“Forty years ago today, an oddball trio, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, founded a little computer company that turned out to be a bigger success than anyone could have imagined at the time,” Verne Kopytoff writes for Fortune. “But that business, Apple, could have just as easily gone under.”
“Surviving a near-bankruptcy in 1997 is a testament to Jobs, who led what is as rare as a mint condition Apple I computer is today: A tech turnaround,” Kopytoff writes. “Few struggling tech companies have ever managed to pull one off.”
“Jobs did it by focusing Apple on only a few things, and doing them well. His keen marketing instincts didn’t hurt,” Kopytoff writes. “When you think about Apple’s accomplishments on its 40th anniversary, don’t just think about how it managed to turn iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks into a mega business. Think about how Apple, near death shortly after its 20th anniversary, was able to defy the odds and start the ultimate tech comeback.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s story is such that if you wrote it before it happened, people would say it was far too fantastical to believe!
“After Gil resigned I got a call from Apple’s board of directors asking me to return to Apple as their CEO, we’d just taken Pixar public, and I was happy being CEO there so I declined. I never knew of anyone who served as CEO of two public companies, even temporarily, and I wasn’t even sure it was legal. They then asked me to become chairman, and I again declined. I had no plans to leave Pixar. I told them, “I will help. I will be an advisor. Unpaid. That’s all I can give now.”
I was enjoying spending more time with my family. I was torn. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew Apple was a mess, so I wondered: Do I want to give up this nice lifestyle that I have? What are all the Pixar shareholders going to think? I talked to people I respected. I finally called Andy Grove at about eight one Saturday morning – too early. I gave him the pros and the cons, and in the middle he stopped me and said, “Steve, I don’t give a shit about Apple.” I was stunned. It was then I realized that I do give a shit about Apple – I started it and it is a good thing to have in the world. I felt the world would be a better place with Apple in it than not. And it’s hard to imagine the world without Apple now.”
“Steve Jobs Bio: The Unauthorized Autobiography.”
https://itun.es/nl/qB1h3.l
Way to go Apple, certainly a great illustration when humans decide to do the best for themselves and humanity. Happy Birthday.
The way I hear it, the company is still in near failure mode. The “peak iPhone/iPad” meme is in full swing. Apple is said to supposedly be in the same boat as BlackBerry.
/s
Well, Apple can fail but right now that’s not happening. Anyone who thinks that they are is an idiot. Blackberry may as well not even exist now, and Apple is hardly anywhere near being in the same situation.
The headline needs a bit of a rewrite.
Shouldn’t it be: Apple’s near failure and celebrating its incredible turnaround.
I think the Apple hating press are still celebrating Apple’s near demise and still can’t believe the turnaround. They hold on to the hope it is temporary and without Steve Jobs, Apple is dead.
Oh so right.
Investors are also tinged with AAPL’s long stay in ICU 20 years ago and are still waiting for that other shoe to drop,
It’s always lurking in the shadows holding us back.
I believe Apple TV on demand will be the break out service that finally erases this fear and propels us to $200.
Katie Bar Door
Investors got invested both ways. Remember that.
Share holders = scum. First against the wall come the e revolution.