Computerworld NZ
It felt churlish to let Apple’s 50th birthday pass without adding to the hagiographic choir, so what follows is an unapologetically selective tour through some of the moments that shaped one of the most influential companies of the modern era. These were the inflection points where Apple didn’t just ship products, it distorted reality in its direction. For anyone seeking a shorter item, Apple CEO Tim Cook obliged with a characteristically on‑brand Tweet . For everyone else, this is the longer version. The first Apple article The first bit of mainstream reporting about Apple I was able to find appeared in 1977 in an article in the now-defunct Kilobaud magazine. “ The Remarkable Apple Computer ” was a lengthy piece based on interviews with company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. “We’re not in the business of making things more expensive,” they said at the time, keeping early costs low by frugal use of components and tight design. A second set of reports explored a different theme : “Apple didn’t just build machines. It recognized, earlier than most, that ordinary people were ready for them.” Hassle-free Apple’s marketing push for the Apple II series locked another gene into the company DNA: user-friendly, plug-and-play, and out-of-the-box experience were the hallmarks of how the company presented these computers. At best, it has remained consistent on these features ever since. (Though the Apple II Homemaker Ad still resonates for a different set of reasons.) Going mainstream Jobs was an inexorable part of the Apple story. Six years after founding the company, he gained his first Time ma gazine front page in 1982. He was 26 years old. Jobs spent most of the rest of his life in the public eye, a position he used shrewdly across his career, for his benefit, and for the computer company he loved. Apple has been playing the media ever since. For the Rest of us Apple introduced Macintosh in a blaze of glory with the iconic “ 1984 ” ad, a Super Bowl spot, and every single ounce of energy the company had to put into the push. Its revolutionary point-and-click user interface changed computing forever. Apple billed the computer as “for the rest of us.” Interestingly, the first ever edition of Macworld appeared alongside the release. I recall a conversation with IDG/Macworld publisher Pat McGovern years ago when he told me how impressed he had been by Apple’s new computer in 1983 when he first saw a prototype of it. The New York Times loved it too, writing: “Another startling feature that I became aware of after a few minutes, although it may be a minor point to some people, is the absence of fan noise…. The Macintosh has been engineered to cool itself. There is no fan to drown one’s thinking.” Sounds familiar. The fall After an extensive and widely reported power struggle , Apple’s board fired Jobs in 1985 , ushering in a miserable decade of great ideas and declining market share. Even John Sculley, who led the ouster, years later conceded , “In hindsight, it was a terrible mistake.” It wasn’t a total disaster; some of the work Apple did during that lost decade was excellent – the investment in ARM and work on the Newton led to technologies that later defined the next era of computing. But somehow through a succession of CEOs, Apple lost its fire. Shut it down Apple’s computers did achieve a spiritual connection with creative markets, even as the company entered decline. By 1997, the company was close to bankruptcy — so much so that Business Week described “ The Fall of an American Icon ” and Dell founder Michael Dell famousl y said the company should “shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,” something Dell itself later did when it went private in 2013. Apple did not do this; instead, its leaders spent time searching for a new operating system ( Copeland , or Cope, you decide) before realizing its salvation was its creation story. Successful failure Jobs, Apple’s former leader, hadn’t been quiet. He’d purchased Toy Story animation company Pixar just before being booted out of Cupertino, and launched his second computer company, NeXT , in 1985 after he was fired. Jobs remained optimistic, and later described his removal from Apple as “the best thing that could have ever happened,” as it led to him becoming a better leader. NeXT, staffed by ex-Apple engineers, built a Unix-based object oriented operating system called NeXTstep. Facing existential crisis, Apple’s leadership approached Jobs to acquire NeXT for that operating system years later. That deal was done, and Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. NeXT became OS X, now macOS, arguably a most successful failure . Think Different Of course, the best way to play the media is to create credible narratives really, really hungry tech journalists can get behind. Edward Bernays had described that relationship decades before: “Being dependent, every day of the year and for year after year, upon certain politicians for news, the newspaper reporters are obliged to work in harmony with their news sources.” Substitute Apple for politics for the same result. Apple’s marketing teams have always been good at doing this , from that iconic “1984” ad to the Think Different campaign that marked the resurrection of Apple to the adorable recent “ Critter ” ads. Apple has always tried to define its story before you do. Shortly after Jobs returned, the company rolled out the Think Different ads series. (Here’s the ad, read by Steve Jobs . “The people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”) The iMac The seminal moment in Apple’s recovery story is inarguably the introduction of the iMac in 1998 . Jobs had been working at