Feed your mind. Feast your eyes.
6 years that created Apple
As a new year dawns for the world’s top tech firm, we recall when it wasn’t
BY ADAM BANKS3
1979
Visiting Xerox
PARC, Apple
employees including
Jobs and Jef Raskin
see computers using
GUIs and mice. The
concept is incorporated
into the Lisa, a putative
business computer.1
1976
The Apple Computer 1, hand–built by Steve
Wozniak, goes on sale at the Byte Shop,
Mountain View, CA, for $666.66. Twelve days
after founding the company with Wozniak and
Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne sells back his
shares, becoming officially the rubbishest
tech investor ever.6
1985
Apple does not beat IBM’s
new PC. Having rapidly
expanded, the company is
forced to slash costs and staff.
Jobs quits, outmanoeuvred
by John Sculley, the
marketing guru he hired as
president. Dark years follow
— but the seeds are sown for
the history of the first trillion–
dollar company.2
1977
With sales of the Apple I
nearing 200, Jobs and Woz
incorporate Apple, Inc and
launch the Apple II, with a
keyboard and everything. It
will go on to sell five million,
establishing the concept of
a personal computer. Rob
Janoff draws the Apple logo.4
1981
Woz crashes his
plane and effectively
retires. Famous
multi–millionaire
Steve Jobs is
heckled by Apple
shareholders. With
glitches dogging the
Apple III, and the Lisa
team telling him his
ideas cost too much,
Jobs switches his
focus to Raskin’s
Macintosh project.5
1984
After the Lisa flops, the
Mac finally launches, with
a marketing blitz including a
Super Bowl TV ad. At $2,495,
it sells well, encouraging
investors to believe Apple will
beat IBM’s new ‘PC’.
Start
12 FEB 2020 maclife.com