sit down, meet with him, talk with him at length?
JACK WELCH, FOUNDER OF JACK WELCH INSTITUTE (via phone): Yes, I talked to him several times. He was a real different guy. I first met him in the early '80s, mid-'80s. And he was different. He had a vision of changing the world then.
And, you know, everybody is talking about him in terms of Apple and Disney. Most of all, I think about his family tonight. What a loss. And I -- we've had an experience here at this house tonight. We have two kids in college. And within minutes of hearing about it, they both called, devastated. You wouldn't believe their reaction to it. And these are kids that aren't normally touched by this sort of thing.
This guy touched everybody in this country and perhaps the world in some way or another. Remarkable.
BLITZER: It's really amazing when you think about, you know, once in a generation kind of CEO, a technology genius. But I don't know if we can compare anyone in our generation with Steve Jobs for the impact he's had on the world.
WELCH: And on people young and old. We all walk around with an iPad. And the kids live with one. So, I mean, it doesn't matter, young or old, he touched you in every way. And all of his innovations and music were fantastic.
You can't think of a CEO that has 300 patents, for example, Wolf. I mean, think of that. The guy was -- he was able to inspire, energize his people. To get people to reach far beyond what they ever thought they could do. And that's one of the great aspects of a leader. Making people feel 10 feet tall, willing and able to reach for everything. The last time I was on with you guys, when they announced it, I said he defined what cool was. And it's very rare that in business you get a definition of cool.
BLITZER: Would it be too far, Mr. Welch, to go out and say he was the greatest CEO of our time, maybe ever?
WELCH: Well, I -- you know somebody might argue with you on that, but I'd have trouble finding anyone better.
BLITZER: It was really amazing. And it's a sad day obviously for the entire world that we have to report the Apple founder Steve Jobs is dead.
Mr. Welch, thanks very much for sharing a few thoughts with us at this time.
WELCH: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thank you.
The tech world certainly is entirely, entirely different because of what Steve Jobs did. People all over the world are using his products right now. Many of you are probably watching on something that Steve Jobs was directly responsible for.
Let's talk a little bit about the technology impact. Joining us is the "New York Times" technology reporter, Nick Bilton. He's out in San Francisco.
Give us your thoughts, Nick, on what this means.
NICK BILTON, NEW YORK TIMES TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: Well, I think, you know, we're not really going to see the effects as far as Apple as the company for a couple of years. They -- you know, Steve was really a genius at looking out into the future. And a lot of the products that we'll see come out in the next couple of years were things that had his hands on it.
We won't really see those effects for quite some time. But it's going to be -- it's going to be difficult for the company to continue, to keep this -- you know one of the things that I've heard from a lot of the reporters that I work with is that Steve had this -- what they call the distortion feel, where he could make you feel, like, your T- shirt was the most amazing thing in the world.
And he did that with all the products that he sold. You know people would share at the conferences that he would speak at. He was a -- he was a really amazing marketing genius.
BLITZER: I -- a lot of people were sort of disappointed these past few days in this new iPad that just came out, really wasn't all that spectacular. Wasn't as -- the iPhone, excuse, that just came out. And people are wondering, do you think Steve Jobs was directly involved in giving the authorization to release it?
Because it doesn't necessarily have his feel to it, given the fact that it didn't necessarily break through the technology.
BILTON: Absolutely. I mean if you -- you know in the next couple of year, any product that comes out of Apple will have Steve Jobs' fingers on it. It will have his design sense. You know it'll have everything that has tied -- is tied to Jobs on it. And so you know the iPhone 4S that came out yesterday, you know, he was definitely involved in that. There's no way that this was something that was dreamed up a couple of weeks ago.
I think where the difference comes in is that when you look at the presentation that took place yesterday at Apple, it was different people that were on stage. It was usually, you know, Steve Jobs that was out there and he was invigorating the audience and he was getting people excited. And that's when Apple is going to have a hard time trying to do now.
BLITZER: Yes, Tim Cook, the new leader, he's known as a solid leader. But everyone seems to suggest he doesn't have that innovative spark that Steve Jobs had. So the question is, how is this going to affect Apple products down the road?
