Apple Computer

Apple Computer, Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL is a Silicon Valley company based in Cupertino, California, whose core trade is computer technologies. Apple helped start the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II microcomputer and has since further shaped it with the Macintosh. Apple is known for its innovative, well-designed hardware, such as the iPod and iMac, as well as software offerings exemplified through iTunes as part of the iLife suite and Mac OS X, its flagship operating system.

They were hand-built in Jobs' parents' garage, and it was first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. Fifty units were sold to The Byte Shop at $500 each. In 1977 Apple released the Apple II; it was accessible to the public at the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 16 and 17, 1977. By the 1980s, Apple faced rising competition in the personal computing business due to IBM's open hardware standard created with the IBM PC, which bundled Microsoft's MS-DOS. As a result Apple released the Apple III, a large failure for the company, and in 1983 released their second attempt at a business-oriented computer, the Apple Lisa.

The Apple Macintosh was launched in 1984 with a now prominent Super Bowl advertisement based on George Orwell's novel 1984, declaring, "On January 24, Apple Computer will launch Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984'" — the implication being that the Mac's new, "user friendly" graphical user interface would revolutionize and liberate computing and information from the elite of large corporations and technocrats. Macintosh also spawned the concept of Mac evangelism which was pioneered by Apple employee, and later Apple Fellow, Guy Kawasaki.