Apple fans gathered at stores around the world to mourn the death of Steve Jobs, in public expressions of condolence rarely if ever seen for a corporate chief executive. 
 
 Reuters In Santa Monica, Calif., an Apple employee lit a candle outside an Apple store. 
 
 Getty Images Surina Shukri brought candles to a New York store. 
 
 In Memory of Steve Jobs View Slideshow Paul Sakuma/Associated Press Apolline Arnaud, 12, wrote a message in front of Steve Jobs's home in Palo Alto, Calif., after word of his death Wednesday. 
 
 WSJ's Walt Mossberg looks at the legacy of Steve Jobs and his record of developing products designed for regular people. Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images 
 
 Outside Apple stores from New York to Tokyo to London, Apple fans laid flowers, wrote messages and displayed photos of Mr. Jobs on their iPads. Some were tearful, saying Mr. Jobs' innovations provided inspiration. 
 
 In Tokyo Thursday, at the Apple store in the Ginza shopping district, 43-year-old salaryman Shinya Goto presented a bouquet of white lilies to two staff members."These are for Steve Jobs," he said, bowing and leaving. 
 
 Outside, his eyes welled up with tears. "I of course love Apple products, but I really admired Steve Jobs," he said. "He thought of products appealing to everyone—men, women and children. It excited everyone." 
 
 WSJ Social Media editor Zach Seward details messages from the world of social media that poured in following news of Steve Jobs's death. AP Photo/Hiro Komae 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Geoffrey Fowler/The Wall Street Journal A few of the several dozen Apple devotees who gathered in San Francisco's Dolores Park on Wednesday for an 'iPhone vigil' in honor of Mr. Jobs. 
 
 Mourners in Beijing placed lilies and chrysanthemums—white, which in Chinese culture signifies death—in front of the Apple store in the swanky Sanlitun shopping area. 
 
 One mourner, Xie Fei, 30 years old, said he would buy an iPhone 4 today in honor of Mr. Jobs, though he wished he could buy the just-announced iPhone 4S instead. "It would mean '4 Steve,'" Mr. Xie said, adding, "this is truly the end of an era." 
 
 Glenn Stark laid white roses outside the Apple store in London's Covent Garden. "I had to remember him," said 23-year-old Mr. Stark, an employee at an Apple reseller who was on holiday from Switzerland. "Steve was a great person," added Mr. Stark, who was dressed like the Apple co-founder in a black sweatshirt and jeans. Wayne Meikle, a 51-year-old software maker from Kent, England, expressed surprise that Mr. Jobs had died so soon after retiring. "You do wonder who is coming up behind them," he said. 
 
 In Paris, the lights were slightly dimmed Thursday morning at the Apple store that faces Paris's majestic Opera House. 
 
 A handful of Apple die-hard fans came to the store to pay their tribute to Mr. Jobs. One of them was Fred Lasnier, an Apple customer since the Apple IIe computer came out 28 years ago. "Steve Jobs was a phoenix. He left and came back, and left again. He's like Elvis, he might not be gone," said Mr. Lasnier, who owns five iPhones and the latest iPad. "I will remember him as a great man with a bad temper," he added with a smile. 
 
 Amadou Frank, a business-school student, is another Apple addict. "Once you get into the circle, it's hard to get out," he said. Mr. Frank got the news of Mr. Jobs' death on Twitter in the early morning hours. "Apple won't be quite the same now. When a charismatic leader goes, things always change, but I'm sure that people will still buy Apple's products," he said. "I will." 
 
 Asia Today: Asia Technology Editor Yun-Hee Kim and Jake Lee discuss what the loss of such a creative figure means for Asian manufacturers which both compete with Apple and provide key components to the company's products. 
 
 At the Apple store in Chicago, sticky notes listing Steve Jobs's creations were stuck to the store's glass wall on Thursday. Just below, two candles burned aside three bouquets of flowers. One apple sat on a note that read, "To the craziest of them all." 
 
