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 live. >> today apple is going to reinvent the phone. >> reporter: steve jobs was a modern day thomas edison. >> you can do multifinger gestures on it and, boy, have we patented it. >> reporter: 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. >> amazing. and the screen literally floats in midair. >> reporter: steve 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. >> we worked hard and in ten years apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company. with over 4,000 employees. >> reporter: that was jobs in 2005 giving the commencement address at stanford university. >> 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. >> reporter: in 1984, apple introduced the 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. and allowed users to change fonlts. 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. >> i'm buzz lightyear, space ranger. >> reporter: in 1986, he bought pixar animation studios which later produced hits like "toy story." he also started a computer company called next. >> it's the most beautiful circuit board. >> reporter: 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. >> it's called the ipod touch. >> reporter: who knew that a computer company would change how we listened to music? the iconic ipod, the iphone, and, later, what some believe would be his grandest achievement, the ipad. >> that's what it looks like. very thin. >> reporter: apple dropped the computer from its name to reflect the company's expansion into consumer electronics. >> i'm going to take this morning and talk about the iphone. >> reporter: in recent years, jobs no longer appeared his usual self. he was thin and frail. investors in apple faithful grew alarm 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 with his usual vigor. >> it is the new mac book air and we think it's the future of notebooks. >> reporter: eventually his 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 i could no longer meet my duties, 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. 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 on aesthetics and attention to detail, he followed his heart, and with his technology -- >> we are calling it iphone. >> reporter: -- changed the world. >> he changed the world indeed. dan simon is joining us now from san francisco. 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. we know how ill he's been over the many months. what's the reaction where you are? as you're speaking, i want to show our viewers the live picture of the apple store in new york. go ahead, dan. >> well, exactly, wolf. we knew this day was going to come. unfortunately. i was actually in cupertino in the apple's headquarters yesterday for the unveiling of the new iphone. 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 personal who will never be replaced. he is the single most important figure in silicon valley. what he did over the last 30 years is incredible. i said in my piece, he was a modern day thomas edison. that's not an exaggeration. he was able to produce hit after hit. bears that to be true. the fact he invented the personal computer with the apple 2. then some years later with the ipod, the iphone and the ipad. that truly is what set jobs apart from anybody else. over his career, he was able to produce these new technologies that had never been replicated, had never been seen before. he just produced hit after hit, wolf. >> he was amazing in every aspect of his life. dan, standby. our own medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. 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. >> there's no question about it. pancreatic cancer is one of those cancers that we don't have great treatments for, let alone a cure. i will tell you though, 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 it was pancreatic cancer. he ended up having a biopsy. he talked about this in the speech he gave at stanford. during the biopsy, the doctors literally started to cry because they saw the type of tumor it was and realized it wasn't the most aggressive form of pancreatic cancer but, rather, what's known as a neuro endocrine tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer. the pancreatic -- the aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, the numbers are abysmal. 20% one-year survival rate. just think about that. even with this variant of pancreatic cancer, the five year survival rates aren't terrific, around 40% to 50%. 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 in 2009. people didn't even know about this till two months after the transplant was done. he traveled to switzerland to try other unconventional treatments, stepping down a couple of times. he really did fight quite hard. 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. you're absolutely right, wolf, eight years and functioning at a pretty high level for most of that time, wolf. >> sanjay, he didn't only do the traditional treatment, the chemotherapy, the surgery, the radiation treatment. he did, as you point out, some unconventional treatment as well, indeed, involving herbs. >> that was quite striking. his story dates back even before that. he travelled the world. he learned about different therapies in different countries. when he was first diagnosed, prior to the operation, he said this is something i think 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. it didn't work for him. the tumor was still there. that's when he ended up having the surgery. you're right, even in switzerland, he was going there for some therapies that were not peer reviewed therapies, things that had been written up. the theme to it was 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. up till august of this year, when he officially stepped down and said he was not coming back, he was really fighting this. >> standby, sanjay, our chief business correspondent ali velshi is with us as well. there's no doubt, ali, the enormous impact he's had on the business world out there. he's such a visionary. creative genius at the same time. >> i'll tell you a few things. when the world first learned 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 there's some kind of a succession plan in place and things will go on. i remember thinking how many company, how many major important companies, are so associated with one person creatively? you could probably say at one point microsoft was associated with bill gates. in terms of companies that really matter, this was the real one. 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, calling him the creative genius at apple. that was hard for the public to believe. 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. 