It’s hard to believe that a quarter of a century has passed since the first Apple Mac computer was launched. The highs and lows that Apple have faced in the past 25 years have been well documented but they are still a very strong contender in the industry and in the last three months alone 2.5 million Macs were sold worldwide. Here are some interesting facts:
The first Apple MacIntosh went on sale on January 24th 1984. This was the first commercially successful home computer to feature both a mouse based input system and a graphical user interface. It came with two applications; MacWrite and MacPaint – signalling the birth of desktop publishing and word processing. Although it only had 128 kb of memory and a 8mhz processor, it was still revolutionary in its time.
The second version of the Apple Mac met with stiff competition with the release of Windows ‘95 and the company suffered as a whole when Steve Jobs, a co-founder, left the company after a series of disputes.
in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and used his vision, business acumen, eye for detail and formidable negotiation skills to revive the Apple brand and the iMac was launched with a new sleek design. Under Jobs’ watch, the Macintosh range gradually evolved from dull beige boxes to design icons in their own right. Apple began to build a reputation not only for solid and easy-to-use software, but for beautiful gadgets that could be lusted over as well as used.
1998 saw the launch of the iBook. Its compact proportions together with its cute, clamshell design proved to be particularly poplular with women and was a turning point in the company’s fortunes. The trendsetting character Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City was an avid fan of the iBook. This was perhaps the start of Apples cult status.
In 2002 Apple released a cleverly designed all in one iMac, which proved to be extremely easy to use and futuristic in its appearance.
In 2007, Apple changed its name from Apple Computers to simply Apple Inc. reflecting a wider focus for the company, and an acknowledgement that cutting-edge gadgets, such as the iPhone and iPod, were helping to bring its technology to a wider audience, and in turn driving consumers to discover other Apple products – younger consumers in particular associated Apples products as cool and ‘must haves’.
By late 2008 laptops were outselling desktop computers and to embrace that Apple announced a new look MacBook range fashioned from aluminium and glass.
What will the next 25 years bring for Apple?
