The History of Apple

Apple was founded in the 1970â??s by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak after they built their first computer, the Apple I. It started production in Steve Jobsâ?? dadsâ?? Garage and from these humble beginnings it has eventually become a multibillion dollar company that has changed the world. Together with the Apple Store.

Appleâ??s success is nothing short of remarkable and through Steve jobs vision and Steve Wozniakâ??s engineering capabilities they became almost instant successes in the world of computers.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built their first computer, the Apple I in 1976. This computer was sold to a local computer shop called the byte shop and only 200 were made. The money made because of this paved the way for the Apple II. The Apple II was a much better machine than its predecessor because of this additional funding. Although a stark contrast to today’s Apple products and the Apple Store.

Apple as a company was officially formed on April 1, 1976 after receiving a 250,000 bank loan co-signed by Mr Markkula. It was named Apple because of its location in the phonebook compared to Atari giving it an advantage as it would be first alphabetically. Apple finally released the Apple II in 1979 which was a huge success in the market and has even been credited as creating the home computer market.

This high was not to last though as although Apple had some success with the Macintosh, this was the beginning of a slow decline until the mid-90â??s

Macintosh was a success that Apple needed, after the failed attempts to crack the business market with the overpriced Lisa computer. Some of the Macintoshâ??s success is owed to its iconic 1984 ad which appeared in the Super bowl, directed by Ridley Scott and is now considered one of the greatest advertisements of all time. The Macintosh computers success although large was rejected by some key demographics as it was sometimes thought of as a â??toyâ?? and not a serious computer.

In 1985 Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple was forced out and moved on to start other companies but his role in Apple was nowhere near over.

Although Apple had some successes between Steve Jobsâ?? dismissal and return, it also had quite a few failures. The Mac branch of the company continued with several new computers leading up to their attempt at a portable computer. The portable Macintosh was a failure but the PowerBook that followed became a huge success and set up the format for all future laptops.

During the 1990â??s Apple and its competitors were outdone by IBM which became increasingly popular, this was due to several factors including the fact that Apple was possibly the worst managed business of that time. They ruined the simple nature Apple had worked so hard to create with long and pointless model names, too many variations on products and even just too many products been sold. Apple was losing business fast and after their buying out of NeXT technology this put Steve Jobs back in the scene allowing him to re-join the Apple team and after a boardroom decision take over as CEO. This was a huge change the way Apple worked and began the turning around of Apple to become the multibillion dollar company it is today.

This involved several steps and a bailout from Microsoft that allows Microsoft Office to be featured on the Mac and a $150 million investment. This was the start of Apples rise to dominance with new ideas like the iMac, iBook, and Power Mac G4 which allowed them to get back on top of the market.

In 2001 Apple released one of the most popular pieces of technology that has help make the business what is today. This is of course the iPod which sparked a huge change in the music industry. The iPod was a huge development and sparked the developing of things like iTunes, IOS and even the iPhone and iPad. The Apple Store began selling apps to cater for these new devices.

From 2001 onwards Apple began the â??Iâ?? era creating several products including the iPhone, iPad and iTunes which are all extremely popular now and have helped Apple reach its place at the top. The ‘I’era really transformed and shaped a new era in technology.

The iPhone was a revolution in the phone world as they added touchscreen capabilities to a great operating system. This was a huge seller and became an icon, to the extent that it outsells every other phone on the market by far. This success has made it control the phone market putting serious strain on android phones trying to compete. This success wasnâ??t enough and Apple moved to revolutionise the Tablet PC in the form of the iPad.

Apple has had a long career with many ups and downs but it has really come into itself with the return of Steve Jobs. Apple changed the computer market for ever with things like the PowerBook, the iPod and their whole range of â??Iâ?? innovations. This is how Apple has established itself today as a multibillion dollar company, with a cutting edge range of products and range of apps on the Apple Store.

Guest post.

Just How Big Is Apple?

The infographic below will put you in the picture . . .