Today, Apple and the rest of the world have lost a visionary and a genius, Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind the Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, iPod iTunes and more. In recent years he mixed huge business success with personal turmoil, including surviving a liver transplant in 2009, after battling pancreatic cancer in 2004. "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," Obama said.

Bloomberg reports that Apple Inc. has overtaken the search engine giant Google to become the world’s most valuable brand, climbing 84% in the past year to reach $153.3 billion, while Google has lost 2%, now reaching a value of $111.5 billion. IBM has climbed 17% to become the third most valuable brand ahead of McDonald’s.