Steve Jobs founded Apple not once but twice: Biographer

As Steve Jobs steps down as Apple's CEO, his biographer has paid tribute to the man 'who changed the world', and said that Jobs founded Apple not once, but twice.

Michael Moritz explained in his book 'Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs, the Creation of Apple, and how it Changed the World,' that how Jobs returned to Apple during the time when it had lost its leadership position in the technology industry, the Telegraph reports.

Moritz explained how Jobs, after being fired by Apple's board in favour of John Sculley, once of Pepsi Cola, a man who was a creature of convention, returned to the company when it had lost its creative zest.

"Many are familiar with the subsequent re-emergence of Apple. They may not be as familiar with the fact that it has few, if any parallels," Moritz wrote.

"When did a founder ever return to the company from which he had been rudely rejected to engineer a turnaround as complete and spectacular as Apple's? It is not too much of a stretch to say that Steve Jobs founded Apple not once but twice," he added.

Since 1997, Apple has sold over 200 million iPods, a billion iTunes songs, 26 million iPhones, and over 60 million computers.

The author further said that with Jobs's bouts of ill, and his recent decision to stand down as chief executive, the inevitable question for Apple is 'what comes next?'

"Who could compare with the man whose identity and face is so closely tied to the company? For Steve Jobs's business life deserves to be ranked among the greatest of any American, living or dead," he wrote.