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. they'd expect a big announcement of a new iphone or 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. >> you know, ali, stand by, erin burnett is with us. erin, his theory was, if you're going to introduce a new product, it's got to be something amazing. it's got to be a breakthrough. and he had all of those breakthroughs. a lot of people are wondering right now, can apple continue that without him. >> it's interesting, because as ali was referring to, this was always the discussion on wall street. you look at apple, which has become the second most valuable company in america. has become more valuable than exxon mobil. the reason for that was his ingenuity. his imagination. creating something we all ended up wanting before we knew we wanted it. a few years ago, the word app meant nothing. now apps really are essential to a lot of people's lives. 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 is running apple, is a person who steve jobs admired and respected. the whole concept of apple and american conceptualism is a big question. six stores in china. i was in shanghai recently. the apple store is mobbed. when i asked children what they asked about america, because we spent some time with kids, it was iphone, and they would all yell it. that is, really, a synonym for america. at a time when our country is taking a hit financially, it was apr apple that stood for what's wonderful about america around the world. this something that will matter to a lot of people far away from here. >> his impact, not only the united states, as you point out, around the world. 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. where do you go to find a business backed by the superguarantee®? 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>> yes, i talked to him several times. he was a real different guy. i first met him in the early '80s, mid-'80s. he was different. he had a vision of changing the world then. you know, everybody's talking about him in terms of apple, disney. most of all, you think about his family tonight. what a loss. 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. >> it's really amazing when you think about once in a generation kind of ceo, 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. >> 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. all of his innovations and music were fantastic. you can't think of a ceo who 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 ten feet tall, willing and able to reach for anything. 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. >> would it be too far, mr. welch, to go out and say he was the greatest ceo of our time, maybe ever? >> well, i -- somebody might argue with that, but i'd have trouble finding anyone better. >> it was really amazing. mr. welch, thanks very much for sharing a few thoughts with us. >> thanks, wolf. >> the tech world is entirely different because of what steve jobs did. people are using his products right now. many of you are probably watching on something 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 built bilton. give us your thoughts on what this means. >> i think, you know, we're not really going to see the effects as far as apple the company for a couple of years. steve was a genius at looking out into the future. and a lot of the products we'll see come out in the next couple of years were things that had his hands on it. but it's going to be difficult for the company to continue, to keep this -- one of the things i've heard from a lot of the reporters i work with is steve had this -- what they call the distortion feel, where he could make you feel your t-shirt was the most amazing thing in the world. people would share at the conferences he would speak at. he was a really amazing marketing genius. >> 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 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. >> absolutely. if you -- in the next couple of year, any product that comes out of apple will have steve jobs finger on it. it will have his design sense. everything that is tied to jobs on it. and so the iphone for us that came out yesterday, he was definitely involved in that. there's no way this was something that was dreamed up a couple weeks ago. i think where the difference comes in is when you look at the presentation that took place yesterday at apple, it was different people that were on stage. it was usually steve jobs that was out there and he was invigorating the audience and he was getting people excited. that's when apple is going to have a hard time to do now. >> tim cook, the new leader, he's known as a sole id leader. everyone suggests he doesn't have that innovative spark steve jobs has. how will this affect apple products down the road? >> that is the big question. i think one of the things steve did when he found out he was sick is he went through the and said, okay, we're going to figure out a way to set up the company to operate when i'm no longer here. he's done that. tim cook is an amazing genius at creating the products. you've got people like phil schiller who's the marketing genius. this long list of people. johnny ae is the design guy, working on products we won't see for a couple of years. i don't know who has taken over the role of the meticulous little design that jobs was really known for. there's a great story that he -- you know, he called up google one day before the iphone launched. it was a sunday afternoon. he was upset because google logo was one pixel off. it's something no one else would really see. >> he was really into those details. people were amazed at the extent he would go. watching even the most remote little detail emerge. in a word or two, what do you think his legacy is going to be? >> i think he's just -- you know, he was a marketing genius. help knew how to make people -- i mean, yesterday i went to the event, right, in cupertino. 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 of dollars in advertising fees. the fact he was able to create this -- almost this magic around these products is definitely going to be his legacy. >> nick bilton of "the new york times," thanks very much. let's continue this discussion. the veteran media investor steve ratner. he recently wrote an article about great leaders and he certainly put jobs right at the top of his list. how great of a leader, steve, was he? >> i really wrote that piece because when steve jobs got sick there was a discussion about how great of a leader he was. he was a great leader in the sense of having revolutionized all these industries and sectors we've just been talking about. he was a great leader in terms of his self-confidence and his conviction about his own case, his own judgment. and so that was the way he expressed his leadership. you had jack welch on a minute ago who was a different kind of a great leader. jack was a great corporate ceo who knew how to delegate. steve jobs w