About Apple

A brief history of the company that changed the computing world forever.
Apple was founded in 1976 in Cupertino, California by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Apple floated in early 1977 without Wayne after selling his share back to Jobs and Wozniak.

In 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh computer. Initial sales of the Macintosh were good, but follow up sales were not so strong, largely down to cost and limited software.

In 1985 a power struggle between the then CEO John Scully and Steve Jobs took place, which eventually led to Steve Jobs resigning and setting up his own business NeXT Inc the same year.

Apple sustained growth in the early 1980's largely due to its strength in the education sector.

 

During the early 90's Apple experimented with a number of consumer driven devices that included Digital Cameras (Apple QuickTake), portable CD Players (Apple PowerCD) and others. Unfortunately, all of this proved too little too late as their market share and stock price continued to slide.

In 1996, Apple hired Gil Amelio as CEO who made many changes at Apple, including the purchase of Steve Jobs' company NeXT and their operating system called NeXTSTEP, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple as an advisor.

 

In 1997 Steve Jobs became the interim CEO and started quickly restructuring the company. At the 1997 MacWorld Expo, Jobs announced that Apple and Microsoft would partner to bring new versions of Microsoft Office to the Macintosh platform. He also mentioned that Microsoft had invested in a non-voting share in Apple to the value of $150 Million USD.

 

Introducing the iMac.
In 1998, Apple introduced a new (all-in-one design) computer called the iMac. The iMac design team was lead by Jonathon Ive, a very well respected engineer who would later design the iPod and iPhone.

Featuring modern technology and a unique design, the iMac was very successful selling close to 800,000 units in the first five months.

Through this period Apple purchased a number of software products and companies to increase its portfolio, such as Macromedia's Final Cut which signalled its expansion into the digital video market.

 

Introducing Mac OS X.
Mac OS X, based on NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD Unix was released in 2001 after several years in development. Aimed at consumers and professionals alike, Mac OS X, combining the stability, reliability and security of Unix with a fabulous, easy to use interface

was an instant winner.

 

A retail brand like no other.
In May 2001, Apple introduced the first two Apple retail stores in Virginia and California, signaling their intent to completely overhaul the look and feel of technology and retail together. Anyone who has visited an Apple owned retail store will realise how beautiful and succesful they are, offering an experience that is yet to be rivaled in a technology / retail environment. Apple now have over 300 of their own stores worldwide and with the Genius Bar, Workshops & Youth Programmes, Apple have captured the hearts of the consumers looking to buy technology for home. Interestingly enough, around 50% of consumers who purchase from an Apple owned store, are first time Mac users!

 

Music.
Also in 2001, Apple introduced the iPod to market. The iPod was a phenominal success selling over 100 Million units in it's firsrt six years. iTunes came to market in 2003, offering online music downloads and complete integration with the iPod.
iTunes quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by mid 2008.

 

The transition to Intel, Windows on a Mac and more.
At Apple's worldwide developers conference in 2005, Steve Jobs announced to the world that Apple would be partnering with Intel for all of their Macintosh line from 2006 onwards. In January 2006, true to his word, Apple introduced the new MacBook Pro and iMac. The first Apple computers to use Intel chipsets.

By August of 2006 Apple had transitioned all of its computer line-up over to the Intel platform. This was an incredible achievement as it was concluded one year ahead of schedule with little or no disruption, just better performance and better energy consumption.

Amazingly, Mac OS X had to be overhauled during this period to support the Intel chips too.

 

With the move to Intel, Apple also released Boot Camp, a technology development that would allow you to partition your hard disk drive in your Mac and install and run Windows natively, choosing either Mac OS X or Windows on boot up of th machine. This has since led to VMWare and Parallels offering virtualised desktop software to run Windows inside the Mac OS. - Something that is hugely popular and lead to a big uptake in Mac sales for home, small and large business and enterprise.

 

Cash in the bank.

Apple's success during this peiod led to their share price increasing ten-fold. The phenominal growth and sales of both the iPod family and the Mac, followed by two more revolutionary product, the iPhone (in 2007) and the iPad (2010) has transformed Apple into the largest technology business in the world, with continued growth and unprecedented profitability.

 

R&D, Strength & Stability.

With a reported US50Billion clear cash in the bank, no debt and continued investment into research and development, Apple is now the clear leader in the technology industry and will no doubt bring more superb, easy to use, revolutionary devices to market to better serve the needs of the consumer and enterprise customers alike.

 

 

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