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In Redwood California in 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne first sold the Apple I personal computer kit for $666.66, the 1976 equivalent to $2550 dollars in 2010. Wozniak hand built the motherboard, the only piece to the Apple I-keyboards and monitors were separate items. After Wayne sold his share for $800, Jobs and Wozniak incorporated the company and developed the Apple II which was superior to the TRS-80 and Commodore PET (Apple's rivals at the time) because it had color graphics, open architecture, and the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. By 1980, Apple stock as offered to the public for investing and the company generated more capital than any other publically traded stock company since Ford Motor Company in 1956. The company simultaneously generated around 300 instant millionaires as well.
By the early 1980s, the Apple Lisa and the Macintosh were both in the running for release. Infighting caused Wozniak to be kicked off of Team Lisa and sent to work on Team Macintosh. Lisa was released first in 1983, the first personal computer with a graphical user interface sold to the public, but failed due to expense and limited software capabilities. The Macintosh's release was much more successful, partially due to the now famous commercial ''1984'' directed by Ridley Scott. Follow up sales, however, were not quite as successful until the PostScript laser printer was offered.
Steve Jobs and Apple's CEO John Sculley fell into a power struggle in the mid 1980s which ultimately led to Jobs' forced resignation from Apple and the founding of NeXT Inc., a computer workstation producer for education and business. Apple continued to grow as it focused on the education industry and donated an Apple II to every public school in California. This led to schools across the nation purchasing Apple products for their schools, and parents purchasing them for home use and continued education as well.
Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991, the pioneering layout for the modern day laptop, a product that became very successful. During this ''golden age'' for Apple, the company experimented with more products aimed at consumers such as digital cameras and music players. As production costs for the Apple II became too expensive for the company, it was discontinued, but the company still saw their stock value sliding. As rival Microsoft was able to produce Windows less expensively for the consumer, Apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement. The case was eventually thrown out, but had debased Apple's reputation.
In the late 1990s, Microsoft and Apple came together to release Microsoft Windows for the Macintosh. Soon after the iMac was released, designed by Jonathan Ive who later designed the iPod and iPhone. With the success of the iMac, the company bought several software developers as well. The beginning of the new millennium saw the opening of the first Apple Retail Stores and Apple's iTunes Store offering downloadable music for $0.99 a song over the internet. Since, Apple has delved headfirst into mobile consumer electronics. Today, consumers are more likely to be brand loyal to Apple than to any other computer manufacturer. This is partially due to ''Apple Evangelists,'' many of which were already Apple employees.
According to 2009 figures, Apple employs almost 34,500 people. The company made $8.24 billion in profits on $42.91 billion in revenue.
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