A day like today, but 40 years ago, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne founded Apple. He was given the official name of Apple Computer because the company was dedicated exclusively to the manufacture of computers and because he sought to compete with similar companies like Microsoft and IBM.
Today, almost half a century and a name change later, Apple Inc. is the most important and valuable company in the world boasting superior to US $ 600.000 million valuation and manufacturing not only computers but phones, watches and smart tablets and operating systems developed for these products.
But to get where they are, Apple has had to face a long and winding road, with all kinds of scandals and problems, from layoffs, leaks and vulnerabilities in their products and services, until the death of its greatest figure at the end of 2011.
the company has been able to face every critical point throughout his years, and as a result is that today April 1, turns 40 years, of which the last 15 or 20 years have led the technology industry with the iPod, the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. But not only thanks to these products is that Apple is what it is now, for the Apple I and Macintosh 70s also part of the enormous legacy of the company.
Here we review the most emblematic products , outstanding, which have been and are key to Apple’s success.
Apple II (1977)
Steve Wozniak with his important creation.
Robert Scoble / Flickrthe Apple II was, as its name says, the second computer designed and manufactured by Apple. this list appears this model and not the Apple I because the Apple II was the best computer sold at the time and that set the tone for subsequent Apple computers until 1979, when it was discontinued.
Wozniak designed almost everything related to this machine that had an 8-bit architecture, by then some high performance but in present days, with phones and tablets with 64-bit architecture, it sounds like something unimaginably small.
Unlike the Apple I-which was manufactured in the garage of the family Jobs–, the Apple II was designed and manufactured mainly in Silicon Valley and Texas, although some of its components, such as processors and RAM, came from Asia.
in his last year of life, the Apple II gave Apple US $ 79 million in revenue, this despite the price of the computer was US $ 1.298.
Macintosh (1984)
The Macintosh 128K, a whole collection piece.
Matthew Pearce / Flickrthe Apple II opened the doors of the industry to Apple, but the original Macintosh, released in 1984, was the turning point and a lifeline for the company because of the disaster was the Apple III.
Steve Jobs watched warily development of the Macintosh for its release was not a recurring nightmare of lived experience with the Apple III.
And it was not.
Desvelada with commercial epic Super Bowl XVIII called “1984″, the Macintosh was a success, with 70,000 units sold until May of that year. And that even though its price was US $ 2.495.
Apple launched later revisions of the Macintosh (such as the Macintosh SE model) until the Macintosh 128K model. Today, the machine is a museum piece and an invaluable relic for fans of the Californian firm.
MessagePad (1993)
The MessagePad or better known as Newton. Apple, what were you thinking?
moparx / FlickrAlready without Steve Jobs at the helm, Apple had no direction or destination. The company launched products to chance to try the classic “chicle and paste” and the MessagePad was one of these.
first released in 1993, the MessagePad, known colloquially as “Newton” (due to the name of your operating system) it was a PDA or PDA pocket trying to compete with Palm.
from 1993 to 1998, Apple released eight versions of this handheld, but could not get any a success.
Although the product was not successful, enter this list because it showed what was Apple without Steve Jobs: a gale product haphazardly … (you’ll remember them a little present?)
Apple discontinued the MessagePad (or Newton) on the orders of Steve Jobs, who returned to the company in 1997 after being fired in 1986.
iMac (1998)
once Steve Jobs restructured the company, Apple stepped on the accelerator and never put the brake.
the iMac was the first Apple computer type all-in-one (all in one), which means that the monitor and CPU were integrated into the same box.
the first model of this computer, the iMac 3G was launched in 1998 with a somewhat high price of US $ 1.299 and sold first blue tone, but after a dozen more colors were added.
in addition to the iMac is the first computer all-in-one Apple, Jonathan Ive, the guru of design company, it was the creative mind behind the curved design and unified iMac.
the computer included two stereo on the lower front speakers and was the first Apple computer to include the USB port as standard.
iPod (2001)
The original iPod is a whole piece of invaluable museum.
Pinot Dita / Flickrwith the computer business established, Steve Jobs changed the approach to the music industry and the revolution it began with the launch iPod in 2001.
Under the slogan “1,000 songs in your pocket”, the iPod became the engine of Apple. Even the iPod is one of the few products that have a place in the Apple page dedicated to remember all your past.
The iPod sold 600,000 units in its first year of availability. in 2002, Apple announced a second version of its music player, which was already capable of storing 4,000 songs and it worked with Windows.
Thanks to several more versions in different sizes, storage capacities, colors and even with new features such as touch screen, the iPod managed to sell 275 million units, this according to the last figure in Apple’s site reflecting sales until September 2010.
iTunes Music Store (2003)
While iTunes Music Store is not a product but a service it was also – and remains – a mainstay for Apple’s business. After the success of the iPod, Apple knew I had to add fuel to the fire and keep the excitement for your music player did not die.
The solution was iTunes Music Store, the digital store where users and owners an iPod could download music format high quality and more affordable than buying a physical album prices
the launch of the iTunes music Store. – in April 2003 – was with a library of 200,000 songs with unit price of 99 cents. The boom Store was such that just five months after its opening, the iTunes Music Store (now known as iTunes Store to dry because they started selling also movies, books and videos) reached 10 million downloaded songs.
Today, the iTunes Store is imperiled by the rise of services streaming as Spotify and own Apple Music.
