Founded in 1976 45 years old this year, Apple
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “New Ji-won” (ID: AI_era), Author: New Ji-won.
Source: Foreign media
Edit: LQ
Apple, founded in 1976, is 45 years old this year. If you compare it to a stage of life, it is in its prime of life. Apple CEO Cook tweeted: “This is an amazing journey, but it has just begun.”
On April 1, 1976, a three-act play called “Apple” opened.
The protagonist of the story is three young people: Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Ron Wayne.
Location: Steve Jobs’ garage.
The garage is really a good place to start a business. Not only Apple, but the other two big techs also started in garages: In 1994, Bezos started Amazon in his own garage in Seattle;
In 1998, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google’s first office in the garage of YouTube’s current CEO Susan Wojcicki.
The opening of the big screen
Back to Apple. The 70s was the beginning of the big curtain, which was exciting.
About 1975, two Steves in the Apple trio, Jobs and Wozniak, tested the first Apple I computer system together in the garage.
Jobs then and CaliforniaA small computer store called Byte Shop in Mountain View reached a sales agreement. The store began selling Apple I in July 1976 for $666.66.
Wozniak later said that he chose this price because he likes repeated numbers.
Before the Byte Shop, Jobs and Wozniak had always wanted to sell computers to some large companies. Wozniak tried every means to get HP, his own company at the time, to acquire Apple I; The host Atari recommends its own computer.
But they were all rejected, but through Atari, Jobs got to know venture capitalists, and since then embarked on the road of entrepreneurship.
On April 1, 1976, Apple was formally established.
As the main planner of Apple I, the two Steves each hold 45% of the shares, and the remaining 10% belongs to the third person, Ron Wayne.
In addition to designing Apple’s original logo with Jobs, Ron Wayne’s main job is to be a “mediator” between the two Steves. This is a very stressful job. En thought it was not worth it. Twelve days after the company was founded, he resigned and sold his part of the stock to Jobs for $800.
Considering Apple’s great success now, many people think Wayne’s decision was a huge mistake. As the third Apple founder, he not only missed his fame and wealth, but also left a family that changed most of the United States. People live in the company.
However, Wayne doesn’t think so. In an interview in 2013, he said he had no regrets at all. He said, “I feel very lucky to be able to stand at a turning point in history.Li was indeed a turning point in history, although no one knew it at the time. “
Mark Markkula, who used to work at Intel, joined Apple in 1977 as an investor. Under his leadership, Apple officially purchased the stocks of the original three partners for $5,308.96. For legal reasons, Wayne got a third despite having left.
Eight years later, Apple introduced the Mac computer.
In the beginning, Apple’s operating model, which lacked funds, was like this: It would produce 50 Apple II computers without any money, and then sell them out the day before the deadline for payment to suppliers. Then take the money and pay it to the supplier.
At the time, Jobs had just learned the so-called 30-day net profit, which means that you have such a long time to pay your suppliers. He learned it then because he must learn.
Jobs sold the Apple II computer in the Byte Shop. The store was very successful at the time. At the beginning, Jobs just wanted to sell the motherboard and kit in the store, so that computer enthusiasts could buy it back and assemble it by themselves. , Or proposed by Byte Shop, want a complete computer equipment.
The initial lack of funds allowed Jobs to learn “30-day net profit”, and the addition of Mark Markkula brought Apple a business model. In addition to restructuring the business, he also proposed a business philosophy, which was inherited by Apple. A valuable asset for more than 40 years.
In the business philosophy he put forward, in addition to digging out customer needs and focusing on a few specific products, there is another one, which is to convey Apple’s philosophy to customers:
“People often judge a book by its cover. We canTo have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software, etc., if we present it in a crude way, we will be considered crude; if we present it in a creative and professional way, we will be given what we need Quality. “
Because of the business philosophy, Apple developed in 1977 and is still Apple today.
