A friend at Amazon, Werner Vogels, got in touch with DigitalGlobe, and the firm provided thousands of images.

Then, with a friend, Matthew Young, he started Sophos academic Group, an academic consulting firm that works with Chinese students who want to study in the United States.

Mr Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 with his longtime friend Steve Wozniak and also founded Pixar, the computer animation company later sold to Walt Disney.