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. and in the process he started a worldwide computing revolution. jobs's family says he died peacefully today, surrounded by his loved ones. apple announced jobs' passing on its website 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. >> 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, levis and a black shirt. he was legendary for his flair and showmanship. >> amazing. and the screen literally floats in midair. >> reporter: steven 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. >> 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 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. >> 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.

>> i hope you get a chance to look at this a little later. it's the most beautiful printed circuit board i've ever seen in my life. >> 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? steve johns introduced the iconic ipod -- >> just slide it across. boom. >> reporter: -- 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. >> now, 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 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. >> it is our new macbook air, and we think it's the future of notebooks. >> reporter: 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 i could no longer meet my duties and expectations as apple's 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 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. 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. 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. >> well, exactly, wolf. we knew that this day was going to come, unfortunately. and i was actually in coupar tooebo 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 unit deuce 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 2, then some years later with the ipod, the iphone, and the ipad, that's truly what set 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. >> he was amazing in every aspect of his life. dan, stand by. our own 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. >> 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 talked about this in the speech 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 neuroendokrin tumor, a rare form of pancreatic cancer. the pancreatic -- the aggressive form of pancreatic cancer, the numbers are absolutely abysmal. 20% 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%. 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, 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. >> and 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. >> yeah. that was quite striking. i remember now, his story dates back even before that where 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, even in switzerland he was going there for some therapies that were not peer-reviewed therapies, things that had been written up. but he wanted to give it a shot. but i think the theme through, it wolf, was that he really -- he was fighting all along. at 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. >> stand by, sanjay. our chief business correspondent

ali velshi is with us as well. you know, there's no doubt, ali, 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. >> well, i'll tell you a few things. one is when the world first learned he was sick there were 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 companies, 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 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 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. and 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, 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 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? >> 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 some times this year has been the most valuable, more valuable than exxonmobil, and the reason for that was his ingenuity, his imagination, his 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 million apps downloaded and apps really are an essential part of 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. and so do investors. but the whole concept of apple and american exceptionalism is a big question. i just want to say, wolf, six stores in china. and i was just in shanghai recently. the apple store is mobbed. when i asked children what they liked about america, because we

spent some time with kids, i mean, it was iphone, and they would all yell it. i mean, that is really a synonym for america. and at this time when our country's taken a hit reputationally from the 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. >> it certainly will. his impact not only in 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. [ male announcer ] there's just something about werther's caramel that makes a chocolate so smooth and creamy, you don't just taste it, you feel it. ♪ do you believe in magic?

♪ ♪ it's magic ♪ [ male announcer ] it's a comfort that comes from the only caramel worthy of being wrapped in gold. ♪ do you believe in magic? [ male announcer ] werther's original caramel chocolate. what comfort tastes like. mathis team of guinea pigs to ty boanso to save some y, d inea pig: row...row. they genatectry, wch le me rf t. guinea pig: row...row.took one, 8 months to get the guin: ..row.ow...row. they genatectry, wch le me rf t. lile cbby one to yell row! guineaig: ro's kof strange. guinig: row...row. such a simple word... row. anncr: t an easierayof strange. save. get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. e u 15% or more on car insurance.

will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. 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. that is as it should be. because death is very likely the

single best invention of life. its life's change agent. it clears out the old to make way for the new. >> 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? >> 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's talking about him in terms of apple, disney. most of all i think you've got to think about his family tonight. what a loss.

and i -- we've had an experience 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. >> it's really amazing when you think about 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. >> 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 in 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 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 you on that, but i'd have trouble finding anyone better. >> 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. >> thanks, wolf. >> 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 thought, nick, on what this means. >> well, i think, you know, we're not really going to see the effects as far as apple as a company for a couple of years. steve was really a genius at looking out into the future. and a lot of the products we'll see coming out in the next couple of years are things he had his hands on. so we won't see those effects for quite some time. 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 that i work with is steve had this -- what they call

