1976 1980: The early years

The Apple I, Apple's first product. Sold as an assembled circuit board, it lacke
d basic features such as a keyboard, monitor, and case. The owner of this unit a
dded a keyboard and a wooden case.
Apple was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald
Wayne,[1] to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. They were hand-built by Woz
niak[16][17] and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club.[18] Th
e Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chip
s) less than what is today considered a complete personal computer.[19] The Apple
I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($2.55 thousand in
2010 dollars, adjusted for inflation.)[20][21][22][23][24][25]
Apple was incorporated January 3, 1977[7] without Wayne, who sold his share of t
he company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multi-millionaire Mike Markkula pr
ovided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorpora
tion of Apple.[26][27]
The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer F
aire. It differed from its major rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because i
t came with color graphics and an open architecture. While early models used ord
inary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introductio
n of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface, the Disk II.[28]
The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first "killer app" of
the business world the VisiCalc spreadsheet program.[29] VisiCalc created a busin
ess market for the Apple II, and gave home users an additional reason to buy an
Apple II compatibility with the office.[29] According to Brian Bagnall, Apple exag
gerated its sales figures and was a distant third place to Commodore and Tandy u
ntil VisiCalc came along.[30][31]
By the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a productio
n line. The company introduced the ill-fated Apple III in May 1980 in an attempt
to compete with IBM and Microsoft in the business and corporate computing marke
t.[32]
Jobs and several Apple employees including Jef Raskin visited Xerox PARC in Dece
mber 1979 to see the Xerox Alto. Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of acc
ess to the PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100,000 shares of App
le at the pre-IPO price of $10 a share.[33] Jobs was immediately convinced that
all future computers would use a graphical user interface (GUI), and development
of a GUI began for the Apple Lisa.[34]
In December 1980, Apple launched the initial public offering of its stock to the
investing public.[citation needed] When Apple went public, it generated more ca
pital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more m
illionaires (about 300) than any company in history. Several venture capitalists
cashed out, reaping billions in long-term capital gains.[citation needed]
1981 1985: Lisa and Macintosh
The heroine from Apple's "1984" ad, set in a dystopian future modeled after the
George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, set the tone for the introduction of t
he Macintosh.
Steve Jobs began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978 but in 1982 he was pushed fro
m the Lisa team due to infighting, and took over Jef Raskin's low-cost-computer
project, the Macintosh. A turf war broke out between Lisa's "corporate shirts" a
nd Jobs' "pirates" over which product would ship first and save Apple. Lisa won
the race in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public with
a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and limited softwa
re titles.[35]
The first Macintosh, released in 1984.
In 1984, Apple next launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by the now f
amous $1.5 million television commercial "1984". It was directed by Ridley Scott
, aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984,[36] an
d is now considered a watershed event for Apple's success[37] and a "masterpiece
".[38][39]
The Macintosh initially sold well, but follow-up sales were not strong[40] due t
o its high price and limited range of software titles. The machine's fortunes ch
anged with the introduction of the LaserWriter, the first PostScript laser print
er to be offered at a reasonable price point, and PageMaker, an early desktop pu
blishing package. The Mac was particularly powerful in this market due to its ad
vanced graphics capabilities, which were already necessarily built-in to create
the intuitive Macintosh GUI. It has been suggested that the combination of these
three products was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing marke
t.[41]
In 1985, a power struggle developed between Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had b
een hired two years prior.[42] The Apple board of directors felt that products s
uch as the Macintosh had been a failure because of dismal sales. They instructed
Sculley to "contain" Jobs and limit his ability to launch expensive forays into
untested products. Rather than submit to Sculley's direction, Jobs attempted to
oust him from his leadership role at Apple. Sculley found out that Jobs had bee
n attempting to organize a putsch and called a board meeting at which Apple's bo
ard of directors sided with Sculley and removed Jobs from his managerial duties.
[40] Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT Inc. the same year.[43]

Apple's sustained growth during the early 1980s was in great part due to its lea
dership in the education sector, attributed to an implementation of the LOGO Pro
gramming Language by Logo Computer Systems Inc., (LCSI), for the Apple II platfo
rm. The success of Apple and LOGO in the education environment provided Apple
with a broad base of loyal users around the world. The drive into education was
accentuated in California by a momentous agreement concluded between Steve Jobs
and Jim Baroux of LCSI, agreeing with the donation of one Apple II and one Apple
LOGO
software package to each public school in the state. The arrangement, eventually
replicated in Texas, established a strong and pervasive presence for Apple in a
ll
schools throughout California, which ignited the acquisition of Apple IIs in sch
ools across the country. The conquest of education became critical to Apple's
acceptance in the home, as parents supported continued learning experience for c
hildren after school.
