Computer Museum of America - Apple Computing

Apple

Founded in 1976 by Steven Wozniak and Steve Jobs
Headquarters: Cupertino, California

The story of Apple Computing is the prototypical story of the personal computer revolution: a couple of genius nerds start a small company in their Silicon Valley garage, sell millions of computers, get rich and change the world.

Apple I reproduction
From the Museum Collection
Donor: Turner Network Television Inc.

While there are plenty of myths that have sprung up regarding Apple, the above remains a fairly accurate depiction of the company's history. Steven Wozniak and Steve Jobs (both now in the Computer Hall of Fame) really did start a computer empire on a shoestring budget — and started it as much out of frustration as vision. Apple Computing was founded to sell the Apple I computer only after Atari and Hewlett-Packard had turned down Jobs' offer of manufacturing and marketing Wozniak's brainchild. (Neither company felt, in 1975, that there was or would be a significant market for a "personal" or home computer.)

The Apple I wasn't Wozniak's first computer design; as a teenager in the 1960s he built a computer from transistors, calling it the Cream Soda Computer. But when he took an Apple I prototype — a motherboard and directions for adding peripherals such as a keyboard, cassette drive and TV/monitor — to a Homebrew Club meeting in Silicon Valley (which were chaired by Computer Hall of Fame member Lee Felsenstein), the response of the other members was: How much do you want?

Apple II Plus
From the Museum Collection

Jobs and Wozniak began assembling Apple I computers to sell (for the demonic price of $666.66), but found that there was also a demand for computers from people who didn't know how to solder or use an ampmeter, and had no desire to learn. These potential customers did, however, have a desire to own a personal computer.

And so Wozniak began developing the Apple II — a pre-assembled commercial version of the Apple I. The Apple II came with a keyboard and monitor included, along with a cassette drive for storage (floppy drives remained prohibitively expensive at that time).

Closeup of an Apple II showing the expansion slots The expansion slots in an Apple II
From the Museum Collection

With a clever, folksy advertising campaign, the Apple II soon proved more popular than its early competitors, capable machines such as the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Processor Technology Sol and the Ohio Scientific Challenger. The Apple II was also designed to be easy to upgrade — the top cover could be quickly removed to access motherboard slots allowing for plug-in cards controlling devices like joysticks, floppy drives, printers and modems.

While the Apple II didn't sell as many units as Commodore's popular VIC-20 and Commodore 64 computers, through its record of innovation and strong market presence Apple established itself as the king of the fledgling personal computer industry.

By the late 1970s, it was clear that the Apple II lacked the power to make significant inroads into the business world. Apple would make two distinct efforts to insert itself into the world of corporate computing, one of which would change the way personal computers work and the other of which would become Apple's equivalent of the Edsel.

Apple III console
From the Museum Collection

Apple Lisa 2
From the Museum Collection

The Apple III — introduced in 1980 — was a monumental failure. It looked much like an Apple II, but didn't run Apple II software. Rather than piggybacking on an existing operating system like CP/M (which had a large, built-in user base), the Apple III had its own operating system designed to handle the kinds of large, powerful applications — such as databases and spreadsheets — that businesses use.

Apple was never able to generate much third-party software support for the Apple III, and the machine suffered from an unacceptably high rate of hardware failures. In 1983, an updated version — the III Plus — was introduced, but did no better. By 1985, Apple was forced to withdraw the machine from the market.

The Lisa turned out much better, even if its sales weren't much more than those of the Apple III. But as the first widely available computer with a graphical user interface, or GUI, the Lisa would change the way personal computers are used.

Inspired by a tour that Jobs and other Apple engineers took of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, where they saw Xerox's GUI-based Alto workstations, Apple set to work on a computer that would further the company's philosophy of making computers easier to use.

Built around Motorola's 5 Mhz 16-bit 68000 cpu, the Lisa's operating system was controlled with a mouse — users pointed the mouse at various icons on the "desktop" in order to execute their commands, such as copying files or launching applications.

Screenshot from an Apple Lisa
Courtesy the History of Computing Project
(Click on image to view larger version.)

