Apple Inc. has changed
the lives of many people. Many people rely on an Apple product today to either
listen to music or call another person. I remember when I was in middle school;
the class computer lab was full of the older model Macintosh’s. The love for
computers even struck me then. In 2001 the iPod came out and I fell in love.
Nothing in the world could have been more simplistic. I think that is what many
people love about Apple, is the simplicity in the device itself and the fact
that the product feels like a part of the body of the user.
Apple Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976 in Los Altos, California. The majority of people believe that Apple
Inc. was started in a garage by Stephen Gary Wozniak and Steven Paul Jobs.
Actually the company started in the bedroom of the same house. It was not until
later when the two ran out of room that they moved into the garage. The larger
issue is that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were not alone when starting the
company. Ronald Gerald Wayne partnered with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
(Apple Confidential pg. 1, 2)
The Apple 1 was built in the garage of the home
of Steve Jobs. Originally the three planned on only making circuit boards. The
circuit boards would only cost $25 and would be sold for $50. That was the plan
of business when Steve Jobs approached The Byte Shop. The plan was changed when
owner of The Byte Shop Paul Jay Terrell wanted fully built computers. The shop
ordered 50 Apple I computers which sold for $666.66. Steve Wozniak said “The
Byte Shop was the biggest
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single episode in the company’s history. Nothing in
subsequent years was so great and so unexpected. It was not what we had
intended to do”. (Apple Confidential pg.
2, 3)
Steve Jobs
obtained loans from Allen J Baum. He was one of the workers at Hewlett Packard,
which is where Steve Wozniak previously worked before joining. He needed the
loans to build the computers for The Byte Shop. This made Ronald Wayne leave
Apple Inc. Ronald Wayne once said “If Apple had failed, I would have had
bruises on top of bruises. Steve Jobs was an absolute whirlwind and I had lost
the energy you need to ride whirlwinds.” (Apple Confidential pg. 3)
Many people
would say that Ronald Wayne made a terrible mistake. He took 800 dollars and
left the company. Later when the company was on the rise, Steve Jobs sent
Ronald Wayne a check to basically make certain that he would have no claim
against the company in the future. He was happy to receive this check since it
was a surprise to him. Steve Wozniak said “Steve had no money. I had no money
and the creditors were going to wind up coming to him for money that was going
to be owed. So he decided to get out of it. At the time it was the right
decision”. (Apple Confidential pg. 5)
Ronald
Wayne did contribute in the making of the first logo. The first logo was a
drawing of Sir Isaac newton leaning up against an apple tree. Along the border
was a phrase out of a poem written by William Wordsworth “Newton…A mind forever
voyaging through strange seas of though…alone”. It was not until later that the
Apple Inc. logo known today was made. In fact Apple Inc. went through three
logos. The second one was created by Rob Janov. It was the logo
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with six different
colors. It was not until 1997 that Steve Jobs decided that the logo would be
solid colors on future products. (Apple Confidential pg. 6)
The Apple II
was a vast improvement from the Apple I. It contained the same processor and
was just as fast as the Apple I. The difference was it had a built in keyboard
and the graphics on the computer were better. The Apple II was expensive and needed funding
just like the Apple I. Steve Jobs met Mark Markkula Jr., who cosigned with a
bank for a loan of $250,000. (Apple Inc. pg. 5)
The Apple II was announced on April 16th,
1977. The computer was a hit. It quickly became one of the most purchased
computers at the time. It is the computer that took credit for what we know now
as the personal computer. The computer was priced at $1,298. A model for 2,638
dollars was also available. This model had higher random access memory. (Apple
Inc. pg. 5)
The
Apple III was a failure. The priced ranged from $4,340 to $7,800. The clock
chip which was designed by National Semiconductor failed on most of the computers
because of the company soldering the chips on the motherboards of the
computers. The main issue with the Apple III was that Steve Jobs wanted it to
be designed without a cooling fan. He wanted to do this to make the computer
silent. This caused the computer to overheat shortly after a customer would
start using it. (Apple Inc.pg. 7)
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Nearly
all of the Apple III computers had to be recalled. The company had to replace
over 14,000 computers. The recalled computers were replaced with twice as much
random access memory and new circuit boards. Doing this fixed most of the
issues with the Apple III. The issue was one year after the Apple III was
released; IBM released its personal computer which was much better than the
Apple III. The Apple III was discontinued in in September 1985. (Apple Inc. pg.
7)
The
Lisa computer was based upon revolutionizing the computer industry. The Lisa
computer introduced Graphical User Interface. When talking about Graphical User
Interface things like the mouse, icon, and desktop come into play. The issue
with the Lisa was the price. The computer cost $9,995. This caused the computer
to fail just as much as the Apple III. (Apple Inc. pg. 7)
Jef
Raskin was the original founder of the Macintosh project. In September 1979 Jef
Raskin was given permission from Apple to work on his project. The project was
not really going anywhere during the early stages of development. The project
had a lot of flaws and was almost shut down several times due to it not being
productive. (Steve Jobs pg 108,109)
Steve Jobs was diplomatically removed from the Lisa
project. This occurred to avoid another Apple III disaster. Steve Jobs was
angry at the situation and focused his attention on the Macintosh project with
Jef Raskin. His goal in doing this was to make the Macintosh better than the
Lisa computer. Jef Raskin and Steve Jobs never got along. Jef Raskin left the
Macintosh project in January 1981. He would later leave Apple in February 1982.
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The
Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984. The computer was revolutionary. The
Graphical User Interface was easy to use. The Macintosh was more affordable
than the Lisa computer and overall better. Steve Jobs led the Macintosh project
until the Apple board went with John Skulley being the CEO. Steve Jobs decided
to leave Apple and would not return until 1997. (Apple Inc. pg. 12)
When Steve Jobs returned, the company was at the very
bottom. Steve Jobs turned the company completely around with the introduction
of the iMac, iPod, Mac OS X and retail stores. These three introductions is the
largest reason why Apple Inc. is as successful as it is today. Steve Jobs
introduced many products. The Company set sail and never looked back. (Apple
Inc pg. 24) Steve Jobs died on October 5th, 2011. Tim Cook became
CEO of Apple Inc. shortly after.
Steve
Jobs once said “I like to think that something survives after you die”. He said
“It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a
little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that
something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures, but on the other
hand it’s like an on-off switch. Click! And you’re gone. Maybe that’s why I
never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices”. (Steve Jobs pg. 571)
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