Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, two good friends from high school, started a revolution that will never end. They invented the first Apple computer (Slater 3) The Apple I, they called it, ran on one megahertz and had eight thousand bites of memory and only eight bits of pixels on the screen (Levey 5). By today's standards that is absolutely nothing. Much like people of today, the first testers of the computer did not even take it seriously.
It wasn't until the Apple II came out in 1977 that people paid attention to the Apple computers. The Apple II was almost exactly like the Apple I, but it was comparatively inexpensive, at $1,298 (Levey 11). From 1977 to 1993 Apple Computer produced and extension to the Apple II series. Based on the MOStek 6502 microprocessor, the first Apple II was the first personal computer with the ability to display color graphics and to come in a stylish plastic housing (Levey 15).
From then on, Apple updated the Apple II line further creating the Apple II+ with increased memory, the Apple IIe, which is the only Apple computer to date to have been produced for more than a decade, the Apple IIc, a compact version of the Apple IIe with a faster processor and expanded memory, the Apple IIc+, a later version of the Apple IIc, and the Apple IIgs, the first, last and only 16-bit Apple II, designed to produce enhanced graphics and sound, with a much more powerful microprocessor, and still compatible with the older 8-bit Apple II software (Levey 24). Even the new Apple III could not top the outstanding performance of the Apple II series. Because of it's outrageous price of $4,000 - $7,000, and minimal improvements the Apple III is considered one of the biggest bombs in the history of Apple Computers. The next computer, the "Lisa", which was named after Steve Jobs's daughter, whom he neglected, was a giant leap from the Apple III. It had five megahertz, and five megabytes of hard drive, and most importantly a Graphic User Interface (History of Apple). (Which by the way a man by the name of Bill Gates stole to make "Windows".
) This ancestor of the Macintosh was not a complete success. Even though it was the best computer yet, it did not set well with the general public. However, it was the model for the Macintosh 128k. The Macintosh 128k was one small chip for mankind, but a giant leap for all computers to come. It integrated the new Motorola 68000 chip, and had an amazing eight megahertz, and four hundred thousand byte floppy disk drive. This wondrous machine sold only for $2,495, which was actually a lot of money, but comparatively cheap (History of Apple).
Sadly, Steve Wozniak, was injured in a plane accident, and that's when Apple Computers began a long downward spiral. Because of this, Steve Jobs took complete control of the company, and like Napoleon from Animal Farm, he became corrupt, and caused Steve Wozniak to quit, and Apple Computer split in half. One half was the Macintosh side, and the other strictly Apple. As a result of this, Steve Jobs lost his job (Levey 138). This slump lasted until 1996 when Steve Jobs recomposed himself, and came back to Apple Computers and turned the downward spiral into an upward skyrocket (History of Apple) . No Apple or Macintosh computer has sold as much as the Apple II series until Jobs brought on the "Power Mac", the "iMac" the "G3 Power Mac", and the newest PC, the "G4 Power Mac, with 500 megahertz and a twenty-seven Gigabyte hard drive.
The rest is yet to come. Works Cited Slater, Robert. 1987. Portraits in Silicon, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA Levey, Steven. 1984.
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Anchor Press/ Doubleday, Garden City, NY