1986 1993: Rise and fall
See also: Timeline of Apple II family and Timeline of Macintosh models
The Macintosh Portable was Apple's first "portable" Macintosh computer, released
in 1989.
Having learned several painful lessons after introducing the bulky Macintosh Por
table in 1989, Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991, which established the
modern form and ergonomic layout of the laptop computer.[44] The Macintosh Porta
ble was designed to be just as powerful as a
desktop Macintosh and turned out 17 pounds
with a 12 hour battery life. Apple sold fewer than 100,000 units.[] The Powerboo
k was 7 pounds and had a 3 hour battery life, and sold a billion
dollars worth within the first year.[citation needed] The same year, Apple
introduced System 7, a major upgrade to the operating system, which added color
to the interface and introduced new networking capabilities. It remained the arc
hitectural basis for Mac OS until 2001.
The success of the PowerBook and other products led to increasing revenue.[42] F
or some time, it appeared that Apple could do no wrong,
introducing fresh new products and generating increasing profits in the process
. The magazine MacAddict has named the period between 1989 and 1991 as the "firs
t golden age" of the Macintosh.
Following the success of the Macintosh LC, Apple introduced the Centris line, a
low end Quadra offering, and the ill-fated Performa line that was sold in severa
l
confusing configurations and software bundles to avoid competing with the variou
s consumer outlets such as Sears, Price Club, and Wal-Mart, the primary dealers
for these models. The result was disastrous for Apple as consumers did not under
stand the difference between models.
During this time Apple experimented with a number of other failed consumer targe
ted products including digital cameras, portable CD audio players, speakers, vid
eo consoles, and TV appliances. Enormous resources were also invested in the pro
blem-plagued Newton division based on John Sculley's unrealistic market forecast
s. Ultimately, all of this proved too-little-too-late for Apple as their market
share and stock prices continued to slide.
Apple saw the Apple II series as too expensive to produce, while taking away sal
es from the low end Macintosh.[45] In 1990, Apple released the Macintosh LC with
a single expansion slot for the Apple IIe Card to migrate Apple II users to the
Macintosh platform.[46] Apple stopped selling the Apple IIe in 1993.
Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows, focusing on delivering so
ftware to cheap commodity personal computers while Apple was delivering a richly
engineered, but expensive, experience.[47] Apple relied on high profit margins
and never developed a clear response. Instead they sued Microsoft for using a gr
aphical
user interface similar to the Apple Lisa in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Co
rporation.[48] The lawsuit dragged on for years before it was thrown out of cour
t. At the same time, a series of major product flops and missed deadlines
sullied Apple's reputation, and Sculley was replaced by Michael Spindler.[49]
1994 1997: Attempts at reinvention
The Newton was Apple's first foray into the PDA markets, as well as one of the f
irst in the industry. A financial flop, it helped pave the way for the Palm Pilo
t and Apple's own iPhone and iPad in the future.

By the early 1990s, Apple was developing alternative platforms to the Macintosh,
such as the A/UX. The Macintosh platform was becoming outdated since it was not
built for multitasking, and several important software routines were programmed
directly into the hardware. In addition, Apple was facing competition from OS/2
and UNIX vendors like Sun Microsystems. The Macintosh would need to be replaced
by a new platform, or reworked to run on more powerful hardware.[50]
In 1994, Apple allied with IBM and Motorola in the AIM alliance. The goal was to
create a new computing platform (the PowerPC Reference Platform), which would u
se IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple's software. The AIM alliance hop
ed that PReP's performance and Apple's software would leave the PC far behind, t
hus countering Microsoft. The same year, Apple introduced the Power Macintosh, t
he first of many Apple computers to use IBM's PowerPC processor.[51]
In 1996, Michael Spindler was replaced by Gil Amelio as CEO. Gil Amelio made man
y changes at Apple, including massive layoffs.[52] After multiple failed attempt
s to improve Mac OS, first with the Taligent project, then later with Copland an
d Gershwin, Amelio chose to purchase NeXT and its NeXTSTEP operating system, bri
nging Steve Jobs back to Apple as an advisor.[53] On July 9, 1997, Gil Amelio wa
s ousted
by the board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price a
nd crippling financial losses. Jobs became the interim CEO and began restructuri
ng the company's product line.
