Comcast Remote vs iPhone4, a photo by stevegarfield on Flickr.

Steve Jobs, the technology genius who revolutionized personal computers and transformed the way hundreds of millions of people listen to music and use mobile phones, stepped down yesterday as chief executive of Apple Inc., the company he cofounded 35 years ago.

Jobs, 56, was the creative force behind the Mac computer, the iPod music device, the iPhone, and the iPad tablet computer. He has been battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer for at least seven years, and underwent a liver transplant in early 2009.

“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,’’ Jobs wrote in his resignation letter. “Unfortunately, that day has come.’’

Steve Garfield, a Boston online video personality, consultant, and author, remembered being wowed by Apple at the Boston Computer Society meeting in 1984, when Jobs introduced the first Macintosh computer to an enthusiastic crowd of local computer hobbyists.

“He took the Macintosh out of a bag and let it introduce itself, in that computer voice,’’ Garfield recalled. “The audience went absolutely crazy. People were screaming.’’

Garfield bought that first version of the Macintosh, and since then has purchased “at least 10 Apple products: a bunch of iPods, iPhones, Macbooks, iPads. What I like about them is that you just turn them on and they work.

“Take a look at the remote control to your cable box, with all its buttons, then look at an iPhone,’’ Garfield said. “That shows you how Jobs charted a completely different path.’’

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