Hisoty of the Apple Computer

In this essay I will introduce a short history of the raise of the Apple Computer a company which exist to the present time, and produces personal computers and other electronic equipment such as very popular portable music players.

The company started in the early 80s, when a couple of computer fascinated friends decided to create a new model in personal computing.

Steven Wozniak and Steve Jobs, high school friends, at first worked for different companies; Wozniak for Atari and Jobs for HP. They decided to combine their knowledge and their dreams and create a new type of user friendly personal computer accessible for ordinary people.

That is how the based on first model of Apple I was born.

The Apple I was based on the Mostek 6502 chip, whereas most other computers were the Intel 8080. The Apple I was sold through several small retailers, and included only the circuit board. A tape-interface was sold separately, but you had to build the case. The Apple I's initial cost was $666.66. And the next model Apple II was introduced very shortly after.

Soon after, Wozniak and Jobs established their own company called Apple Computer on the 1st of April 1976. Initially Ronald Gerald Wayne joined the team during the company's beginning, but only for a short period of time. Therefore he is not mentioned as one of its founders in most of bibliographies.

At first the company was based at Jobs home, in his garage, but very quickly it grew and after a few years became a company, which employed thousands of employees.

The construction works on a completely new computer model began in 1979. This time Apple was supposed to create a machine which did not need high computer skills to be operated with. The operation of the computer was based on graphic interface using a mouse to navigate it.

The idea was born while Jobs visited one of Xerox PARC labs, where he noticed a prototype of a new graphic interface system machine.

One of the Xerox employees at that time, Jef Raskin later switched to Apple on 3 January 1978 and eventually became its project manager. Unfortunately, because of many internal and interpersonal problems, completion of the project was losing momentum.

In 1981 IBM released a brand new model of PC, which became very popular and set new standards in personal computing.

Flow of time and never ending modifications, took its tool on the Apple project and caused rise in production costs. Finally it was completed at the end of 1983. The new baby of Apple was named Macintosh. It had modern Motorola 68000 processor, keyboard, mouse and integrated monitor.

On January 24, 1984, Apple announced Macintosh to their Board of Directors and to the world, and the computer world has never been the same since.

At the same time, a new advertising campaign was started. The crucial point was the 60 sec TV commercial emitted during the Super Bowl finals. The controversial commercial was a huge success for the company. People finally begun to appreciate the value of Apple computers, and thanks Macintosh became the best selling personal computer of its time. Through the revelation of their graphic interface systems Mac achieved market success. Users liked interface looking similar to office desks with document folders and a trash can, and navigation became easy after a relatively short time in use

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Unfortunately Apple's success did not last long. Users were complaining of small and inadequate memory, no extension options and high price compared to IBM's PCs.

The company faced a crisis and financial problems. Apart from that there were still many unresolved personal issues between Apple's owners, which resulted in Jobs resignation in 1985. Jobs left Apple and decided to start own computing company called Next.

Apple's new chef executive became John Scully patched from Pepsi Cola. The company kept developing new ideas and products over a period of time, but without any major successes.

Meanwhile Apple's biggest opponent on the market, Microsoft realised that graphic interface was the future of personal computing and created his own operating system called Windows. Because the system was actually a clone of Mac's operating system, the two companies clashed through a court case involving the issue of pattern ownership, despite of the fact that Apple was not the creator of the interface, but was the first one who recognised a huge potential of its introduction to the PC market.

Finally Microsoft agreed to sign a statement to the effect that Microsoft would not use Mac technology in Windows 1.0--it said nothing of future versions of Windows, and Gates' lawyers made sure it was airtight. Apple had effectively lost exclusive rights to its interface design. This would prove to be an important document in future lawsuits between Apple and Microsoft, involving the Windows interface. The glitzy $200 million Hollywood-style rollout of Microsoft's Windows 95 was a crushing blow to the corporation. It had taken Microsoft 10 years, but it had finally copied and successfully the Mac's operating system. To most computer users, there was no longer any meaningful distinction between a Mac and a PC. Apple ran ads in the New York Times and the