The Story of How Apple Inc. Was Created

Apple Inc. is the one of the leading companies that make Consumer Electronics and Computers. It's well known devices include the iPhone Smartphone, iPad Tablet, iPod Music Player, and the Macintosh Computer. Millions of people globally use these products to run their normal lives. Here is the story of how Apple Inc. first began and how it prospered to what it is today.

Two great men, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created a company called Apple Computer in 1976 and released their first product, the Apple I. There are many different time periods in which the History of Apple Inc. can be divided into. The most prosperous years for the company were the start of the 21st Century till now.

1975-1985:

Apple Computers had released a few computers during this time period. Many computers were produced during this period, namely the Apple I, Apple II, Apple III, Apple IPO, and Lisa. These computers did get some good sales and both the creators did get a reasonable amount of profit but they weren't earning too much popularity. Wozniak wanted to create more and more products, but Steve Jobs told him to slow down and find solutions to the problems that the current computers faced. 

Both men worked tirelessly towards their common goal. In 1984, the first advertisement of their new product, the Macintosh spread at great speeds. The ad became widely known to many people of America and on the day of release it sold many units. The Macintosh sold at a high rate, but other developers called it a mere toy, saying that it lacked software and had many other minor defects. Even though they received this criticism, the Macintosh was a milestone for Apple Inc.

Then an unfortunate event occurred in 1985. Steve Jobs left his company due to a power struggle in the upper ranks of the company. Jobs then sold most of his shares in the company and acquired a big $70 million. He then bought Pixar, the worlds leading visual arts company. He also then founded a new company by the name of NeXT computers which was made to produce computers with a futuristic design and interface. NeXT did produce many well known personal computers, but due to the high prices it did not prosper much. 

1986-1996

Apple Inc. then calmed down the negative matters that were taking place after Steve Jobs had resigned. The Mac had sold tons of units and had become a major product. Many versions of the Macintosh were introduced and each one was extraordinary at that time. In the late 1980's, Apple had to face many rivals that had now formed after watching how successful Apple had become. 

Then the IBM PC was released. This beat Apple and all its rivals and swept across the field. With the introduction of Windows 3.0, PC's took the lead and started outcompeting Apple Products. Trying to make a comeback Apple released new versions of the Macintosh and received much criticism. They were told that they had too many computer models that varied very little in the technological specs. Apple's well known simplicity now vanished. The demand for the Macintosh series now decreased.

Then Apple, Motorola, and IBM formed an AIM alliance. Their aim was to create a powerful computer using Motorola Software, IBM software, and Apple Software to make their dream computer which would be known as PReP. The Power Macs were then released by Apple which had the IBM Power Processor. Apple along with these also released the first PDA called the Newton. IBM had also offered to buy Apple Computers but Apple refused.

Then in 1986 Steve Jobs returned to Apple. The company that Steve Jobs was working in, NeXT was struggling to its fall and Apple purchased the company. The NeXT Operating System then formed the basis to the future Mac OS.

1997-2002

Apple then introduced the Apple Store in 1997 which aimed to sell WebObject  Applications that they obtained from NeXT. This was their first Retail Store. In the same year the current CEO of that time was sacked by the board and then Steve Jobs gained power by becoming the new CEO. At the 1997 Macworld Expo Apple announced its partnership with Microsoft. Both CEO's Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made a 5 year plan that Windows will be placed on the Mac and the popular Microsoft Office would be included in the Mac Systems as well. 

Then, in 1998 Apple striked with its comeback. They suddenly became much more popular and their new products started selling lots of units. Steve Jobs as the new CEO then wanted to make the iMac. The iMac was made and it sold a million units per year. Apple had finally gotten back in the game and got many sales for this new device. The iBook was also invented, the first personal laptop that introduced and publicized the use of WLAN which we now a day call WiFi. 

