November 2, 2012: The first iPad mini goes on sale, shrinking both the size and the price tag of Apple’s groundbreaking tablet computer.
With a reduced screen size of 7.9 inches – instead of the then-standard 9.7 inches – the original iPad mini is the fifth iPad to be released by Apple. Critics hail Apple’s most affordable iPad ever, although some people complain about the tablet’s lack of a Retina display.
October 30, 2009: Two years after launching in the United States, the iPhone finally goes on sale in China, giving Apple a chance to reach the world’s largest market.
Regulatory hurdles previously blocked Apple’s access to China. With those problems solved, Apple offers the iPhone 3GS to the country’s 1.3 billion people, most of whom do not yet own smartphones.
October 27, 1999: Dell Computer overtakes Apple in the educational market, stealing Cupertino’s crown as the top company selling computers to U.S. schools. Dell’s cheap Windows PCs make sense for schools looking to buy computers without breaking the bank.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, still struggling to rebuild Apple after its near-collapse in the mid-1990s, faces heavy criticism for ignoring one of the company’s strongest markets.
October 3, 1994: Apple CEO Michael Spindler reassures the world that Apple “is not a lame-duck company.”
Why would anyone suspect that it is? The answer lies in collapsing Mac sales, massive layoffs and Apple’s $188 million quarterly loss. At 15 months into his stint as CEO, Spindler wants to reassure everyone that the worst is over.
Sadly, things will decline further before they start to turn around.
October 2, 1991: As the Cold War comes to an end, hell freezes over a second time as Apple and IBM sign a deal and agree to put aside their differences. Having been bitter rivals for the past decade, the two tech giants host a press conference at the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco to unveil their new partnership.
“We want to be a major player in the computer industry,” Apple CEO John Sculley says. “The only way to do that is to work with another major player.”
September 30, 2002: Apple introduces iSync, a tool that lets Mac users synchronize their address books and calendars with their cellphones, iPods and Palm OS-compatible handheld organizers via Bluetooth.
“iSync is the beginning of something really big,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs says in a press release announcing the public beta. “With the push of a button, iSync synchronizes the address book and calendar on your Mac with those on your mobile phone.”
iSync represents a big leap forward in how computers and mobile devices can talk to one another. And it hints at some of Apple’s later advances.
September 29, 2004: Apple launches Logic Pro 7, its professional music creation and audio production software. The update brings new tools and a streamlined interface similar to other Apple software.
“From beginners to pros, Apple is broadening the market with a complete line of music creation and production tools,” says Rob Schoeben, Apple’s VP of applications marketing, in a press release. “With Logic Pro 7, we’re taking professional music creation to the next level with the industry’s most advanced feature set for pro audio.”
September 27, 1979: Years before the first Macintosh will ship, Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin clash for the first time over the direction of the R&D project to produce Apple’s revolutionary computer.
Raskin, the founder of the Macintosh project, envisioned an affordable machine that could put graphical computing within reach of ordinary people. Apple co-founder Jobs had a very different idea: Forget the price tag and build the best computer possible.
Guess who won?
September 23, 1981: Cupertino lays out its vision for success in “Apple Values,” a mission statement that will guide the company for years.
In the memo, management defines Apple Values as “the qualities, customs, standards and principles that the company as a whole regards as desirable. They are the basis for what we do and how we do it. Taken together, they identify Apple as a unique company.”
September 19, 2014: The iPhone undergoes its biggest upgrade — both figuratively and literally — since the original, with the release date of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets. The iPhone 6 design brings a new 4.7-inch form factor, while the iPhone 6 Plus expands to a massive 5.5 inches.
The previous-generation iPhone 5 measured only slightly taller than its 3.5-inch predecessors. But with the iPhone 6, Apple abandons the small smartphone form factor to take on big-screen Android “phablets.”
September 10, 1984: Apple ships the Macintosh 512K, the first upgrade to the first-gen Macintosh 128K.
Coming less than eight months after the original Macintosh, the 512K Mac makes no sweeping changes to the computer’s form factor. Instead, the big upgrade is quadrupling the RAM. This leads Apple fans to refer to the computer as the “Fat Mac.”
September 4, 1997: The writing is on the wall for Apple’s Newton product line as the recently returned Steve Jobs effectively kills the Newton Inc. spinoff.
He tells executives at the recently created subsidiary company not to bother moving into their new offices. The flip-flop on the Newton spinoff by Apple’s new interim CEO takes employees by surprise.
It’s quite the turnaround for the Newton division. Only months earlier, Apple portrayed it as large (and successful) enough to become its own company.
August 30, 2010: Just two years after opening its virtual doors, the iOS App Store passes a key milestone: one-quarter of a million apps for sale.