BILTON: That is the big question. I think one of the things that Steve did when he found out he was sick was he went through and he said, OK, we're going to figure out a way to set up the company to operate when I'm no longer here. And what he's done is he's done that.
You know Tim cook is an amazing genius at creating the products and having the assembly lines, put them together in the right pace and everything. You've got people like Phil Schiller who's the marketing genius. And you've got this long list of people. But really Johnny Ive who is the design guy at Apple is really working on products that we won't see for a couple of years.
And I don't know who actually has taken over that role of the meticulous little design that Jobs was really known for. I mean there's a great story that he -- you know, he called up Google one day before the iPhone launched. And he was -- it was a Sunday afternoon. And he was upset because the Google logo was, like, one pixel off. And it's something that no one really else would have seen.
BLITZER: Because he was really into those details. Early on in his career people were amazed at the extent he would go in watching even the most remote little detail emerge. In a word or two, what would you think his legacy is going to be?
BILTON: I think he's just -- you know, he was a marketing genius. He knew how to make people -- I mean, yesterday I went to the event, right, in Cupertino. And there were -- there were trucks there with the cameramen and reporters and everything ready to report on this new iPhone that was coming out.
Most other companies have to pay millions and millions of dollars in advertising fees. And the fact that he was able to create this -- almost this magic around these products was -- is definitely going to be his legacy. BLITZER: Nick Bilton of "The New York Times." Nick, thanks very much.
Let's continue this discussion on the breaking news. Joining us now the Veteran Media Investor Steve Rattner. He recently wrote an article about great leaders and he certainly put Steve Jobs right at the top of his list.
How great of a leader, Steve, was he?
STEVE RATTNER, VETERAN MEDIA INVESTOR: I really wrote that piece because when Steve Jobs got sick there was a lot of discussion about how great a leader he was. And he was a great leader in the sense of having revolutionized all these industries and sectors that we've just been talking about.
He was a great leader in terms of his self-confidence and his conviction about his own taste and his own judgment. And so that was the way he expressed his leadership.
You had Jack Welch on a few minute ago who was a different kind of a great leader. Jack was a great corporate CEO who knew how to delegate, who knew how to develop people. And I'm not saying Steve Jobs didn't know how to do that, but Steve Jobs was famous for his hands-on nature, for his almost -- not almost, for his micromanagerial nature.
And I would -- the only thing I would say slightly in disagreement with what Nick just said is he was a great marketer but he wasn't marketing air, he was marketing substance. He was marketing truly extraordinary innovative products. Doing things that nobody had ever done before. Some had tried to do before and had failed. But he managed to do it.
BLITZER: And it's also always amazing to me that that company was broke, what, 15 years ago, and he managed to turn it around into this incredible success. How did he do that?
RATTNER: Well, you know, F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives and Steve Jobs proved Fitzgerald wrong. Because of course he founded the company. He was pushed out in the early '80s by his handpicked successor. He went into kind of isolation. Although he did do Pixar and a few other things while he was there.
And then in about 1997, when the company was almost broke but certainly way diminished, nobody would have bet anything on its chances for success, he came back. And as Erin said, he took it from almost nothing to the second or first -- depending on what day you looked at it -- most valuable company on the planet.
And that's something nobody has ever done in history. Not Thomas Edison, not Jack Welch, a great CEO, not anybody.
BLITZER: Think of Apple, you think of ExxonMobil, it's a really amazing story. Steve Rattner, thanks very much.
We're continuing the breaking news. Steve Jobs, dead at 56. The breaking news will continue on PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're following the breaking news. You're looking at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. Right now, a lot of sad people there, indeed sad all over the world. We also have a live picture of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. That store right now under renovation. But we're watching that store.
Look at this next picture. These are live pictures from the Apple Store right here in Washington, D.C. This picture, by the way, brought to you by an iPad itself. The D.C. Apple Store. And it's being shot on an iPad. We're watching all of this unfold.
The president of the United States is watching it as well. The president -- President Obama announcing just a little while ago that he has a statement he'd like to read -- he'd like us to read. Let me read the statement from the president of the United States.
"Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators, brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it. By building one of the planet's most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the Internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible but intuitive and fun.
"And by turning his talents to story telling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grown-ups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history. He changed the way each of us sees the world."
