History and Development of the Apple Computer
Introduction
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are two well known revolutionaries in the field of computers where they helped develop and establish the Apple Computers. The duo met in a local computer club known as Homebrew Computer Club where they had vast opportunities of experimenting with computer hardware and software. Steve and Steve were very much inclined into establishing their own company which would manufacture personal computers for industrial and home use.
The combination of these two geniuses led to development of Apple Inc where they applied the skills and knowledge learnt in various fields of organizational structure and development. This was characterized by increased sales since the first personal computers hit the market, as well as, innovations in subsequent years. These innovations have led to development of the Macintosh project which was reserved for production of user friendly computers which were operated by Apple made software. Mac computers are fully made, as well as, furnished with Apple software and hardware such that over the years the quality of the machines has been upgraded frequently making them the best in the world.
Discussion
The history of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in developing the Apple Company
Steve Jobs was born as Steven Paul Jobs in San Francisco on Feb. 24, 1955 and shortly after adopted by a couple who were staying in Los Altos. While still in high school, he was a frequent visitor at Hewlett-Packard where he attended lessons in computing and his interest in computers was ignited. He also got acquainted with Wozniak after HP hired him as a summer employee. He attended ReedCollege in 1972 and dropped out of school after just one semester to make video games at Atari. He worked at Atari until 1974 when he realized that he had made enough money for his spiritual pilgrimage to India (Young and William, 2005).
After he obtained enough spiritual enlightenment from the Buddha he went back to California and back to his former job. He was assigned a new task which entailed creating a circuit board for a computer game and reduction of the chips in the machines and an offer of US$100 for every chip which was removed. Jobs had little knowledge and skills in circuit board design so he sought help from Wozniak and promised to split with him if he managed to reduce the chips. Wozniak managed to remove fifty chips which was a quite tight design and very efficient hence the money was issued out but the promise was broken as Jobs failed to state the correct amount offered (Hertzfeld, 2004).
After being hooked with Wozniak for quite some time during which Apple was able to raise its sales and market share to higher levels, Jobs worked extremely hard to ensure that the production line at Apple was producing the best computers. However, in 1985, a power struggle in the company between Jobs and the then-president John Sculley saw jobs exit from Apple. He started a new company dealing with computer products called NeXT. The hardware component of NeXT was a total failure but the software established led to development of object-oriented programming. This software was sold to Apple in 1997 to streamline the software development processes in the company (McDaniel and Gitman, 2007).
Jobs was also holding a key post at Pixar which is a computer animation studio and under his censorship the company was able to produce the first film “Toy Story” in 1995. The success of the film made it the highest grossing domestic film in 1995 and shortly afterwards Jobs became the CEO of the company. After release of the movie, in 1996 Jobs moved back to Apple where he became the adviser to the then chairman Gilbert F. Amelia. He was elected as the Apple chairman and CEO in 1997 and since then, he has revitalized the company in terms of products and services such that highly efficient items like iPods and MacBook have been introduced to the market (Deutschman, 2001).
Wozniak was born Stephen Gary Wozniak in San Jose on Aug.11, 1959 in the same town where Jobs was brought up. He attended University of California at Berkeley and way before accomplishing his undergraduate degree he dropped out and went to work for Hewlett-Packard. It was while working at HP when he met Jobs who was also involved in a local organization known as Homebrew Computer Club. Their interest in computers was made clear especially due to the availability of a variety of software and hardware devices at the club which formed fundamental discussions, as well as, experiments (Hertzfeld, 2004).
After establishing Apple Computers Wozniak went back to University of California in Berkeley to complete his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This enabled him to conduct tutorials for fifth-grade students at local schools in Calif, as well as, sponsoring education-focused programs locally and abroad. While still consulting at Apple he founded CL 9, a company that developed and produced remote control switches. Other establishments under him include Wheel of Zeus which produced wireless GPS technology systems and Acquicor Technology with the same objectives (Young, 2005).
Establishment of Apple Company
Before establishment of Apple, Jobs and Wozniak had been friends for quite a number of years during which Wozniak an accomplished electronics hacker was impressed by Jobs ability to assemble a computer then selling it. This was a great time in their acquaintance because later on in 1976 when Jobs floated his idea about staring a personal computer company to Wozniak, he received a positive affirmation. This led to a major sale of prized personal belonging such as cars and a programmable HP calculator which was previously possessed by Wozniak (Apple, 2006).
The first Apple computer was made in the backyard of Jobs garage and shortly on April 1, 1976 the Apple computer company was formed. Consequently, Wozniak resigned from Hewlett-Packard hence he became the vice president in charge of research and development as Apple (McDaniel, 2007).