Priced at almost $10,000 each, though, the Lisa never sold very many units after its 1983 introduction. Still, in addition to bringing the desktop-based GUI to the general computing public, the Lisa II was one of the first P.C.'s to use the new 3.5" floppy discs that were to become the industry standard. (The first version of the Lisa used a non-standard 5 1/4" floppy drive that needed special diskettes.)

If the Lisa never took off the way Jobs and his braintrust had hoped, it did lead to Apple's next computer, the Macintosh, in 1984.

Priced at a much more reasonable $2,500, the Macintosh was a hit. Although initially underpowered, newer models were soon introduced with more memory and features. And Microsoft released the so-called "killer application" for the Mac — a software program so popular that it helps sell the computers it runs on. Microsoft's "Word" was a quantum leap forward in word processing, taking advantage of the Mac's mouse-driven operating system to replace the function keys and arcane codes used by the competition.

Mac SE Macintosh SE
From the Museum Collection

In the mid-1980s, Apple was in trouble. Wozniak had left the company, and Jobs was forced out after a power struggle with CEO John Sculley in 1985 — going on to found NeXT. Later that same year, Apple was forced to lay off a fifth of its workforce and posted its first-ever quarterly loss.

The year 1985 also saw the introduction of Microsoft Windows — a program to allow users of the Intel-based IBM compatible computers to have a Mac-like desktop environment. Microsoft's line-command interface operating system, MS-DOS, already was the dominant operating system in the corporate world, and Windows seemed aimed directly at Apple's users.

Apple seemed to be in real trouble — but another "killer application" again came to the rescue. The nearly simultaneous introduction of "PageMaker," a powerful desktop publishing program, and the first retail laser printers, helped to make Apple's Macintosh an affordable alternative to expensive typesetting equipment.

As the 1980s closed, it had become increasingly apparent that the Motorola 680X0 line of CPUs that powered the popular Macintosh computers was reaching the limits of its capabilities. Apple teamed up with IBM and Motorola on a next-generation family of CPUs for the Macs. Dubbed the PowerPC, when finally released in 1993 the new CPU took the Mac into the 32- and 64-bit realm of computing — allowing Apple to continue competing against the dominant Intel-based computers.

Apple Newton
Courtesy Apple Computing

Apple also made a bold move into the handheld computing market in 1993 with the release of the Newton, one of the first personal digital assistants, or PDAs. While the Newton failed to establish itself, losing out to the Palm line of handheld organizers and eventually being sold off by Apple, it did help to popularize the concept of the PDA.

In the meantime, even with the new PowerPC-powered Macs, sales of the company's flagship Mac continued to slump. A brief flirtation with licensing other companies to make Mac clones didn't boost sales or the amount of third-party software, either.

Apple iMac
Courtesy Apple Computing

In late 1996, Apple purchased Steve Jobs' NeXT computer company, and Jobs was reinstalled as Apple CEO. Almost immediately, Jobs began redesigning the Mac. The result was released two years later in the sleek iMac. As with the NeXT cube, the iMac had no floppy drive. And in a bit of consumer marketing genius, Jobs had the iMac available in a variety of fruit-themed colors — names like tangerine and blueberry. iMac sales were phenemenol, with hundreds of thousands pre-ordered before the new computers were even released. For the first time in years, Apple began to regain market share, and eevntually became — again — the No. 1 computer manufacturer in the world.

Apple G4 Cube
Courtesy Apple Computing

Apple iMac with flatscreen monitor Apple iMac Widescreen
Courtesy Apple Computing

Today's success is no guarantee of tomorrow's survival, of course — but with Jobs back at the helm of Apple, morale is high both at the company and among its zealous customers, and technological innovation continues apace.

Apple iMac Apple iPod
Courtesy Apple Computing

In 2001, Apple introduced a new state-of-the-art all-digital portable music player, the iPod — which soon became one of the most popular consumer items on the market. Other products that grabbed the public's attention were the G4 Cube, a small unit that looked more like a nightlight than the powerful computer it was, and a redesigned iMac, with a flat-screen monitor mounted on an ultra-compact CPU unit.

Apple also began to move aggressively into the high-end server market, with a new generation of its Mac operating system based on Jobs' NextStep Unix-based OS.

For now, at least, Apple remains a quintessential success story — still living up to its reputation, still one of the few companies capable of turning out products that can immediately change the public's expectations.

Close this window to return to the Computer Museum of America.