It is true that Steve Jobs saved Apple. But he will be known for so much more than that. He will be remembered as someone who changed how we experience life in this world..

Jobs was the knight in shining armour when he led Apple from the brink of extinction to the top rank of the world's companies before his death Wednesday.

"His legacy goes way beyond Apple," Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said of Jobs when he ceded the company's steering wheel to Tim Cook in August.

Forrester analyst Charles Golvin's "laundry list of the tendrils" Jobs extended into our lives dates back to the 1970s, when Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple and introduced home computers.

"The whole idea that a computer is something that a consumer might want comes from him," Golvin said. "The way we compute today wouldn't be what it is without Steve Jobs."

Whilst it is true that personal computers powered by Microsoft software dominated the workforce, Jobs envisioned something further: he could visualise people-friendly machines with mouse controllers and icons to click on to start programs or view files..

Jobs went further by bringing his vision to Pixar during his estrangement with Apple due to internal conflict; he raised the standard we demand today for animated films.

"At Pixar he redefined what a movie could be like with computers," Gartenberg said of the studio, which has since churned out a series of blockbusters such as "Cars" and "Toy Story."

Jobs baptised the music industry with iPod MP3 players and the iTunes online shop, where people could buy digitized music.

Prior to iPods and iTunes, the music industry struggled with how to make money selling digital music and was stumped as to how to ward off piracy, which has been made possible by easy file sharing on the Internet.

Jobs was a friend to intellectual property activists. With the iPod, Apple gave music lovers a sexy and chic way to listen on the go while providing recording labels and artists a controlled distribution channel for songs.

"Jobs reinvented the music business model," Gartenberg said. "Not only did he have a consumer electronics hit with iPod, but iTunes became the most successful music retailer on the planet."

After the advent of the iPhone, Jobs began a shift to mobile computing on handheld gadgets, forcing Internet giants like Google and Facebook to catch up.

"Apple really created the modern smartphone era, not just for business but for the consumer," Gartenberg said. "Prior to the iPhone, smartphones were about keyboards, not touchscreens; it was a business device."

And with the iPhone rose an "app economy" of smartphone software programs to play games, monitor health, track exercise, navigate and so much more.

Golvin cited the iPhone as a catalyst for Google to dive into the mobile business with Android software for smartphones.

"There were phones that accessed the Internet before the iPhone, but it completely changed the paradigm and brought it to mainstream consumers," Golvin said. "Now look at all the companies profiting from that."

Jobs proclaimed the arrival of a "post-personal computer era" with the iPad, which set ignited the flames of a tablet computer market.

"With the iPad he revolutionized again the way consumers compute and introduced the whole idea of the post-PC era," Golvin said.

The iTunes shop for digital content expanded to include movies, and people increasingly went to mobile and handheld devices for diversion and even business.

The retail industry felt Jobs' contribution with profitable physical Apple stores.

"The way things have to be sold was completely changed by Steve Jobs and Apple," Golvin said. "The way technology is marketed, he did it better than anyone else."

While Apple did not invent smartphones or tablet computers, Jobs was the genius who knew how to tailor these innovations to appeal to customers.

His magic in marketing is very clear when thousands of people are seen lining up and camping out for hours to get their hands on the latest Apple gadget or product.

"His famous reality distortion field and the ability to convince people are more than legendary," Golvin said.

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