Apple Inc. is 32 years old today! Time Magazine’s 80th anniversary issue featured a look back over 80 years in a piece titled “80 Days That Changed the World,” published on March 31, 2003. Lev Grossman wrote about one such day that changed the world, the founding of Apple Computer, Inc. on April 1, 1976:
They were two guys named Steve, so Steve Jobs was called Steve and Steve Wozniak went by Woz. At 25, Wozniak was the technical brains. Jobs, 21, was the dreamer with a knack for getting others to dream along with him. They had gone to the same high school, and in the hazy years after graduation (both were college dropouts) a shared interest in electronics brought them together. Jobs didn’t yet have his own place, so when their formal partnership began, the decision was made in a bedroom at his parents’ ranch house in Los Altos, Calif.
Most computers in 1976 were room-size machines with Defense Department-size price tags, but Wozniak had been tinkering with a new design, and his computer was different. It wasn’t much to look at – just a bunch of chips screwed to a piece of plywood – but it was small, cheap and easy to use, and Jobs had noticed the stir it caused when they took it to a local computer club. “He said, ‘We’ll make it for 20 bucks, sell it for 40 bucks!'” Wozniak remembers. “I kind of didn’t think we’d do it.” Jobs came up with the name, inspired by an orchard in Oregon where he had worked with some friends: Apple Computer. “When we started the little partnership, it was just like, Oh, this will be fun,” Wozniak says. “We won’t make any money, but it’ll be fun.”
They didn’t go out and celebrate that day. Woz wouldn’t even quit his day job designing chips for calculators at Hewlett-Packard until months later, after Jobs had sold his Volkswagen bus for seed money. Nobody, not even Jobs, saw what was coming next: that Apple would create the look and feel of every desktop in the world and start our love affair with the personal computer.
Full article here.
Happy Birthday Apple! Thank you Steve and Woz!
Happy Birthday Apple. I have been using your products since the 6th grade.
Happy Birthday Apple! Apple and I are old buddies – going way back to late 2004 – when purchased my first Apple computer – a lowly Powermac G5. Ahh… the memories of my first Apple computer. And guess what – it still runs and launches Leopard just fine. True it doesn’t slum with Windows but it still manages to open web pages, check email, and do some basic word processing.
Peace.
1983 – Apple Lisa – $10,300 – boy was that a chunk of change but I figured it was better than the TRS-80 (Trash 80, as it was called)
Next year I sold it (wish I still had it now!) and bought the new revolutionary Macintosh. I remember when I bought a 5 Meg drive – it was going to last forever!
Been driving them ever since…
Thanks Steve and Woz… good on ya!
Merry Macmas
Yes, Happy Birthday, Apple. Seems like just yesterday you were only 31….
Hey, check out Woz’s belt buckle. It’s got today’s version of the Apple logo on it!
I still have a 1979 Apple ][ !!!!
And I still remember the first time I used a Mac (and a mouse with it) – it was unbelivable!
Merry Xmas!!!
Here Here! Happy Birthday!
Al Gore now a member of Apple Inc’s board of directors!
Boy, I wish that would have been an April Joke.
What about ooxml, guys?
Exactly how in the long run does this help Apple?
Happy Birthday Apple, its OK you did not become the grey mainstream after 32 years .. Watch it !
Damn! I’ve got to wait till the 21’st. First Apple computer I used was an Apple ][e. My old man acutally hooked it up to the T.V. for colour! Happy B-Day Apple!!!!
WE WANT BILL!!!!!!….WE WANT BILL!!!!!!…..WE WANT BILL!!!!!!
COME ON ALL TOGETHER NOW!!!!!!
“Happy Birthday Apple, its OK you did not become the grey mainstream after 32 years .. Watch it !”
Apple 32 years old and still trying to exceed how well the company did in terms of market share in the “Good Old Days”.
20 years on and still trying to break into the PC marketplace. At least now selling a PC clone hardware seems to be working for Apple.
@Hmm
feel free to go pound sand!
Happy Birthday to Apple, Steve & Woz!!!
-http://ThunkDifferent.com
Happy Birthday Apple. Free Macbook Pro’s for all?!
Man did Time get it wrong. Look for a correction next week. That last sentence should read:
<i>Nobody, not even Ballmer, saw what was coming next: that Microsoft would create the look and feel of every desktop in the world and start our love affair with the personal computer.”
Thank you, Microsoft! The world is forever indebted to you for your revolutionary innovations! I still have a PC jr.!
Your potential. Our passion.™
Thank you Apple and Steve and Steve for giving me a great computer and a great career.
You been on a cruise or what? I haven’t seen a post from you in days.
You know you’re a fanboi when….
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Posted from my iPhone
The Mac changed my life in late ’84. I used 2 Macs, a Mac 128 upgraded to a Mac plus and a Powerbook 180, from ’84 to ’97. 13 years, 2 Macs, incredible consulting business established and I still hadn’t seen a color screen. Good times.
“I still have a PC jr.!”
You still are a PCjr! Time for a new joystick?
Yep. I still have a IBM PCjr. I always liked Charlie Chaplin, and if it was good enough for the little tramp it was good enough for me.
Since then it has been computing bliss with many memorable DOS and Windows based Kaypros, Compaqs and Acers until I settled on my present Dell. Face it MAC sheep—Apple would be nowhere without those guys.
Your potential. Our passion.™