Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It introduced revolutionary products like the Apple I, Apple II, Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad that changed personal computing and popularized the graphical user interface. After struggling in the 1990s due to competition from Microsoft, Apple's fortunes changed with the iMac in 1998 and the introduction of the iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone, and App Store in the 2000s, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world today.

1. Slide 1:<br />Apple Inc., previously known as Apple Computer, Inc., is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers.<br />Their best known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.<br />Apple’s software includes the Mac OS X operating system, Safari web browser, iTunes media browser, iOS, a mobile operating system, and the iLife and iWork software suites, among others.<br />Slide 2:<br />Apple was founded on April 1st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. They sold the Apple I as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic text-video chips) and lacked basic features such as a keyboard, a monitor, and a case.<br />Wayne sold his shares of the company for $800 before Apple’s incorporation, which was on January 3rd, 1977. Mike Markkula, a multi-millionaire, provided $250,000 in funding during that time.<br />Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977 and featured color graphics and an open architecture. It was also chosen to be the desktop platform for the first “killer app” of the business world – the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. This gave buyers another reason to get the Apple II.<br />By the end of the ‘70s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line. They came out with the ill-fated Apple III in May 1980 to try to compete with IBM and Microsoft.<br />Steve Jobs and some other employees visited Xerox in December 1979 to see the Xerox Alto, Xerox’s computer product at the time that was the first computer to have the desktop metaphor and mouse-driven GUI (graphical user interface). This was an important event for Apple, as Jobs was convinced that all future computers would use a GUI. This led to the development of the Apple Lisa.<br />Slide 3:<br />Top left: Apple I<br />Top right: Apple II<br />Bottom left: Apple III<br />Bottom right: Apple Lisa<br />Slide 4:<br />Steve Jobs began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978 but in 1982 he was ousted from the team due to infighting, so he took over the Macintosh project. A race began to see which product would be the first to save Apple, the Lisa or the Mac. Lisa won the race in 1983 and became the first PC sold to the public with a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its price and limited software titles.<br />The following year, the Macintosh was launched. Its arrival was announced by the now famous $1.5m commercial, “1984”, that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII (18) on January 22, 1984. The commercial is now considered to be a watershed event for Apple’s success and a “masterpiece”.<br />The Macintosh sold well at first, but follow-up sales were not strong once again because of its high price and limited range of software titles. However, its fortunes changed with the introductions of LaserWriter (the first consumer-priced laser printer) and PageMaker (an early desktop publishing package by Adobe). <br />The Mac was especially powerful in the multimedia market due to its advanced graphics capabilities. It has been suggested that the combination of these three products was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market.<br />In 1985 a power struggle occurred between Steve Jobs and CEO John Sculley. Jobs attempted to oust Sculley from his leadership role at Apple, and the board of directors removed him from his managerial duties. Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT Inc. the same year.<br />Slide 5:<br />After the failure of the Macintosh Portable in 1989, Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991. The PowerBook established the modern form and ergonomic layout of the laptop. In the same year, Apple introduced System 7, a major upgrade to the then-current operating system that added color to the interface and introduced new networking capabilities. System 7 remained the architectural basis for Mac OS until 2001.<br />PowerBook, the Mac, and other products brought more and more revenue to Apple. It seemed like Apple could do no wrong. The period between 1989 and 1991 was called Apple’s first golden age.<br />However, with the introductions of the Centris, Quadra, and Performa lines of computers, consumers were confused with the difference between the models, and therefore the results were disastrous. <br />Apple also experimented in other consumer electronics fields, including digital cameras, portable CD players, speakers, video consoles, and TV appliances, which ultimately failed.<br />The Newton, which was Apple’s first product in the PDA (personal digital assistant) industry, also had enormous resources spent on it. The project was plagued with problems, however, and Apple’s market share, stock, and reputation continued to slide.<br />At this point in time, Microsoft had been gaining market share with Windows, delivering software to cheap commodity PCs while Apple was delivering a richly engineered but expensive experience.<br />Slide 6:<br />Top left: First PowerBook<br />Top right: Apple Centris<br />Bottom left: iLife 2011 software suite<br />Bottom right: First and current iMacs<br />Slide 7:<br />By the early 90s, Apple was developing alternative platforms for the Mac. Apple was facing more competition from companies like Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and IBM, and the Mac platform needed to be updated. <br />In 1994, Apple joined the AIM alliance (Apple, IBM and Motorola’s initials) to create a new computing platform, which would combine Apple’s software with IBM and Motorola’s hardware. The same year, Apple introduced the Power Macintosh, the first of many Apple computers to use IBM’s PowerPC processor.<br />In 1996, Michael Spindler was replaced by Gil Amelio as CEO. Amelio made many changes at Apple, including massive layoffs. He failed to improve the Mac OS with many projects, and achieve 3-year record-low stock price and so Amelio bought NeXT and its OS, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple. In 1997, Amelio was ousted by Apple’s board of directors, however, and Jobs became the CEO and began restructuring the company’s product line.