Apple's closest rival Samsung Electronics on Wednesday released a statement after Steve Jobs' death stating that its rival was an innovative spirit.

According to The Association Press, the South Korea-based company said Jobs introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry and that his innovative spirit and remarkable accomplishments will forever be remembered by people around the world.

Jobs died a day after Apple released its new iPhone 4S and one day after Samsung said it would file infringement claims in France and Italy to ban the sale of the iPhone 4S. It was the latest lawsuit in a heated battle that began between the two smartphone makers in April. That was when the Apple accused the Samsung of copying some key designs in its popular smartphone.

The lawsuits between the companies extend to 10 different countries and involve 20 cases, according to reports.

Samsung accused Apple of patent infringement in Australia back in September. The South Korean company is also appealing a German court's ruling to ban the sale of its Galaxy Tab in Germany. Courts in Germany have temporarily halted the sales of Samsung smartphones and tablets depending on the hearings on patent-infringement claims.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen also released a statement regarding Jobs' death.

My condolences to Steve Jobs family and friends, Allen said. We've lost a unique tech pioneer and auteur who knew how to make amazingly great products.

Others like California Gov. Edmund Brown have also chimed in on the iPhone maker's death.

Steve Jobs was a great California innovator who demonstrated what a totally independent and creative mind can accomplish, Brown wrote. Few people have made such a powerful and elegant imprint on our lives. Anne and I wish to express our deepest sympathy to Steve's wife, Laurene, and their entire family.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also said America lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein, and whose ideas will shape the world for generations to come.

Again and again over the last four decades, Steve Jobs saw the future and brought it to life long before most people could even see the horizon, Bloomberg said in a statement. And Steve's passionate belief in the power of technology to transform the way we live brought us more than smart phones and iPads: it brought knowledge and power that is reshaping the face of civilization. In New York City's government, everyone from street construction inspectors to NYPD detectives have harnessed Apple's products to do their jobs more efficiently and intuitively. Tonight our City - a city that has always had such respect and admiration for creative genius - joins with people around the planet in remembering a great man and keeping Laurene and the rest of the Jobs family in our thoughts and prayers.

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