In the Beginning
Steve Jobs was a 21-year-old college dropout living with his parents in Los Altos, Calif, where he and two friends, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, would hang out in the garage. For other trios, this would be the beginning of a rock band; but Jobs, "Woz" and Wayne had other things on their minds. Jobs and Wayne had both worked together at the gaming company, Atari, while Wozniak, 26, had worked for Hewlett-Packard. The three men incorporated Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. While the two Steves went on to greatness as Apple's revolutionaryapproach to personal computing bore fruit, Wayne sold his share of the newly created Apple for just $800 just three months after its inception.
Introducing Apple I
The first Apple computer seems positively antique by today's standards. Hand-built by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in SteveJobs' parents' garage and first introduced at the Homebrew Computer Club inPalo Alto, Calif. In 1976, the Apple 1 was originally a do-it-yourself kit which didn't even come with a case. Even so, as the first all-in-one microcomputer that, once hooked up to a keyboard and monitor, didn't require extra circuitry to display text, it was a giant step forward over the competition. It came as a kit and sold for $666 (not for satanic reasons, but because Wozniak apparently preferred repeating digits). More than 200 unitswere sold by the Byte Shop, an early computer store. In 1999, the Apple I sealed its place as the most collectible PC of all time — one lucky tech aficionado scored $50,000 for his original Apple I.
Dawn of the Mac
When Steve Jobs introduced the Macintosh at the company's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, pandemonium apparently ensued. At $2,495, the Macintosh was the first affordable computer to offer a graphical user interface, replacing fusty text-based operating systems with an intuitive layout of folders and icons.
If anything, the Macintosh's world debut was even more noteworthy. The Mac's famous Superbowl ad, directed by Alien auteur Ridley Scott, would become a pop icon in its own right, reappearing more than 20 years later as a political parody wielded by tech-savvy Barack Obama supporters. Much of the message behind the ad — Conformity sucks! Non-conformity rules! Apple is for non-conformists! — has stayed, albeit stripped of its none-too-subtle Orwellian overtones.
The Return of Jobs
"Back then he was uncontrollable," an early Apple board member said of Steve Jobs in explaining why, in 1985, the board voted to fire him. "He got ideas in his head, and the hell with what anybody else wanted to do." Even former Pepsi President John Sculley, who had joined Apple to play the role of Jobs' babysitter of sorts, couldn't handle working with him. In fact, Sculley orchestrated the ouster himself, comparing Jobs to a relentless zealot. (Though, to be fair, their relationship didn't exactly start well; Jobs invited Sculley to join Apple by saying, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water to children, or do you want a chance to change the world?") But in 1997, with the company operating at a loss and Microsoft's Windows 95 flying off the shelves, Apple's board decided that a zealot was just what it needed. In August of that year, Jobs rejoined the board in august, becoming CEO — at first, with an "interim" — the following month. "He had become a far better leader, less of a go-to-hell aesthete who cared only about making beautiful objects," wrote Fortune's editor-at-large Peter Elkind of the co-founder's triumphant return. "Now he was a go-to-hell aesthete who cared about making beautiful objects that made money." In time, he became recognized as one of the company's most valuable assets. In2009, after news broke that Jobs' failing health had forced him to take medical leave, the company's stock fell almost 10%.
Computer Candy
The iMac, introduced in 1998, had two characteristics that quickly made it the best-selling personal computer in America. First, it was a self-contained unit that required minimal setup and even had a handle that made it easy to pull out of the box and move around. The elimination of the tangle of device cords that typically powered and connected the computer and monitor made the iMac attractive to users who didn't know much about computers. (According to Apple, one-third of iMac sales in the machine's first year went to first-time computer buyers.) Second, the iMac was pretty. On the shelves next to the beige computers that dominated the market back then, the teal iMac, with its cutecircular mouse and translucent body, stood out. Less than a year after Steve Jobs unveiled the iMac, he introduced a second generation that came in fivebright colors that a New York Times reporter wrote "more closely resemble a pack of Life Savers than a new computer line." A week after the candy-colored new iMacs became available, Apple announced its most recent quarterly earnings were three times what they had been the year before.
iPod Mania
Apple's timing — and its ingenious advertising — couldn't have been more perfect either. The commercials showcased the latest, hippest tunes to a demographic that was still reeling from the July '01 fall of Napster, the free music-sharing giant that launched the age of digital ditties. As for the commercials, they became so popular that the young's turned the iconic black silhouette and white ear buds into a DIY Halloween costume. Since its debut, more than 350 million iPods have been sold around the world. Even so, Apple's decision to drop the word "Computer" from its official corporate name in 2007 wasn�t met with universal praise. As one software developer put it, "Steve, do you want to sell colored plastic all your life or do you want to change the world?"
The Release of Mac OS X
While away from Apple and working for NeXT, yet another computer company he founded, Jobs picked up a few new tricks — one very important trick in particular: the operating system that would become Mac OS X ("ten" not the letter X). Released in March 2001, and touted as virtually crash-proof, OS X was also easy on the eyes because of its "aqua" look and feel, noted for its soft edges, translucent colors and pinstripes. OS X continued to evolve, going through nine different iterations in ensuing years; its stability, speed and ease of use became a major selling point for new Mac users who switched from Windows-driven PCs.
Dreamy Downloads
Two years after Napster was shut down for violating copyright law, Apple launched its iTunes store in 2003, offering legal music downloads for 99 cents per song. (iTunes software had debuted in 2001 as a music storage and organization system for Apple computers.) Apple's entry into digital music sales changed the field entirely. The iTunes store was significantly more user friendly than its competitors' services, with a vastly greater library; Apple had the added advantage of being able to tie the store and the software to its hugely popular iPod. In its first week, iTunes sold 1 million songs; within a year, it sold more than 50 million.
The iPhone
In the aftermath of the iPod's success, pundits began debating whether apple would get into the competitive smart phone market. Speculation continued until January 2007, when the company announced the iPhone. the phone's release on June 29, 2007 prompted enormous lines outside of Apple stores as well asadoring praise from reviewers. (It was named TIME's "Invention of the Year.") The phone-music player-pocket computer sold some 1.4 million units by Sept. 30 of that year. But some early adopters felt like suckers after shelling out $599 for the 8GB iPhone and $499 for the 4GB version, only to learn just two months after the release that the company was slashing the price of the phones by $200.Now (2020) The News ERA has been started With iPhone 12 pricing $699.
iWant the iPad
When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad on January 27, 2010, some observers dismissed it as being nothing more than a giant iPhone. They were right, except for one part: An awful lot of people just loved the idea a giant iPhone. The iPad jump-started the seemingly moribund tablet category, becoming Apple's fastest-selling new product ever and inspiring nearly every dead-tree magazine publisher to release digital editions built especially for iPad. A bevy of other gadget makers released lookalike tablets; none of them beat the iPad, and several of them flopped in spectacular fashion. By June of 2012 — four months before it released the iPad Mini — Apple had sold 84 million of those giant iPhones.
A year later, the iPhone 3G was released at $199. That seemed to be a value proposition which made sense to everyone concerned: Every model since, including this year's iPhone 5, has started at the same price — as long as you sign a new two-year contract with a mobile phone service provider.
You would like to read :- Apple Event Today: How to Watch iPhone Launch Live Stream, Expected Price and Specifications
Apple's 1st India online store opens on September 23-Where is the Opening of Store.
Originally posted at Source
0 Comments