The Journey of Apple from 1970's to 2018

THE JOURNEY OF APPLE FROM 1970'S TO 2018

1. FOUNDERS AND NAME - Apple Inc. earlier known as Apple Computers, the first trillion dollar company started it's journey on 1 April 1976 was a humble start-up with three friends in one garage. The two Steves - Jobs and Wozniak are the most visible founders also known as the primary founder. The third co-founder Ronald Wayne also contributed towards the growth of the company and there would have been no iPhone, iPad or iMac without his contribution. The company was named Apple because the company to beat in the technology industry at that time was Atari, and the Apple Computer came before Atari alphabetically and thus also in the phone book. Another reason was that Jobs had happy memories working on an Oregon apple farm one summer. The name sounded fun, spirited and not intimidating to Steve Jobs. Moreover, It was named during one of his fruitarian diets, Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Jobs reveals.

2. APPLE I - The two primary  founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak met through a mutual friend, Bill Fernandez. They had withdrawn from Reed College and UC Berkeley respectively by 1975. Having met in 1971, Steve Jobs and Wozniak had been friends for some time. Steve Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a computer machine and selling it. Jobs started looking for cash, but banks were reluctant to lend him money as the idea of computer for ordinary people seemed absurd. Joined by Ronald Wayne, they started building machines and formed Apple Computer on April 1, 1976 and then eventually 200 of the Apple I's were built.

3. APPLE II and APPLE III - Wozniak had soon moved from Apple I and many of the design features of the I were due to the limited amount of money they had to construct the prototype, but with the income from the sales Wozniak was able to start construction of a greatly improved machine, the Apple II. The main difference internally was a completely redesigned TV interface, which held the display in memory. With both cash and a new case design in hand thanks to designer Jerry Manock, the Apple II was released in 1977 and millions were sold well into the 1980s. While the Apple II was already established as a successful business-ready platform, Apple was still not content. So, The Apple III was designed to take on the business environment. The Apple III was released on May 19, 1980. The Apple III was a relatively conservative design for computers of the era. However, Steve Jobs did not want the computer to have a fan; however, the physical design of the case was not sufficient to cool the components inside it. By removing the fan from the design, the Apple III was prone to overheating. Thousands of Apple III computers were recalled. A new model was introduced in 1983 to try and rectify the problems, but the damage was already done.

4. APPLE IPO - On December 12, 1980, Apple launched the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its stock to the investing public selling 4.6 million shares at $22 per share When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history. Steve Jobs, the largest shareholder, made $217 million dollars alone. By the end of the day, the stock had increased in value by almost 32% to close at $29, leaving the company with a market value of $1.778 billion.As of August 2, 2018, Apple shares hit $207.05 per share making it the first company to cross $1 trillion in market cap. Currently, the initial investment of $990 would, at that price, be worth $521,740.80, not including dividends. 

5. THE LISA AND THE MACINTOSH - Lisa stood for Local Integrated System Architecture, and the fact it was Jobs' daughter's name was purely coincidental. It was a high-end business machine slated to sell at close to $10,000. Jeff Raskin, meanwhile, was heading up development of the Macintosh, which had smaller businesses and home users firmly in its sights, and each team wanted to be the first to ship an Apple computer with a graphical interface. Lisa cost four times the price of Macintosh and although it had a higher resolution display and could address more memory, it wasn't nearly as successful. Apple didn’t give up. The original Lisa was followed by the Lisa 2, which cost around half the price of its predecessor and used the same 3.5in disks as the Macintosh. Then, in 1985, it rebranded the hard drive-equipped Lisa 2 as the Macintosh XL and stimulated sales with a price cut. Macintosh was the machine that largely guaranteed the company's future. 