Finally, the president added, "the world has lost a visionary and there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve's wife Lauren, his family and all those who loved him."
That statement from the president of the United States, just released a few moments ago. Our own Piers Morgan recently spoke to Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computers. Listen to what he said about his old friend, Steve Jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR: What was he like in those days?
STEVE WOZNIAK, CO-FOUNDER, APPLE COMPUTERS: He was -- you know what, he was always interested in every technical, electronic gadget there was in the world. But -- I mean, he didn't exactly have the focus to actually sit down and design and build them himself. But he did build projects. He built projects that like counted the number of cycles on a guitar screen so you could tune it right, a frequency counter.
MORGAN: You were the guy who knew the tech stuff.
WOZNIAK: Yes. What happened was after Steve met me, and we compared ourselves, what pranks we had pulled and what we'd done in electronics, and I had just somehow come up with this very strange genius at computer design. And I didn't even think I'd ever have a job doing it.
After Steve met me, never tried to be the designer of the pair. He went more global. He always thought in terms of products. How are they going to affect people? It's not how do you connect a few chips together. It's what are they going to do that's useful. Like, that's sort of a selling point. It's sort of a marketing point.
You have to think of the end user. That really should always be number one.
MORGAN: Who would have been more successful if you hadn't met each other?
WOZNIAK: Steve Jobs, definitely. I actually don't want any credit for starting the whole personal computer revolution. He's really admired so much today for recent products that I've had absolutely no involvement with, iPods and iPads and iTune Stores and retail stores and all these other things.
Everything was so incredible. And Pixar. Who could have so many successes, one after another after another, and really no failures? Nobody ever. So I think that echoes what Jack was saying about him being the most prominent business leader, especially in technology, of our time, probably century-type thinking. It's just too unbelievable.
MORGAN: You're still an Apple employee, aren't you?
WOZNIAK: I am still an Apple employee. I receive a small paycheck. But it's because I want to --
MORGAN: How much do you get?
WOZNIAK: I think the check -- I don't even see it, but I think it's a couple hundred bucks every two weeks. It really, truly is small. It should be one dollar. I just want to be the person who can say he was on the payroll of the computer -- of Apple's payroll computer for every day since the very start. I've never been off of it.
MORGAN: Do you have a stake in the company at all these days?
WOZNIAK: My wife and I really aren't big stock traders. But we keep two stocks. And it's Apple and Fusion IO, where I work.
MORGAN: In terms of what you know of him, what do you think he'd like the legacy to be, the Steve Jobs legacy to be?
WOZNIAK: Giving mankind the most useful, helpful tools we've ever had in our history, the ones we would enjoy the most, the ones that we not only use but we love, that we come to love, like a human being. A very, very important step in getting those computers closer to real human beings.
MORGAN: Was the computer, in which you were very instrumental in producing -- is that going to be the greatest invention of, you know, the last millennium?
WOZNIAK: It's hard to say. A computer used to be a device on its own and we've gone so far beyond that To make devices that actually do what we want to do, which is download a song. Play a song. Well, yeah, every device in the world has a computer inside, a small computer, tons of programming, tons of hardware, billions more parts than we had when we started Apple.
So it's -- you could call it a computer. Things that -- I could call my iPhone a computer. It is. It's the greatest computer ever. But it's not in the same sense a computer was when we started the company. I think we've gone beyond that. And it's just computerized technology really. It's just today's modern devices for making mankind more -- making the individual more powerful.
They can do more things with their life they want to do.
BLITZER: Let me put a flip side in, because I've got three sons who are all computer crazy. They spend -- even the 10-year-old's on World of Warcraft days at a time. There is a slight negative. You guys, you and Steve and Bill Gates and others, you basically have taken the world's children, you've stuck them into little darkened rooms. And they should be out playing Conquers (ph) and soccer and stuff like that, shouldn't they?
WOZNIAK: I don't think we could stop the effect of the future, the future we created giving them devices. A lot of kid, yes, seem to get addicted like you get addicted to drugs. You know what? There's a lot of different types of learning in this world. You can go to school and be educated. Or you can go out on the street and talk to people. You can ask questions.
