1976 april 1 launch of the computer Apple I
1977 april 16 launch of the computer
Apple II
1980 Apple goes public and raises $ 110 million from the stockmarket.
1982 februar 15 ... Steve Jobs is on the cover of Time for the first time.
Apple annual revenue climens to $ 1 billion.
1983 John Sculley comes from Pepsico to become new Apple CEO
1984 april 24 launch of Macintosh computer
1985 power struggle at Apple
clash between Steve Jobs and John Sculley
the inbeleivable thing happens ... Steve Jobs gets fired.
Steve Wozniak resigns the sema year.
1985 Steve Jobs starts a new company: Next
Jobs also buys Picsar
1986 january 16 launch of Macintosh Plus
1987 february
19 registertion of the Domain Apple.com.
Apple.com is the
64th Internet Domaine to be registered
(there are over 100 million .com domains today).
Among the other Very Beautiful Brands of the VB.com Fame List
only
HP, TI and GE were faster.
1989 first NeXT computers goe on sale.
1991 launches portable Macs called PowerBook.
1993 Apple introduces Newton, a pen based, hand held computer.
1993 july Apple reports heavy losses
Michael Spindler becomes the new CEO replacing John Sculley
1994 launch of Power Macintosh based on a PC chip developed with IBM and Motorola.
1995 Microsoft releases Windows 95 which is easier to use and creates a lot of competition for Apple
1995 Steve Jobs brings Pixar public and raises $ 140 millio from Wall Street
.
1996 Gil Amelio becoes new Apple CEO and appoints Jobs as an advisor
1997 Apple is facing heavy losses
and is close to bankrupcy
Steve Jobs returns
1997 Ad campaigne "Think Different"
ordered by Steeve Jobs and made by the LA office of the agency TBWA.
Always a marketing man Steev Jobs started to talk Apple up.
The ad was an emotional recasting of Aplle's rebbel roots.
One of the reasons why the ad was made was also for the employées
like a "wake up call".
The campaign has also been a key to the renewal of Apple loyalty and excitement in the world, beeing a central factor in Apple’s recovery from financial difficulty
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
- Apple Inc.
the confidence restored,
Steve Jobs needed a new product to assure the companies revival.
The idea came from the designer Johathan Ive.
and the brand name from Steve "i" mac ("i" meaning internet)
1998 launch of iMac - Apple returns to profitability
2001 January launch of iPod
2003 april 28 opening iTune Music store with 200,000 songs for $0.99 each
1 million songs are sold the first week.
2006 Mai 19 Opening of the Apple Store in New York, 5th Avenue.
2006 Cooperation between Nike and Apple iPod
Disney buys Pixar for $7.4 billion making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.
2007 Jan 9
launch of iPhone - one device ... not 3 devices
a widescreen iPod with touch controls
revolutionary mobile phone
breakthrough internet communications device
"today Apple is going to reinvent the phone"
the phone includes a tactile keyboard
inside the screen ....
including the ".com" button another way for Steve Jobs to say
that an Internet adress (URL) should always end with .com
nothing else .... see also Apple's Internet Domains below
2009 Mai 22 Opening of the Apple Store in Zuerich.
2010 April 10 lauch of iPad
- 15 million units sold in 9 months
2010 July 3 opening of the Apple store Paris Opera.
2010 Aug 11 Steve Wozniak turned 60.
Above Birthday Video shows some of Woz's personality.
2011 August 10 Apple becomes the World's most valuable company
eclipsing Exxon Mobile from the n° 1 position.
2011 August 24 Steve Jobs resigning from COE due to illness.
Tim Cook becomes the new CEO.
2011 October 5 Steve Jobs passes away
at age 56.
2011 many videos are made
about Jobs life & achievements.
2012 Steeve Jobs inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2012.
The Hall includes nearly 500 Inventors from a period of over 3 centuries
including the founders of other companies on the VB.com Fame List
like Thomas Edison founder of (GE), William Hewlett (founder of HP),
or Dr Amar Bose
founder of (Bose).
2012 re-launch of VB.com
in reaction to Steve Job's iPhone keyboard ...
in fact the bottons "V" & "B"
are located just above the newly created ".com" button.
Of course Apple is on the VB.com fame list
including the Very Beautiful Brands of the World.
2012 January 25 Apple surpasses Exon again
as the World's most valuable company.
2012 March 3 Opening of the Apple Store in Amsterdam.
2012 September 18 the Apple share reaches the level of $ 700.
Origin of Apple Name, Logos & Internet Domains
Name: Apple is not a family name, it is the name of a the apple fruit.
Logos:
The very first Apple Computer Logo is not very know to the public.
It was designed by the company co founder Ronald Wayne
and represents Isaac Newton sitting under an Apple tree with a large Apple
above his head.
The phrase graved around the image reads, “Newton… A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought … Alone.”
The Apple Rainbow logo was designed in 1976 by Rob Janoff.
The Rainbow Logo was in use until 1998.
When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997
one of his ideas was the make a more prominent use of the Apple Logo.
The intention was to place a larger Apple Logo on Apple products.
As the rainbow color was more difficult to integrate into the design
of the computers, the color became monechrome.
In 1998 the Apple became black,
in 2001 silver and in 2003 metallic.
The metallic version lights up when different items are in activity.
The Apple is the world's most valuable technology logo.
Internet Domains:
The matching 5 Letter Internet Domain Apple.com
was registered february 19 1987
and is hold in the name of Apple Inc, Cupertino.
The registration date is a sign how internet savvy and technology performant
Apple Inc has always been,
1987 is a very unusually !! and extremly early date for the registration
of an Internet domain.
At that time only very few people in the world had
the intiution that the Internet would become popular one day.
Apple owns a portfolio of 1150 hi profile domains including
the 2 Letter domaine
Me.com,
the 3 Letter domain
Mac.com
and the 6 Letter domaine iPhone.com.
The expression "a brand without .com is not a brand"
applies to
Apple.
The comany has all the necessary .com adresses
for all their different brands.
In their worldclass communications
Apple never uses anything but .com ...
all secondary local internet extensions
like Apple.de, Apple.fr, Apple.in, or Apple.jp
resume to the global
Apple.com site.
Unlike other companies on the VB.com Fame List
(in particular many non internet savvy fashion houses),
Apple never forgot to register (or buy) in time,
a domain name for an existing brand.
Some domains, matching brands that had been invented at a later time,
were bought by Apple from their respective owners, like iphone.com
Steve Jobs bought iPhone.com in june 2007
from Michael Kovatch, who had aquired the domain August 23 1995.
1995 was 12 years before the Apple iPhone as been invented.
In
2008 Apple also bought the 2 Letter domain me.com,
an aquisition which made the company enter the VB.com Domain Hall of Fame.
Facts & Figures about Apple today
The current CEO is Tim Cook
Apple Inc operates 364 retail stores.
The 2011 revenues amount US$ 108.25 billion.
The company employs 60,400 people.
Apple is currently the most valuable company in the World.
