Apple

Technology journalist David Pogue traces the first half century of Apple, from its founding by two young hobbyists in 1976 to a company with 2.2 billion users and $400 billion in annual revenue by 2026. Pogue argues that Apple has been many different companies across its history, unified by corporate values that mostly trace back to cofounder Steve Jobs: simplicity, beauty, secrecy, closed systems, and control over both hardware and software.

Steve Wozniak, a gifted circuit designer raised in Silicon Valley, and Steve Jobs, a brilliant but restless college dropout, met as teenagers through a mutual friend in 1971. After collaborating on phone-hacking devices and an arcade game, Wozniak designed a personal computer around a cheap processor chip. Jobs proposed selling it, and on April 1, 1976, they founded Apple Computer Company. Jobs secured a 50-unit order from the Byte Shop, the world's first computer store, and the team assembled boards in the Jobs family home. Wozniak then designed the Apple II, a self-contained color computer with expansion slots and sound, while Jobs insisted on a molded plastic consumer case designed by freelance industrial designer Jerry Manock. Mike Markkula, a retired Intel millionaire, invested $250,000 and wrote the company's first business plan. Apple incorporated in January 1977, hired its first CEO, Mike Scott, and unveiled the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. The machine became the bestselling personal computer in history, propelled by Wozniak's Disk II floppy drive and VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program.

Apple went public on December 12, 1980, in the most successful IPO since Ford, making Jobs worth $256 million at age 25. But the Apple III, Jobs's follow-up product, was a disaster: His insistence on a fanless design caused chronic overheating, and Apple recalled every unit sold in the first year. Meanwhile, a team developed the Lisa, a groundbreaking computer featuring a mouse, windows, icons, and a desktop metaphor. After visiting Xerox PARC's research center in 1979, Jobs and the Lisa team reworked their plans around a graphical user interface, though Pogue corrects the popular narrative that Apple simply stole PARC's ideas. Bill Atkinson, the Lisa's key software architect, and Larry Tesler, a recruit from Xerox PARC, independently invented many interface conventions through extensive user testing. The Lisa shipped in 1983 at $10,000 but failed due to its high price and slow performance.

Stripped of the Lisa project, Jobs seized control of the Macintosh, originally conceived by Jef Raskin as a cheap computer for ordinary people. Jobs transformed it into a miniaturized Lisa, assembling about 35 engineers who worked grueling hours. Markkula hired PepsiCo president John Sculley as CEO, though Jobs personally wooed Sculley with the famous question about selling sugared water versus changing the world. The Macintosh launched on January 24, 1984, preceded by the iconic "1984" Super Bowl ad. Initial sales were strong but slumped after the early-adopter wave; the machine lacked adequate memory, a hard drive, and software titles. The LaserWriter laser printer, combined with PageMaker software, ignited the desktop publishing revolution and became Apple's lifeline.

Tensions between Jobs and Sculley escalated. At an executive staff meeting in May 1985, every senior executive except one sided against Jobs. Stripped of all authority, he resigned in September 1985 to found NeXT Computer.

Pogue devotes several chapters to the 11 years without Jobs. Sculley and his successors, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio, struggled to chart a course. Highlights of this era included the Macintosh II (the first color Mac), Bill Atkinson's HyperCard (a software construction kit that became a precursor to the web browser), QuickTime (Apple's invention of software-based digital video), and the PowerBook laptops, which featured a pioneering palm-rest layout still standard today. Apple also invested $3 million in ARM, the British chip company, an investment that later appreciated to $800 million. But the larger trends were grim. Microsoft's Windows steadily eroded Apple's market share. The Newton handheld shipped in 1993 with flawed handwriting recognition and became a national joke. Apple's product line ballooned to more than 60 confusing models, and the Mac clone program cannibalized Apple's own sales. By 1996, Apple was losing $50 million a month and was six months from bankruptcy.

Amelio's most consequential act was purchasing NeXT for $378 million, bringing Jobs back along with the NeXTSTEP operating system, built on the Mach kernel, a Unix-based core that made the system crash-resistant and modern. Jobs returned as an unpaid advisor in early 1997 and became interim CEO that September, executing what Pogue calls the greatest corporate turnaround in American history. He replaced the board, drew a famous two-by-two product grid on a whiteboard, and canceled 70 percent of Apple's projects. He commissioned the "Think Different" ad campaign, struck a deal with Microsoft, and killed the clone program.

Jony Ive, a young British designer who had nearly quit Apple, became Jobs's closest creative partner. Together they produced the iMac (1998), a translucent blue, egg-shaped computer that eliminated the floppy drive and introduced USB as its sole connector standard. It became the bestselling computer in America. Mac OS X, built on the NeXTSTEP foundation, finally gave the Mac a modern operating system. Ron Johnson, hired from Target, designed the Apple Stores, which opened in 2001 featuring Genius Bars (in-store technical support counters) and hands-on displays. The chain became the fastest in retail history to reach $1 billion in annual sales.

The iPod, launched in October 2001 with a tiny Toshiba hard drive and a scroll wheel, transformed Apple into a consumer electronics powerhouse. Engineer Tony Fadell, recruited from outside Apple, led the hardware effort. The iTunes Store (2003) let customers buy individual songs for 99 cents, and the decision to release iTunes for Windows unlocked 500 million potential users.

The iPhone, unveiled in January 2007, originated from a multitouch tablet experiment in Ive's design studio. Two competing prototypes were developed in parallel: an iPod-based phone led by Fadell and an all-screen multitouch device led by software engineer Scott Forstall. Jobs chose the all-screen design. Software engineer Ken Kocienda solved the virtual keyboard problem with probability-based key resizing and autocorrect, and Corning revived a 50-year-old scratchproof glass at Jobs's insistence. The App Store, initially opposed by Jobs, opened in 2008 with 500 apps and reached 10 million downloads in three days. The iPad (2010), reviving the shelved tablet concept, sold 20 million units in its first year. iCloud (2011) unified data syncing across all Apple devices. Jobs, battling cancer since 2003, resigned as CEO on August 24, 2011, and died on October 5 at age 56.

Tim Cook, a disciplined operations expert who had transformed Apple's supply chain, steered the company into its next era. Apple built a massive services business, including Apple Pay, Apple Music, and Apple TV+, generating over $100 billion annually. The Apple Watch gradually evolved from a fitness tracker into an FDA-authorized medical device capable of detecting heart arrhythmias. Vision Pro (2023), a $3,500 augmented-reality headset, represented Apple's bid for a new computing platform, though early sales were modest. Project Titan, a secret $10 billion electric car initiative, was canceled in 2024 after a decade of development. Johny Srouji, hired from IBM in 2008, built Apple's silicon division; the M1 chip (2020) brought Apple-designed processors to the Mac with dramatic performance gains. Apple Intelligence, the company's response to generative AI, arrived in 2024 with writing tools and image generation, though a promised personalized Siri missed its ship date.

Pogue concludes by surveying Apple's challenges: regulatory battles over App Store practices in the United States and Europe, dependence on Chinese manufacturing, and pressure to produce another category-defining product. Across five decades, he identifies persistent throughlines, including a commitment to design beauty, closed systems, obsessive secrecy, and the conviction that great products are the path to success.