At the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would join Microsoft
to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, and that Microsof
t made a $150 million investment in non-voting Apple stock.[54]
On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the Apple Store, tied to a new build-to-o
rder manufacturing strategy.[55][56]
1998 2005: Return to profitability
On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of th
e Macintosh 128K: the iMac. The iMac design team was led by Jonathan Ive, who wo
uld later design the iPod and the iPhone.[57][58] The iMac featured modern techn
ology and a unique design. It sold close to 800,000 units in its first five mont
hs.[59]

Through this period, Apple purchased several companies to create a portfolio of

professional and consumer-oriented digital production software. In 1998, Apple
announced the purchase of Macromedia's Final Cut software, signaling its expansi
on into the digital video editing market.[60] The following year, Apple released
two
video editing products: iMovie for consumers, and Final Cut Pro for professional
s,
the latter of which has gone on to be a significant video-editing program, with
800,000 registered users in early 2007.[61] In 2002 Apple purchased Nothing Real
for their advanced digital compositing application Shake,[62] as well as Emagic
for
their music productivity application Logic, which led to the development of thei
r
consumer-level GarageBand application.[63][64] iPhoto's release the same year co
mpleted the iLife suite.[65]
The entrance of the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City is a glass cube
,
housing a cylindrical elevator and a spiral staircase that leads into the subter
ranean store.
Mac OS X, based on NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD Unix was released on March 24, 2001,
after several years of development. Aimed at consumers and professionals alike,
Mac OS X aimed to combine the stability, reliability and security of Unix with t
he ease of use afforded by an overhauled user interface. To aid users in migrati
ng from Mac OS 9, the new operating system allowed the use of OS 9 applications
through Mac OS
X's Classic environment.[66]
On May 19, 2001, Apple opened the first official Apple Retail Stores in Virginia
and California.[67] The same year, Apple introduced the iPod portable digital a
udio player. The product was phenomenally successful over 100 million units were
sold within six years.[68][69] In 2003, Apple's iTunes Store was introduced, of
fering
online music downloads for $0.99 a song and integration with the iPod. The servi
ce quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billio
n downloads by June 19, 2008.[70]
Since 2001 Apple's design team has progressively abandoned the use of translucen
t colored plastics first used in the iMac G3. This began with the titanium Power
Book and was followed by the white polycarbonate iBook and the flat-panel iMac.[
71][72]
2005 2007: The Intel transition
Main article: Apple Intel transition
The MacBook Pro (15.4" widescreen) was Apple's first laptop with an Intel microp
rocessor. It was announced in January 2006 and is aimed at the professional mark
et.
At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Steve Jo
bs announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Mac computers in 2006.
[73] On January 10, 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple co
mputers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU. By August 7, 2006 Apple had transitioned th
e entire
Mac product line to Intel chips, over 1 year sooner than announced.[73] The Powe
r Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition; the Mac P
ro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became their respective successors.[74][75] On Apri
l 29, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was building its own tea
m of engineers to design microchips.[76]
Apple also introduced Boot Camp to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vist
a on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X.[77]
Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price. Between early
2003 and 2006, the price of Apple's stock increased more than tenfold, from aro
und $6 per share (split-adjusted) to over $80. In January 2006, Apple's market c
ap surpassed that of Dell.[78] Nine years prior, Dell's CEO Michael Dell said th
at if he ran Apple he would "shut it down and give the money back to the shareho
lders."[79]
Although Apple's market share in computers has grown, it remains far behind comp
etitors using Microsoft Windows, with only about 8 percent of desktops and lapto
ps in the U.S.[80]
2007 present: Mobile Consumer Electronics Era
Delivering his keynote at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced t
hat Apple Computer, Inc. would from that point on be known as Apple Inc. because
computers are just one part of the company now. This change reflects the compan
y's focus to mobile electronic devices from personal computers. The event also s
aw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV.[81] The following day, Apple
shares hit $97.80, an all-time high at that point. In May, Apple's share price
passed the $100 mark.[82]
In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs wrote th
at Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without DRM (which w
ould allow tracks to be played on third-party players) if record labels would ag
ree to drop the technology.[83] On April 2, 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announce
d the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in the iTunes Store, effectiv
e in May.[84] Other record labels followed suit later that year.