 Davood Dehnavifar, a senior at nearby DePaul University, paused for a moment and took in the scene, before reaching to his pocket for his iPhone 4 and snapping a photo. 
 
 "I feel like I lost an uncle I never met," said Mr. Dehnavifar, 23, an interactive media major who owns three Apple devices. "He's the one person who inspired me the most in what I'm doing." 
 
 On New York's Fifth Avenue, some fans wrote messages to Mr. Jobs on the scaffolding that temporarily hides the Apple store's distinctive glass-cube entrance. "It's really sad he went so young in his life. He was an incredible inventor," said Gary Salmon, a 30-year-old student from Brooklyn who came to the store upon hearing the news Wednesday night. 
 
 Yingi Duan, a 22-year-old student and Apple aficionado, came to the store with her boyfriend when they heard the news. Ms. Duan said she owns an iPhone, iPad2, MacBook and MacBook Air. 
 
 New Yorkers gathered outside Manhattan's Fifth Avenue Apple Store to pay tribute to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. 
 
 Will she keep buying Apple products? "Probably," she said. "It depends on if they are still innovative." 
 
 At the headquarters, in Cupertino, Calif., mourners placed flowers and a few pieces of Jobs memorabilia under the sign for the company's signature address, 1 Infinite Loop. By Wednesday evening the shrine had attracted a small crowd of visitors and Apple employees. 
 
 A solitary bagpiper played Wednesday night and was quickly surrounded by TV reporters. Lin Lin, 25 years old, brought a bouquet in Mr. Jobs's memory. The Apple chief "was always a hero," said Mr. Lin, an engineer at data-storage company EMC Corp. 
 
 Chris Schiappacasse snapped pictures of three flags—those of the U.S., California and Apple—flying at half-staff outside the headquarters. He recalled Apple's donating computers to his elementary school in nearby Sunnyvale in the early 1980s. 
 
 At the downtown San Francisco Apple store, one mourner stood by the entrance holding and iPad displaying a black-and-white image of Mr. Jobs. A lifelong Apple fan, Steve Streza was at work a few blocks away when he heard that the co-founder had died. 
 
 Mr. Jobs "has just been an inspiration to myself, my colleagues and my friends," said Mr. Streza, 24. His black shirt and black messenger bag both bore the "WWDC" logo—for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. 
 
 "It just hit us so hard," added Mr. Streza, who said he works for readitlater.com, which develops apps for Apple products. 
 
 Several dozen Apple devotees gathered in San Francisco's Dolores Park late Wednesday for an "iPhone vigil" in honor of Mr. Jobs. At around 9:30 p.m., one participant rang a Tibetan prayer bowl, while others raised their iPhones and iPads, some featuring photos of Mr. Jobs. 
 
 "Apple has been a part of my life since I was a kid," said San Francisco resident Adam Palazzo, 31, and who joined in the vigil with several friends after reading about it on Facebook. "It is the passing of somebody who had an impact on my life." 
 
 In Chicago, Zack Martin bought a set of tea lights and arranged them in line in front of an Apple store next to a small bouquet that had been left by someone else. 
 
 "I'm a computer programmer because of Steve," said the 23-year-old, after kneeling to light the candles one after another. 
 
 Mr. Jobs, he added, "changed technology and probably the world—from a garage to a multibillion-dollar industry." 
 
 At an Apple store at Houston's Galleria mall, J. D. Lockhart, a 24-year old Houston resident who works for an architecture firm, described herself as an Apple fan, owning an Ipad, an Ipod, and just about every other product launched by the California-based company. "We even have Apple TV," she said. "This guy elicited such a response from people. It was almost like a religion," Ms. Lockhart said. "Yesterday's keynote (Tim Cook's launch of the Iphone 4GS) didn't evoke anywhere near such a response," she said. 
 
 Late Wednesday evening outside the entrance to the downtown San Francisco Apple store, more mourners came by the lay bouquets. Fans taped two cards to the store's window. 
 
