February 17, 1997: Apple launches the PowerBook 3400, a laptop the company claims is the fastest portable computer in the world.
After a rough few years for the PowerBook, this model throws down the gauntlet to rivals. It packs a PowerPC 603e processor capable of running at speeds up to 240MHz. While speedier Apple laptops will quickly overtake the PowerBook 3400, at the time it can keep up with some impressive desktop Macs.
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 14, 1995: Apple Computer extends a lawsuit against developer San Francisco Canyon Company to include Microsoft and Intel. The lawsuit concerns allegedly stolen Apple code that’s used to improve Microsoft’s Video for Windows technology.
The lawsuit comes to a head with Apple threatening a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Microsoft. Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates threatens to cancel Office for Mac.
February 13, 1984: The first Mac’s launch generates enormous excitement from the tech press, as epitomized by an InfoWorld cover story about the Macintosh 128K.
The wave of coverage comes a few weeks after the January 24 release of the Macintosh. But when the press blitz finally arrives, it becomes clear the Mac is a hit.
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 11, 2010: With iPad excitement reaching a fever pitch, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wades in with his opinion of Apple’s tablet. His view? Apple’s upcoming device is kinda meh.
“There’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it,'” Gates tells one interviewer.
February 10, 1993: Apple launches the Macintosh Color Classic, the company’s first compact Mac with a color screen.
As the first all-in-one Mac with an integrated color display, and the last U.S. Mac to offer the original model’s compact form factor, this model represents a landmark in the evolution of the Macintosh. A Color Classic unit also happens to become the 10 millionth Macintosh that Apple ships.
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 7, 1981: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is involved in a serious plane crash in California, resulting in his first lengthy leave of absence from the company.
At the time, Wozniak is flying a turbocharged, single-engine, six-seat Beechcraft Bonanza A36TC. In the plane with Woz is his fiancé, Candi Clark, her brother and her brother’s girlfriend. Fortunately, nobody dies in the crash, although Woz suffers minor head injuries.
February 6, 1985: Frustrated by Apple’s shifting priorities, co-founder Steve Wozniak leaves the company to pursue outside interests.
His departure — which comes the same year that Steve Jobs leaves Apple to form NeXT — represents yet another big change for the company. The move mostly stems from Woz’s dissatisfaction with how management treated the Apple II division. However, his desire to start a new company also plays a role.
February 5, 2008: Six months after the first-gen iPhone goes on sale, Apple releases a new version with a whopping 16GB of storage.
“For some users, there’s never enough memory,” says Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod and iPhone product marketing, in a statement. “Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world.”
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.
February 3, 2011: The iPhone finally arrives on Verizon Wireless, the United States’ largest carrier, ending nearly four years of exclusivity with AT&T.
The move comes as Apple faces pressure to expand its customer base as Android phones grow in popularity. The deal commences with the iPhone 4 available for preorder by Verizon’s 93 million customers.
February 2, 1996: Apple reveals that turnaround artist Gil Amelio will take over from Michael “The Diesel” Spindler as CEO of the struggling company.
With disappointing Mac sales, the disastrous “clone Mac” strategy and a failed Sun Microsystems merger to his name, Spindler is asked to resign by the Apple board. Then Cupertino enlists supposed corporate miracle worker Amelio for the job.
Unfortunately, he turns out to be no better than Spindler.
February 1, 2010: The tech-loving world goes into meltdown at the sight of comedian Stephen Colbert using a prerelease iPad to read nominations during the Grammy Awards show.
“Jay-Z, did you not get one of these in your gift bag?” Colbert quips from the stage. “Am I cooler than you?”
The celebrity sneak peek is all part of Apple’s big (and wildly successful) plan to hype its upcoming tablet.
January 31, 1998: Mac clone-maker Power Computing goes out of business, having auctioned off its office supplies and computers.
Apple bought out Power Computing, once the fastest-growing PC company of the decade, the previous year. As a result, Power Computing shareholders receive Apple stock as a replacement. As it turns out, that may not have been a terrible deal.
January 30, 1995: Apple Computer launches the Newton MessagePad 120, the first truly great device in an unfairly maligned product line.
Coming 18 months after the original Newton MessagePad, the upgraded PDA packs more power — and truly shines once Newton OS 2.0 rolls out.
January 29, 1990: Apple CEO John Sculley appoints Michael Spindler as the company’s new chief operating officer.
Nicknamed “The Diesel” on account of his work ethic, Spindler’s new job continues his upward trajectory at Apple. Three years later, he will become CEO.
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 26, 2016: After nine years of spectacular growth, iPhone sales flatline for the first time. Some call the sales plateau means “peak iPhone” has finally arrived.
Numbers posted by Apple show that during the final three months of 2015, iPhone sales grew by only 0.4%. The crucial holiday season sales compare quite unfavorably with the 46% jump recorded during the same period a year earlier.
January 25, 1996: Rumors circulate that Sun Microsystems is in talks to acquire Apple.
With Sun at the peak of its power, and Cupertino struggling, the rumored $3.89 billion deal would see Apple snapped up for between $5 and $6 a share.
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.