When Steve went to college, I drove him up to his first days of college. They gave him a sheet telling him what classes he had to take. He was so free minded. He wants to be in control of his own, he's so smart. He didn't want to take their classes. He just wanted to go and attend fanciful classes on Shakespeare, quantum physics, whatever -- yes, what colleges are supposed to be about.
So he did not -- no, he didn't go to the classes they gave him ever. He didn't necessarily drop out --
BLITZER: His independence --
WOZNIAK: There are different ways of learning. Even video games can be types of learning logical approaches. People would say computer logic, what does that ever teach you in life? It really leads you to a lot of the decisions you'll make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Wozniak speaking with Piers not that long ago about Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, we have to report the breaking news, in case you're just tuning in, Steve Job, 56 years old, passed away today.
When we come back, more of the breaking news. He changed technology, maybe the technology you're using right now. He changed the world. Much more on Steve Jobs when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: On the left of your screen, Cupertino, California, the headquarters of Apple. On the right, Washington, D.C., an Apple Store, picture of the Washington, D.C. Apple Store being shot by an iPad itself. People all over the world,, not just in California or Washington, all over the world, are mourning the death of Steve Jobs, 56 years old.
He changed the way so many of us live right now, including the leader of the free world. Let's talk a little about it, what's going on. Gloria Borger is joining us, our chief political analyst. Also, our CNN contributor Hillary Rozen, who used to run the Recording Industry Association of America. She knows a lot about Steve Jobs and his impact on music.
Gloria, first to you. President just issued a beautiful statement, expressing his deepest regrets on the loss of Steve Jobs. But his life has been influenced directly by Steve Jobs.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It sure has, Wolf. You know, just on Monday, George Stephanopoulos of ABC interviewed the president and asked the president about which websites he surfs. Take a listen to what the president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I read a lot of newspapers that I used to read in print, I now read on the web.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Do you have an iPad or just --
OBAMA: I've got an iPad. And Steve Jobs actually gave it to me a little bit early.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that's pretty cool.
OBAMA: Yeah, it was cool. I got it directly from him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: There's -- wolf, there's a little story behind that, because the president hosted a dinner for Silicon Valley big wigs sometime in mid-February. And Steve Schmidt of Google was there. Steve Jobs was there. And the president, we think, may have been given his iPad II a little bit early, before it was officially introduced in March.
And so the president is someone who's talked an awful lot about how he likes his Blackberry. And he does have an iPod. And so it was pretty clear that Steve Jobs thought, you know, this was a moment to give the president an iPad, which, as you can hear, he seemed to like pretty well.
BLITZER: Hilary Rosen is with us as well. Hilary, talk a little bit about how Steve Jobs changed the way all of us listen to music.
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, Steve was a huge music fan. That really drove so much of what he did. He created the iPod actually several years before he created the iTunes music store. But we -- you know, he came to me at some point in 2002 and said that he was going to create the best online music experience ever. And that was a time, as you recall, when the music industry was suffering, you know, overwhelming amounts of file sharing and illegal downloads.
But Steve really cared about artists. He cared about music. He cared about the future. Most of all, he cared about consumers getting a great experience. He spent a long time working with record companies, with artists, getting people to buy into this vision that he had.
And you know, nobody but the charismatic Steve Jobs could have achieved that.
BLITZER: Yeah, music, video, telecommunications, everything, he seemed to have a powerful impact.
ROSEN: He was --
BLITZER: Go ahead.
ROSEN: He wasn't just about kind of the big things. I remember I was driving into the studio today recalling a meeting, sitting with him, where he was kind of showing me the latest version of the iTunes music store. This was before its launch.
There was just like this little bit of lettering underneath some section. And he said to the designer who was sitting with us, you know, I think I want that to be green instead of black. You know, he was just the most involved in every single little design detail of virtually every product. And you know, iTunes and the iPod was no exception. It was unbelievably impressive.
BLITZER: Let me just point out what the president himself said tonight. I'll just read that one line. President Obama saying "the world has lost a visionary and there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." There you see the president and the vice president looking at one of those devices. All right, we're going to have much more on the incredible life of Steve Jobs. I'll speak with one of his top executives of Apple. Much more on the breaking news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Apple headquarters in California. People are mourning there. Also here in the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., at the Apple Store. People all over the world are mourning the loss of Steve Jobs. Leo Laporte is the host of the nationally syndicated Tech Guy Radio show on Premier Radio Networks. He's the founder of his own Internet-based technology network, "This Week In Tech."