The first ever computer by Apple was similar to the Altair 8800 which was the first commercial computer but it lacked internal expansion cards. The programming language used in the computer was BASIC after connection to a computer terminus before programming. It had a 6502 microprocessor on a single-circuit board and a character display controller of 24 by 24. The random access memory was 8K while the read only memory was an equivalent of 256 bytes. The user provided the case, keyboard, power supply and display as they were not part of the first computer (Frank, 1990).
The price for this computer was a cool $666.66 and the first one hundred units were sold to Paul Terrell who was establishing a computer shop in California. This money was only meant to cover the costs of the circuit board as the other peripheral devices were supplied by the user. This price and market for the first ever commercial Apple computer was no difficult task for Wozniak who not only had diverse skills on software and computing but also on marketing (Levy, 2000).
The shortcomings of the Apple I provided ample opportunity for Wozniak to improve the functionality of the new model such that its simplicity and usability were maintained while a high resolution graphic was introduced. Apple II had a high resolution power such that pictures and not just words could be seen on the screen brought about by incorporation of two additional chips. The 1977 Apple II had a plastic case which held the electronic components of the computer. Other key improvement in Apple II was a completely redesigned television interface and color for the graphical presentations. The only major setback was the need to type in the code in order to run BASIC (Michaels, 2010).
There were other problems accompanying Apple II such as finances to buy the various parts which would ensure production of a complete computer. Potential partners were unwilling to fund the projects while banks did not think that any profits could be obtained from making personal computers. However, a long time friend of Jobs; Mike Markkula agreed to co-sign a bank loan which made the project achieve its goals. By default Mike became the third partner of Apple Computers (Kelby, 2002).
The completed Apple II was first introduced to the public at the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 16-17 1977. A Japanese chemist who happened to be present was given the details of Apple II and he became the first authorized Apple dealer in Japan courtesy of Jobs cut-throat marketing. The one reason why Apple II was successful in the market was due to incorporation of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk and interface while other computers used cassette tapes to store data (Apple, 2006).
Disk controllers were introduced in 1978 alongside a simple operating system and a file system. The Shepardson Microsystems Company was given the responsibility of creating a simple command line for the disk operating system. During this period, the first program ever run in computers; the VisiCalc spreadsheet was incorporated into the Apple II hence making it a favorite for office and home users. The close of the 70’s was successful for Apple as it also culminated to expansion of its staff members to include quite a number of computer designers and technicians in the production line (Frank, 1990).
Apple III was introduced to the market in the early 1980’s and due to the stiff competition facing Apple II, Jobs and Wozniak were engrossed to make a personal computer which met the needs of business environment. Jobs was indignant about having an inbuilt fan for the computer as he wanted the heat generated by the machine to be dissipated through the chassis inside the computer (Hertzfeld, 2004).
However, the physical design of the computer’s case which was made of plastic was not efficient at providing the appropriate cooling effect of the heated devices inside. The intense heat made the integrated circuit chips in the motherboard to disengage which resulted into failed operations in the computer. The temporal remedy for the problem did not help much as after dropping the computer on the desk, the chip was reconnected but after reheating the same problem was encountered. This was a major blow to the reputation of Apple and most of the fans less computers were recalled and the problem rectified. However, the damage of the incidence on the company was already done (Levy, 2000).
At the same time when Apple’s main production engineers were focusing on Apple III there was a separate entity of Apple that was working towards development of a computer that could change the world. Devices and interface such as icons, mouse and desktop were top on the list for the new generation computer. This made Jobs and a group of engineers at Apple to visit Xerox PARC laboratories to look at research developments at Xerox which had established the user graphic interface. This was a turning point for Jobs who got an insight in understanding the impact of the GUI in the modern world as opposed to standard text interface(Michaels, 2010).
A deal was sealed whereby Xerox would buy pre-IPO stock valued at US$ 1,000,000 from Apple in exchange of a three day survey of Apple engineers on Xerox’s WIMP and GUI interpretations. The ideas obtained at Xerox provided ample tests for usability such that a stable interface of icons and windows was finally established for the next GUI computer (Frank, 1990).
Another computer model; Lisa was on the production line in the early 1980’s and its production was boosted by acquisition of U.S. patent no. 4, 136, 359 by Wozniak for microcomputers. This was the first GUI personal computer ever sold in history although it was a total market failure due to high pricing. This increased the arena for GUI computers and not long afterwards, the Macintosh was introduced into the market (Deutschman, 2001).
Macintosh’s superior machines
Macintosh is a series of personal computers that are designed and manufactured by Apple. Following failure of Lisa, Jobs concentrated on the Macintosh incorporating aspects that were missing in Lisa such as a mouse and GUI as opposed to previous computers which had command-line interface. The Macintosh operating system was designed along the lines of GUI and command-driven applications hence there was need to redesign the programming code and Apple developed Macintosh Office to run the personal computers (Kelby, 2002).
