January 6, 1998: After taking over a company on the verge of bankruptcy, Steve Jobs shocks attendees at San Franciscoās Macworld Expo by revealing that Apple is profitable again. An Apple comeback is on the way!
Referring to the companyās strategy since he took over as interim CEO in September 1997, the recently returned Apple co-founder says, āItās all come together for us.ā
Little did most of us know exactly how astonishing Appleās rebound would be.
December 20, 1996: Apple Computer buys NeXT, the company Steve Jobs founded after leaving Cupertino a decade earlier.
The deal costs Apple $429 million. Itās a massive price to pay for the failing NeXT, a computer company that already saw its hardware division crash and burn. But the price is worth it when you consider what Apple gets as part of the deal: the return of Steve Jobs.
December 12, 1980: Apple goes public, floating 4.6 million shares on the stock market at $22 per share. The Apple IPO becomes the biggest tech public offering of its day. And more than 40 out of 1,000 Apple employees become instant millionaires.
As Appleās biggest shareholder, 25-year-old Steve Jobs ends the day with a net worth of $217 million. However, the big payday triggers internal tensions as it highlights Cupertinoās class divide.
December 9, 2011: Apple opens a store in New Yorkās fabled Grand Central Terminal, the companyās fifth Manhattan retail outlet.
Overlooking the terminalās Main Concourse, the enormous Apple Grand Central makes a stunning addition to the 140-year-old train station, which is one of New Yorkās busiest transportation hubs.
December 6, 2000: Apple Computerās stock price falls after the company posts its first quarterly loss since Steve Jobsā return to Cupertino in 1997.
Shares tumble $3 to just $14 a share as doom-predicting pundits worry that the big Apple comeback might come screeching to a halt. Little did they know ā¦
December 5, 2002: Cupertino says it served its millionth unique customer in the Apple Store online, marking a significant milestone for the company. It is a benchmark worth celebrating for Apple, which launched its online store just five years earlier.
āReaching our 1 millionth customer is a major milestone, and is proof positive that our online shopping experience is second to none,ā Tim Cook, Appleās executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations at the time, says in a statement. āThe Apple Store is a popular way for a growing number of consumers and businesses to buy Apple products, and with extensive build-to-order capabilities, easy 1-Click shopping and free shipping on orders, itās never been easier to buy a Mac online.ā
The iPhone packed a lot into its first astonishing decade. Not only has the device itself evolved significantly since its promising-but-by-no-means-perfect beginnings, but itās transformed Appleās business ā and many of our very lives ā in the process.
All this week, Cult of Macās āiPhone Turns 10ā series will look at the innovative deviceās massive impact on worldwide culture. The iPhone, which launched on June 29, 2007, truly changed the world.
What iPhone milestones have passed since Steve Jobs introduced this stunning hybrid device, which combined a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device? Check out our handy guide to 10 years of iPhone history.
September 6, 2007: Apple deals with its first iPhone PR crisis, when early adopters complain about the company dropping the price of its new smartphone by $200 just two months after introducing it.
In response, Steve Jobs offers affected customers $100 credit which can be used toward the purchase of any Apple store product. āOur early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these,ā he writes.
August 23, 2002: Apple ships Mac OS X Jaguar, the third major release of OS X and the first to publicly adopt the cat-themed code name it had been known byĀ inside the company.
The $129 operating system is well-received by Mac users, who correctly view it as the most stable version of OS X yet ā and with a few neat features, to boot.
August 17, 1944: Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Oracle, and Steve Jobsā best friend, is born.
A later member of the Apple board of directors and the closest thing Jobs had to a confidante, in the 1990s Ellison even considered staging a hostile takeover of Apple to reinstall Jobs as CEO during his time away from the company.
Jobsā son, Reed, reportedly referred to Ellison as, āour rich friend.ā
August 16, 2013: JOBS, the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher, lands in theaters.
The first of two competing Jobs movies (the second one was the Aaron Sorkin version, based on Walter Isaacsonās best-selling biography), the movie receives polarizing reviews from critics, but fails to make an impact at the box office ā where it earns justĀ $6.7 million in its first weekend.
July 14, 2008: Apple crows that its newly opened App Store hit a massive 10 million downloads in its first 72 hours.
āThe App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,ā Steve Jobs said in a statement issued eight years ago today. āDevelopers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.ā
July 7, 1997: Apple CEO Gil Amelio officially steps down from his role, turning the company over to the returning Steve Jobs, who immediately begins making his presence felt.
If youāre looking to pinpoint a turning point when Apple began the transition from the ailing company it was in the first half of the 1990s to the powerhouse it is today, this is it!
July 6, 2011: Amazon wins a landmark verdict against Apple over its proprietary use of the term āApp Storeā ā opening up the possibility of other rival services calling their own app stores by the phrase Apple had helped popularize.
The case highlights just how central the concept of downloadable apps had become to the mobile experience, onlyĀ three years after Apple launched its iOS App Store.
July 1, 1976: The Apple 1Ā goes on sale, becoming the first computer ever sold by theĀ Apple Computer Company.
Arriving the same month Jimmy Carter was nominated for U.S. president, Family Feud debuted on TV, and the United StatesĀ celebrated the 200th anniversary of itsĀ Declaration of Independence, the Apple 1 isĀ only produced in small numbers, and sells for the unusual price of $666.66.
On June 24, 2013, an Apple IĀ ā the first ever computer built by Apple Computer, Inc. ā was listed for auction by international auction house Christieās.
Thought to be one of the first 25 units to be built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the late 1970s, the unit featured no Apple logo, but rather a signature from Woz, who designed the machine. It sold for an impressive $390,000, ranking it among the most expensive computers ever sold.
Sometimes affectionately called the ācheese grater,ā the original Power Mac G5 first went on sale on June 23, 2003 ā offering what was then Appleās fastest-ever machine and the worldās first 64-bit personal computer.
Check out the video of Steve Jobs introducing the computer 13 years ago today.
iOS 4 was not only the last version of Appleās mobile operating system released during Steve JobsāĀ life, it was also a significant step up in terms of the softwareāsĀ productivity features.
Watch Jobs introduce it in the video below, which was recorded on June 21, 2010.
There was, to put it mildly, a lot that was insanely great about Steve Jobsā return to Apple. But one thing that always struck me as less than good from an Apple fanās perspectiveĀ was that heĀ stopped giving revealing in-depth interviews.
As his ability to command the narrative increased, Appleās CEOĀ understandably shifted away from playing the media hound heād been for the first part of his career, where heād speak with often painful honesty to seemingly any magazine that would have him. One of his last such interviews? The one that appeared in the June 16, 1994, edition of Rolling Stone.