Apple turned 40 years old today, Happy Birthday! The company was started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the Job’s garage on April 1, 1976. Their homemade Apple One computer had a price tag of $666.66 and they got it on store shelves that July. Wayne sold his 10% share for $800 within a year. The current market value of Apple is around $615 billion. Apple has had a number of eureka moments with Steve Jobs at the helm however overall, they have done well with the constant iterations. The major breakthroughs definitely do help though.
The Apple II was released in 1977 and the next major milestone would be the release of the Macintosh in 1984. Many call their Super Bowl commercial one of the greatest of all time when they release the Macintosh. As you can guess it had an Orwellian twist to it. As a result, the Macintosh sales exploded.
In 1993, Apple released the Apple Newton tablet. Unfortunately it was ill-fated and well ahead of its time. The iMac was released in 1998 followed by the iPod in 2001 which boasted 1,000 songs in your pocket! Now that was something exceptional.
In timely release was the iTunes Store in 2003 which definitely ushered us into the age of digital downloads.
The iPhone comes next in 2007, hard to believe it’s been almost 10 years now since the first release. They have sold over 75 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2016, it’s definitely a very strong product for them.
Apple then suffered a major loss in 2011 when Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer.
It will be interesting to see what Apple has for us next in the future.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years, indeed! Apple has brought so many joy in my life – I have to thank them. It was awesome reading about their origin and what they’ve done since.
R.I.P Steve, you can rest assured knowing that Apple is still carrying your legacy.
Almost 10 years since iPhone first existed! Now that’s hard to comprehend. The world has been shaped so much in such little time, I wonder if Apple will do a Virgin a branch into other areas, although financially they’re safe with what they do now
Now that’s news. Apple is hands down the world’s most iconic company and them being able to consistently deliver quality products and services for 40 years is a very big deal. I’m sure Steve jobs is up there, happy with how his dream is being carried on by the thousands of workers at Apple.
When I started using computers, back in 1998, it was a Microsoft world, there was nothing of Apple available to buy. I only knew about Apple because of the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley, which showed how they started in the business. It gave a bad impression, they were portrayed as a mix of bad/good guys, but overall doing a good thing: bringing technology to the masses. It’s interesting how Apple managed to grow strong again, and, as the movies showed, they were right, they make better stuff than Microsoft, although I’m not sure if it’s worth price.
Definitely congratulations to Apple for selling quality products for 40 years now. Reading the line that says “the iPhone is almost 10 years old” really showed me how fast time has gone by. I feel like it was only a few years ago when my Dad bought the iPhone 3GS, and I loved playing games on it all the time. I thought it was amazing, and it was. Apple has consistently been pushing the limits of mobile devices and it is going to be very interesting to see what they have in store for us in the future. I have a feeling Steve Jobs will not be disappointed by Apple.
It certainly will be interesting to see what’s to come, especially on the back of some disappointing sales results released just this week.
Time has certainly flown, that’s for sure. Apple hasn’t disappointed in the past, and they’re going to need to continue to innovate in new product areas if they are to continue to grow, and excite.
My loyalty will always remain to Apple.
Apple truly has left a huge mark, although I have to say nowadays I feel it is more of an icon than a brand that is looking to evolve and push their limits by getting involved with other markets and providing groundbreaking products such as the iPod and iPhone were on release.
To be honest I have never been a big fan of Apple products for the simple fact their iPhone are very restrictive, at least in comparison with Android based devices. I’ve felt tempted to get an iPad in the past, but I fear they might be as restrictive and jealous of third party applications like their iPhone. It’s a shame 🙁
You completely missed the point of this article though. It isn’t a ‘what’s your opinion on Apple’ article… Not to be rude but I’m tired of seeing all these, ‘I’m not a big fan of Apple, Android is better’ posts.
As for the article itself, good for Apple! They’ve made a lot of purchases in those 40 years and as an Apple product owner, that makes me feel happy.
Maybe it’s not a ‘what’s your opinion on Apple’ kind of article but I don’t think there’s something wrong with Trellum’s comment. There’s no way Apple could please everybody on these past 40 years. I’m not a big fan of Apple’s products either (altough I do have an iPad) but I know that it’s a big player in the tech field.
Steve had a dream, to build the most exceptional products. He was a true mastermind in designing as well as marketing. His movie “Steve Jobs” showed how he managed to compete with Microsoft back then. Came with an idea of a peripheral pointing device to do things on the computer.
Jobs and Gates became partners as well. But Gates betrayed him by stealing his ideas and Jobs was kicked out of Apple. After his return to Apple, he managed to grab the whole market and took Apple to new heights.
Cheers
Zander
A little late to the party but a belated happy birthday to Apple from me, it’s honestly amazing that they achieved so much in such a short period of time, I’m surprised time passed by so fast.
I always loved their thirst for innovation and producing high quality devices, Apple’s products may be costly but they are surely worth it no matter what, I’ve had a Macbook for 5 years now and it doesn’t show any signs of aging (well, I kept it in pristine condition too but let’s not discredit Apple for their works).
A lot of people don’t like Apple. Understandably, but no one can deny that they are pioneers in introducing “new” mechanics to mainstream customers. And I put new in quotation marks because most of their stuff was copied from competitors. Like touch screens from Microsoft. Which is probably a good thing seeing they popularized it.
40 years – wow! I can remember when Apple products were seen as very unfashionable indeed. What a turnaround! I wonder what they’ll be trying to sell us in another 40 years time?
1000 songs in your pocket wasn’t anything new back in 2001 because there where a few mp3 players back then that could hold that much music, but all of them use their storage capacity as advertisement and then Apple came with that “1000 songs in your pocket” and boom! no body cared about any other music player! that was an awesome movement by Steve Jobs.
Without Jobs there hasn’t been much innovation but the company is doing just fine. There have been some incremental updates to their iPhones and now they have their iPad Pros in the wild. But as you said it’ll be interesting to see what Apple can deliver in the future.
Wow… 40 years for Apple. That is quite amazing, I was thinking that they have only been around for 20 or so. I hope that they stick around for another 40 years, creating innovative new gadgets and devices for everyday life!