Apple
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Stephen Wozniak and Ronald Wayne
Jobs believed Wozniak’s microprocessors could be marketed so, with the help of a friend, he sold them to other computer interested people. They started out on very little money; they each sold something so they could get a start. Jobs sold his Volkswagen van and Wozniak sold his programmable calculator. This gave them $1,350 dollars to begin production of the Apple I boards. The first computer made was called the Apple I. They purchased parts at a local electronic parts store called The Byte Shop and were able to establish credit. The first computer retail store ordered fifty Apple I computers: this was their first sale.
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Wozniak was only twenty-six years old in 1976 when he wrote a BASIC programming language for a new microprocessor. He was able to give his friends at Homebrew copies as he helped them with their own designs. Steve Jobs was only twenty-one and worked for Atari, Inc. He also shared the same interest in computers as Wozniak. They worked on a few electronic projects together. One project was making a video game called Breakoutfor Atari.
Jobs and Wozniak started working out of Jobs' parents house in Cupertino, California. In their first year as Apple Computer, they moved from the garage to a room in Cupertino. Steve Wozniak remembers,“I had wanted a computer my whole life; that was the big thing in my life….All of a sudden I realized that microprocessors were cheap enough to let me build one myself. Steve (Jobs) went a little further. Steve saw it as a product that you could actually deliver and sell, and someone else could use.” Like many other of the first computers, the Apple I was made for other specialists who could put together and write their own programs. One may wonder where the name “Apple” came from, especially for a computer company. The idea of the name came from Jobs in 1976 when he visited friends that owned a farm that he visited often. Once he returned home, he told Wozniak about the idea. According to the Apple Museum, “Jobs probably was working on apple plantages. Or he just wanted their startup to be in front of Atari in the phone book. Or it was a tribute to Apple Records, the music label of the Beatles.” No matter where it really came from, Wozniak had a suspicion that they would get in trouble with Apple Records. Eventually, this did happen. In 1989, Apple Computer was sued by Apple Records for trademark violations. However, the name stuck and is today one of the most well-known names in electronics.
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