<br />Apple introduced the Apple Store (new built-to-order manufacturing strategy) in 1997.<br />On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced the iMac, which is different from the original Macs because the tower is in the monitor. This made the iMac a new all-in-one computer that featured modern technology and a unique design, and it sold very well, selling 800,000 units in five months.<br />During this time, Apple bought several companies for their digital production software, and in 1998, Apple came out with iMovie and Final Cut Pro. In 2002, Apple released GarageBand and iPhoto, thus completing the iLife software suite. iLife is a suite of software applications developed by Apple for organizing, editing, and publishing photos, movies, and music. In May of the same year, Apple opened their first retail stores in Virginia and California. In October, Apple announced the iPod and started to sell it in November. It was phenomenally successful, selling more than 100 million units within six years. <br />In 2003, Apple’s iTunes store was introduced, offering music downloads for $0.99 a song and integration with the iPod. iTunes quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by June 2008 (5 years). <br />In 2005, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Macs in 2006. <br />The Power Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition; the Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became their respective successors. In 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was building its own team of engineers to design microchips.<br />Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price. Between early 2003 and 2006, the price of Apple's stock increased more than tenfold, from around $6 per share (split-adjusted) to over $80. <br />Slide 8:<br />Delivering his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would from that point on be known as Apple Inc., because computers were no longer the main focus of the company, which had shifted its emphasis to mobile electronic devices. The event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV.<br />In July of the following year, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Within a month, the store sold 60 million applications and brought in $1 million daily on average, with Jobs speculating that the App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple. <br />After years of speculation and multiple rumored \"
leaks\"
Apple announced a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. Later that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than 300,000 units on that day and reaching 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May of the same year, Apple's market capital exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989.<br />Apple released the fourth generation iPhone, and later that year Apple again refreshed its iPod line of MP3 players. In October 2010, Apple shares hit an all-time high, eclipsing $300. Additionally, on October 20, Apple updated their MacBook Air laptop, iLife suite of applications, and unveiled Mac OS X Lion, the latest installment in their Mac OS X operating system. On January 6, 2011, the company opened their Mac App Store.<br />Slide 9:<br />Since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 Super Bowl commercial to the more modern 'Get a Mac' adverts, Apple has been recognized in the past for its efforts towards effective advertising and marketing for its products.<br />Apple's first slogan, \"
Byte into an Apple\"
, was coined in the late 1970s. From 1997–2002, Apple used the slogan Think Different in advertising campaigns. Apple also has slogans for specific product lines — for example, \"
iThink, therefore iMac\"
was used in 1998 to promote the iMac, and \"
Say hello to iPhone\"
has been used in iPhone advertisements. \"
Hello\"
was also used to introduce the original Macintosh, Newton, iMac, and iPod.<br />Left: The original logo with Isaac Newton under an apple tree<br />Middle: The rainbow \"
bitten\"
logo, used from late 1976 to 1998<br />Right: The monochrome logo, used since 1998<br />Slide 10:<br />Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry. This includes a customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand, particularly in the United States. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world in 2008, 2009, and 2010. <br />Apple Store openings can draw crowds of thousands, with some waiting in line as much as a day before the opening or flying in from other countries for the event. The New York City Fifth Avenue \"
Cube\"
store had a line as long as half a mile; a few Mac fans took the opportunity of the setting to propose marriage. <br />Slide 11:<br />The Apple I originally sold for $666.66 (about $2572 in 2011 dollars) and was hand built by Steve Wozniak. The pricing was not set for Satanic reasons, but for simplicity of typing and because the price was 1/3 higher than the wholesale price of $500. <br />When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO (initial public offering) since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history.<br />Apple has almost 50,000 full time employees worldwide, and it has annual sales of more than $65 billion. The company has over 300 stores in ten countries, plus an online store. It is also one of the largest companies in the world and the most valuable technology company in the world, having surpassed Microsoft.<br />After Apple Inc. surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization in 2010, Apple Inc. has also become the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world with a 246 percent increase to $19.1 billion.<br />Although this is true and that Apple's market share in computers has grown, it remains far behind competitors using Microsoft Windows, with Macs only accounting for about 8% of desktops and laptops in the U.S. Apple is also the third largest mobile device supplier due to the success of the iPhone. The company has also received widespread criticism for its contractors' labor, environmental, and business practices.<br />iPod name was inspired by 2001: a space odyssey.<br />Research indicates that the average Apple consumer was usually more affluent and more well-educated than PC consumers.<br />