The 15 Greatest Moments in Apple History
#14 Jonathan Ive Joins Apple
The design brawn behind Jobs' brain. Ive began designing his career when he was 14 years old and figured out he enjoyed "drawing stuff." He used his first Mac when he as a junior in college.
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15:
First Retail Store
Finally, a retail store as elegant as an Apple product! The first one opened on May 15, 2001 in Tyson Corner, Virginia. Today, there are more than 360 around the world. Cocktails at the Genius Bar anyone?
14:
Jonathan Ive Joins Apple
The design brawn behind Jobs' brain. Ive began designing his career when he was 14 years old and figured out he enjoyed "drawing stuff." He used his first Mac when he as a junior in college.
13:
Steve Jobs Returns to Apple After Surgery
He returned from exile. He returned from cancer surgery. He brought Apple back from the dead. He performs miracles.
12:
Apple Lisa Is Introduced
The harbinger of the Mac. Named for his illegitimate daughter, this computer was, technically, more sophisticated than the Macintosh when it was introduced about a year later. The big difference is that Jobs backed the Mac, not the Lisa.
11:
Apple Goes Public
Apple's shares closed at $22 when it closed its first day of trading on December 12, 1980. Since then, it has split 2 for 1 three different times. Let's see: If I had bought 10 shares when Apple went public...
10:
iTunes Music Store Launches
...and the music industry was never the same. It launched in April 2003 and, almost five years to the day later, it became the largest music vendor in the world. It sold more than 1,000,000 songs in its first five days in businesses.
9:
Apple Visits Xerox PARC in 1979
... and went home with most of the ideas it needed to build the first Mac. Apple engineers spent three days at PARC, literally looting the esteemed research center of every good computing idea PARC ever had. No PARC? No Mac.
8:
Apple I Is Released
In the year of the nation's bicentennial, the Apple I was born. Each one was built by hand by Steve Wozniak and sold for $666.66. About 200 were made and Steve Jobs sold his VW bus to finance the effort.
7:
Apple Introduces the iPad
Almost freakish how the innovations continue to spill out of the company. Apple sold 300,000 on the first day it was introduced in April 2010. In the first 80 days, it wold 3 million units.
6:
Mac OS X Is Released
When Jobs returned from his exile at Next Computer, he brought back the Mac's next operating system. Since 2002, it's been the default operating system on the Mac.
5:
"1984" Ad Airs During Super Bowl
It wasn't a commercial. It was a call to arms. Created and produced by Chiat/Day in Venice, Calif., it cost an, at the time, unprecedented $900,000. One minute of television has never been so discussed, lauded, hated or remembered.
4:
Apple Introduces the iPhone
...and cellphones were never the same. Introduced in January 2007, the iPhone is now on its fifth generation and there are about 12 million third party applications running on it.
3:
The iMac Is Released
While it wasn't exactly the shape of things to come, it foreshadowed the all-in-one design that would follow it. It was introduced in 1998 and Apple declared, "The back of our computer looks better than the front of anyone else's."
2:
Apple Computer Is Founded
Never humble, Apple's original logo invoke the association with Newton and the discovery of gravity. It was founded on April 1, 1976 and incorporated on January 3, 1977.
1:
The iPod Is Released
Since the iPod was introduced in 2001, no other company has brought to market a digital music player to rival it. --Congratulations, Apple.