Jobs later explained to his biographer Walter Isaacson that Markkula’s point was that making money should not be the goal. You obviously need to do this, and you obviously want to do it more, but if money is the first consideration, then the company will be in trouble. However, if you do “things you believe in” and you are also focused on “creating a lasting company,” then the money will follow.
Until today, Apple is still known for its beautiful displays and well-designed packaging.
This has become part of Apple’s DNA.
The turning point of the 90s
In 1985, Wozniak left the company, Jobs was also fired, and the two iconic founders were lost. Apple lost its way.
For most of the late 1980s, although Apple had some successes, including the introduction of color Macs and PowerBook laptops, Newton tablets and PowerPCs failed miserably.
Because of these failures, Apple CEO John Sculley, who fired Jobs, lost his job, but his successor, Michael Spindler, did not do better. He was later replaced by Gil Amelio.
Amelio’s biggest contribution was the acquisition of NeXT created by Jobs and the return of Jobs to the company. This is not very good for Amelio, but it changed Apple, allowing Apple to rise from a niche computer company to a dominant technology company.
In 1997, Jobs returned. In 1998, he was appointed as the interim CEO of Apple. In 2000, he was appointed as the official CEO.
In this period, Apple’s products have also achieved great success.
The first is iMac, a more affordable Apple computer, which expands Apple’s business beyond the graphic design and education markets.
However, although iMac has achieved greater success than previous products, Apple is still far behind Wi in terms of sales.ndows computer.
The real game changer was the iPod released in 2001. This music player has not only become Apple’s popular music player, it has also become the market leader, and this status has been maintained until the launch of the iPhone in 2007.
The iPod and iPhone have made Apple a company that can continue to lead the market, creating product categories that have never appeared before.
Since 2007, the iPhone has been the leader in smartphone sales, setting the standard for the development of smartphones.
At the same time, it also promoted the success of iTunes and the App Store. In addition, iPhone also paved the way for the iPad to help companies improve computer sales.
From iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S to iPad, every time Apple’s new product launches, it triggers a world-class frenzy and sales boom. Fruit powder from all over the world lined up all night for new products to be released.
On August 24, 2011, Jobs announced his resignation as CEO. He continued to work for Apple until the day before his death.
On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died at his home in Palo Alto, California due to a recurrence of complications that caused him to stop breathing.
Cook’s Compromise and “Betrayal”
In 2011, when Cook took over the CEO role from Jobs, Cook has been criticized for lacking the same technical vision and design talent as Jobs, and new product releases have also received complaints of “just a bigger screen”. Creativity seems stagnant, newProduct categories have also decreased.
In the development of new products, Cook is more willing to compromise with the market than Jobs’s arbitrariness and paranoia.
The successor, Cook, faithfully implemented the advice left by Jobs during his lifetime: “Don’t ask Steve what he would do.”
Cook focused on the company’s long-term operations and produced results that capital would like to see and hear.
Recent data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple’s smartphone sales overwhelmed Samsung, becoming the “world’s largest smartphone manufacturer” with sales of nearly 80 million units.
At the end of January 2021, Apple released the financial report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 (from October 1, 2020): the first quarter revenue reached 111.4 billion U.S. dollars, exceeding the auspicious number of “100 billion” for the first time. Greater China An increase of 57%.
Previously, Cook said in an interview, “We can’t be optimistic anymore.”
In the post-Jobs era, Cook has created his own model.
Apple is now 45 years old. If you compare it to a certain stage of life, it is in its prime of life. The previous three acts of Apple made it a model of success, but the story continues, and we too Looking forward to the next innovation that Apple will bring to us.
“This is an amazing journey, but it has just begun”
Apple, happy 45th birthday!
Reference material:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/01/apple-was-founded-44-years-ago-on-april-1-1976/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-10/09/c_129967678.htm
https://www.sohu.com/a/458564716_161062?scm=1002.590044.0.10648-1930
https://www.cnbeta.com/articles/tech/1109457.htm
https://www.cnbeta.com/articles/tech/804813.htm