When Apple became the most valuable company in the world in August 2011, Steve Jobs only had six weeks to live. One of Apple’s co-founders and, above all, a visionary of the computer and software company died on October 5, 2011. Steve Jobs still witnessed the greatest triumph. It was he who significantly shaped and promoted the Apple myth. Like every decent rise story in Silicon Valley, Apple’s begins in a garage.
This is Steve Jobs’ adoptive father’s garage. On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs founded Apple together with the inventor Steve Wozniak and the third man, Ron Wayne. The starting capital is a whopping 1300 US dollars.
The most important person in this trio: Ron Wayne. Although he left Apple eleven days after it was founded. However, without him, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak would never have found each other. Wayne is the interface between the computer nerd, Steve Wozniak, and the visionary and businessman, Steve Jobs. Steve Wozniak later described his relationship with Steve Jobs as follows: “I was the hobbyist, Steve the one who liked to make calls.” Together, the two started the Apple myth.
How Apple got its bite gap
What many do not even know: the famous bitten apple is still in the drawer. As the first brand logo, Apple uses a graphic that shows the English naturalist and philosopher Isaac Newton. He is sitting under a tree. An apple dangles over Newton’s head. The apple with a bite mark first appeared in 1977.
Steve Jobs opts for the bitten apple because it can be graphically integrated well for various purposes. For example, the logo appears on the booting tape for the Apple computer. The bite gap of the apple nestles gently around the cassette hole.
Apple also uses this visual effect in print advertising and uses a round A around which the Apple logo nestles perfectly. As a result, the missing part in the apple becomes a trademark.
Read more: Why is the Apple logo actually bitten?
From the Apple I to the Macintosh
In terms of business, things are also going according to plan at Apple. The Apple I, considered the world’s first home computer, retails for $666. The demand is huge, but Apple only has about 200 pieces on offer. Due to the sales success, additional capital flows into the company from outside, the basis for the successor model Apple II. This computer is the last industrially manufactured PC that was developed by a single person, by Steve Wozniak.
In 1979 Apple plans the next generation of computers. Under the code name “Macintosh”, Steve Jobs drives development and takes care of the necessary business partners and financial resources. Jobs idea: The development of an own graphical user interface with icons and special menu navigation, which can be operated via an external device. The term “computer mouse” was not yet widespread at that time, because existing computers only understood control via defined commands that had to be typed in by hand on the keyboard.
Steve Jobs was inspired by the Xerox company, which was the first company to develop such a graphical user interface in the early 1980s. Jobs later claims that such a surface was his own idea. A certain Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is said to have once jokingly said: “I think you can see it differently, Steve. I think it was more like we both had this rich neighbor called Xerox that I broke into to steal the TV and found you had already stolen it.”
In 1984 Apple’s first Macintosh saw the light of day. The new, groundbreaking computer will be presented to the public at the most important sporting event in the USA, the Super Bowl in American football. The commercial directed by star director Ridley Scott sets standards to this day.
At that time, the Macintosh computer was considered a pioneer in the home computer sector. It is the first PC with its own screen, separate keyboard and mouse. A trash can icon will appear on the screen. The term “drag and drop” is finding its way into the four walls at home.
Steve Jobs farewell means Apple’s demise
For Steve Jobs, however, things are not going so well at Apple. Jobs got along well with the new Apple CEO, John Sculley. Soon, however, dark clouds gather over the two. Steve Jobs overestimates his own role at Apple and loses the internal power struggle. Perhaps the first and only mistake in his professional career.
However, the Apple co-founder did not rest on his laurels, but founded the next computer company, NeXT, immediately after leaving Apple in 1985. Here, too, Steve Jobs demonstrates his far-sightedness and his flair for future trends. However, this time his ideas do not ignite as hoped.
Although the NeXT computers enjoy a high reputation in the university sector, Steve Jobs does not reach the general public with them. That should also have been due to the pricing: A NeXT computer costs at least 6000 US dollars.
Nevertheless, NeXT will go down in history. At the end of the 1980s, Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web and the first web browser on a NeXTcube at the CERN research center. At least indirectly, Steve Jobs paved the way for the digital world.
Also read: This website lets you surf like in 1989
At the beginning of the 1990s, Apple increasingly found itself on a lurching course. Criticism of company boss John Sculley is growing. Expensive new developments such as the Newton Pad, the forerunner of the later iPad, or the first digital camera, the QuickTake 100, designed together with Kodak, caused a huge hole in Apple’s coffers.
In addition, competitor Microsoft with the release of Windows 3.0 Apple outranked. CEO John Sculley has to go. As a result, Apple focused on developing its own operating system called Mac OS.
Also read: How did Microsoft come about? The history of the technology giant
A prodigal son returns via detours
As life sometimes goes: In 1996 the paths of Apple and Steve Jobs crossed again. Since Jobs has now established a mature operating system on the market with NeXT, Apple buys the company without further ado. With the takeover, Steve Jobs returns to his roots and a short time later leads the computer company again. At the same time, Apple’s rise to become the world’s most important company begins.
Steve Jobs made what is probably the most important move back in 1997: he allied Apple with Microsoft. As a result, Steve Jobs opens up the company to a much larger clientele.
Steve Jobs underpins this new direction with stylish and, above all, mass-market products. Apple returned to profitability with the release of the iMac and iBook in 1998. The brightly colored devices and the unusual design ensure a rapid sale. Apple used to only appeal to a particularly wealthy, elite clientele. Now Apple is a cult. Suddenly, owning an Apple computer is considered cool. The price no longer matters.
Apple becomes a cult brand thanks to Steve Jobs
The company underpins this cult status with new products, driven by the doer and visionary Steve Jobs. In 2001, Apple launched the iPod. Together with iTunes, Apple is revolutionizing the entire music business, to the delight of all music fans. Some record companies, however, curse this day to this day.
However, Steve Jobs has one more thing, something the Apple co-founder will immortalize himself with: the iPhone. Jobs presented the first smart, mobile telephone in 2007. The morning after, the world is no longer the same as yesterday. At that time Steve Jobs is said to have once said: “Every few years there is a revolutionary product that changes everything. You’re lucky if you get to be a part of something like this just once in your life. Apple is lucky to be able to bring a few of them into the world.”
When Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011, Apple was at the pinnacle of success. Many critics predict a bleak future for the company without its visionary at the helm. However, this has not yet come true.
Apple is still a cult brand and a myth. However, the company lost one ability with the death of Steve Jobs: the sure instinct and vision for the next revolutionary product.