Introducing the Apple Computers

Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple Computers, Inc. changed people’s perceptions of personal computers.

• Apple I was the first computer with a single-circuit board and ROM
• Apple II was the first commercially available computer with color graphics
• The Macintosh was the first personal computer featuring a mouse-driven graphical user interface

Apple's Early History

The first-ever Apple computer was the Apple I, which after selling 200 units, was replaced by Apple II. Apple II proved a great success and the company grew very fast. In 1980, Apple's sales reached $117 million, the company went public that year. In 1983, the charismatic Steve Wozniak left Apple. In January 1984, the Macintosh was released, featuring the Motorola 68K CPU and a GUI.

In 1985, Steve Jobs left Apple too and founded NeXT by investing $12 million. After Steve Jobs, Apple wasn’t the same company. Starting in 1990, Apple’s market share was constantly shrinking and many experts argued that it was going to fail. Apple also faced tremendous issues with the Macintosh operating system. The solution came again from Steve Jobs. In 1997, Apple bought NeXT from Jobs, and solved their problems, by incorporating NeXTSTEP into MacOS. Based on UNIX, NeXTSTEP offered true multitasking and it was very reliable.

Apple Early Models (Information & Sales)

This is some basic information, and sales figures, regarding the family of early Apple computers.

Table: Apple's early models & sales figures

Timeline of Compact Macintosh Computers

The following timeline of Macintosh models lists all compact Macintosh computers produced by Apple Inc. between 1984 and 1995.

■ Apple Computers

Binaryvalue.com (c)