Apple Computer History

Apple. Quite a funny and unusual name for a multi-billion dollar corporation, isn't it? Yeah, I guess it is an odd-sounding name after all. But then as Shakespeare said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". So ideally speaking, based on this argument, Apple Computers could easily have been Mango Machines, Coconut Corporation, or for that matter, even Eggy Enterprises! So why Apple? Were the company founders ardent fans of Newton?

Well, that they may have been, but the truth is, the company got its name through an interesting incident involving the company founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and of course, an apple. Both of them had a special liking for apples (for various reasons) and had decided that if they weren't able to come up with a better company name by the end of the day, they would go ahead and name the company Apple Computers. Well, they couldn't think of any, and so on April 1, 1976, a company by the name of Apple Computers was officially born. Let us now go back in time and have a look at the annals of Apple computer history.

Apple Computer History - A Flashback Into Time

Let us have a look at the various milestones and developments that became important chapters in the history of Apple Computers.

• Company Foundation: Both the co-founders, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs met in the early part of 1970 when Steve Jobs took a summer job at the same company where Wozniak was working. After a bit of persuasion from Jobs' side to start a company of their own, Wozniak agreed, and Apple Computers formally took shape on April 1, 1976.
• Apple I: The Apple I was the first computer that rolled out of Apple Computers in the later part of 1976. It had an initial price of $666.66, it used a cassette tape and had about 4KB of RAM. A regular television and a keyboard were the only additional accessories that were required to operate this computer.
• Apple II: The Apple II was the next version of the Apple Computer. It was launched in 1977 and was a huge commercial success. This model featured a monitor, an inbuilt floppy disk drive, an integrated computer keyboard, and random access memory which was expandable up to 48KB. Since 1977, a series of Apple II computers were introduced such as the Apple II Plus, Apple IIe, Apple IIc, Apple IIGS, etc. Each series had certain technological advancements over its predecessors. Production of the Apple II was finally discontinued around 1993.
• Apple III: The Apple III was another advanced version of the Apple II which was released in the early 1980s. However, it was not an improvement over the previous models of the Apple II. Instead, the Apple III turned out to be a setback for Apple Computers and therefore, was discontinued after 1983.
• Macintosh: The Macintosh series of Apple computers was launched in the year 1984. It was the first personal computer to sport a graphical user interface (GUI). The floppy drive size had changed from the 5 inch model to the 3.5 inch model. It was powered by an 8MHz Motorola 68000 microprocessor chip and had a random access memory (RAM) capacity of 128KB. This model was known as the Macintosh 128K. It was succeeded by a model known as Macintosh 512K which had a RAM capacity of 512KB.
• Macintosh Portable: This computer was the first portable Macintosh machine that was developed by Apple Computers. It was powered by a 16MHz Motorola 68000 chip and had 1MB of RAM which could be expanded to 5MB. It featured a standard 1.44MB floppy disk drive. However, with a weight of approx 8 kilograms, it was not exactly 'portable' in the true sense of the term.
• PowerBook: The PowerBook series of laptop computers were produced by Apple from 1991 onwards. They were supposed to be a much improved version of the Macintosh Portable. The PowerBook 100, PowerBook 140 and PowerBook 170 were some of the models which were released in the year 1991. As further technological advancements took place, the PowerBook 190 and PowerBook 5300 were subsequently released around the years 1995 and 1996 respectively. The PowerBook G3 and PowerBook G4 were the last new models in the PowerBook series of Apple laptops, and were launched around 1998 and 2001 respectively.
• Power Mac: This series of desktop computers was initially launched in 1994. The different models which were released as part of this series included the Power Mac 6100, 7100, 6200, 7200, 8100, 8500, 9500, 9600, etc. The Power Mac G3, G4 and G5 were the last models in this series of Apple computers before the series was discontinued in 2006.
• MacBook Pro: The MacBook Pro was the laptop model which succeeded the PowerBook G4. It was first launched in 2006 and through several new releases and modified versions, is still available in today's market. These machines were powered by state-of-the-art Intel processors and the hardware configuration was tremendously improved to match worldwide standards. And with RAM up to 8GB and storage capacity up to 500GB, what a journey it has been from the start. This made these Apple computers compete with their worldwide competitors, and naturally sales surged.

