Apple’s journey to becoming the most valuable tech company

Apple Inc. is a company that is synonymous with high end electronic technology, albeit fused with dollops of aesthetic flair. Established back in 1976, for the first 30 years of its existence, Apple was actually known as Apple Computer, Inc., but with its ambitious expansion into the consumer electronics market the name was changed to just Apple Inc. in 2007. And a glorious expansion it was to behold, as of September 2010, Apple had worldwide annual sales of $65.23 billion from 301 retail stores in ten countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. That’s a whopping increase of 52 percent from the $42.9 billion in revenue recorded in 2009.

apple most valuable tech company

Now, in the present context, continuing on with its unabated success, it has already surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable tech company. So without further ado for its loyal legion of aficionados, let us chronologically examine Apple's fascinating yet fastidious journey to the very upper echelons of the thriving electronic market.

1976–1980: THE EARLY YEARS:

Apple I:

apple i

Yes, it may look like a forlorn typewriter, but in reality this was the very first Apple product - Apple I, which was marketed as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips) and was hand built by Steve Wozniak (one of the Apple founders). The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was priced at $666.66 ($2,572 in 2011 dollar value, adjusted for inflation).

Apple II:

apple ii

In a radical departure from Apple I, the much advanced Apple II was released with 48K of RAM, eight expansion slots and with one of the very first applications of the business world - VisiCalc spreadsheet program. After receiving a huge fund of $250,000 and indispensable business expertise from millionaire Mike Markkula, the Apple II was a resounding success with more than 50,000 units sold at a base price of $2638.

Apple III:

apple iii

Finally, looking somewhat like the PCs we are used to, Apple III was launched in 1980 and sold more than 65,000 units priced at $3815. But due to previous stability issues that required a complete design change and a recall of existing machines. Finally and quite unfortunately it was discontinued in 1984.

1981–1985: LISA and MACINTOSH

Apple Lisa:

apple lisa

Introduced in 1983 after spending $50 million (after serious infighting within the company), Lisa actually became the first personal computer sold to the public with a GUI, and this marked the very best of an user-friendly computer system. But ultimately the device failed to impress because of its high price of $9,995 and few available software applications. Moreover the system proved to be slow because of the OS not coping up with the 5MHz CPU. Nevertheless, Apple managed to sell 100,000 of Lisa units.

Macintosh:

macintosh apple

Finally it was time for the exalted Macintosh, after Steve Jobs took over Jef Raskin's low-cost-computer project. Just to get the measure of things, this project was launched with the ad '1984' which itself cost around $1.5 million. Coming with an advanced GUI, mouse and much lowered price tag of $2,495 (initially $1,995), the machine finally catapulted to success with the inclusion of LaserWriter (PostScript laser printer) and PageMaker (desktop publishing package).

1986–1993: RISE and FALL

Macintosh Portable:

macintosh portable

Can be easily called as one of the very first predecessors of modern day Laptops, the Macintosh Portable was Apple's first attempt at making a battery-powered portable Macintosh personal computer that held the power of a desktop Macintosh. Released back in 1989, the contraption was critically acclaimed but met with poor sales. Though using the innovative Trackball (instead of mouse) and SRAM, the 16 pounds, 4 inches thick machine was ultimately too bulky for practical usage, more so because of the lead acid batteries.

The RISE- PowerBook and System 7:

powerbook

The revamped Portable was introduced in 1991 as the eminent PowerBook at the price of US$2,299 - $4,599 and a weight 5.1 pounds to 6.8 pounds. This was truly a watershed event, as the revenue in terms of sales crossed $1 billion for the first time with 100,000 units selling in the first 3 months. Fueling the remarkable turn around was the new System 7, which was a major upgrade to the previous operating system and actually served a basis for Mac OS until 2001.

The FALL - Macintosh Centris:

macintosh centris

In other words, it should be viewed as the rise of Microsoft Windows against the backdrop of the fall of many Apple products. Starting with their Centris, Perfoma to a plethora of other failed consumer targeted products including digital cameras, portable CD audio players, speakers, video consoles, and even TV appliances, this was one of the worst phases Apple had gone through. And in another interesting development Apple sued Microsoft (for which they are a little too famous for) for using a graphical user interface similar to the Apple Lisa, but even that case came to a disappointing zilch.

1994–1997: ATTEMPTS at REINVENTION

Power Macintosh 6100:

power macintosh 6100

The beginning of this period is marked by the launching of Power Macintosh 6100 in 1994, which was first of many Apple computers to use IBM's PowerPC processor with price range from $1820 to $2350. Then going to 1997, in an unprecedented move Steve Jobs announced that Apple would join its old rival Microsoft to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, and that Microsoft even made a $150 million investment in non-voting Apple stock. Finally, later in 1997 the unique business practice of selling Macs from its online stores started.

