The good, bad and ugly of Apple

On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Inc. to sell a personal computer kit. 40 years later, the company, now called Apple, is the largest IT company by revenue in the world. How did it happen?

In 1975, Wozniak attended the first meeting of Homebrew Computer Club, which inspired him to build what would later become Apple I. After Wozniak’s “project” was turned down by his then-employer HP five times, as revealed during his 2013 lecture at Georgia State University, he was encouraged by Jobs to join him and build a company. Result – Apple Computer was founded. While Wayne drew their first logo and wrote the original partnership agreement, he ended up leaving the company two weeks later.

In 1977, Apple II – one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products – was manufactured. With greater features, expandability and ease of use, this became a huge commercial success and helped launch the company as a successful computer business.

On December 12, 1980, Apple Computer went public at $22 per share, generating more capital than any IPO since Ford in 1956 and instantly created about 300 millionaires – more than any company in history. This was swiftly followed by Jobs’ appointment as the chairman while Michael Scott became the first CEO of this IT giant.

By August ’81, Apple was possibly the largest microcomputer company when IBM entered the personal computer market with IBM PC. Being “unimpressed” by their product, Apple confidently placed a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal with “Welcome, IBM. Seriously” as the headline. Of course, the move backfired as the PC surpassed Apple II to become the bestselling personal computer by 1983, making IBM’s annual PC revenue two times that of Apple.

1983 proved to be even more dismal for the company as their product Apple Lisa, the first PC with a GUI – one which took four years and $50 million to build – became a commercial failure due to its outrageous price. It was the same year when John Sculley was appointed as the CEO. He would eventually be the reason for both Wozniak’s and Jobs’ departure from the company.

The year 1984 witnessed the launch of the Macintosh 128k announced by the historic $1.5 million “1984” television commercial aired during the third quarter of the Super Bowl on January 22. The computer was an instant hit and garnered a rather enthusiastic following, but was labelled as a mere ‘toy’ by many users.

Steve Wozniak, dissatisfied by the company’s direction, left in February 1985, selling most of his stock. Following this, the Macintosh’s failure to overtake the PC led the Board to strip Jobs of all his duties. He eventually resigned in September and, as a show of defiance, sold all but one of his 6.5 million shares of the company for $70 million.

Under Sculley’s leadership, Apple experienced the first stock split in 1987, acquired several companies and registered its dot-com address, becoming one of the first 100 companies to do so. In 1988, the company sued Microsoft, alleging that Windows 2.03 infringed upon Lisa/Mac’s GUI elements. Apple lost this case in the US Supreme Court.

It was 1989 when the company experienced its first decline – a fall of 20 percent in stock price. In October 1991, Apple launched its first laptop – the PowerBook in three models. While the series was successful, the original team responsible for it left to work at Compaq, which set back updates.

Source: techgig.com