This was a brief overview regarding Apple computer history. There are Apple computer stores all over the globe now, with a great support and after sales process in place. If you're interested in other Apple products and gadgets, you might want to take a look at Apple iPhones and Apple iPods. As I sign off, I leave you with some additional information on the history of Macintosh computers for your benefit.

Steve Jobs' Childhood

Steve Jobs, the co-founder, Chairman and Chief executive officer of Apple Inc, is an efficient and powerful leader and one of the most prominent businessmen today. For an overview of the founding years of his life, let us peep into the childhood of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs' Childhood

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, who was a professor of political science. His mother was an American while his father was from Syria. A week after Steve’s birth, he was put up for adoption. Justin and Clara Jobs, residing in Mountain View, Santa Clara County in California, adopted Steve and named him Steven Paul. He spent his childhood in the South Bay area. This region came to be known as the Silicon Valley. Steve was a student of the Cupertino Junior High School and then Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. It was here that he attended his first electronics class and made friends with Bill Fernandez, who was equally passionate about electronics. During the early years of his education, Jobs attended after-school lectures at the Hewlett-Packard Company in Paulo Alto. The company hired Jobs and he got an opportunity to work with Steve Wozniak, who would later co-found Apple Computers with him.

After completing his schooling, Steve Jobs was admitted to the Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He dropped out from college but continued with calligraphy classes. This course helped Jobs in creating multiple typefaces for Mac. This was perhaps the classic example of the fact that nothing learned is ever wasted! During the years he was learning calligraphy, no one would have probably thought that calligraphy would form the basis of the font system in Mac. But it did.

Steve Jobs' childhood gives us a glimpse of his skills to do different things and do them differently. He went on to become a giant in the computer industry and a source of inspiration for many budding business entrepreneurs.

Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave from Apple

In a memo distributed to Apple employees this morning, Steve Jobs announced that he is going to be taking a medical leave of absence from his post as CEO. COO Tim Cook will be acting on Jobs' behalf with regards to day-to-day operations at the company, although Jobs mentioned that he would still be involved in top-level strategy decisions. Jobs also requested privacy for he and his family while he dealt with the undisclosed medical issues.

This is the second time in two years that Jobs has taken a medical leave from Apple and his health struggles have been well documented. He was originally treated for Pancreatic cancer in 2004, then received a liver transplant in 2009, after which he was away from Apple for six months.

With the recent announcement that Apple's iPhone will be available on the Verizon Wireless network, there don't appear to be too many major announcements in the pipeline. Given the timing of Jobs' announcement it is difficult to discern whether he had been planning the leave for some time - perhaps for a new procedure - or if this is something that developed very recently.

Given Jobs' penchant for privacy, it's unlikely that any definitive information will be released about his health until he returns to the company, assuming that occurs at some point in the future. Apple is scheduled to release an earnings report on Tuesday.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Resigns

Steve Jobs, the head of Apple Inc., one of the most successful companies of our time, has stepped down from the position of CEO. Former Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will be his replacement. Cook was in fact recommended for the position by Jobs himself. Jobs, who is 56, has been suffering from pancreatic cancer, and has been on medical leave at an undisclosed location since the middle of January this year.

He has always maintained that the day he felt that he would no longer be able to fulfill his commitments as the CEO of Apple fruitfully, he would step down from the position himself. In his letter to Apple's board, he said, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's chief executive, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as chief executive of Apple. I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role. I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you." Board member Art Levinson said, "Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company. In his new role as chairman of the board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."

Investors said that no one would be able to match up to Job's intuitive ability to predict market trends in technology. "Apple without Jobs is nothing", says Mr. Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research. Jobs has transformed Apple from a two-man start-up to one of the topmost technology companies in the world. Jeffrey Fidacaro, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group has said that it would be near-impossible to replace Jobs' vision and passion for his products. Many people felt that Steve Jobs' resignation was inevitable and soon coming, though many industry experts are also of the opinion that the day-to-day working of the company will not be affected in any way by his resignation, nor will Apple's customers notice any difference in the company's policies. This just goes to show what a great setup Mr. Jobs created over the years. Trading of Apple's shares was briefly halted after the announcement, and on resumption, they slid 5% in the after-hours trading.