He's interviewed Steve Jobs many times. What goes through your mind on this sad day?
LEO LAPORTE, TWIT.TV: You know, we were so prepared for this. We knew it was coming. Yet, it's still such a shock and it's so sad. I'm really trying to focus on celebrating his life. This is a guy who lived his life exactly as he wanted to. Woz said that Steve exceeded every goal he ever set for himself.
He's a guy who lived his dreams and changed our life as a result.
BLITZER: What made him so amazing? Was it his education? Was it his family? Was it his background, growing up in California? There must have been some spark there that created this genius.
LAPORTE: What are the ingredients that makes somebody like that? He was a college dropout. It wasn't his education. I think there was something inside him that drove him to exceed. He didn't care what other people thought. He cared about making great stuff. And he succeeded every step of the way.
He stumbled occasionally, made mistakes. He wandered in the wilderness after being fired at Apple. Yet he kept coming back. I think it was his extraordinary drive that really made him the man he is or was.
BLITZER: In your interviews with him, what was he like as a person? Was he easy to get along with? Did he like to chat? Did he talk about sports or baseball or something? Or was he simply focused on technology?
LAPORTE: Steve was very focused. There's a famous story about him coming into a conference room and somebody starting to chat about the weekend and him saying, can we raise the tone of conversation here? He was a get to work guy. When Steve walked into the room, it was really apparent immediately that he knew he was the smartest guy in the room. Usually he was absolutely right.
He was down to Earth. Later, in the last few year, he really didn't do very many interviews. He didn't trust the press. He didn't like the press. He wanted to control, very tightly control, the image of Apple, and his own image. He was a control freak in every sense of the word.
And yet he inspired us all. I mean, without Steve Jobs, you wonder, where's the excitement going to come from in this industry.
BLITZER: It's a good question. I don't think anyone really appreciates that. Leo, thanks very much. Erin Burnett is still with us as well. Erin, you covered this story, this technology story, for a long time over at CNBC. Did you ever have a chance to sit down with Steve Jobs? Did you get to know him a little bit?
BURNETT: I met him, but I really never had a chance to actually interview him. I wish I had. It was always a dream of mine. You know, I was actually out in Sun Valley, Idaho, this summer, a get- together of a lot of tech CEOs. His name this summer was on the list. I thought to myself, oh, he's been so sick, is he really going to be there?
Of course, he didn't end up being there. I remember checking that list avidly and calling Apple to see -- Steve Dowling, over at Apple, who has been an Apple aficionado and speaker for Steve Jobs over the years, but he wasn't there. It really has been, as I was saying to you, Wolf, before, my experience around the world -- you know, I was talking about Shanghai, where iPhone literally seems to be synonymous with the word American with the children.
But everywhere where I've been recently, Southeast Asia, even in Pakistan. And Apple is one of the few things that just has only good associations with America. People see it and they love it and they want it and they want that dream. And it always made me really proud as an American to have Apple be something that was a little bit mine, because I was an American and it was an American company.
BLITZER: An American institution that has changed the world. Thanks, Erin. Andy Serwer is joining us right now. He's the editor of "Fortune Magazine." What is going to happen to Apple, Andy, now that Steve Jobs unfortunately has passed away?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE MAGAZINE": Well, there's been a lot of speculation about that for a long time, Wolf. Part of what Steve was doing over the last several years, as he declined and was well aware of that, was that he was setting up Apple for this unhappy day. Obviously, Tim Cook has been the CEO now for a little bit.
There's a whole other deep bench at the company that has been waiting and -- waiting to fill his had shoes. They're very big shoes. The shoes can't be filled. I mean, this is a once in a century type of person. You were talking earlier about how important he was. He was the most innovative CEO of our time.
He might not have been the best CEO, because on a personal level, he had failings when it came to interacting with people, for instance. But in terms of creativity and innovation, unparalleled. We'll never see anyone like him again in our lifetime. I will tell you that for sure. The company will go along fine for a number of years, no doubt.
