I INTRODUCTION  Apple Computer, Inc., major manufacturer of personal computers with headquarters in Cupertino, California. Apple designs, produces, and sells personal computer systems for use in business, education, government, and the home. Its products are sold in more than 120 countries and include personal computers, printers, monitors, scanners, software, and networking products.

II FOUNDING
Apple was formed by Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak in 1976 to market the Apple I, a computer circuit board that they had designed and built in Jobs’s garage in Los Altos, California. They scrapped their plan to sell the board alone when Jobs’s first sales call yielded an order for 50 units. They were, however, sold without monitor, keyboard, or casing. The company was incorporated in January 1977 by the charismatic Jobs, the meditative inventor Wozniak, and their new partner and chairman, Mike Markkula. Markkula brought credibility, maturity, engineering and product management experience, and an extremely broadbased knowledge of the business world, as well as investment cash of his own and contacts among Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists. Markkula also recruited all of Apple’s outside board members and lured away managers from other major high-technology firms, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and National Semiconductor.

III APPLE II AND MACINTOSH
In 1977 Apple introduced the Apple II, a personal computer able to generate color graphics, with its own keyboard, power supply, and eight slots for peripheral devices, which gave users wide possibilities for add-on devices and software programs. Apple established its corporate headquarters in Cupertino in 1978. The Apple III computer, introduced in 1980, sold poorly because of hardware problems and a high price.

With Apple II sales soaring, in 1982 Apple became the first personal-computer company to record annual sales of $1 billion. In 1983 Apple introduced the Lisa, a personal computer designed for business use that incorporated a handheld mouse to select commands and control an on-screen cursor. The Lisa was followed in 1984 by the Macintosh personal computer, based on the 68000 microprocessor manufactured by Motorola. Like the Lisa, the Macintosh incorporated a graphical user interface, which made the computer easy to operate for the novice user. Apple entered the office market with the introduction of its LaserWriter printer in 1985 and Macintosh Plus computer in 1986, a combination that launched the desktop publishing revolution. Although the company prospered in the early 1980s, Wozniak left Apple in 1985 to start a company of his own. That same year disappointing sales and internal wrangling led to restructuring, the company’s first layoffs, and Jobs’s departure from the company. John Sculley, whom Jobs had hired in 1983 as Apple’s president and chief executive officer, replaced Jobs as chairman of the company’s board of directors.

IV EXPANSION AND CHANGE
The late 1980s and early 1990s were times of growth and change at Apple. In the late 1980s Apple’s net income increased substantially, and in 1990 Apple introduced a new line of Macintosh computers, priced at 50 percent less than previous models to attract new customers to the Macintosh. In addition expanding the Macintosh line, Apple extended its system software, the modular System 7. In 1991 Apple formed an alliance with International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and Motorola to develop the PowerPC family of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessors. In 1992 Apple introduced the family of Macintosh PowerBook laptop computers, which offered built-in networking capabilities. That same year the company introduced its Quicktime software, which allowed computers to play video clips in multimedia applications.

In 1993 Michael Spindler replaced John Sculley as chief executive officer of Apple. That same year the company introduced the Newton, a handheld communications device with several functions including the ability to translate handwriting into typewritten text. The company also announced restructuring plans that included substantial layoffs, wage freezes, and changes at the executive level. In 1993 Apple discontinued its Apple II product line.

V RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In 1994 Apple launched the Power Macintosh line of high-performance computers, the first Macintosh computers based on Motorola’s PowerPC chip. The company also began licensing its operating system, Mac OS, to other computer manufacturers for the first time. After a year of solid growth, Apple’s fortunes declined again in 1995. A string of problems, including severe shortages of some computer models, led to sluggish sales and financial losses.

In 1996 Gilbert F. Amelio, a business executive credited with saving the National Semiconductor Corporation from financial ruin, replaced Spindler as Apple’s chief executive officer. Apple abandoned its plans to release a major upgrade of its operating system. Later in the year, the company paid $400 million to acquire NeXT Software, a company headed by Apple cofounder Jobs, and announced plans to release a new operating system based in part on NeXT technology. Jobs returned to Apple as a part-time consultant. Despite losing $816 million in 1996, Apple rejected a number of proposed mergers.

In 1997 the company’s sales continued to drop due to competition with manufacturers of Macintosh clones and computers using the Windows operating system developed by Microsoft Corporation. That year Apple laid off 4100 workers, or about 30 percent of its workforce, as part of a sweeping reorganization designed to return the company to profitability. Also that year, Apple's board of directors dismissed chief executive Amelio. At the time of his dismissal, Amelio had not managed to bring about a promised reversal of the company's fortunes.

In September 1997 Apple rehired Jobs as interim chief executive officer. At the helm of Apple for the first time in 11 years, Jobs embarked on a bold plan to turn the company around. He persuaded longtime rival Microsoft to invest $150 million in Apple and to develop new Macintosh versions of Microsoft Office, a suite of business application programs. He reversed the company’s decision to license the Mac OS to other computer manufacturers, which had taken away market share from Apple. He discontinued the Newton, Apple’s handheld computer that had never made a profit. The company also introduced a successful line of high-powered desktop and notebook computers based on the PowerPC G3 processor made by IBM and Motorola. In 1998 Apple introduced the iMac, a low-cost computer with an eye-catching design.

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Courtesy www.rediff.com
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