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• Posted May 17, 2013, 11:14 a.m. - 10 years, 11 months ago

From Bite of the Apple to Having The Full (Apple) Pie

Today, May 17th, marks the 79th birthday of Ronald Wayne, one of the original co-founders of Apple Computers, better known to us today as Apple Inc or just Apple. In light of this, we thought we’d have a brief look at Apple’s timeline through the years….

 

 

April 1st, 1976
Apple Computer founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.

 

July 1976
The Apple I computer went on sale priced at $666.66 to be precise.

 

January 3rd, 1977
The company is incorporated. Albeit without Wayne on the board, as he had by this time sold his share back to the others working on the basis that he felt the venture too risky.

 

February, 1977
Michael Scott comes in as Apple’s first CEO and holds this position until March 1981,

 

April 16th, 1977
Apple II computer is introduced at the first ever West Coast Computer Faire

 

May 1980
Apple III is introduced but flopped in terms of sales when compared to those of it’s predecessors. It had various design flaws and was deemed as overpriced. It was discontinued only 3 years later to be replaced by the Apple III Plus

 

December 1980
Apple shares go public, at $22 per share.

 

February 25th, 1981
“Black Wednesday” occurs at Apple as then CEO Michael Scott abruptly fires 40 Apple employees, believing they are redundant. His explanation of this, over a keg of beer, quoted as “I used to say that when being CEO at Apple wasn’t fun anymore, I’d quit. But now I’ve changed my mind — when it isn’t fun any more, I’ll fire people until it’s fun again.” was met with disbelief and he was moved to vice-chairman soon after.

 

 

March 1981
Mike Markkula, original angel investor of Apple and the man who hired disgraced CEO Michael Scott, replaces him as Apple’s second CEO.

 

January 19th, 1983
The Apple Lisa personal computer is released for $9,995

 

April 8th, 1983
John Sculley becomes Apple’s CEO as recruited by Steve Jobs and replaces Mike Markkula. He was forced out by Apple’s board 10 years later due to expense on products and development that did not return ROI.

 

January 4th, 1984
The first Apple Macintosh is released following an intensive marketing campaign including the use of George Orwell’s novel “1984”.

 

September 13, 1985
Steve Jobs resigns from Apple after various internal power struggles, and goes on to form NeXT, a computer company in California catering to the B2B and higher education markets.

 

March 2nd, 1987
The Macintosh II is released, and was the first model to be a PC as well as supporting a colour display. The Macintosh SE is also released on this date.

 

September 19th, 1988
Macintosh IIx is released as an upgraded version of the Mac II

 

September 20th, 1989
The first Macintosh Portable was released to some criticism for its charging capabilities.

 

October 1990
The Macintosh LC is released to the lower end of the budget market

 

October 1991
The first Powerbook models are released

 

 

June, 1993
Michael Spindler takes over as Apple CEO from John Sculley, and oversaw several successful projects including the PowerPC, but was replaced in 1996 by Gil Amelio after takeover discussions with big names including IBM went nowhere.

 

December 20, 1996
Apple announce they are intending to acquire Steve Jobs’ company NeXT and buy it for $429 million in cash. Steve Jobs rejoins Apple in 1997 although is not paid money for NeXT and instead is given 1.5 million shares in Apple.

 

February 2nd, 1996
Gil Amelio becomes CEO of Apple, succeeding Michael Spindler. During his time he made extensive layoffs in staff, and eventually resigned just over a year later on July 4th, 1997, due to internal disagreements related to Steve Jobs and the board of directors.

 

September 16th, 1997
Steve Jobs becomes interim CEO after Gil Amelio resigns.

 

November 10th, 1997
Apple introduce their online store, known by most as “The Apple Store”, which carries all of their product lines and has an iOS app.

 

August 15th, 1998
The iMac is first released and to this day remains the primary part of Apple’s consumer desktop range.

 

May 19th, 2001
Apple’s first retail stores open in California and Virginia.

 

 

October 2001
The iPod is first announced, and goes on sale November 10th, 2001

 

April 28th, 2003
The iTunes store is opened (originally named the iTunes Music Store).  It has been the biggest US based vendor of music since 2008, and worldwide since 2010.

 

June 6, 2005
Steve Jobs announces that Apple will start producing Intel-based Macs in 2006. By January 2006, the MacBook Pro and iMac were using Intel’s Core Duo CPU, and by 2007 the whole Mac line was using Intel chips.

 

January, 2006
Apple’s market cap surpasses Dell.

 

January 9th, 2007
The word ‘Computer’ is removed from Apple’s name and announced at Macworld Expo 2007 by Steve Jobs. This was to reflect their continued focus across the consumer electronics market as a whole, and not solely around computing.

 

June 29, 2007
The 1st gen iPhone is released after 3 years in development, code named as “Project Purple”.

 

July 11th, 2008
The iPhone 3G is released, with a faster processor and a higher resolution camera.

 

April, 2010
1st Generation iPads are released

 

June 15, 2010
Apple release the iOS Apple Store app.

 

 

June 24th, 2010
iPhone 4 is released with an upgraded camera and a new, squared design.

 

January 6th, 2011
The Mac App Store opens after announcement in October 2010.

 

March, 2011
2nd Generation iPads are released

 

June 6th, 2011
Steve Jobs delivers what will be his final keynote speech at WWDC 2011, where he introduced iCloud, OS X Lion and iOS 5. This was also his last public appearance before his resignation and subsequent death.

 

August 24th, 2011
Steve Jobs resigns from Apple due to ill health and is elected Chairman of the Board. Tim Cook takes over as CEO of Apple and remains so to this day.

 

October 4th, 2011
Virtual personal assistant Siri is released on iOS5 and on iPhone 4S. iPhone 4S is also announced, the upgrade to the iPhone 4.

 

October 5th, 2011
Steve Jobs dies of cancer after an 8 year battle

 

October 12th, 2011
Public release of iCloud, which currently is estimated to have over 300 million users

 

October 14th, 2011

iPhone 4S goes on sale in the USA, with global release on October 28th.

 

October 16th, 2011
This date has been declared “Steve Jobs Day” by Californian Governer Jerry Brown.

 

March, 2013
3rd Generation iPads are released

 

September 2st, 2012
iPhone 5 is released, still with the 8MP camera and 1080HD video but with a new, 8pin charging port and with iOS6 as standard.

 

October 23rd, 2012
The current generation of the iPod Touch goes on sale

 

November 2, 2012
4th Generation iPads are released, alongside the iPad Mini

 

November 10th, 2012
Apple agree to a settlement deal with HTC that will dissolve all lawsuits to that date between the two companies, including a 10 year licence agreement for current and future patents.

 

March, 2013
Apple announce an AR system patent

 

May, 2013
Apple make it to the top 10 of Fortune 500 list of companies, in 6th position.

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