| On January 24, 1984, twenty years ago, Apple Computer brought onto the market the Macintosh. The computer contained features that prior to that time virtually were unknown. This included simple icons and what then was considered to be an unusual attachment known as a mouse. Early descriptions of the mouse include what was published in the San Jose Mercury News in California. The mouse was described in that paper as being a handheld device that can be slid across a table top and then moves the cursor on the Macintosh screen.
Apple Inc. History:
1970s:
Apple Computers is founded in California by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who assembled the first personal computer on the basis of the processor “MOS Technology 6502” in the mid 1970s. After selling several tens of such computers, the young businessmen received funding and officially registered the company on April 1, 1976.
The “Apple I”, which was released in 1976, was not the first programmable microcomputer. The superiority right belonged to the computer “Altair 8800”, which was created by an amateur and was distributed through hobbyist magazines in 1974. However, the “Altair” was not technically qualified as a “Personal Computer” since it did not provide the facility to store and retrieve data with the help of programs.
Throughout two decades, the company released its stylish computers "Macintosh" using the processors “Motorola”, equipped with a company-provided (built-in) operating system. This platform was released only by “Apple” — for a short time in the mid-nineties, the management took a decision on granting a license for the manufacture of Mac-compatible computers, but subsequently licenses were withdrawn.
Traditionally, “Apple” had strong positions in governmental and educational organizations and also in the publishing business and design. Much earlier than other developers, “Apple” entered into the widespread use of a graphic interface for the user and the computer mouse.
1980:
After releasing the computer into the market in November 1980, all malfunctions and faults made their presence felt. When by March, 1981, bulk supplies were delivered; it was found that 20% of the computers appeared faulty on receipt. Integrated circuits came out of their slots during transportation. Those computers, which started working, broke down only some after working for a few hours, since Jobs insisted on the removing of the fan the integrated circuits could not stay in the allotted slots due to temperature expansion.
In March 1981, Wozniak met with an accident due to a plane crash and for a while, stopped working. Problems with sales with the “Apple III” made Jobs take the decision to dismiss 40 employees. The fast closure of the company “Apple” was already discussed in the press.
In the beginning of 1983, not in a condition to cope with the problems, Jobs invited John Sculley, who at that time was holding a similar position in “PepsiCo”, to take over as CEO of the company. In April 1983, Sculley took over as CEO of the company. Steve Jobs took the failures of the company as his personal failures and hence, differences and frictions occurred between Jobs and Sculley.
In 1985, US president Ronald Reagan awarded Jobs and Wozniak with medals for progress in technical development.
Activity:
The company sells part of the production at retail through a network of shops belonging to the company (a total of 147 in USA, Canada, Japan and Great Britain). For the financial year of 2005, which ended for “Apple” on September 24, the company received proceeds worth 2.35 billion USD from the retail shops, which makes 17% of the company’s annual sales volume.
For the financial year 2007, which ended on September 29, 2007, the sales of “Apple” touched 24.0 billion USD.
Marketing:
The marketing policy of “Apple” is quite aggressive.
For example, users of “Apple” products on Microsoft Windows platforms receive communication about updates of products, which are not fitted in them; the installation option of these products is done by default. Particularly, users of Safari are offered to install iTunes and QuickTime; so as to refuse from installation, the users should remove the corresponding checks in the update dialog.
So, in March 2008, Apple started offering its web browser Safari for iTunes users for Windows. In this case, the installation option of the browser is done by default and the description of it consists exclusively from advertising and reference to the site.
Names:
* After three months of vain attempts to find a name for the new business, one of founders of the company Steve Jobs gave an ultimatum to the partners: “I will name the company “Apple” if something better is not suggested by 5 o'clock”.
* Steve Jobs suggested “Apple” since the telephone number of the company “Apple” will be before the telephone number of “Atari” in telephone directory.
* “Macintosh” is a name of a variety of Apple computer, sold in the USA and a favorite variety of Jef Raskin, who was project head of “Macintosh” before this post was occupied by Steve Jobs. Jef Raskin developed the computer concept “Macintosh”. However, Jef Raskin committed a mistake: actually, apple computers are called McIntosh and Jef has written this word incorrectly. Nevertheless, this did not have any importance in long-term prospects. The personal computer became much more popular than apple computers and after the release of the computer into the market; people started writing the name of these apple computers correctly.
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