Steve Jobs - page 2

April 6, 1939: John Sculley is born in New York City. He will grow up to be hailed as a business and marketing genius, eventually overseeing Apple’s transformation into the most profitable personal computer company in the world.

After a remarkable stint as president of Pepsi-Cola, Sculley will take over as Apple’s third CEO in 1983. He will run Apple for a 10-year period, guiding the creation of the revolutionary Newton MessagePad.

During Sculley’s decade at the helm, Apple will sell more personal computers than any other company. But most people still remember him for his role in kicking Apple co-founder Steve Jobs out of Cupertino.

April 4, 1975: Microsoft is founded by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The software company destined to become a tech behemoth — and a major Apple frenemy.

A few years later, Microsoft will break through to the mainstream with Excel and Word, becoming a key developer of Macintosh software. Then comes the Windows operating system, looking suspiciously Apple-like. After Windows arrives, Microsoft and Apple will embark upon a long-running feud.

April 1, 1976: The Apple Computer Company is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. The trio sets out to sell the $666 Apple-1 computer.

Apple will not officially become a corporation until January 3 the following year. By that time, Wayne is no longer a part of the business.

March 29, 2012: Apple settles its “Antennagate” controversy by giving affected iPhone 4 owners the chance to claim a whopping $15 payout. The settlement covers customers who experienced problems with the phone dropping calls due to its cutting-edge design, but were unable to return their handsets (or didn’t want a free bumper from Apple to mitigate against the problem).

While it’s arguable whether a $15 payout was worth filing all the paperwork necessary to claim the cash, the Antennagate story — and the resulting class-action lawsuit — generated big headlines at the time.

March 24, 1997: The Newton MessagePad 2000 brings major upgrades to Apple’s PDA line, including a far better display and a much faster processor.

The best MessagePad yet by a wide margin, it quickly becomes a critical and commercial success. But it won’t be enough to save the doomed product line.

March 21, 2007: Apple launches the Apple TV, a gleaming-white set-top box with a remote control, for bringing iTunes media to the living room.

Unfortunately, the device lacks key features needed to make it a killer entertainment system. It’s something of a missed opportunity for Apple.

March 18, 1991: Steve Jobs marries 27-year-old Stanford MBA Laurene Powell.

The couple’s friends and family attend the wedding, which takes place at Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park in central California.

March 15, 2004: The iTunes Music Store hits a musical milestone, having sold an astonishing 50 million songs in less than a year. The achievement cements Apple’s place at the center of the rapidly changing music business — at least for the moment.

“Crossing 50 million songs is a major milestone for iTunes and the emerging digital music era,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs says in a statement. “With over 50 million songs already downloaded and an additional 2.5 million songs being downloaded every week, it’s increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes.”

March 10, 2004: Apple sends out a survey to select Apple customers, claiming that it is considering relaunching the Newton MessagePad.

“We need to determine why the Apple Newton was not a commercial success and whether there is an interest in re-launching a new version of the Newton,” Apple’s survey says. “Your comments will help understand why the Newton failed and if there is interest in re-launching a new, improved Newton.”

In hindsight, it seems pretty clear that this apparent “interest” in launching another personal data assistant was a way of doing some undercover market research for the still-in-development iPhone.

March 6, 2008: Apple releases the iPhone software development kit, finally allowing coders to start creating native mobile apps for the new smartphone. The iPhone SDK gives developers the tools they need to unlock the new smartphone’s potential.

When the App Store eventually opens a few months later, a new industry springs up overnight. Third-party devs rush to take advantage of Apple’s lucrative app distribution network.

March 3, 1975: The Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group that will help spark the personal computing revolution, holds its first meeting in Menlo Park, California.

It becomes a welcome forum for computer geeks at a time when few others care about the nascent technology. Regular attendee Steve Wozniak and his friend Steve Jobs will eventually show off the first Apple-1 unit at the club.

February 24, 1955: Steve Jobs is born in San Francisco. He will go on to co-found Apple and become one of the most important figures in the history of consumer technology. He’s also probably a big part of why you’re reading this website right now.

Happy birthday, Steve! Let’s take a moment to reflect on your innovation, artistry and overall brilliance.

February 22, 2001: The iMac Special Edition, sporting wild designs that would make a hippie happy, puts a wacky face on the computer that saved Apple’s bacon at the turn of the century. The Flower Power iMac and Blue Dalmatian iMac evoke tie-dye shirts or other unconventional ’60s-era imagery.

A far cry from the super-serious, aluminum-heavy industrial design that will come to define Apple in coming years, these colorfully patterned iMacs stand out as some of the most irreverent computers Cupertino ever dreamed up. (C’mon, when was a real Dalmatian blue?)