the distortion field, where he could make you feel your t-shirt was the most amazing thing in the world. and he did that with the products he sold. 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, it really wasn't all that spectacular. wasn't as -- the iphone, excuse me, 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. i mean, if you -- you know, in the next couple of years any product that comes out of apple will have steve jobs's fingers on it. it will have his design sense. you know, it will have everything that is tied to jobs on it. and so you know, the iphone 4s 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, you know, steve jobs that was out there and he was invigorating the audience and he was getting people excited. and that's something that apple's going to have a hard time trying to do now. >> 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? >> that is the big question. i think one of the things that 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. 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 and the right pace and everything. you've got people like phil schiller who's the marketing genius. then you've got this long list of people. but really, johnny ive, who's the design guy at apple is working on products we won't see for a couple of years. and 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 and 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 release else would have seen. >> 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 world or two, what do you think his legacy is going to be? >> 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 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 is definitely going to be his legacy. >> 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 ratner. 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? >> i really wrote that piece because when steve jobs got sick there was a lot of discussion about how great of a leader he was. and 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 tastes and his own judgment. and so that was the way he expressed his leadership. you had jack welch on a few minutes 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 but failed. but he managed to do it. >> 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? >> 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. >> think of apple and 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. we'll continue on "piers morgan tonight" right after this.

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. and 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. and 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 storytelling 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." the 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. >> what was he like in those days? >> he was -- well, you know what, he was always interested in every technical electronic gadget there was in the world. but he didn't -- i mean, he didn't exactly have the focus to actually sit down and design and build them himself. but he totally -- he did build projects. he built projects that like counted the number of cycles on a guitar string so you could tune it right. a frequency counter. >> you were the guy who knew the tech stuff. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. what happened is after steve met me and we compared ourselves, what pranks we had pulled and what electronics -- 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 think i'd ever have a job doing it. so after steve met me, he never tried to be the designer of the pair. he went more globally. 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. and that really should always be number one. >> who would have been more successful if you hadn't met each other, do you think? >> oh, steve jobs, definitely. i actually don't want any credit for starting the whole personal computer revolution. and he's really admired so much time for recent products that i've had absolutely no involvement with. ipods and ipads and itunes stores and retail stores and all these other things. and 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, you know, the most prominent business leader, especially in technology of our time, probably the century-type thinking. it's just too unbelievable. >> you're still an apple employee, aren't you? >> i am still an apple employee. and i receive a small paycheck. but it's because i want to -- >> how much do you get? >> i think the check -- i don't even see it but i think it's a couple hundred bucks every two weeks. i mean, it really truly is

small. but -- 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. >> do you have a stake at all in the company these days? >> my wife and i really aren't big, you know, stock traders, but we keep two stocks, and it's apple and fusion io, where i work. >> 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. >> giving mankind the most useful helpful tools we've ever had in our history. the ones that we would enjoy the most. the ones we not only use but we love, that we come to love, like a human being. very, very important step in getting those computers closer to real human beings. >> 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? >> it's hard to say. because 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, you know,

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 are a computer. i could call my iphone a computer. and it is. it's the greatest computer ever. but it's not in the same sense a computer was when we started the company. so i think we've gone beyond that and it's just computerized technology, really. you know, 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. >> let me put a flip side here. because i've got three sons. they're all computer crazy. they spend -- even the 10-year-old's on world of warcraft days at a time. there is a slight negative. i mean, you guys, you and steve and bill gates and others, you've basically taken the world's children and you've stuck them into little darkened rooms, and they should be out, you know, playing conquers and soccer and stuff like, that shouldn't they? >> i don't think we could stop the effect of the future, the future we created. giving them devices.

a lot of kids, yes, seem to get addicted like you get addicted to drugs. you want to 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 at 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 life. 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. >> really? >> yeah. 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, he just -- >> his independence -- >> so there are different ways of learning. and even video games can be types of learning. logical approaches. you know, 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. >> 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

jobs, 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. at adt, we get financing from ge capital. but they also go beyond banking. we installed a ge fleet monitoring system. it tracks every vehicle in their fleet. it cuts fuel use. koch: it enhances customer service. it's pretty amazing when people who loan you money also show you how to save it. not just money, knowledge. it's so much information, it's like i'm right there in every van in the entire fleet. good day overall. yeah, i'm good. come on in. let's go. wow, this is fantastic. ge capital. they're not just bankers. we're builders. they helped build our business. you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm. what are you wearing, jake from state farm?

[ jake ] uh... khakis. she sounds hideous. well she's a guy, so... [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm. get to a better state. ♪

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 rosen, who used to run the recording industry association of america. she knows a lot about steve jobs and his impact on music. but gloria, first to you. the 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. >> 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.