1998–2005: RETURN to PROFITABILITY

iMac G3:

imac g3

The cute, sleek and vibrantly colored iMac G3 denoted a special departure in PC design, as it incorporated the monitor and system unit in a singular compact form. Matching step by step was also the advanced technology infused in it, and the product successfully sold 800,000 units in its first five months.

iBook:

ibook

The exalted and colorful 'Clamshell' made its debut in 1999, and though initially it sold only 6,000 units in 99, the sales were a whopping 545,000 in 2000 and 596,000 in 2001 (well over twice Apple's PowerBook). And all of this was actually made easier by the iBook's wireless networking features and convenient handles.

In another watershed event, Apple also launched the ubiquitous iPod media player on the fateful day of 23 Oct, 2001, which sold over 100 million units till 2007. Finally the huge success culminated with the opening of Apple's iTunes Store in 2003, offering online music downloads (which reached 5 billion downloads by 2008) for $0.99 a song and convenient integration with the iPod.

Mac mini:

mac mini

Mac mini was another piece of innovative machinery launched in 2005 that was classified as a PC, but came without the conventional elements like the keyboard, mouse or even a monitor. It was the lowest priced Mac till date at only $499, and could be connected with a digital TV for user interface. The novelty of the design paid off, especially with the new users as it sold over a million units in 2005.

2005–2007: THE INTEL TRANSITION

imac

The newly released line of iMacs, along with Macbook Pros had already being incorporated with Intel's Core Duo CPU by 2006, and actually the business move was made one year sooner than announced.

Nike + iPod:

nike ipod

The Nike+iPod Sports Kit was released in 2006 as a stylish device with an accelerometer which measures and records the distance and pace of a walk or run. It offered communication with other Apple devices such as iPods, which could even use the iTunes software to view the walk or run history.

Apple TV:

apple tv

Basically touted as digital media receiver, the Apple TV was an appliance that provided the enhanced definition to high definition widescreen picture quality to a myriad of content including iTunes Store, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe or any Mac OS X or Windows computer running iTunes. With a 160GB capacity, the Apple TV was contrived to provide a television platform to the internet. Second generation models (with one quarter of the size and one third of the price of the original Apple TV) didn't include the high capacity, but came with 8GB flash drive for better performance.

iPod Classic and iPod Touch:

ipod classic and ipod touch 1st generation

The original iPod launched way back in 2001 was now improved with a whopping 160GB storage capacity, as aptly named as the iPod Classic. Another variation known as iPod Touch was unveiled in 2007. A fusion of a portable media player, personal digital assistant and a handheld game console, it came with features like Wi-Fi and much more convenient wireless access to iTunes stores. As of March 2011, Apple Inc. has sold over 60 million iPod Touch units.

iPhone:

iphone1

The first iPhone (Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphone) was unveiled in 2007 by none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The price tags came from $499 to $599, but they were widely criticized in many circles, as data also revealed 40 percent of the preliminary users had household incomes over US$100,000. Nevertheless, Apple managed to sell over 6.1 million units over five quarters.

iPhone 3G - Jul 2008:

apple iphone 3g

The second generation of iPhone, now called as iPhone 3G was released in 2008, in twenty-two countries, including the original six (ultimately over 80 countries). With the integration of 3G browsing speeds were much faster, and Apple also conceived its plan for allowing third party application, which would enable anyone to write apps for the phone. This finally led to the revolutionary founding of the Apps store.

MacBook Air:

macbook air

The original MacBook Air released in 2008 was already claimed to be the thinnest notebook in the world. It initially came with custom Intel Merom CPU and Intel GMA graphics, but was later converted to faster non-custom Penryn CPU and Nvidia GeForce graphics in late 2008. The 13.3" notebook was also updated from the design perspective in 2010 with a more light weight form, higher resolution screen, higher capacity battery, and flash storage instead of a conventional hard drive.

iPhone 3GS - 2009:

iphone 3gs

Coming to the third generation of iPhones, iPhone 3GS had a much improved CPU, better resolution camera and higher capacity, though externally it was similar to iPhone 3G. Moreover, the cost factor was remarkably reduced to $49 (in comparison to $599 of original iPhone) along with the launching of software version 3.0 (that was readily downloadable).

iPad:

apple ipad

A device that needs no introduction, iPad was formally released in April 2010. We won't bother you with the specs, but the sales number game suggests that the fascinating product sold 2 million units in its first 60 days, and then 3 million by the 80-day point. It generated revenue of a humongous sum of $4.6 billion, ultimately selling 15 million units in 2010.

iPhone 4:

iphone 4

The fourth generation of iPhones launched on June 24, 2010, this product incorporated a plethora of interactive features like video calling, eBooks, movies, music, games and of course most importantly general web and e-mail access. Figures suggest Apple sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4 units by the first three days.

iPad2:

apple ipad 2

Finally coming to the latest Apple product, iPad 2 was released on 2 March 2011. Much leaner and faster but coming at the same cost as its predecessor, it incorporates a dual-core Apple A5 processor and VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras with 10 hour battery life (lithium-polymer battery ). And in an important turn of events almost like a 'parting shot' by Apple, iPad 2 actually sold 2.4-2.6 million iPad 2s in March and is expected to sell 12 million iPads in Q2.