It’s a massive demonstration of success for a service Apple CEO Steve Jobs didn’t even initially want to offer.
August 5, 1997: Apple gets into a standoff with Power Computing, a maker of Macintosh clones. A very public clash at the Macworld Expo in Boston marks the beginning of the end for Apple’s mid-1990s strategy of licensing the Mac operating system.
“If the [Mac] platform goes closed, it is over,” predicts Power Computing CEO Joel J. Kocher of Apple’s strategy. “[It’s] total destruction. The kiss of death.” Of course, things don’t turn out exactly like that for Apple…
August 4, 2008: In an internal memo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs owns up to mistakes in launching MobileMe. He spins the company’s bungled cloud service rollout as a learning opportunity.
“It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” Jobs writes in an email to Apple employees. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”
July 31, 2012: The Daily, the world’s first iPad-only newspaper, lays off almost a third of its staff, signaling the demise of a bold publishing experiment.
The deep cuts — The Daily fires 50 of its 170 employees — affect mainly sports and editorial page staffers, although some production and design employees get the ax, too. The ominous move comes as News Corp places the iPad app “on watch” due to disappointing readership numbers.
Apple is going to be quite picky about the types of ads it shows in Apple Maps. New advertising rules say plumbers, electricians, locksmiths and roofers can’t buy ads on the navigation app — even though Google happily sells them in its mapping app.
That’s a deliberate distinction from Google’s model, in which home services ads make up one of the biggest categories. And that’s just the start of Apple’s restrictions on ads in Apple Maps and its other services.
As it turns out, Apple wants Maps to feel more like a curated storefront than a search engine.
July 9, 2001: Apple earns the title of No. 1 computer manufacturer in the education market, with twice as many machines in schools as runner-up Dell Computer.
It marks a big turnaround from a couple of years earlier, when Dell overtook Apple and people accused Steve Jobs of abandoning this important market.
July 6, 1997: Following a massive quarterly loss for Apple, board member Edgar S. Woolard Jr. calls CEO Gil Amelio and informs him that he needs to step down. “You’ve done a lot to help the company, but the sales haven’t rebounded,” Woolard says.
Steve Jobs, who recently returned to the company he co-founded, denies being responsible for Amelio’s ouster. However, the move results in Jobs becoming Apple CEO for the first time. Now it’s time for a real turnaround!
June 25, 1985: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates sends a memo to Apple execs suggesting that Cupertino should license its Mac operating system and additional technology to other companies.
Apple CEO John Sculley and Macintosh boss Jean Louis Gassée ignore the advice of the 30-year-old Gates, who at the time is best known as a Mac developer. Five months later, Microsoft releases Windows 1.0.
June 9, 2002: Apple launches its “Switch” advertising campaign, featuring real people talking about their reasons for switching from PCs to Macs. Apple’s biggest marketing effort since the “Think different” ad campaign a few years earlier, one “Switch” ad in particular turns a 15-year-old high-school student named Ellen Feiss into an unlikely star.
She becomes a viral sensation after viewers suggest she was stoned while filming her sleepy-eyed “Switch” spot about a homework-devouring PC.
May 15, 2001: Apple CEO Steve Jobs flips the script on the dreadful experience of computer shopping, unveiling an ambitious plan to open 25 innovative Apple stores across the United States. The first ones, located at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, and the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, California, are set to open later that week.
However, this new Apple initiative is about much more than just a couple of retail outlets. It’s a radical reinvention of tech retail that will change the way computers get sold.
May 9, 2005: Apple quietly begins selling music videos in the iTunes Music Store.
The feature arrives with iTunes 4.8, initially offering bonus content for people purchasing albums through the store. It will take several months for Apple to start selling individual music videos, along with Pixar short films and a selection of TV shows, for $1.99 a pop.
May 5, 2003: Just a week after launching the iTunes Music Store, Apple reaches an incredible milestone with more than 1 million songs sold.
Particularly notable is the fact that more than half the songs purchased are albums. This quickly dispels fears that selling tracks individually at 99 cents apiece will kill the record industry’s dominant format. In addition, more than half of the 200,000 songs initially available in the iTunes library get downloaded at least once.
“In less than one week we’ve broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. “Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music age — you can purchase your favorite music online at the iTunes Music Store, mix your favorite tracks into playlists with iTunes, and take your entire music collection with you everywhere with the super-slim new iPods.”
It’s a roaring success for Apple’s newest venture!
May 2, 1995: Apple enters the wearables space with its first watch. However, the first Apple watch is a timepiece with no fitness-tracking tech, no on-screen notifications and a whole lot of 1990s styling.
The device comes two decades before wearables actually will become a thing. A regular wristwatch, the freebie gadget is available via a special mail-in offer to Mac OS upgraders.