Games - Apple Computer

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Apple Computer, Inc. ( and ) is an American computer technology company. Its headquarters are located at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, part of Silicon Valley. Apple was a major player in the personal computer revolution in the 1970s.

The Apple II microcomputer, introduced in 1977, was a hit with home users. In 1983, Apple introduced the first commercial personal computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI), the Lisa. In 1984, Apple introduced the revolutionary Macintosh. The Macintosh (commonly called the "Mac") was the first successful commercial implementation of a GUI, which is now used in all major computers.

Apple is known for its innovative, well-designed hardware and software, such as the iPod and the iMac, as well as the well-known iTunes application (part of the iLife suite) and Mac OS X, its current operating system.

History

1976 to 1980 - The founding of Apple

Apple Computer was founded in Mountain View, California on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, to sell the Apple I personal computer kit at $666.66. They were hand-built in Jobs' parents' garage, and the Apple I was first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club.

Jobs and Wozniak, ("the two Steves") had been friends since 1972. Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a personal computer and selling it. Jobs approached a local computer store, The Byte Shop, who, after Jobs' famous persuasion, ordered fifty units and paid $500 for each unit. Jobs then ordered components from Cramer Electronics, a national electronic parts distributor. Using a variety of methods, including borrowing space from friends and family and selling various items including a Volkswagen Type 2 bus, Jobs managed to secure the parts needed while Wozniak and another friend, Ronald Wayne, assembled the Apple I. They were delivered in June, and paid for on delivery. Eventually 200 Apple I computers were built.

Note that the original Apple I was simply a motherboard, it was not a full computer as we know it today.

The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It was popular with home users and was occasionally sold to business users, particularly after the release of the first spreadsheet for any computer called VisiCalc. (See the timeline for dates of Apple II family model releases—the 1977 Apple II and its younger siblings, the II Plus, IIe, IIc and IIGS.) But it was a mild success for the small computer company.

By now, Jobs and his partners had a staff of computer designers and a production line. The Apple II was succeeded by the Apple III in May 1980 as the company struggled to compete against IBM and Microsoft in the lucrative business and corporate computing market. The designers of the Apple III were forced to comply with Jobs' request to omit the cooling fan, and this ultimately resulted in thousands of recalled units due to overheating. An updated version was introduced in 1983 but it was also a failure due to bad press and discouraged buyers. Nevertheless, the principals of the company persevered with further innovations and marketing.

In the early 1980s, IBM and Microsoft continued to gain market share at Apple's expense in the personal computer industry. Using a fundamentally different business model, IBM marketed an open hardware standard created with the IBM PC, which was bundled with Microsoft's MS-DOS (MicroSoft-Disk Operating System).

1981 to 1989 - Lisa and Macintosh

Jobs and several other Apple employees including Jef Raskin visited Xerox PARC in December 1979, to see the Alto computer. Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the PARC facilities in return for selling them one million dollars in pre-IPO Apple stock (approximately $18 million net).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Apple Computer ]

Games - Apple Computer

History

1976 to 1980 - The founding of Apple

1981 to 1989 - Lisa and Macintosh

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