The Mac, iPad, and iPhone now form the core of Apple's business.
In July of the following year, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party
applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.[85] Within a month, the store sold 6
0 million applications and brought in $1 million daily on average, with Jobs spe
culating that the App Store could become
a billion-dollar business for Apple.[86] Three months later, it was announced t
hat Apple had become the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world due
to the popularity of the iPhone.[87]
On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that after over 20 years of attending Macw
orld, 2009 would be the last year Apple would be attending the Macworld Expo, an
d that Phil Schiller would deliver the 2009 keynote in lieu of the expected Jobs
.[88] Almost exactly one month later, on January 14, 2009, an internal Apple
memo from Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence, u
ntil the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health and to all
ow the company to better focus on its products with out having the rampant media
speculating about his health.[89] Despite Jobs' absence, Apple recorded its bes
t non-holiday quarter (Q1 FY 2009) during the recession with a revenue of $8.16
billion and a profit of $1.21 billion.[90]
After years of speculation and multiple rumored "leaks" Apple announced a large
screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. The iPad
runs the same touch based operating system that the iPhone uses and many of the
same iPhone apps are compatible with the iPad. This gave the iPad a large app c
atalog on launch even with very little development time before the release. Late
r that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than
300,000 units on that day and reaching 500,000 by the end of the first week.[91
]
Current products
See also: Timeline of Apple products and List of products discontinued by Apple
Inc.
Mac and accessories
See also: Timeline of Macintosh models, List of Macintosh models grouped by CPU
type, and List of Macintosh models by case type
The Mac mini.
* Mac mini, consumer sub-desktop computer and server introduced in January 2
005.
* iMac, consumer all-in-one desktop computer that was first introduced by Ap
ple in 1998. Its popularity helped revive the company's fortunes.[59]
* Mac Pro, workstation-class desktop computer introduced in August 2006. It
replaced the Power Macintosh.
* MacBook, consumer notebook introduced in 2006. It replaced the iBook.
* MacBook Air, ultra-thin, ultra-portable notebook, introduced in January 20
08.
* MacBook Pro, professional portable computer alternative to the MacBook, av
ailable in 13, 15, and 17-inch variants, introduced in January 2006. It replaced
the PowerBook.
* Xserve, rack mounted, dual or quad core, dual processor 1U server.
Apple sells a variety of computer accessories for Mac computers including the Ai
rPort wireless networking products, Time Capsule, Cinema Display, Magic Mouse, t
he Apple Wireless Keyboard computer keyboard, and the Apple USB Modem.
iPad
Main article: iPad
On January 27, 2010, Apple introduced their much-anticipated media tablet, the i
Pad running a modified version of iOS. It offers multitouch interaction with mul
timedia formats including newspapers, magazines, ebooks, textbooks, photos, movi
es, TV shows videos, music, word processing documents, spreadsheets, video games
, and all existing iPhone apps.[92] It also includes a mobile version of Safari
for internet browsing, as well as access to the App Store, iTunes Library, iBook
s store, contacts, and notepad. Content is downloadable via WIFI and optional 3G
service or synced through the user's computer.[2] AT&T is currently the sole US
provider of 3G wireless access for the iPad.[93]
iPod
Main article: iPod
iPod Nano
On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod digital music player. It has evol
ved to include various models targeting the wants of different users. The iPod i
s the market leader in portable music players by a significant margin, with more
than 220 million units shipped as of September 9, 2009.[94] Apple has partnered
with Nike to offer the Nike+iPod Sports Kit enabling runners to synchronize and
monitor their runs with iTunes and the Nike+ website. Apple currently sells fou
r variants of the iPod.
* iPod Classic (previously named iPod from 2001 to 2007), portable media pla
yer first introduced in 2001, currently available in a 160 GB model.
* iPod Nano, portable media player first introduced in 2005, currently avail
able in 8 and 16 GB models. The newest generation has a 640x480 video camera (H.
264, 30FPS) and an FM tuner with live pause and iTunes Tagging.
* iPod Shuffle, digital audio player first introduced in 2005, currently ava
ilable in 2 and 4 GB models.