It's sort of a borg. It's a machine. It's set up. But we don't know what this company is going to be like five years from now. It's had an incredible run. It's one of the most valuable companies in the world in terms of its market capitalization, right up there with Exxon and Walmart.
Can that continue? I would say over time, it can't continue. But right now, it's positioned beautifully. And Steve wanted it that way. That was one of the things -- his last wishes was to create something, a legacy, a lasting legacy.
There is going to be an incredible new headquarters near Cupertino, in Cupertino, California, that they're building. They're just going to start to build, which is going to be an amazing tribute to him.
BLITZER: It certainly will be. So just to try to speculate a little bit, can are we simply assume the value of Apple stock will go down now/.
SERWER: Well, you know, the fact that he's been very, very sick is sort of priced into the stock, as they say, Wolf, which means people have been anticipating it for so long right now. Will the stock go down tomorrow? Probably. What will it do days from now? I don't know. No one knows.
You know, when something is that high, you say to yourself, well, there's only one way it can go, which is down. On the other hand, a lot of times things go. It's the short way of saying you don't know. You wouldn't bet on this run continuing, particularly since he's not there, over the longer haul.
BLITZER: Sad day indeed. Andy, thanks very much. We'll take another quick break. Continue the breaking news. Take a look at this picture. It's a live picture of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. We're going to go there when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Someone's brought flowers over to the Apple Store in Washington, D.C. Steve Jobs unfortunately dead. Joe Brown is the editor and chief of Gizmodo.com. He's followed Steve Jobs' legacy over these years.
What do you think? The world has clearly changed as a result of Steve Jobs, Joe.
JOE BROWN, GIZMODO.COM CHIEF: Yeah. The world changed when he was alive and the world is changing now that he's gone. The world will never be the same. He's the person who really shaped the way we use technology today. This is a guy who made the computer personal. He made the smartphone fun. And I don't think it's really overstating it to say that this is the guy who will be considered to be our Leonardo when we look back on this.
This is the person made the leaps that nobody even thought were possible. BLITZER: It's an amazing story. You got to know him over the years. And I think you're in this business now because of him, is that right?
BROWN: Yeah. I don't think I would be do what I'm doing right now if it wasn't for him. He's the person who made technology cool. He made technology interesting. He made it more than just the province of math and science.
I'm an English major and a technologist. This is sort of an amazing thing to think about it, the transformation of technology from something that's just for science to something that's for everybody.
That's why I got into it, because people like him, and very specifically, really made me realize that it's something that I could do and I could contribute to.
BLITZER: I think you're doing it. A lot of people feel just like you do, Joe. Thanks very much. Susan Candiotti is over at the Apple flagship store in New York City, on Fifth Avenue. What's happening over there, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it's also a busy place here as people who admired Steve Jobs are stopping by, leaving flowers and a few hand made signs as well. This is where people have been camping out for more than a week to buy the new iPhone 4s.
Joining us now is Keenan Thompson (ph), one of the people -- first in line, as a matter of fact, to buy that new iPhone. How did you hear about the death?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a Tweet from my friend. At fist, I didn't believe it because of the rumors a few weeks ago that he died. That turned out to be false. So I said no way. I looked deeper into Twitter and I found out it was, in fact, true.
CANDIOTTI: What does his loss mean to you?
CANDIOTTI: It means a different Apple for me. I don't know how Apple will change exactly. I'm sure Tim will carry Apple throughout. But there will never be another Steve.
CANDIOTTI: The new president. Are you confident that things will change? What attracted you -- that won't change, I should say -- but what attracted you to Steve Jobs and to the Apple products?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just simplicity overall. He was the definition of innovation to me. He -- every product he made just had -- it was just that much more over the top than the next person's product. That's what did it for me.
CANDIOTTI: I don't know whether people realize, you're a social media manager. You manage blogs. You're only 21 years old. You bought your first Apple product at what age? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 14. My first iPod was at 14. My next purchase was the iBook, which was the next year. I buy Apple products all the time.
CANDIOTTI: And you'll be faithful to the product.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will.
CANDIOTTI: Back to you, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks, Susan. Here's a poignant from Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford University in 2005.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOBS: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drowned out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
