Steve Jobs Will Follow Henry Ford and Thomas Edison in the History of Change and Invention

His public appearances were largely limited over the years to Apple's product launches which were broadcast on the company's website.

Jobs' slightly hesitant performances, which hinted at the obsessive side to his character, became box office events, certainly for the business world and more specifically the world of technology.

But it wasn't just loyal staff or suppliers eager for new contracts who would tune in to the boss's latest internet appearance.

Apple's consumers, ordinary people with normal lives, came onto the web to see Jobs talking about the latest Apple product, be it a version of the company's desk top or lap top computers, its own operating systems named after animals, such as Tiger, or the consumer gadgets including iTunes, the iPod, iPhone or iPad.

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Few if any business leaders could command such respect, awe and affection and be associated with a product in the same way as Steve Jobs and Apple.

Like the death of a star of entertainment or a much loved political leader, Jobs' death will affect populations across the world. But his own personal life added to the story. Jobs founded Apple, fell out with the company in spectacular manner only to return from the cold in triumph to lead the business back to renewed success in the iAge. But all the time he was not just battling for commercial success but also for his health. A cancer sufferer, the illness eventually claimed him.

He had already attained mythical status, however. His company's products are brilliant. They meet consumer demands with beautifully designed, simple to use gadgets with inspired functionality that solve consumers' and other companies' needs in a way no other pieces of kit have done for generations.

The shock at his death, even though he'd been ill for a long time, reveals the global nature of the company's appeal which in turn reflects the world economy and its consumerist nature. Apple is the epitome of the globalised, connected, consumer-obsessed society and Jobs was its high priest.

But he was only the latest incarnation. Jobs will join the pantheon of other historic business geniuses and innovators, including Henry Ford and his eponymous motor car company and Thomas Edison and his light bulb making GE company, as a man who changed the world by changing, or improving, the lives of ordinary people all over the world.