>> i read a lot of newspapers that i used to read in print, i now read on the web. >> do you have an ipad or just -- >> i've got an ipad. and steve jobs actually gave it to me a little bit early. >> well, that's pretty cool. >> yeah, it was cool. i got it directly from him. >> 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 2 a little bit early, before it was officially introduced in march. and so you know, 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 that, you know, this was a moment to give the president an ipad. which, as you can hear, he seemed to like pretty well.

>> hilary rosen is with us as well. talk a little bit about how steve jobs changed the way all of us listened to music. >> well, you know, steve was a huge music fan. and 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 sort of 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 and -- but steve really cared about artists. he cared about music. he cared about the future. and most of all he cared about consumers getting a great experience. and 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. >> yeah, music, video, telecommunications, everything he seemed to have a powerful impact. >> he was -- >> go ahead. >> 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. and 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. >> 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 at apple. much more on the breaking news right after this. [ charles ] when you can make a person smile

when they taste the food that you cooked, it does something to your heart. i think what people like most about the grilled food

is the taste. the flavor comes from that oak wood. the shrimp, the fresh fish, the steaks. it locks in the flavor, it seals in the juices so that when you put the fork in it, it just goes through it like butter. it's beautiful. [ laughs ] i'm proud to be a grill master. i love food. my name is charles himple. i'm a red lobster grill master, and i sea food differently. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy.

you pay urillsyou try to ve and manage debt but... that's good for our country's energy security now, let's say you satn egions banker to review your savings and debt and rebalance your balance sheet. you'll feel more confident - and more balanced. nice! [ bedistracted driving. ♪ [ disco ] it accounts for 25% of car crashes. and it's why the best agents help safe drivers get a lower rate. - exactly. - oh! [ announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ apple headquarters in

california. people are mourning there. also right here in the nation's capital in washington, d.c. washed at the apple store. people all over the world are mourning the loss of steve jobs. leo laporte is the host of 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. leo, what goes through your mind on this sad day? >> you know, we were so prepared for this. we knew it was coming. and 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 lives as a result. >> 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. >> what are the ingredients that make somebody like that? you know, 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. and yet he kept coming back. and i think it was his extraordinary drive that really made him the man he is, or was. >> 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? >> oh, no. 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. and later, in the last few years, 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. >> it's a good question. and 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? >> i met him but i really never had a chance to actually interview him. and 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. and his name this summer was on the list. and i thought to myself, oh, he's been so sick, is he really going to be there? and of course he didn't end up

being there. but i remember checking that list avidly and calling apple to see -- steve dowling over at apple, who has been an apple aficionado and a speaker for steve jobs over the years. but he wasn't there. but it really has been, as i was saying to you, wolf, before, my experience around the world. i was talking about shanghai where iphone literally seems to be synonymous with the word "america" 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. >> an american institution that has changed the world. thanks, erin. andy serwer is joining us right now. he's the editor of "fortune"

magazine. so what's going to happen to happen'll, andy, now that steve jobs has unfortunately passed away? >> well, there's been a lot of speculation about that for a long time, wolf. and you know, part of what steve was doing over the last several years as he declined and he was well aware of that was that he was setting apple up for this unhappy day. obviously, tim cook's been the ceo now for a little bit, and there's a whole other deep bench at the company that has been waiting and -- waiting to fill his 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 may 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. and 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 you know, we don't know what this company's 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. and that was one of the things, his last wishes was to create something -- a legacy, a lasting legacy. and there's going to be an incredible new headquarters near cupertino, in cupertino, california, they're just going to start to build, which is going to be an amazing tribute to him. >> it certainly will be. so just to try to speculate a little bit, can we simply assume the value of apple stock is going to go down now? >> well, 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 up. it's a short way of saying you don't know. but you wouldn't bet on this run continuing particularly since he's not there over the longer haul. >> sad day indeed. all right, andy, thanks very, very much. we'll take another quick break, continue the breaking news. take a look at this picture. it's a live look of the apple store on 5th avenue in manhattan. we're going to go there when we come back. [ ben harper's "amen omen" playing ] we believe doing the right thing never goes unnoticed. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

someone's brought some

flowers over to the apple store here in washington, d.c. steve jobs unfortunately is dead. joe brown is the editor in 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. >> yeah. the world changed when he was alive and the world is changing now that he's gone and the world will never be the same because 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 we'll consider to be our leonardo when we look back on this. this is the person who made the leaps nobody even thought were possible. >> it's an amazing, 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? y