The History of Apple

For my first blog I decided to give my readers a quick history of the Apple Empire that we know today. We all know the anything and everything has to do with Apple in one way or another. Weather it is from the new iPhone or iPod to the sleek high speed computers they have out today. With over a 65.23 billion dollar revenue almost everyone has some form of a Apple product in their house but where did it all start? Where did this powerful empire get its own state from? On April 1^st, 1976 Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne began to sell the personal computer kit and the Apple I was created. It was originally sold as a motherboard. The Apple I went of sale in July of 1976 for the marketing price of $666.66 dollars which would equal today’s money we just over $2,000. In 1977 apple did not wait long before they released the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. With the new features of the floppy disk drive and the interface, the Apple II was the latest in technology for their time but the company had yet to take off. By the end of the 1970s Apple finally began to pick up and began a production line to produce their new Apple III. When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires than any company in history. In 1978 Steve Jobs began work on the Apple Lisa and the invention of Macintosh. In 1984, Apple next launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by the now famous $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. Sales were good but not where the company wanted and Apple began to struggle with this for a very long time.
            After the fall of the bulky Macintosh Portable in 1989 Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991 which presented the first modern layout of the lap tops that are used today. This PowerBook was the rise of the Apple empire. With it weighing just under 17 pounds and having a 12-hour battery life and System 7, which was the upgraded operating system. This new operating system allowed color to the interface and introduction to new networking capabilities to a architecturally basis for Mac Os until 2001. Although Apple experienced a rapid decline in sales, in the late 1990s Apple began to pick sales back up with the new eWorld. eWorld was developed in collaboration with America Online and designed as a Mac-friendly alternative to other online services such as CompuServe. In 1998, Apple announced the purchase of Macromedia's Final Cut software, signaling its expansion into the digital video editing market. The following year, Apple released two video editing products: iMovie for consumers and, for professionals. By creating these programs the Apple Companies put the foot in the door into the movie industries and increased both their name and their sales reniview. Today almost every broadcasting companies use Mac’s or Mac based products to create their productions. In 2001 Apple opened its first retail store in Virginia and California. In October 23 of that same year apple released its first iPod with a large success with over 100 million unites sold within the first six years. In 2003, Apple's iTunes Store was introduced, offering online music downloads for $0.99 a song and integration with the iPod. The service quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by June 19, 2008
            In 2006 Steve Jobs announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Mac computers. The Mac Book Pro and the iMac became the first computers to do this. computers were no longer the main focus of the company, which had shifted its emphasis to mobile electronic devices. The event also saw the announcement of the iPhone. Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Within a month, the store sold 60 million applications and brought in $1 million daily on average. With the increased sales of the iPod and iPhone Mac then realsed in January 2011 the iPad which furthered Apples reputation as pushing technology beyond its boundaries. After Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization in 2010, Apple Inc. has also become the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world with a 246 percent increased to $19.1 billion. This increase in Apple popularity allows Apple to be the number one leading technology producer in the world today.