The Beginnings of Apple Computer, Inc

In 1976, three enterprising young men founded Apple Computer, Incorporated, with the intent to create and distribute truly personal computers. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started with a dream of creating computers smaller and readily available to the general population. They put together their computers in Jobs' parent's garage and rolled out the Apple I personal computer kit in 1976, the same year they started Apple. Eventually, 200 of these computers would be created.

Jobs approached a local computer store, The Byte Shop, which ordered fifty computer kits and paid $500 for each unit after much persuasion from Jobs, whose persuasive techniques have since become known as "the reality-distortion field". Jobs then ordered components from Cramer Electronics, a national electronics parts distributor. Using a variety of methods, including borrowing space from friends and family and selling various items (including a Volkswagen Bus), Jobs managed to acquire the components needed while Wozniak and Wayne assembled the Apple I kits.

In 1977, the Apple II was introduced and quickly became much more popular than its competitors, the TRS-80 (which used cassette tapes for storage, and was known derisively as the TRasH-80) and the Commodore 64, even though Apple II's price was higher. One of the huge benefits of the Apple was the development of the floppy disk drive and software.

The Apple II was selected by programmers to be the desktop platform for the first "killer app" of the business world. This was a spreadsheet program named VisCalc. This created a substantial market for the Apple. The business market attracted many more software and hardware developers to the machine, plus it attracted home users who chose the Apple to be compatible with their business machines.

Over the years, Apple Computer would release many more designs, with each one just a little better than the last. In 1984, Steve Jobs was on hand to introduce the Mac as the "Computer for the rest of us". In 1989, Apple introduced the Macintosh Portable. However, this computer was actually extremely bulky and cumbersome and was met with mixed reviews. At this point, Apple hired industrial designers to develop a better, more portable personal computer.

In 1991, the Apple PowerBook was introduced. The PowerBook would provide the general layout and form-factor for the notebook computers we know today. This solidified Apple's reputation as a quality manufacturer of both desktop and portable machines. The success of this notebook led to increased revenues and growing popularity of Apple in the computer market, and was followed up by the addition of the Apple iMac to their line of personal computers, in 1998. They also branched out into the music arena with the development of the iPod personal music player, which went on to grab an eighty percent market share.

Reflecting this expansion into other markets, on January 9, 2007, they changed their name from Apple Computer, Incorporated to simply Apple, Inc. While they have had their ups and downs over the years, Apple has continued to be a solid presence in the desktop computer and notebook market. Their products have continued to evolve to meet the needs of both the business and individual user.

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- Steve Jay