Apple as the “iCEO” for 10 months by then, as part of the NeXT acquisition that gave us macOS. The iMac captured global attention, put the company back into the zeitgeist, and became the foundation for the biggest corporate turnaround in history. He was wrong about the mouse, but he got the rest right. (He was also right about Wi-Fi, and introduced with the iBook , which Apple called “iMac to go,” a year later). You want to lick it Apple launched NeXT in March 2001, except it wasn’t called NeXT, had been heavily improved, and was launched as Mac OS X . At the time, Jobs said, “When you see it, you want to lick it,” pointing to its hideously attractive Aqua interface. I was at a launch event that had Apple fans beating at the windows. “I had to be here, it’s an historic moment – I eat, breathe, and sleep Mac,” one fan told me. In the decades since, OS X has formed the OS heart that beats inside all Apple products, from the Apple Watch to Mac, the iPad to iPhone, even Vision Pro. (Some of those products may also seem lickable.) 1,000 songs October 2001 and a special Apple event saw the introduction of the iPod, reflecting Jobs’ decades-long obsession with music. If the iMac was the first wave, the iPod was the third after Mac OS X. It became Apple’s biggest product of all time (at the time). It vaulted into Windows, opened up the music industry, launched Apple’s services empire, and captured and defined a new generation. Business Week called it very, very right, declaring, “The iPod is no bigger than a deck of cards, but I predict this new handheld digital-music player will stand tall. Very tall. It’s going to do for MP3 music what the original Palm Pilot did for handheld computing in the late ’90s — that is, ignite demand like a match to dry twigs.” With iTunes and iTunes Music Store, it did. (A lot of people didn’t get it right, as described in this Macworld report.) Hello Intel Apple announced its transition to Intel processors in 2005. This was an important step. PowerPC (the chips then used in Macs) was incapable of keeping pace with rival chips and Apple’s leadership recognized the need to change. The company managed the transition so well that, thanks to Universal Binaries, it was possible to run apps on both old PowerPC Macs and brand new Intel models. You could also run Windows on Mac for the first time. The move to Intel also allowed Apple to introduce the MacBook, which became a hugely successful device that propelled Apple toward becoming the world’s biggest mobile company, prompting it to change its name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc. in 2007. The first Intel Macs arrived in 2006 , with Intel’s CEO joining jobs in what looked like a space suit but was in fact the protective clean room garb worn in chip foundries. An internet communicator The next huge, big, massive moment in Apple history was the iPhone introduction in 2007. At the time, Nokia and Motorola were the second-largest cellphone makers in the world. Motorola’s then-CTO Padmasree Warrior left Motorola shortly after, arguing that “There is nothing revolutionary or disruptive about any of the technologies” in the iPhone. But perhaps the clip that most epitomizes the existential crisis felt by Apple’s competitors came from then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer . John Gruber caught the moment more presciently, “I haven’t found a single element of the iPhone UI that doesn’t feel super-snappy. The whole thing feels very realistic,” he wrote. That was the point: this was super advanced tech-in-a-box anyone could use, not a fiddly device few really understood. This was the epitome of personal computing, and still is. There’s an app for that A sleeping giant rose in 2008 when Apple unveiled the App Store with 500 apps. At first, we excited ourselves with apps that let us drink virtual pints; today, apps have become part of almost every task we do, from maps to payment systems and everything between. Jobs had a feeling, telling The Wall Street Journal this was “the biggest launch of my career.” It was an instant success; 10 million apps were downloaded in the first 72 hours. Jobs himself was surprised. “I would not trust any of our predictions, because reality has so far exceeded them by such a great degree that we’ve been reduced to spectators just like you,” he said. So far, the ecosystem the App Store supports has also generated billions of dollars, opening opportunities for software in glasses, watches, and wearables. And, unfortunately as history has now shown, it opened the door to surveillance and regulation . Stop me if you’ve seen this before Perhaps Apple’s biggest security breach took place in 2010 when a prototype of an iPhone 4 was left in a bar by an Apple software engineer and subsequently sold to Gizmodo. Apple was furious, so much so that Jobs referred to this disaster during the launch of the device, saying, “Stop me if you’ve seen this before.” The same device also begat the now immortal phrase , “You’re holding it wrong.” A large iPhone Apple’s iPad launch in 2010 generated major interest. It also hit a market of Windows users primed enough by good experiences with their iPods to pick up an iPhone. Many of these wanted to continue to use Windows but were sufficiently curious that when Apple introduced the iPad they wanted to try one for themselves. (I saw evidence of this across enterprise customers at that time .) “I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop,” said Walt Mossberg . History will show it didn’t quite achieve that, despite Apple’s “ What’s a computer/Post-PC ” coverage, but it did create a completely new computer category it continues to lead. Once introduced, iPad almost