RE:RE:To the obvious detractors. Sometimes it does not take more than 3 guys. Sometimes it also takes a bit of time. In the following case the numbers were much bigger and success, such as it was, did not take 12 years but it was more than 3 years.(A little history below if anyone is interested. It is a bunch of excerpts so it does not flow that well.
Founders
Steve Jobs,
Steve Wozniak, and
Ronald Wayne created Apple Computer Co. on April 1, 1976, to market Wozniak's
Apple I desktop computer,
[2] and Jobs and Wozniak incorporated the company on January 3, 1977,
[3] in
Cupertino, California.
Aside from their interest in up-to-date technology, the impetus for the two Steves seems to have had another source. In his essay
From Satori to Silicon Valley (published 1986), cultural historian
Theodore Roszak made the point that Apple Computer emerged from within the West Coast
counterculture and the need to produce print-outs, letter labels, and databases. Roszak offers a bit of background on the development of the two Steves' prototype models.
In 1975, the two Steves started attending meetings of the
Homebrew Computer Club.
[15] New microcomputers such as the
Altair 8800 and the
IMSAI 8080 inspired Wozniak to build a microprocessor into his video terminal circuit to make a complete computer.
By March 1, 1976, Wozniak completed the machine and took it to a
Homebrew Computer Club meeting to show it off. When Jobs saw Wozniak's computer, which later became the
Apple I, he was immediately interested in its commercial potential.
[17] Initially, Wozniak intended to share schematics of the machine for free, but Jobs insisted that they should instead build and sell bare
printed circuit boards for the computer. Wozniak originally offered the design to
Hewlett-Packard (HP), where he worked at the time, but was denied by the company on five occasions
On April 1, 1976, Apple Computer Company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and
Ronald Wayne.
[25] The company was registered as a California
business partnership. Wayne, who worked at
Atari, Inc. as a chief draftsman, became a co-founder in return for a 10% stake.
[2] Wayne was gun-shy due to the failure of his own venture four years earlier. On April 12, less than two weeks after the company's formation, Wayne left Apple, selling his 10% share back to the two Steves for $800.
Jobs took a purchase order from the Byte Shop to national electronic parts distributor Cramer Electronics, and ordered the components needed. When asked by the credit manager how he would pay for the parts, Jobs replied, "I have this purchase order from the Byte Shop chain of computer stores for 50 of my computers and the payment terms are COD. If you give me the parts on net 30-day terms I can build and deliver the computers in that time frame, collect my money from Terrell at the Byte Shop and pay you."
In August 1976, Jobs approached his former boss at Atari, Nolan Bushnell, who recommended that he meet with
Don Valentine, the founder of
Sequoia Capital. Valentine was not interested in funding Apple, but in turn introduced Jobs to
Mike Markkula, a millionaire who had worked under him at
Fairchild Semiconductor. Markkula saw great potential in the two Steves, and became an
angel investor of their company. He invested $92,000 in Apple out of his own property while securing a $250,000 (equivalent to $1,340,000 in 2023) line of credit from Bank of America. In return, Markkula received a one-third stake in Apple. Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated on January 3, 1977. The new corporation bought out the partnership the two Steves had formed nine months earlier.
In the May 1977 issue of Byte, Wozniak said of the Apple II design, "To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use, and inexpensive."
[51] The development of the Apple III started in late 1978 under the guidance of Wendell Sander, and was subsequently developed by a committee headed by Jobs. The Apple III was first announced on May 19, 1980, with a retail price ranging from $4,340 to $7,800, and released in November 1980.
Thousands of Apple III computers were recalled. A new model was introduced in 1983 to try to rectify the problems, but the damage was already done.
On December 12, 1980, Apple went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange with the ticker symbol "AAPL", selling 4.6 million shares at $22 per share
Apple is two guys in a garage undertaking the mission of bringing computing power, once reserved for big corporations, to ordinary individuals with ordinary budgets. The company's growth from two guys to a billion-dollar corporation exemplifies the American Dream. Even as a large corporation, Apple plays
David to IBM's Goliath, and thus has the sympathetic role in that myth.
But by 1983, the PC surpassed the Apple II as the best-selling personal computer.[87] IBM recruited the best Apple dealers while avoiding the discount grey market they disliked.
[81] The head of a retail chain said "It appears that IBM had a better understanding of why the Apple II was successful than had Apple".
[78] Gene Amdahl predicted that Apple would be another of the many "brash young companies" that IBM had defeated.
[88] By 1984 the press called the two companies archrivals,[89] but IBM had $4 billion in annual PC revenue, more than twice that of Apple and as much as the sales of it and the next three companies combined.[90] A Fortune survey found that 56% of American companies with personal computers used IBM PCs, compared to 16% for Apple.[91] Small businesses, schools, and some homes became the II's primary market.[76]
The first iteration of Apple's WIMP interface was a floppy disk where files could be spatially moved around. After months of usability testing, Apple designed the Lisa interface of windows and icons. The Lisa was introduced in 1983 at a cost of US$9,995 . Because of the high price, Lisa failed to penetrate the business market.
By 1984 computer dealers saw Apple as the only clear alternative to IBM's influence;[96] some even promoted its products to reduce dependence on the PC.[81] The company announced the Macintosh 128K to the press in October 1983,
The company's January 1985 annual meeting did not mention the Apple II division or employees. This frustrated Wozniak, who left active employment at Apple in the spring of that year to pursue other ventures, stating that the company had "been going in the wrong direction for the last five years" and sold most of his stock.[125][126][127] Despite these grievances, Wozniak left the company amicably and as of January 2018 continues to represent Apple at events or in interviews,
In April 1985, Sculley decided to remove Jobs as the general manager of the Macintosh division, and gained unanimous support from the Apple board of directors. Rather than submit to Sculley's direction, Jobs attempted to oust him from his leadership role at Apple. Informed by Jean-Louis Gasse, Sculley found out that Jobs had been attempting to organize a coup and called an emergency executive meeting at which Apple's executive staff sided with Sculley and stripped Jobs of all operational duties.
Jobs, while taking the position of Chairman of the firm, had no influence over Apple's direction and resigned in September 1985, taking a number of Apple employees with him to found
NeXT Inc.[132] In a show of defiance at being set aside by Apple Computer, Jobs sold all but one of his 6.5 million shares in the company for $70 million.
In 1996, the struggling
NeXT company beat Be Inc.'s
BeOS bid to sell its operating system to Apple.
[150] On December 20, 1996, Apple announced it would purchase NeXT, and its NeXTstep operating system, for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock.
[151] This brought Jobs back to Apple's management for the first time since 1985, and NeXT technology became the foundation of the
Mac OS X operating system.
1997–2001: Apple's comeback
Return of Steve Jobs
On July 9, 1997,
Gil Amelio was ousted as CEO of Apple by the board of directors.
Fred D. Anderson was the head of the directors in short term and obtained short-term working capital from the banks in July 1997.
[152][153] In August 1997, Jobs stepped in as the interim CEO to begin a critical restructuring of the company's product line.
[5] He eventually became CEO and served in that position from January 2000 to August 2011.
[6] On August 24, 2011, Jobs resigned his position as chief executive officer of Apple before his long battle with pancreatic cancer took his life on October 5, 2011.
And the rest is History!