Apple ignited the
personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the
personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to
bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators,
creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative
hardware, software and Internet offerings.
Apple Computer, Inc. is largely responsible for
the enormous growth of the personal computer industry in the 20th century. The
introduction of the Macintosh line of personal computers in 1984 established
the company as an innovator in industrial design whose products became renowned
for their intuitive ease of use. Though battered by bad decision-making during
the 1990s, Apple continues to exude the same enviable characteristics in the
21st century that catapulted the company toward fame during the 1980s. The
company designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers, software, and
peripherals, concentrating on lower-cost, uniquely designed computers such as
iMAC and Power Macintosh models.
Origins
Apple was founded in April 1976 by Steve Wozniak, then 26 years old, and Steve Jobs, 21, both college dropouts. Their partnership began several years earlier when Wozniak, a talented, self-taught electronics engineer, began building boxes that allowed him to make long-distance phone calls for free. The pair sold several hundred such boxes.
In 1976 Wozniak was working on another box--the Apple I computer, without keyboard or power supply--for a computer hobbyist club. Jobs and Wozniak sold their most valuable possessions, a van and two calculators, raising $1,300 with which to start a company. A local retailer ordered 50 of the computers, which were built in Jobs's garage. They eventually sold 200 to computer hobbyists in the San Francisco Bay area for $666 each. Later that summer, Wozniak began work on the Apple II, designed to appeal to a greater market than computer hobbyists. Jobs hired local computer enthusiasts, many of them still in high school, to assemble circuit boards and design software. Early microcomputers had usually been housed in metal boxes. With the general consumer in mind, Jobs planned to house the Apple II in a more attractive modular beige plastic container.
Jobs wanted to
create a large company and consulted with Mike Markkula, a retired electronics
engineer who had managed marketing for Intel Corporation and Fairchild
Semiconductor. Chairman Markkula bought one-third of the company for $250,000,
helped Jobs with the business plan, and in 1977 hired Mike Scott as president.
Wozniak worked for Apple full time in his engineering capacity.
Jobs recruited
Regis McKenna, owner of one of the most successful advertising and public
relations firms in Silicon Valley, to devise an advertising strategy for the
company. McKenna designed the Apple logo and began advertising personal
computers in consumer magazines. Apple's professional marketing team placed the
Apple II in retail stores, and by June 1977, annual sales reached $1 million.
It was the first microcomputer to use color graphics, with a television set as
the screen. In addition, the Apple II expansion slot made it more versatile
than competing computers.
In 1979 Apple introduced the Apple II+ with far more memory than the
Apple II and an easier startup system, and the Silentype, the company's first
printer. VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet for microcomputers, was also released
that year. Its popularity helped to sell many Apple IIs. By the end of the year
sales were up 400 percent from 1978, at over 35,000 computers. Apple Fortran,
introduced in March 1980, led to the further development of software,
particularly technical and educational applications.
In December 1980,
Apple went public. Its offering of 4.6 million shares at $22 each sold out
within minutes. A second offering of 2.6 million shares quickly sold out in May
1981.
Meanwhile Apple
was working on the Apple II's successor, which was intended to feature expanded
memory and graphics capabilities and run the software already designed for the
Apple II. The company, fearful that the Apple II would soon be outdated, put
time pressures on the designers of the Apple III, despite the fact that sales
of the Apple II more than doubled to 78,000 in 1980. The Apple III was well
received when it was released in September 1980 at $3,495, and many predicted
it would achieve its goal of breaking into the office market dominated by IBM.
However, the Apple III was released without adequate testing, and many units
proved to be defective. Production was halted and the problems were fixed, but
the Apple III never sold as well as the Apple II. It was discontinued in April
1984.
The problems with
the Apple III prompted Mike Scott to lay off employees in February 1981, a move
with which Jobs disagreed. As a result, Mike Markkula became president and Jobs
chairman. Scott was named vice-chairman shortly before leaving the firm.
Despite the problems with Apple III, the company forged ahead, tripling its 1981 research and development budget to $21 million, releasing 40 new software programs, opening European offices, and putting out its first hard disk. By January 1982, 650,000 Apple computers had been sold worldwide. In December 1982, Apple became the first personal computer company to reach $1 billion in annual sales.
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