immediately eclipsed the netbook industry . (Apple’s about to do the same thing to the mid-range PC industry with the MacBook Neo.) Medical leave Apple’s CEO had been struggling with his health, fighting pancreatic cancer. In a January 2011 email, he wrote : “At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company. I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011. I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can.” He subsequently resigned as CEO in August 2011, and sadly died in October . The iPhone 4S was released a few weeks later, with many describing the name as signifying S “for Steve.” For many, the commencement speech he delivered at Stanford University remains an inspirational guide. The planet can’t wait Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook had been groomed for the top job for years. An expert in operations, Cook helped Apple grow rapidly, becoming the first company to ever reach a $3 trillion valuation . That should be enough to prove that while he’s a different type of leader, he is a highly effective one who thinks deeply about the impact of technology on the wider world. America’s first openly gay CEO also became Apple’s longest-serving Apple CEO in 2025. Critics may throw stones , but it is appropriate that the leader of one the world’s most influential tech company at least considers its place in racism , privacy , and the environment . Under Cook’s watch, the world has really explored the ugly side of digital transformation, spanning the Snowden affair, Cambridge Analytica , surveillance-as-a-service , the Covid crises , intensive regulation, and, most recently, direct threats against Apple and its employees because of a war no one voted for. It is hard to say whether anyone else could have managed Apple more successfully through this tumult. Services, services, services Apple’s push into services began with Maps . Actually, that’s not quite true, it actually began with movie trailers in QuickTime in the late 1990s and really took an upswing thanks to the acquisition of Soundjam and the introduction of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store alongside the iPod. Under Cook, Apple recognized that music purchasers wanted to stream their songs, and it needed some way to transition iTunes sales to music streaming. In May 2014, Apple announced the $3 billion purchase of Beats , which Forbes called “ Tech’s Worst Acquisition, Except for All The Others .” Beats made headphones (and still does) and offered a music streaming service, which became Apple Music. Despite media scepticism at the time , that launch has more than paid for the initial purchase. It gave Apple an opportunity to build a massive services empire , one that generates approximately $207,686 every minute, based on fiscal year 2025 revenues, with roughly 75% margins. In other words, Apple’s services arm now generates enough revenue to do another $3 billion deal every two weeks. A branch of the tree “I see wearables as a very key branch of the tree,” Cook said in 2013 . “I think it could be a profound area for technology.” He was wearing a Fuel band at the time and recognized their potential for health. Apple’s adventure in wearables began with “ the watch for pioneers ,” the Apple Watch, the AirPods ( Cult of Mac called them “Ear Fangs”) and led to the era of spatial computing and Vision Pro . Two of these products now own their category: AirPods hold a 23% share of that market, while Apple Watch has a 32% share of its own. The third product continues to define its market , creating expectations others cannot match, and setting the stage for a future “one more thing moment” sometime this year. Of course, the sensors built into wearables also opens up another fresh frontier in health, on which more is expected from Apple . The glory of silicon One big thing somehow reflects the very first thing. You see, back when Apple began, the one component it didn’t make was the MOS 6502 chip used inside the acclaimed Apple I. The arc of time saw the company often constrained by the processors it got from third-party manufacturers. In 2008, Apple began to change that with the purchase of PA Semi. “ Apple buys firm that makes tiny, powerful chips ,” said TechCrunch at the time. Sixteen years on, we can see exactly what happened; the tech Apple acquired helped it build the chips inside iPhones so successfully it wound up using them in Macs, too . Today’s Macs are the most performant and energy efficient AI PCs money can buy, and are grabbing back market share Apple sacrificed back in the ’80s following the ouster of Jobs. These high-performance, low-power processors also offer the advantage that they can be configured for use in smaller and larger devices , giving the company a solid tech canvas upon which to build the next 50 years. One more thing? Looking forward and back, it’s true to say Apple has spent its life fighting for independence. At first, it could not control its chips, at times it was not able to control its platform, at one point it could not control its own survival. Now, Apple designs the silicon, operating systems, hardware, services — even the way it engages with the world outside its Cupertino windows. That control has produced some of the most elegant, efficient computing devices ever made, though it also means regulators, critics and governments now understand how much leverage it holds. Apple is self-sufficient and its future years will in part be defined by how responsibly it chooses to leverage the power it has accumulated across five decades. You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky , LinkedIn , and Mastodon .
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