History of Apple Computer Apple Term Paper

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Steve Jobs was removed from the Lisa project in 1982 by Apple before its debut in 1983. The computer also flopped badly, being too far ahead of its time and too expensive (priced at $10,000).

Jobs joined the Macintosh team in 1982 and proceded to make the product surpass Lisa by incorporating an advanced GUI in the computer. The Mac was launched in early 1984 and was succesful initially. By the end of the year, however, it started to lose out to overwhelming competition from IBM and Microsoft. (Sanford; "History of Apple Computers," Wikipedia)

Jobs Loses his Job

By 1982, Steve Jobs had begun to realize that Apple was faced with increasing competition from heavyweight competitors such as IBM and Microsoft and needed outside help. He wooed John Sculley from Pepsi-Cola, who joined Apple as President and CEO in April 1983. The two, however, soon fell out and after an unsuccesful bid for control of the company by Jobs the BOD sided with Sculley and Jobs resigned from Apple to form NeXT. (Ibid.)

Apple Loses out to Microsoft

Although Apple had developed an excellent Operating System for its Mac computers, it made a monumental blunder that was responsible for its downfall and the domination of the personal computer market by Microsoft from the mid 1980s onward. While Microsoft handed out licenses cheaply and widely for the Window's operating system it had developed for IBM's first personal computer, Apple jealously guarded its own OS and did not allow others to clone it. It accused Microsoft of stealing its designs and got involved in costly legal battles, which it ultimately lost. The result was that Apple rapidly lost its share of the PC market and Microsoft's Windows OS began to dominate the market.
In the 1990s, Apple, under a succession of CEOs including John Sculley, Michael Spindler, and Gil Amelio failed to stem the tide and Apple's balance sheet and share value spiraled southward. ("Apple Computers: A Brief History")

The Return of Steve Jobs

In late December 1996, Apple made the startling announcement that it would be acquiring NeXT, and that Steven Jobs would be returning to the company in an "expanded role." Gil Amelio resigned as Apple's CEO in July 1997 and Jobs took over as its interim CEO.

Since that time Jobs has made a number of changes in the company and its products He has changed Apple's BOD almost entirely, introduced a robust new OS (the Mac OS X) for Apple computers by merging OS 8 and Rhapsody, marketed the stylish iMac and iBook line of computers and, most importantly, announced a truce in the company's long-drawn battle and damaging rivalry with Microsoft. As a result, Apple started to show significant profits from 1998 onwards although its computer sales again stumbled in early 2000s due to an economic slowdown. (Sanford)

Success in Digital Music Products

Apple has achieved more success in recent years in the digital music products market than in computers through the introduction of its highly successful online Music Store called iTunes and iPod; an equally successful portable digital music player.

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