the history of apple

The Origins and History of Apple

This tech corporation has repeatedly been named one of the world’s most admired Companies . Learn more about the origins and history of Apple. Early Days Apple Computers was _______founded______ by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976. Wozniak was the ______engineer______ behind the computers, while Jobs had the mind for business _. The pair struggled to keep the company afloat in early days; however they succeeded in funding the venture without ever giving up shares in the company. Apple I Apple’s first ____product______ was 1976’s Apple I. Compared to its competition, this machine used few ____Components ____. This was mainly due to the company’s limited budget. Steve Wozniak: “When you work on low _____resources __ and you’re trying to do it yourself with very few parts, you’re trying to be clever you’re trying to think out the whole ________Solution_____in the shortest number of steps.” This made the Apple I a feat of engineering, and it remained on the ___market ___ until late 1977. The Invention of the Home Computer The upgraded Apple II was first _________sold ____________ in June of that year. Ready to go right out of the box, it was a huge ______success_ commercially and is recognized for establishing the market for home computers by being accessible and affordable. The Apple II remained the company’s main source of revenue for many years, and by the end of 1980 over one hundred thousand had been sold. 1980’s Apple III was prone to overheating, and was a _________failure____________for the company. Apple Goes Public However, 1980 was also the year Apple went public. The company generated more millionaires than any other before it, and the popularity of its founders was ___increasing___. Steve Wozniak: “We started Apple: by 1980, I was going to computer _____________shows________ and – you know – we’re kinda going public, we’ve made a lot of money, we’ve been in the press long before that, Steve and I. And people are always asking me for an autograph – huh? What do you mean? I was just an engineer, I just did an engineer’s job, I designed a good computer.” Apple LISA Meanwhile, Apple was ____Busy___ at work designing the Apple LISA. Released in June 1983, it proved to be a ________pawerful____________ concept and not a market success. However, it pioneered such terminology as the mouse, icon, and desktop. It was also Apple’s first graphical user interface model, which meant consumers interacted with ________images ________ rather than text commands. 1984 Commercial Apple’s next triumph came during the Super Bowl in January 1984. Steve Wozniak: “The 1984 commercial kind of showed a free-running person overturning somebody who’s dictating 'this is the way it’s going to be. You have no free ________thought_________ of your own.' That was the theme of that commercial.” Launch of Macintosh This ad introduced the Apple Macintosh to the American public, and is now considered one of the prime examples of U.S. _____advertising_____. It was just one part of Apple’s aggressive and __________expensive _______ advertising campaign for the launch of the Macintosh computer, which was released just a few days later. Stand-out in the Market The Mac was loved by some and hated by others. Because of its ____Radical_______ differences from the rest of the market, it initially suffered from a lack of software. It was even ______incompatible _______ with the popular Apple II. Steve Wozniak: “We lost software in those areas, the left brain areas: accounting, law and engineering. A lot of the software is geared towards PCs, that’s where it exists now.” Mac + Adobe Eventually an affiliation with Adobe helped the Mac brand become the ______ standart__________ for computer users in specific industries. Steve Wozniak: “We could handle such things as ______photography__________, with PhotoShop, and videography with programs like Adobe Premiere shortly after the Avid was out. So we could do video editing and photography work and ___________photoshop________ much earlier because we had enough memory to do it. […] So all the artists and the video people and the producers and the movie people all got into Macintoshes and one you’re into it you love it so much it’s very difficult to pry you away.” The Steves Leave Despite Apple’s success, problems within the company forced Steve Jobs to ___leave___ in 1985. Steve Wozniak left in 1987, though he is still a paid employee. Apple for Home Users, Mac for Professionals Meanwhile, Apple continued to market its two __________brands__________ to different pieces of the population: the Apple II series was best for home users, while more experienced professionals tended towards the Macintosh. Increasing Popularity of Windows However by the 1990s, Apple was struggling. IBM was handily _________winning____________ the marketplace on the success of Windows. Steve Wozniak: “When _________IBM_____________ came out, they had sales forces in all the big businesses. The market for home computers really wasn’t going to fit the Apple too well. The market for small business computers was much huger, so we kind of _________lost______________ the business market.” Return of Jobs At the end of 1996, Apple _______Purchased____________ Steve Jobs’ new company, NeXT, and brought the founder back to the company. Jobs went on to become CEO, and in December 1997 he introduced the online Apple Store. That same year the company announced a partnership with ________rival ____________ Microsoft that saw Apple adopt Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer as part of its default programs. Apple's Revival began with the release of the iMac in 1998. The company _________emphasized ___________ aesthetic design as one of its major strengths. 2001 was the year Apple opened its first retail stores, introduced iTunes and released the first iPod to the public. It kicked off a decade that boasted a steady upswing for the company, with the release of a number of new products and ___________operating__________ systems. Steve Wozniak: “We were the first ones to build USB ports into our computers, we invented firewire, we were really the first to ever have a ________Popular _____________ mass-produced and sold wi-fi.” The iPhone 2007 was the year the company __________changed___________the cell phone landscape by introducing the iPhone. Steve Wozniak:  The iPad The iPad went on sale in 2010, and was instantly __________succesfull________ in the tablet market. And in early 2011, Apple continued its trendsetting ways by introducing a new port to replace USB and similar connections. That same year, after resigning his role as CEO and replacing himself with Tim Cook, Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th following a long bout with pancreatic cancer. Torrents of tributes followed Jobs’ death, and proved his _______role______________ as a tech icon. With _______________hundrets _______________ of products sold worldwide, Apple is quickly losing its status as a counterculture icon and becoming a mainstay of the mainstream.