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On The Job: The Launch Of Apple

Article Overview: While the 26-year-old Wozniak was content with his computer hobbyist group, the 21-year-old Jobs had a greater vision for the future. After seeing a computer that Wozniak had designed for himself, Jobs began to think about the marketability of such products. He convinced Wozniak to leave his job at Hewlett Packard and together the two began working on constructing a personal computer. Jobs’ passion and Wozniak’s engineering talent would soon combine to become a revolutionizing force in the computer industry.

On The Job: The Launch Of Apple

While the 26-year-old Wozniak was content with his computer hobbyist group, the 21-year-old Jobs had a greater vision for the future. After seeing a computer that Wozniak had designed for himself, Jobs began to think about the marketability of such products. He convinced Wozniak to leave his job at Hewlett Packard and together the two began working on constructing a personal computer. Jobs’ passion and Wozniak’s engineering talent would soon combine to become a revolutionizing force in the computer industry.

Working out of Jobs’ bedroom, the duo designed the Apple I, and later moved to Jobs’ garage to build the prototype. In order to raise the money they needed to finance their company, Jobs sold his Volkswagen van while Wozniak sold his programmable calculator. With $1,300 in capital, the pair created Apple Company and within weeks, they were taking orders.

Jobs had secured the company’s first sale of 50 Apple I computers for a price of $666 each. The success of Apple I led the pair to design a successor, the Apple II. With a sleeker design, a disk drive, an open system and a new plastic casing that featured the Apple logo, the Apple II achieved even greater success. Within just three years, Apple Computer had experienced a growth of 700%. In December 1980, the company became a publicly traded corporation and Jobs’ stature continued to grow.

Competition from IBM soon began to threaten Apple’s position on top of the market. The release of Apple III did not come with the similar success that its predecessors had, nor did the release of Lisa. Apple II had numerous design flaws while Lisa was too expensive and thus was not commercially successful. In order to maintain its competitive edge, Jobs decided to convince then-President and CEO of Pepsi John Scully to become Apple’s CEO.

In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh, which became the first commercially successful computer with a graphic interface. Over 400,000 Macs were sold in its first year of production. But, while the company was experiencing success, an internal power struggle was also taking place. In 1985, Wozniak left the company and Jobs was stripped of his duties by the board of directors. Jobs resigned in protest, but that would not be the end of him.

Jobs went on to found NeXT Computer, a company that focused on educational computing. While its workstation was technologically advanced, it proved to be too expensive to gain widespread appeal. But, NeXT did experience modest success in the scientific and academic fields, developing such products as the DSP chip and the built-in Ethernet port. In 1986, Jobs also purchased Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division for $10 million and created Pixar, a new computer animation company that has since partnered with Disney to create such hit films as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

In 1996, NeXT was bought by Apple for $204 million and Jobs was brought back on as an interim CEO of the company he had originally founded. As CEO of Apple once again, Jobs cut a number of projects that he saw as being useless and began to turn his attention to the iMac. Since the iMac was introduced in 1998, Apple has seen its sales rise significantly. The company continued to branch out with such successful products as the iPod and iTunes. Apple currently has 14,800 employees and grosses over $17 billion in revenues.

In 2005, The Walt Disney Company purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion making Jobs Disney’s largest single shareholder with 7% of the company’s stock. While his aggressive personality and demanding management style have often been criticized, Jobs is undoubtedly a visionary, who turned his dreams for the personal computer into a billion dollar enterprise.

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Article Tags: apple company, apple computer, apple ii, apple iii, apple logo, competitive edge, computer hobbyist, computer industry, design flaws, graphic interface, greater vision, john scully, launch, lisa apple, marketability, plastic casing, predecessors, programmable calculator, volkswagen van, wozniak



Related Forum Posts
Re: Apple sold 10 million iphones in 2008 - I love reading the story Apple and Steve Job. 10 millions iphones within a year, this is amazing. I am interested in owning Apple shares
Re: What If Steve Jobs Hadn't Returned To Apple In 1997? - Thanks for sharing with us Yinko. Steve Jobs is definitely a visionary. Not only his products are innovative in a technological sense, but he's managed to turn a tech-company's products into a lifestyle.... a lifestyle!! [quote:zfqoq43n]Fast Forward to today. Apple has the sexiest products in the business: iMacs, Macbooks, iPhones, iPods and more.[/quote:zfqoq43n] I think not only tech would be different (music players and phones), but ways we can think of marketing and branding. What Steve Jobs did was of course no easy task for the smaller businesses, but he did start somewhere. What I did not know was that Apple is worth about as much as Google. How do you think Apple accomplish what they did? In terms of strategy wise? If you could advice Steve on one thing, what would it be?
Re: Off to New York / Philly - Thanks guys - just landed in New Jersey and are going to the Big Apple tomorrow morning. First stop: a tour of Yankee Stadium!
And the speakers for the Nov 1 event - Inspiring speakers will share their stories of launching, living and dreaming. Speakers include: Kathleen Matthews: Executive Vice President Global Communications and Public Affairs, Marriott International, Inc. and former award-winning producer, reporter and news anchor who covered news in Washington, DC for 25 years Mei Xu: Founder and creator of CHESAPEAKE BAY CANDLE and Blissliving Home Julie Lenzer Kirk: President of Path Forward International and author of The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business Jennifer Buddin: Co-founder of "The Little Black Book for every busy woman" Victoria Colligan: Founder of Ladies Who Launch Frances Crespo and Nicolette Pizzitola: Ladies Who Launch Washington, DC Leaders Educational workshops and information gathering Invaluable exchanges, introductions, business contacts and referrals Exclusive discounts, free consultations and access to original products and services Lunch and spa services An opportunity to become a "Featured Lady" on Ladies Who Launch Valuable GIFT BAG guaranteed with pre-registration
Re: Are you getting an iPad 2? - Hi GT, The lineups at the Apple store were crazy which is why I went to FutureShop! Regarding iTunes - you only need it if you want to sync files between your iPad and computer. I am using thie DropBox app for that so even though I installed iTunes I have not used it yet!


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