Under the consciously tacky exteriors, a pretty darn great iMac G3 hums along.

February 21, 2007: Apple comes to an agreement with Cisco over the iPhone trademark, which Cisco legally owns but Apple wants to use.

Under the agreement, both companies get to use the iPhone trademark on products throughout the world. The two businesses also dismiss outstanding lawsuits against one another, and agree to “explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications.”

It’s a classic bit of Apple CEO Steve Jobs steamrolling the opposition.

February 18, 2004: Apple CEO Steve Jobs sends an internal memo to employees revealing that the company is, for the first time in years, totally debt-free.

“Today is a historic day of sorts for our company,” he writes. This marks a big turnaround from the bad old days of the 1990s, when Apple carried more than $1 billion in debt — and faced the danger of bankruptcy.

February 16, 2000: Apple introduces the “Pismo” PowerBook, the finest of its G3 laptops. In the view of many, it’s one of the best Apple laptops ever.

The Pismo PowerBook is the first model without either SCSI or an Apple Desktop Bus connector. Instead, it utilizes a USB port and Apple’s Emmy Award-winning FireWire. Optional AirPort wireless support, tremendous battery life, and a gorgeous, curvy design just make this laptop better.

February 15, 1982: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs appears on the front cover of Time magazine for the first time. The lengthy cover story makes Jobs the public face of successful tech entrepreneurship.

The first of many Time covers for Jobs, the article — titled “Striking It Rich: America’s Risk Takers” — casts him as the prototypical young upstart benefiting from the burgeoning personal computing revolution. It also identifies him as part of a surge of freshly minted millionaires running their own businesses.

February 12, 2012: Months after his untimely death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is honored with a Special Merit Grammy Award in recognition of his contributions to the field of music with the iPod and iTunes Music Store.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, collects the Grammy on behalf of Jobs’ family and “everyone at Apple.”

February 9, 1993: NeXT Inc., the company Steve Jobs founded after being pushed out of Apple, quits making computers. The company changes its name to NeXT Software and focuses its efforts entirely on producing code for other platforms.

In a mass layoff, 330 of NeXT’s 500 employees lose their jobs in an event known internally as “Black Tuesday.” Cruelly, many people hear of their fate on the radio.

February 8, 2010: Steve Jobs reportedly flips out over a tweet sent from an iPad by an editor at The Wall Street Journal.

The reason? Apple showed the iPad to top staffers at the news outlet months ahead of its official release. While Jobs already unveiled the device to the public a couple of weeks before, the suggestion that people outside Apple gained early access to the tablet apparently upset the CEO.

The iPad tweet quickly disappeared.

February 4, 2008: Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly considers buying the search engine Yahoo. Apple is one of several interested companies, following reports that Microsoft offered $44.6 billion for the web portal the previous week.

Nothing ultimately comes of it, but Apple’s interest is later confirmed in an authorized biography of Jobs.

January 28, 1978: Apple Computer occupies Bandley 1, its first custom-built office, giving the company a bespoke business center to house its growing operations in Cupertino, California.

A full 15 years before 1 Infinite Loop, and almost four decades before Apple Park’s stunning “spaceship” HQ  landed, 10260 Bandley Drive in Cupertino becomes the first purpose-built, permanent headquarters for the newly founded company.

January 27, 2010: After months of rumors and speculation, Steve Jobs publicly shows off the iPad for the first time. Aside from the name, which some people joke sounds like a female sanitary product, the first-generation iPad immediately earns critical acclaim.

“The last time there was this much excitement over a tablet, it had some commandments written on it,” The Wall Street Journal quips.

When it goes on sale a few months later, the first-gen iPad quickly becomes Apple’s fastest-selling new product ever.

January 24, 1984: Apple ships its first Mac, the mighty Macintosh 128K.

Bringing a mouse and graphical user interface to the masses, and heralded by an acclaimed Super Bowl commercial that’s still talked about today, the first-gen Mac will quickly become one of the most important personal computers ever released.

January 15, 2008: Steve Jobs shows off the first MacBook Air at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, calling the revolutionary computer the “world’s thinnest notebook.”

The 13.3-inch laptop measures only 0.76 inches at its thickest point and 0.16 inches at its tapered thinnest. It also boasts a unibody aluminum design, thanks to an Apple engineering breakthrough that allows the crafting of a complicated computer case from a single block of finely machined metal.

In a brilliant piece of showmanship during the MacBook Air launch, Jobs pulls the super-slim laptop out of a standard interoffice envelope. (You can watch his keynote introducing the MacBook Air below).