Report of 500 words explaining the backgroung and history of APPLE COMPANEY - Essay Example

Background and History of Apple Company Background and History of Apple Company Apple Company was founded in Cupertino, California on April 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Wayne, later sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak. The company was incorporated on January 3, 1977. Apple I was the first personal computer introduced by the company in the market. Around 200 units of personal computers were initially entered the market from Apple Company. The initial price of a Apple I computer was around $666.

The company introduced the Apple II microcomputer in March 1977, and Lisa, the first commercial personal computer to employ a graphical user interface (GUI) in 1983 (Apple Inc. History, 2008).The first graphical user interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. Steve Jobs visited Xerox Corporation and impressed by the GUI technology developed by Xerox, Steve bought Xerox Corporation in 1979 (Bellis, 2010). Lisa, the first commercial personal computer to employ a graphical user interface (GUI) was introduced by Apple in 1983.

In fact Lisa was the first personal computer which introduced the mouse option for computers. Macintosh operating system was introduced in 1984. Portable computers or the PowerBook series was introduced by Apple in 1991. Because of the stiff competition from Microsoft and the resignation of its charismatic leader Steve from the CEO post, Apple Company faced many challenges in the 1990’s. In 1996, February, Apple gave license to Motorola to use their Mac OS. This is the first time when Apple gave sublicense to any other companies to use their Mac Operating System (History of Apple, 2007).

“With the release of the iMac on August 15, 1998 Apple was able to put to rest some its past failures” (Dougherty, 2010). The introduction of the “i” series products like iMac, iphone, ipods, ipads etc during the latter part of 1990’s and in the early part of 2000 and the return of Steve as the CEO again in the latter part of 1990’s helped Apple to regain its lost market share. Steve has realized that in order to compete more effectively with the arch rival Microsoft, Apple needs some new challenging products apart from computers and operating system.

The introduction of ipod music player in 2001 helped Apple to regain its lost customer base, especially the youth segment. Kim (2010) has pointed out that Apple Inc is currently the world’s second best company, just behind Exxon Mobil, as far as market capitalization is concerned (Kim, 2010). Moreover, Apple is the number one technological company at present in the world. Moreover, it is the most admired company in America at present leaving Microsoft far behind. ConclusionsThe history and background of Apple Company is interesting to new entrepreneurs.

Pushing Microsoft like big business tycoon depending entirely on the abilities of a single person Steve Jobs is not an easy task. References1. Apple Inc. History. (2008). [Online], Available at:http://www.ipodtopctransfer.com/news/apple-inc.html [Accessed on 28 November 2010]2. Bellis, M. (2010). The History of the Graphical User Interface or GUI - The Apple Lisa. [Online], Available at: http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa043099.htm [Accessed on 28 November 2010]3. Dougherty, M. (2010).

The History of Apple, Inc. [Online], Available at: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/mac-platform/articles/65346.aspx [Accessed on 28 November 2010]4. History of Apple, (2007) [Online], Available at: http://www.thocp.net/companies/apple/apple_company.htm [Accessed on 28 November 2010]5. Kim R. (2010). Apple Passes Microsoft As Top Tech Company, [Online], Available at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/BUDJ1DL0IU.DTL [Accessed on 28 November 2010]