 "Thank you for all your gifts and ALWAYS taking care of the customer. We will miss you Steve," read one card, signed "Genaro." 
 
 The other, signed "Theodore," read, "You gave us the cloud of computing to join the ranks of humanity's greatest geniuses." 
 
 —Geoffrey A. Fowler, Yoree Koh, Cassell Bryan-Low, Noemie Bisserbe, Laurie Burkitt, Ben Lefebvre and Jack Nicas contributed to this article. 
 
 Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com, Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com and Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com ||||| From Apple Inc. 's secretive headquarters in the Silicon Valley to its sleek stores around the world, employees and fans were stunned by the news of the death of the man they universally called Steve, even though it was known he was gravely ill.Flags flew at half-staff at the company's sprawling campus here, where workers described the mood inside as eerie and somber. Hardware engineer Henry Dai was at an afternoon meeting when news of Steve Jobs ' death came in an email to employees from Chief Executive Tim Cook . First, Dai said, everyone in the room got quiet."But we had to resume the meeting right away," said Dai, 41. "We had to work. It was the right thing to do. It's what he would have wanted."Employees milled about outside as work let out, waiting for shuttle buses home, reminiscing and snapping photos with their phones.Mike Korinek, a 29-year-old packaging designer, said he hadn't worked at the company long and hadn't "had the chance to meet Steve, but it's a very, very sadday."I'm working extra hours for the man and his legacy."Outside Apple stores, makeshift shrines appeared within hours of the announcement of Jobs' death. Chris Cunningham quietly walked up to the Pasadena store and set down one white rose and a red apple on which he had carefully carved "bye.""It's really sad, he's gone," said Cunningham, 39, a private school administrative worker, teary and wearing a shirt with the blue Apple icon on it. "The future of his legacy is in other hands. It's just terrible."So many fans gathered at the Santa Monica store that an Apple employee came from inside — where business continued uninterrupted — and politely asked the mourners to step back and not block the entrance."Steve Jobs was one of the great inventors, certainly of our time," said John Peed, 41, of Malibu, owner of a graphics design firm who said he came to the store "just to pay homage."He said he has about 40 Apple computers at his business.Britney McLaughlin, 24, of Hollywood credited her iPhone with making Southern California livable. "I wouldn't be able to get around without it," she said.Outside a store in New York's SoHo district, Victoria Southwell, 67, came to pay her respects, even though she doesn't own any Apple products. He was "an old hippie and a beautiful guy," she said of Jobs.And in Beijing , Xiuqing Yang, 25, came to one of the two stores in the city "so I can mourn." The elementary school teacher said he owns a MacBook laptop, iPad , iPhone 4, iPod and iPod Touch."Not everything from America is great," Yang said, "but everything from Apple is great."Outside, bouquets of white flowers — traditional for mourning in China — had been left near the entrance. Nearby was a handwritten sign that read "THX."
– Mac fans everywhere gathered online and at Apple stores offline last night, mourning the loss of Steve Jobs, reports the LA Times. There were flowers, memorabilia, and even a bagpipe player at the company headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., where the company flags flew at half-staff. At an Apple store in Pasadena, a person left a white rose and a red apple with "bye" carved into it. "Steve Jobs was one of the great inventors, certainly of our time," said the owner of a graphics design firm, adding that he came to the Santa Monica store "just to pay homage." Fans gathered outside Apple stores all over the world, although sometimes the media outnumbered mourners, the Wall Street Journal notes. Even in Beijing, mourners placed flowers and photos of Jobs in front of the main Apple store. One fan at the Beijing store said he would buy an iPhone 4 in memory of Jobs. "It would mean 4 Steve," he said, adding, "this is truly the end of an era." At the Ginza Apple store in Tokyo, a man gave staff a bouquet of white lilies. "I of course love Apple products, but I really admired Steve Jobs," he said. "He thought of products appealing to everyone—men, women and children. It excited everyone."