Apple The Computer Of “yesterday?“

Apple, the computer of “yesterday?”  

Steve Wozniak and Steve Job, two good friends from high school started a revolution that will never end.  They invented the first Apple computer (1976, www.apple-history.com) the basis for all personal computers to come, the Apple I.  It ran on one megahertz and had eight thousand bites of memory and eight bits of pixels on the screen (Levey 5).  Much like the people of today, the first testers of the computer did not take them seriously.  It wasn’t until the Apple II came out in 1977 that people started paying attention to Apple computers.  The Apple II priced at $1,298 was comparatively inexpensive but was almost exactly like the Apple I (Levey 11).  One major accomplishment of Apple’s was that based on the MOStek 6502 microprocessor, the Apple II was the first personal computer to display color graphics and to come in a stylish plastic housing (Slate 3).  From then on, Apple updated the Apple II line further creating the Apple II+ with increased memory, the Apple IIe, which is the only Apple computer to date to remain in production for more than a decade.  Apple also went on to make the Apple IIc, a compact version of the Apple IIe with a faster processor and expanded memory.  Apple then went on to create the Apple IIct, a later version of the Apple IIc and the Apple IIgs the first last and only 16-bit Apple II, designed to produce enhanced graphics and sound, with a much more powerful microprocessor and yet still backward compatible (compatible with the earlier 8-bit Apple software) (Levey 24).

                                 (Apple I)                              

One big mistake Apple made at the time was releasing the Apple III which at the time retailed any where from $4,000-$7,000 and had only minimal improvements over the Apple II series’, causing it to be considered as one of the biggest bombs in Apple computer history.  Apple’s next computer “The Lisa” (named after Steve Jobs’ daughter) had five megahertz, and a five megahertz hard drive, but perhaps most importantly it incorporated a Graphical User Interface (it is argued that a man by the name of Bill Gates stole this idea as the platform for his extremely successful windows operating system) which was the most important accomplishment of Apple History (www.apple-history.com).  Although it was the best computer yet it did not set well with the general public however it was the model for the Macintosh 128k.  The Macintosh 128k integrated the new Motorola 68000 chip, and had an amazing eight megahertz, and four hundred kilobyte floppy disk drive (approximately four hundred thousand bytes {1 kilobyte equals 1040 bytes which is usually rounded to 100}).  This amazing machine sold for $2,495, which was a lot of money but comparatively cheap (www.apple-history.com).

Sadly, in February 1981 Steve Wozniak was injured while piloting a high performance plane (MacDirectory Interviews), and that’s when Apple computers began a long downward spiral.  Because of this Apple computers made a huge mistake that it would regret for a while, being that Steve Jobs took complete control of the company.  He became corrupt and caused Steve Wozniak to quit, and Apple computers to split in half.  One half was the Macintosh side and the other was strictly Apple.  As a result Steve Jobs lost his job (levey 138).  This slump lasted until 1996 went Steve jobs regained his composure and went back to Apple computers (Steve Wozniak), turning the downward spiral into and upward skyrocket (www.apple-history.com).  No Apple or Macintosh sold as much as the Apple II series until Jobs brought on the “Power Mac”, the “iMac”, the G3 Power Mac”,  and one of the newest PC’s (Personal Computers) the “G4 Power Mac” with its 500 megahertz and twenty seven gigabyte hard drive.  The rest are yet to come.

Microprocessor An integrated circuit that contains the entire central processing unit of a computer on a single chip

Megahertz One million cycles per second used to measure clock rate

Families of Macintosh and Apple computers