Apple Computer Company was founded on 1 April 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs to produce and market the “Apple I” personal computer, designed and hand-built entirely by Wozniak.
The company was incorporated in 1977, and its second computer, the “Apple II”, became a best seller as one of the first mass-produced microcomputers.
Apple introduced the “Lisa” – named after Steve Jobs’ daughter – in 1983 (pictured below). It worked on a Motorola 68000 at 5 MHz. The operating system, LisaOS, paved the way for the first Macintosh computer.
The Mac Plus landed in early 1986, two years after the original Macintosh 128k and just over a year after the 512k. This computer saw another increase in RAM – it now came with 1 MB of RAM, although this was expandable to a whopping 4 MB.
Jobs subsequently left Apple to form NeXT, Inc. and Wozniak withdrew to other ventures.
The market for personal computers expanded and evolved throughout the 1990s, and Apple lost considerable market share to the lower-priced Wintel duopoly of the Microsoft Windows operating system on Intel-powered PC clones.
In 1997, Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy. To resolve its failed operating system strategy and entice Jobs’s return, it bought NeXT.
Over the next decade, Jobs guided Apple back to profitability through several tactics, including introducing the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad to critical acclaim, opening the Apple Store retail chain, and acquiring numerous companies to broaden its product portfolio.
Jobs resigned in 2011 for health reasons and died two months later. He was succeeded as CEO by Tim Cook.
Apple became the first publicly traded American company to be valued at over $1 trillion in August 2018, $2 trillion in August 2020, and $3 trillion in January 2022.
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In 1997, Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy. To resolve its failed operating system strategy and entice Jobs’s return, it bought NeXT.