6. JOBS LEAVES APPLE AND HIS COME BACK- The Macintosh's failure to defeat the PC strengthened the former CEO of Apple , John Sculley's position in the company. In June 1985, the board of directors sided with Sculley and Jobs was stripped of all duties. Jobs, while taking the position of Chairman of the firm, had no influence over Apple's direction and subsequently resigned. Then under leadership of John Sculley, Apple issued its first corporate stock dividend on May 11, 1987. A month later on June 16, Apple stock split for the first time in a 2:1 split. Apple kept a quarterly dividend with about 0.3% yield until November 21, 1995. On July 9, 1997, Gil Amelio was ousted as CEO of Apple by the board of directors. Jobs stepped in as the interim CEO to begin a critical restructuring of the company's product line. While discontinuing Apple's licensing of its operating system to third-party computer manufacturers, one of Jobs's first moves as new acting CEO was to develop the iMac, which bought Apple time to restructure. In May 2001, after much speculation, Apple announced the opening of a line of Apple retail stores, to be located throughout the major U.S. computer buying markets. He served as the CEO of Apple until August 24, 2011 and resigned because of his battle with pancreatic cancer which took his life on October 5, 2011. 

7. THE PERIOD BETWEEN 2001 AND 2007 - Much happened between 2001 and 2007 as Apple introduced iPods, iTunes Stores. In October 2001, Apple introduced its first iPod portable digital audio player. The iPod gave an enormous lift to Apple's financial results. Initially, the Apple Stores were only opened in the United States, but in late 2003, Apple opened its first Apple Store abroad, in Tokyo, Japan. Apple's first European store opened in London on Regent Street in November 2004, then in the Bullring  shopping centre in Birmingham in April 2005 then in Canada and in New York and so on. In 2000, Apple introduced its iTools service, a set of free web-based tools that included an email account, internet greeting cards and a service called iReview. The iTunes music store was launched in April 2003 with 2 million downloads in the first days. The first version of the iPhone became publicly available on June 29, 2007. The Apple iPad was announced on January 27, 2010 with retail availability commencing in April and systematically growing in markets throughout 2010.

8. RESURGENCE COMPARED TO MICROSOFT AND RESTRUCTURING - Since 2005, Apple's revenues, profits, and stock price have grown significantly. On May 26, 2010, Apple's stock market value overtook Microsoft's and Apple's revenues surpassed those of Microsoft in the third quarter of 2010. On October 29, 2012, Apple announced structural changes to increase collaboration between hardware, software and services. The most notable short term difference of this restructuring was the launch of iOS 7. During this time, Apple released the iPhone 5, the first iPhone to have a screen larger than 3.5", the iPod Touch 5 and the iPhone 5s with fingerprint scanning technology in the phone. Then came iphone 6, 6s, 7, and so on including iPhone x. 

9. FINANCIAL STATUS AND TRILLION DOLLAR COMPANY - Apple's earning shows that the company is in good financial health as the revenue rose 17% in the second quarter to $53.3 billion, while the net income rose 405 to $2.34 per share. The company reported that MacBook sales were down and that iPad sales remained flat, the company saw the average iPhone selling price hit $724 in the third quarter, well above the expected $694. This achievement can be credited to the flagship iPhone X which remained Apple's most popular iDevice during the quarter, according to CEO Tim Cook. The sales from iTunes and the App Store increased from 37 percent to $9.5 billion which also contributed to this procurement. Sale of Air Pods, HomePods and the Apple Watch also had a bumper quarter with growth of 37 percent. Apple has also taken an action to rein in its App Store Affiliate Program, in a move that is alleged to have brought one company to the blink of collapse.Overall, the net worth of apple is worth two times the valuation of Facebook, seven times of Netflix and 42 times more than the value of Twitter. 

10. THE FUTURE OF APPLE INC. - It is argued that the iPhone growth is slowing, and Apple won't be able to rely on the device forever. The company has confirmed it will remove apps and in-apps purchases from the program by the start of October. According to Bloomberg report, when Apple launches its new iPad Pro models, it will also release a redesigned stylus it calls pencil. Three iPhones will be released in 2018. The first new iPhone is going to be an incremental update to an iPhone X. It is not sure what it will be called but it might be called iPhone Xs or iPhone 11 which will be 5.8 inc OLED and there will be new Gold colour. Two additional iPhones might be Xs+ or 11+. This is going to be 6.5 inch OLED with bigger battery. Moreover, it is going to be first iPhone with dual sim capabilities. The third iPhone may be called iPhone 9 that is going to be budget iPhone as it's going to cost around $700. As it is going to be cheaper, it will be 6.1 inch LCD with a single camera and there will be no 3D touch in iPhone 9. 

So, this was Apple’s journey from 1970’s which started in a garage to 2018 as a trillion dollar company.