It would be a mistake to characterize Jobs's time at Apple simply by the products the company released. Those products came about because of principles held by Jobs that he made sure were shared by others at Apple, especially as he refashioned the company following his 1997 return to Cupertino.

The products mentioned throughout this story might not have come to pass were it not for Apple's constant need to innovate. That's an attitude driven by Jobs, during flush times as well as well as when the tech business was less than booming. It's worth noting that some of Apple's biggest product releases during Jobs's tenure--the iPod and the iPad, most notably--were developed during recessions when consumers theoretically were less inclined to spend money on pricey electronics.

"The way we're going to survive is to innovate our way out of this," Jobs told Time Magazine in early 2002, a strategy the company returned to when the economy went south again in 2008. In both instances, Apple under Jobs upped its research-and-development spending, helping the company produce a strong product lineup that could weather tough times.

It goes without saying that under Jobs, Apple became synonymous with great design. From the early days of the Macintosh, when Jobs agitated for rectangles with rounded corners, no aspect of the design process escaped the company's attention.