Apple Turns 30

Apple Computer and the Beatles' Apple Records may be in court fighting over trademark issues, but the title of a song by Beatle Paul McCartney sums up the computer company's three decade-long history. It's been "a long and winding road."

Apple celebrates its 30th anniversary on April 1 -- and that's no April fools joke. Apple was founded on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Woz), along with Ronald G. Wayne to market the Apple I – a computer that was really nothing more than a system board that sold for $666.66. Unlike earlier computers, it had an interface to connect a screen (TV set) and a keyboard and an optional audio cassette adapter to load software from tape. Prior to that, most PC hobbyists relied on switches to enter data and lights to see if their programs were working. About 200 Apple I "computers" were sold.

In 1977 Apple came out with what many would consider the first user-friendly personal computer. Unlike the kits that preceded it, the $1,298 Apple II was a complete computer with a built-in keyboard, though like most of today's desktop machines, you needed to connect an external monitor (or TV). Also unlike the Apple I and other systems, it had a molded plastic case and – remarkably – the ability to display color. It also had eight expansion slots, setting a design standard for expandability that remains in many of today's desktop PCs. It came with 4 kilobytes of memory but could address up to 64KB. To put this into perspective, today's entry level 512 MB PCs come with more than a hundred thousand times the memory as those first Apple IIs. The machine also had a version of the BASIC programming language in its read only memory (ROM) which made it possible for programmers to immediately start writing code for the machine. The early Apple IIs used a cassette adapter to load and store programs and data but, in 1978, Apple introduced a floppy disk drive which made the machine a lot more useful. I know that from experience. I tried using a cassette with my first Apple II (which I purchased in 1980) and, after a few frustrating hours, went out and bought a floppy drive.

"In hindsight," said Bricklin, it's easy to see why Apple has done well. "Jobs had this vision of a complete product that encompassed both the technical and the emotional sphere. Woz is the master of taking minimal amounts of hardware and making the most out of it." The result, said Bricklin, was "something that was elegant yet functional."

Looking back, I remember my own buying decision when I had to decide between the Apple II and the Radio Shack TRS-80. The Radio Shack machine could do all the things I needed, but there was something slightly whimsical about the Apple II. It was a more personal, personal computer. Besides, when I was in the market for my first PC, it was nearly impossible to find a floppy disk drive for the TRS-80, but they were readily available for the Apple II which, for me, cinched the deal.

Apple was the dominant force in personal computing until Aug. 12, 1981. That was the day IBM announced its entry into the personal computer market with its first IBM PC. It was a big day for me personally because I had spend the better part of that year writing the manual for the word processing program that IBM would ship with its new machine. The program, EasyWriter – had already proven itself on the Apple II. In fact, I used my Apple II to write IBM's manual. Bricklin and Frankston were also hard at work adapting VisiCalc for the new IBM so the company that turned out to be Apple's major competitor got off to a good start – a pedigree name in computing, a more than adequate piece of hardware and two of the Apple II's most popular software packages.

IBM did indeed pull ahead of Apple but Apple had a secret plan to at least try take back market share.

In January 1984, Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh. I don't usually quote myself, but I did dig up a copy of my original review of the Mac which appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 29, 1984. I wrote "I rarely get excited over a new computer. But Apple's Macintosh, officially introduced last Tuesday, has started a fever in Silicon Valley that's hard not to catch ... By the time I got my hands on the little computer and its omni-present mouse, I was hooked. Apple has a winner."

Of course, my statement was only partially true. The Mac was and still is a winner in terms of the critical acclaim of its enthusiastic user base but, in terms of market share, it has never come close to beating back the onslaught of machines running Microsoft operating systems. Today, with modern versions of Windows, it could be argued that the two systems have a great deal in common. But from 1984 until at least 1990, when it was Mac vs. MS-DOS, Apple had without a doubt an easier, more intuitive and in some ways more powerful platform.

Yet the Mac was at the time much more expensive than the "PC" so instead of becoming "the computer for the rest of us" (Apple's slogan at the time), it became the plaything of the wealthy and pickiest PC users as well as those who could easily cost-justify the machine's terrific graphic capabilities.

Aside from having to fend itself against the competition, Apple suffered some problems of its own making. In 1995 Wozniak left the company to return to college and, shockingly, Steve Jobs was fired by John Scully, the CEO he himself had recruited.

Jobs' forced departure started a downward slide that culminated in 1997, after the company had gone through several CEOs and numerous failed products. While Jobs was unemployed by Apple, he started his own PC company called NeXT which created a computer that ran its own version of the Unix operating system. NeXT never did catch on with the masses but its software was second-to-none and in 1996 Apple acquired NeXT's software for use in its own systems. What Apple CEO Gil Amelio didn't realize at the time was that Apple was soon about to re-acquire Jobs as its "iCEO" (the I stood for "interim") but for that to happen Amelio had to go. According to Business Week Jobs, at the time, told board members, "The products suck. There's no sex in them anymore!"

With Jobs back at the helm, Apple was once again focused on bringing together elegance and functionality. Jobs completely redesigned the Macintosh product line, coming out with the iMac in 1998 – a computer with a built-in monitor that turned heads – and Apple's bottom line – around. The iMac has become the centerpiece of Apple's desktop strategy and has continued to evolve.

Also, on the PC front, last year Apple shocked the industry by announcing a switch from its hybrid Motorola-IBM built processor to the same Intel processors used by most PC makers. It's a bit of an irony since this is the same processor that Apple had ridiculed only months before. But it's a smart move. The Intel processors can, overtime, make Macs thinner, more energy efficient, faster and cheaper to build. On this, Steve Jobs can't be accused of foolish consistency.

Another interesting innovation was an Apple slogan: "Think Different." The slogan, along with ads depicting famous inventors, artists, social revolutionaries and impendent thinkers from history, helped establish the Apple brand as something very special. Rather than the "computer for the rest of us" Apple repositioned itself as the company for those who dare to be different.

In terms of social impact, Apple's biggest innovation has not been in personal computing but in personal entertainment. In October 2001 Apple introduced a product that would not only make it billions in revenue but would make Apple a household name on the lips to millions of consumers including the all-important youth market. Apple's iPod music player and its iTunes software and music store was an instant success but far from a one hit wonder. As newer and newer models hit the market, the iPod keeps growing not just in sheer numbers but even in market share despite many copy cat products. Depending on what you ask and who is measuring, Apple's share of the digital music player market hovers around 80 percent. Whatever the exact number, it's fair to say that Apple dominates the portable digital music world and there is no indication that that will change anytime soon, despite enormous efforts by Sony, Microsoft and others.

As it celebrates its 30th anniversary Apple is doing just fine with a stock market capitalization of $53 billion -- yet it is not without its challenges. Even though Apple continues to innovate on the PC-side with regular updates to its Unix-based OS X operating system, it is facing increasing competition from Microsoft which, next year, is expected to ship Vista – its next generation operating system that has borrowed many of the features of OS X. To stay ahead on the feature war, Apple needs to continue to innovate and to have any hope of increasing marketshare it needs to convince consumers that the Mac is worth the extra money (or lower its hardware prices) and businesses that it's OK to break the mold to and buy hardware that isn't blessed by Bill Gates.

Still, if history is any indication of the future, expect Apple to come up with interesting surprises on both the computer and entertainment fronts. I'm not going to go out on a limb and predict that we or our children will in 30 years be celebrating Apple's 60th anniversary, but I have a strong feeling that it will continue be a major player for the foreseeable future.

By Larry Magid