When a combination of Mac, Apple’s LaserWriter printer and Mac-specific software such as Mac Publisher were introduced into the Macintosh, users were able to design, preview and print page layout which had text and graphics. This was a first time desktop publishing and it was initially specific to Macintosh. Later on other applications that were applicable to Macintosh included Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator which defined the purpose of Mac as a graphical computer (Apple, 2006).
The shortcomings of the model included low storage space as compared to other persona computers because Mac lacked expandable memory, as well as, lack of a hard disk or its attachment. Hence there was need to eradicate the problem and the Macintosh Plus was released in 1986, with a RAM of one megabyte and a revolutionary SCSI parallel interface that allowed the user to attach peripheral storage devices such as hard drives. The Mac Plus also had a floppy drive with a storage capacity of 800KB and its success in the market made it remain there for more than four years without any advancements.
Apple is known for its ability to seize opportunities to produce high quality products such as the adoption of the Motorola technology where speed for personal computers was enhanced by incorporating a 16MHz Motorola 68020 processor for Mac II (Deutschman, 2001). Consequently, Mac II also had a color QuickDraw read only memory such that users had a variety of colors for the graphical language. More expansion slots were added, as well as, a power supply, hard drives and a fan which was extremely loud. A Mac Programmer’s Workshop was introduced in 1986 which allowed software developers to create software for Mac on Mac rather than having hem developed in pervious generation computers.
This was also the same time when MultiFinder and HyperCard were developed for Mac to allow the user multitask similarly it was also at this point when software titles in the “Pro” series were established such as Claris, MacWrite Pro, MacPaint Pro and FileMaker Pro. Further development of Mac machines resulted in the Mac IIci which was running at 25MHz and it was supported by System 7 which was the first Mac operating system to support 32-bit addressing. Similarly, a flat panel display Mac portable which was running at 16MHz was unveiled thus meeting the needs of personal computers clients all over the world(Hormby, 2005).
Further advancements at Mac in the 1990s were inclined towards using new chips which were faster and more efficient hence making the computer user friendly. The Mac Portable was thus replaced by the PowerBook100 which was a miniature Portable with a keyboard behind a palm rest and an internal pointing device. The year 1993, saw the first portable computable by Apple which had a color screen and a trackpad thus making the Mac more efficient in wide areas of operation (Apple, 2006).
After Jobs comeback to Apple in 1998, he made enhancements in the Mac to produce an all in one Mac known as iMac. This new computer had a translucent case, two USB ports and removable compact disc drives for secondary storage. The sales of the iMac were over 800,000 within 139days of release and soon after in 1999, the iBook was unveiled which was a custom made laptop for consumers. The reason as to why the sales of the iMac and iBook have plummeted is due to constant upgrading of the chips used in the assembling of the machines (Hormby, 2005).
This makes them fast and able to store large amounts of data, in addition, to the capability to execute a variety of tasks consecutively. The changing global world has resulted into many challenges as well as unique applications for computers hence only those companies such as Mac that are able to keep up the trends are in a position to provide high quality computers that meet the needs of clients (Frank, 1990). Consequently, the Mac is strategically positioned as a higher end computer which is not only efficient but also worthy having around especially for those in business (Kelby, 2002).
Conclusion
The contribution of Jobs and Wozniak towards establishment and development of Apple has been significant for the presence of Mac. The production of superior quality computers is largely due to the efforts of the two Steve’s who were always aiming at providing the best personal computers to the entire world. Consequently, the contribution of Apple towards ensuring that Mac is capable of meeting the global trends and changes is crucial as it has allowed the computers to evolve continuously to the better.
References
Apple (2006) to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006″. Retrieved on July 16, 2010 form: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html
Deutschman, A. (2001). The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. Broadway
Kelby, S. (2002). Macintosh… The Naked Truth. New Riders Press
Frank R. (1990), West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer, Penguin Books
Hertzfeld A. (2004), Revolution in the Valley, O’Reilly Books
Hormby, T. (2005). Birth of the PowerBook: How Apple took over the portable market in 1991, Low End Mac
Levy, S. (2000). Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything. Penguin Books
McDaniel, C. and Gitman, J.L. (2007), future of the business: the essentials. Cengage Learning
Michaels, P. (2010). “Apple’s most significant products of the decade”. Macworld. Retrieved on July 16, 2010 from: http://www.macworld.com/article/145380/2010/01/10significantapplemoves.html
Young, J. and William L.S. (2005). iConSteve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
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