* iPod Touch, portable media player first introduced in September 2007. Curr
ently available in 8, 32, and 64GB models. The 32 and 64GB Gen 3 models feature
a faster processor and include voice control and an external microphone.
iPhone
Main article: iPhone
At the Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2007, Steve Jobs revealed the long
anticipated[95] iPhone, a convergence of an Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod
.[96] The original iPhone combined a 2.5G quad band GSM and EDGE cellular phone
with features found in hand held devices, running scaled-down versions of Apple'
s Mac OS X (dubbed iOS, formerly iPhone OS), with various Mac OS X applications
such as Safari and Mail. It also includes web-based and Dashboard apps such as G
oogle Maps and Weather. The iPhone features a 3.5-inch (89 mm) touch screen disp
lay, 4, 8, or 16 GB of memory, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (both "b" and "g").[96] The
iPhone first became available on June 29, 2007 for $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB) w
ith an AT&T contract.[97] On February 5, 2008, Apple updated the original iPhone
to have 16 GB of memory, in addition to the 8 GB and 4 GB models.[98] On June 9
, 2008, at WWDC 2008, Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone 3G would be available
on July 11, 2008.[99] This version added support for 3G networking, assisted-GP
S navigation, and a price cut to $199 for the 8 GB version, and $299 for the 16
GB version, which was available in both black and white. The new version was vis
ually different from its predecessor in that it eliminated the flat silver back,
and large antenna square for a curved glossy black or white back. Following com
plaints from many people, the headphone jack was changed from a recessed jack to
a flush jack to be compatible with more styles of headphones. The software capa
bilities changed as well, with the release of the new iPhone came the release of
Apple's App Store; the store provided applications for download that were compa
tible with the iPhone. On April 24, 2009, the App Store surpassed one billion do
wnloads.[100] On June 8, 2009, at Apple's annual worldwide developers conference
, the iPhone 3GS was announced, providing an incremental update to the device in
cluding faster internal components, support for faster 3G speeds, video recordin
g capability, and voice control. On June 7, 2010, at WWDC 2010, the iPhone 4 was
announced, which Apple says is "it's biggest leap since the original iPhone". T
he phone includes an all-new design, 960x640 display, Apple's A4 processor used
in the iPad, a gyroscope for enhanced gaming, 5MP camera with LED flash, front-f
acing VGA camera and FaceTime video calling.
* iPhone 3GS, currently available in an 8 GB model.
* iPhone 4, currently available in 16 and 32 GB models.
Apple TV
Main article: Apple TV
Apple TV
At the 2007 Macworld conference, Jobs demonstrated the Apple TV, (previously kno
wn as the iTV),[101] a set-top video device intended to bridge the sale of conte
nt from iTunes with high-definition televisions. The device links up to a user's
TV and syncs, either via Wi-Fi or a wired network, with one computer's iTunes l
ibrary and streams from an additional four. The Apple TV originally incorporated
a 40 GB hard drive for storage, includes outputs for HDMI and component video,
and plays video at a maximum resolution of 720p.[102] On May 31, 2007 a 160 GB d
rive was released alongside the existing 40 GB model[103] and on January 15, 200
8 a software update was released, which allowed media to be purchased directly f
rom the Apple TV.[104] In September 2009, Apple discontinued the original 40GB A
pple TV and now continues to produce and sell the 160 GB Apple TV.
Software
See also: List of Macintosh software
Apple develops its own operating system to run on Macs, Mac OS X, the latest ver
sion being Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard. Apple also independently develops comput
er software titles for its Mac OS X operating system. Much of the software Apple
develops is bundled with its computers. An example of this is the consumer-orie
nted iLife software package that bundles iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, GarageBan
d, and iWeb. For presentation, page layout and word processing, iWork is availab
le, which includes Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. iTunes, QuickTime media player,
Safari web browser, and Software Update are available as free downloads for both
Mac OS X and Windows.
Apple also offers a range of professional software titles. Their range of server
software includes the operating system Mac OS X Server; Apple Remote Desktop, a
remote systems management application; WebObjects, Java EE Web application serv
er; and Xsan, a Storage Area Network file system. For the professional creative
market, there is Aperture for professional RAW-format photo processing; Final Cu
t Studio, a video production suite; Logic, a comprehensive music toolkit and Sha
ke, an advanced effects composition program.
Apple also offers online services with MobileMe (formerly .Mac) that bundles per
sonal web pages, email, Groups, iDisk, backup, iSync, and Learning Center online
tutorials. MobileMe is a subscription-based internet suite that capitalizes on
the ability to store personal data on an online server and thereby keep all web-
connected devices in sync.[105] Announced at MacWorld Expo 2009, iWork.com allow
s iWork users to upload documents for sharing and collaboration.
Timeline of Apple products