Processors Intel (2005 )
like the iTunes Music Store, this point was not a product as such, but it was also important and was a cornerstone in computers and Apple products as we know them today. Also, switching to Intel processors is perhaps one of the most unknown but relevant in the past of the iPhone maker issues
In 2005, Apple announced the unthinkable. Changed using PowerPC processors, designed by the company itself, to use Intel processors, which the PC industry had already been doing for years.
the latest products in use PowerPC processors were the PowerBook, iMac and Mac Mini, among others models sold in 2006.
from then until now, Apple uses Intel processors.
iPhone (2007)
the Cupertino company with Steve Jobs at its highest point, he took what was done with the iPod and the digital music revolution, and did the same in terms of mobile telephony with the launch of the first iPhone in 2007.
by the time Apple announced the first iPhone in January 2007, Google was already working on Android, but unlike the Apple phone, the search giant thought of a phone with physical keyboard.
once submitted, the iPhone went on sale in June of the same year. In its first quarter sales and exclusive availability with AT & operator T, 270,000 units of the revolutionary smartphone sold
For the second quarter of availability, the iPhone already exceeded. one million units sold, and for the third quarter, sales had already exceeded two million.
Almost a decade later, in mid-2015, Apple said it had sold 700 million iPhones. But its impact can not only dial in numbers; iPhone revolutionized forever our relationship with portable devices.
App Store (2008)
The success of the iPhone, on the other hand, was also due thanks to sufficient and timely shop application: the App Store
in 2007, the iPhone was only applications designed by Apple and Phone OS operating system.. Later, Apple launched the App Store and renamed the operating system to iOS (this because the iPod Touch and the iPad two years later would use the same operating system).
In July 2008, Apple announced that the iPhone 3G, the second-generation iPhone announced that month would be the first to have the application store developed by third parties. By then, bearing in mind that the iPhone already sold millions of units, the App Store was an immediate success.
The App Store saw 10 million downloads in its first weekend of availability. By November of the following year, the App Store had 100,000 applications already exceeded 2,000 million downloads. In July 2015, the App Store already exceeded the 1.5 million applications available and a million available exclusively for the iPad.
MacBook Air (2008)
With the iPhone and iPod growing like wildfire thanks to the App Store and iTunes Store, respectively, Apple turned his head toward computers and launched the MacBook Air in 2008: a computer that opened a market for ultralight laptops and better known as ultrabook .
The launch of the MacBook Air, in the hands of Steve Jobs broke the schemes. Jobs, still jovial and healthy, presented the computer right out of an envelope bag and boast its minimum thickness. The first generation of the Air weighed just one kilo and its thinnest was only 4 mm.
From the MacBook Air, other PC manufacturers emulated the design of the MacBook Air and Apple decided to patent it and keep copies of your ultralight computer.
At present, the MacBook Air is no longer so relevant to Apple in its portfolio of portable product. The Air is the only model that does not include a high resolution display (Retina Display) and has had only minor improvements such as faster processors. The computer already has more than a year without Apple’s attention.
iPad (2010)
With a Steve Jobs noticeably thinner and affected by pancreatic cancer that affected him several years ago (and that would take her life a year later ), Apple announced its first product Post-PC: the iPad.
With the iPad, Apple tried to give life to a market segment that raised doubts on its reliability, and still gives rise to the same doubts.
The iPad was announced as a larger iPhone and iPod version but it was perfect for reading and surfing the Web without the need for a computer. Apple decided not to use a stylus for this tablet nor gave any ports for peripherals beyond the USB port and headphone jack.
The iPad was announced in a single size of 9.7 inches that Jobs described as “perfect”. Later, however, the iPad mini and iPad Pro would show that users prefer different sizes for use of the tablet, depending on the purpose and use thereof.
iPad quickly became a bestseller and similar to the iPod and iPhone success was expected, but the iPad fever quickly faded. In the first quarter sales, the iPad sold 3.27 million units and everything was laughter and fun until 2014, when tablet sales reached 26 million units in the first quarter of Apple and hence the business took a nosedive .
In his last for its first fiscal quarter 2016 quarterly report, Apple said it sold 16.1 million units.
The numbers are used to represent the –and even better bubble explosión– iPad. According Statista, Apple had 58.1 percent of the tablet market in 2012; for the closing of 2015, Apple tablets amassing only 24.5 percent of the market.
Apple Watch (2015)
Already without Steve Jobs since 2011, Apple commanded by Tim Cook as new CEO, was the first great moment “post Steve Jobs” : the launch of a product in a new category for Apple.
The Apple Watch is considered the first product released under the tutelage of Tim Cook and demonstrate the character of the new executive as heir to Jobs.
The smart watch Apple has proven to be a product well received by the market, as only in 2015 8.8 million units were sold according to a study, but neither has been the revolution that led to the iPod or iPhone. Even all that is known concerning the sale of Apple Watch is informal, because Apple has not given exact figures of the sale of his watch.
This
With 40 years of history, Apple continues to lead the industry with a pile of money in the bank and a mobile platform and desktop keeps growing. However, the company faces moments that give the feeling that Apple lost its Mojo .
The industry is still waiting for a revolutionary product as it was the iPod. Apple continues to give small and well received updates to their products (for example the iPad Pro 9.7 inches), but the company is in need of a product that again ahead of his time, as did the iPhone in 2007.
Do you think I missed a product on the list? Tell us in the comments.
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