Apple Computer Founded (1976)
Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, Inc., is an American multinational corporation which develops and manufactures consumer electronics and software products. The company's best-known computer hardware products include Macintosh computers, iPod portable media players, and the iPhone. The company runs more than 250 retail stores in nine countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold.
Apple was founded in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 and incorporated January 3, 1977, by Steve Wozniak, then 26 years old, and Steve Jobs, 21, both college dropouts. Their partnership started a few years earlier when Wozniak, a gifted, self-taught electronics engineer, began constructing boxes that permitted him to make long-distance phone calls for free.
In 1976 Wozniak was working on a different box--the Apple I computer, without keyboard or power supply--for a computer hobbyist club. Jobs and Wozniak sold their most valued possessions, a van and two calculators, producing $1,300 with which to begin a company. A local retail merchant ordered 50 of the computers, which were assembled in Jobs's garage.In time they sold 200 to computer hobbyists in the San Francisco Bay area for $666 apiece. Later that summer, Wozniak started work on the Apple II, configured to appeal to a larger market than computer hobbyists. Jobs engaged local computer enthusiasts, many of them still in high school, to put together circuit boards and design software.
Jobs sought to create a big company and consulted with Mike Markkula, a retired electronics engineer who had handled marketing for Intel Corporation and Fairchild Semiconductor. Chairman Markkula purchased one-third of the company for $250,000, assisted Jobs with the business plan, and in 1977 engaged Mike Scott as president. Wozniak worked for Apple full time in his engineering capacity.
Jobs recruited one of the most eminent advertising and PR firms in Silicon Valley, to design the Apple logo and start promoting personal computers in consumer magazines. Apple's professional marketing team placed the Apple II in retail stores, and by June 1977, annual sales hit $1 million. The unveiling of Apple II, with a user manual, at a consumer electronics show indicated that Apple was extending beyond the hobbyist market to make its computers consumer items. By the end of 1978, Apple was among the fastest-growing companies in the United States, with its products distributed by over 100 dealers.
In 1980, the choice to go public was made and an initial public offering of 4.6 million shares was sold within minutes, making Apple the most important public offering since Ford Motor Company went public in 1956. Apple continued to see early success in the industry being the first computer company to achieve $1 billion in annual sales in 1982. One year later, it moved into the Fortune 500 at number 441. Apple retained its solid market position by ushering in a graphic user interface that became known as a "window" and that later became the industry standard. They were far in front of their competition in supplying a user friendly computer interface system. Apple computers were also pounding the competition in data processing capability and speed. These factors all contributed greatly to Apple’s success in it's early years.
Our website cover High Speed Internet topics, including reviews of ISPs (cable, DSL, wireless, etc.), computer shopping guides, and the history of computers.