In 2001 one after the discontinuing of licensing Apple products to 3rd Party sellers due to poor sales, Apple then produced a line of Apple retail stores to increase their revenue. They opened many outlets all over the US. The Mac OS X was released as well based on the NeXTSteP processor and the first iPod was released in October 2001. This iPod was a regular MP3 player that had a 5 GB memory and was said to be able to contain 1000 songs. 

2002-2007

These were some of the best years for Apple. This is the time period in which Apple gained most of its success and many new products were released.

A totally new iMac was released with a G4 processor and an LCD display making it more 'modern'. The iMac G5 soon replaced the old G4 in 2004. Apple then introduced their products out of the US as well. They opened their first retail store in Tokyo and slowly spread out towards Japan and other countries. The first retail store in Europe was opened in London. Apple then started receiving huge sales!

The iPod was released as well. The portable device became famous in days! The old flash players were only able to keep 30 songs and the 5 GB capacity of the iPod then made everyone want one of those. Many alterations came to the iPod as well. It was made slimmer, smaller, and lighter. Different kinds of iPods were released as well. Then Apple released a color version of the iPod and a new function that was added was the ability of the iPod to show photos as well. The iPod was only compatible with Macintosh computers but later were made compatible with Windows as well. The iPod shuffle was released as well. The size of the device got much attention. It was the size of a pack of gum and could play songs with a huge internal memory. 

The iTunes store was introduced to the public in the following year. It gained much popularity. The iTunes Music store beat all other previous stores as it was cheaper with $0.99 per song and $9.99 per album. New functions were introduced in the iTunes Package. They could save songs to the computer, burn them to a disc and send them to their iPod. In the first 2 weeks after the release of iTunes, the revolutionary software was downloaded by 2 million users and all of them being Macintosh users. 

The iPod Mini was released in 2004. It was highly customizable and came in many different colors. Even though it was a GB less than the previous iPod it sold many units and helped the new iTunes grow even further. Songs through iTunes were being sold at a rate of 500 million per year. As iTunes was only available in the USA it soon was released in UK, Japan, France, Canada, and many other countries as well. It soon gained much popularity. Apple became rich and its revenue swelled with big numbers. 

The 5th Generation iPod Nano was released as well. Even though it was expensive for some consumers, it sold 1 million units in the first 17 days. It was much thinner, and had a larger screen. The main feature introduced through the Nano was Video Playback. Video Playback received a lot of attention. In 2006 iTunes sold its billionth song. 

2008-Present

In the beginning of 2007, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computers Inc. in a Macworld Expo told the world that since the company was not selling only computers anymore, they decided to change their name from Apple Computers Inc. to only Apple Inc. In the same speech one of the best technological devices was released, the revolutionary iPhone. The basis of smartphones started from the iPhone. The widescreen version of the iPod was released in mobile form and became the first mobile device that supported visual voicemail and a fully integrated Internet capability which was supposed to be carried out using the new web browser, Safari. The new operating system, iOS was released. 

iOS and the iPhone proved to be very successful. The earlier iPhone versions 1 and 2 G sold at a reasonable rate. With the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008, the iPhone sold millions of units in selected countries. Soon the iPhone 3GS was released which sold even more than the previous model. The iPhone became well known as the best smartphone of the time. A 12 months cycle developed and the iPhone 4 was released in 2010. Many models of the Macintosh are available, but the most popular one is the latest Macbook Pro. 

Many different iOS were released and even Mac OS X have been upgraded a lot. iPod touch came out with the iPhone and both are multi-touch supported. The iPad was then released in 2010 as well. Tablets became more popular among consumers. The iPad 2 was released and now we have the latest iPad as well, 'the new iPad.' The latest device today is the iPhone 5, which was released in 2012. The latest iOS is 6. 

Apple formed the basis of most of the smartphone technology and operating systems. They were the ones who made smartphones and were the ones who introduced tablets. Many other companies are now competing with Apple and after the death of Steve Jobs Apple has started to decline a bit. It's main competitors are Samsung and HTC. 

Without Apple, technology would not have been the way it is today.