Apple Inc. is an American company located in Cupertino, California which was founded by three friends in the year of 1976. Read this article to know the story of how Apple started and what was Apple’s first product.
On April 1, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne formed Apple computer Inc, and it became one of the world’s leading tech companies. While Wayne stepped out of the start-up twelve days later, selling his share to the other countries’ founders, multimillionaire Mike Markkula funded the new business venture, making Apple the largest personal computer company to introduce a graphical user interface.
How Apple Started – History of Apple
Jobs and Wozniak met for the first time while working for HP during summertime, thanks to their mutual love for machines and electronics. While Jobs was still in high school, Wozniak was pursuing his college degree.
After the launching of the Altair 8800, a successful microcomputer that was introduced to the market in a kit, Wozniak dreamt of developing his version of a microcomputer. But, when the company where he was interning as an engineer did not develop any interest in his creation, he joined hands with young Jobs and shifted the production of their first microcomputer to Job’s residential garage.
For gaining capital to continue the production work, Jobs traded his only Volkswagen microbus and Wozniak auctioned his programmable calculator, gaining a few hundred dollars to sustain the operational work. But, what was Apple’s first product? Read the below sections to know more about how Steve Jobs started Apple.
What Was Apple’s First Product – How did Steve Jobs Start Apple?
Encouraged by his club fellows at the Homebrew Computer Club, Wozniak and Jobs came up with their first product, the Apple 1, in July 1976, which comes in a kit – CPU, RAM, and basic textual video chips, which could not still be marketed wholly as a personal computer. Soon after its first launch, the Apple 1 went for sale in the commercial market.
The legal Apple Computer Inc. came into force on 3rd January 1977 and the market value of the new venture doubled over a few months, with an average annual growth rate of 533%.
The Launching Of Apple II – Inspiring Story Of How Apple Started
After the huge success of their first creation, the Apple 1, nothing could stop the duo from taking risks and developing new computers with even more new features. The Apple II, also developed by Wozniak, was first launched in the year of 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire. The new and modified version of the AppleII was far better than its rivals in the market with its cell-based color graphics and a floppy disk for storage purposes.
Followed by the launch of Apple II, two individuals in the year of 1979 developed the first personal computer spreadsheet, VisiCalc, later famously known as the killer application, which later paved the way for hardware sales.
The launching of VisiCalc opened a new market for the Apple company. In the year 1980, Apple went public, distributing 4.6 million shares at $ 22 per share, generating a revenue of $ 100 million, which was way more than their wildest of dreams. Apple also generated huge sums of money from various educational institutions, as many institutions wanted their children to learn the art of programming.
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IBM And Microsoft Vs Apple
While Apple Inc. gradually embarked on its journey of becoming the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer and the fourth-largest personal computer developer, the company soon faced huge competition from its rivals, Microsoft and IBM.
In the year 1981, after the booming of the personal computer industry, IBM launched its own version of a personal computer, the IBM PC. The IBM computers soon drove huge sales with its innovation in the personal computer industry, launching its Intel microprocessor and DOS operating system from Microsoft. It also included its own spreadsheet software, the Lotus 1-2-3 which won the hearts of millions in the market.
The Lisa And The Macintosh
Inspired by the innovations of the Xerox Alto, which featured a graphical user interface with on-screen windows and a mouse, Jobs immediately incorporated these new features into their new creations, the Lisa and the Macintosh.
While Jobs was forced to walk away from Lisa, which launched in the market in 1983 but failed to generate huge sales, the Macintosh division, launched in 1984, with a relatively lower price than Lisa generated huge sales in the initial years. The marketing of the Macintosh division as an advertisement during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII was directed by Ridley Scott named “1984”, which was a $1.5 million investment.
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The Downfall Of Apple
While Jobs stepped down from Apple to found NeXT, Sculley worked hard to develop a better version of the Macintosh, leading to high prices of their products. But, the high price of their products led to the downfall of Apple as other desktop publishing programs offered the same features as Macintosh at a much lower price. The Christmas of 1989 saw a decline in Apple’s stock price by 20℅.
Conclusion
While the Story of how Apple started was quite inspiring, during the years between 1990 and 1997, Apple saw a huge downfall with its highly-priced products, largely identical machines with differing price points which generated huge in the minds of the consumers. But, with the reappearance of Jobs in the year of 1996 and the introduction of the iMac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad, Apple again relaunched itself in the mobile industry with average daily revenue of $1 million. On 24th August 2011, Jobs stepped down from the position of CEO of Apple.
We hope that this article on how Apple started has diversified your horizon of knowledge on the story of how Apple started.
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