50 years of Apple

Samuel Buchmann

1/4/2026

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Apple is celebrating a major birthday. It’s time to look back on a story full of revolutions, flops and drama.

On 1 April 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded a company in Cupertino. Fifty years on, Apple is one of the most influential companies in the world. To celebrate this anniversary, members of the Digitec Galaxus editorial team are taking a trip down memory lane. You can read about how it all began in fellow editor Kevin’s article:

In this article, I’ll be taking a look at Apple’s history through its most important products. Over the next two weeks, we’ll take a closer look at five icons. New articles will be added here on an ongoing basis.

Apple II: the first mainstream PC

What started as a small workshop only became a proper company in the industry in 1977. The Apple II comes fully assembled in a plastic case with a keyboard and colour graphics – a revolution and a stark contrast to the Apple I, which was nothing more than a bare circuit board. This second generation of the computer designed by Wozniak is aimed at schools, home users and small businesses. It’s easy to expand, from a floppy disk drive to a Z80 card for CP/M software. Finally, it’s priced at $1,298 – equivalent to about $7,000 today.

The true game changer is the software. VisiCalc becomes the first spreadsheet program released for microcomputers, transforming the Apple II from a toy into a tool for accounting, planning, and management. In California, a grant program equips schools with large numbers of Apple IIs, familiarising an entire generation with computers and establishing Apple’s dominance in the education sector.

Since the Apple II was designed as an open system, numerous clones quickly followed – ranging from hobbyist projects in the Eastern Bloc to commercial replicas. Both a risk and an opportunity for Apple: the brand becomes synonymous with the personal computer, even before IBM enters the market. Demand for the Apple II was so high that the company moved out of the garage at Jobs’s parents’ house and into a building in Cupertino in 1977. In 1978, Apple had 60 employees; two years later, it had over 1,000.

Lisa: a pretentious flop

After the Apple III flopped due to overheating issues, the Lisa was at last expected to make a breakthrough in the business world in 1983. Equipped with a mouse, a graphical user interface and its own office suite, Apple draws on ideas Jobs spotted in Xerox’s lab. He’s convinced that the future lies in windows, icons, and menus.

Technically speaking, the Lisa is ahead of its time. It has a 5-megahertz Motorola processor, 1 megabyte (MB) of RAM and a 5-MB hard drive. There’s just one tiny problem: the Lisa costs $10,000 – about the same as a mid-range car at the time. As a result, demand remains low. Companies prefer IBM PCs and compatible computers, which, while less stylish, are significantly cheaper.

The reason behind this exorbitant price? Steve Jobs’s high standards for components and design, which were already to blame for the failure of the Apple III. CEO Michael Scott then reassigned Jobs back to the Macintosh team. The Lisa receives good reviews in the press, but sales figures drop off after an initial surge. Years later, Jobs literally buries the last remnants of the debacle.

Macintosh: legendary advertising and controversy

In 1984, Apple pulls off a major marketing coup with the Macintosh. Its launch is announced in advance during the Super Bowl with the legendary 1984 commercial. The ad is directed by none other than Ridley Scott. It references George Orwell’s novel of the same name, portraying the Mac as a rebel against Big Brother IBM, without explicitly naming the brand.

The Macintosh is less of a technical milestone than a revolution in design and usability. It borrows many concepts from the Lisa, such as the mouse, and makes extensive use of WYSIWYG, icons, menus and drag-and-drop. Combined with the LaserWriter laser printer and the PageMaker layout program, the Macintosh shapes a new market segment: desktop publishing. Anyone who designs magazines, brochures or – eventually – websites will end up with Apple.

At just under $2,500, the Macintosh costs only a quarter of what the Lisa does, but it remains a premium product because Jobs insists on using expensive components here as well. Compared to the growing world of IBM PCs, the Mac also seems like a closed parallel universe. It gets off to a rocky start. Within the company, rifts emerge between the various product divisions. The Apple II team, led by Steve Wozniak, feels it’s being treated unfairly; although the old computer continues to generate the bulk of the revenue, most of this money is invested in the development of the Lisa and Macintosh.

Power struggles are escalating among executives as well. In 1983, Steve Jobs brings in former Pepsi-Cola CEO John Sculley as the company’s new CEO. However in 1985, the Apple founder falls out with Sculley, who blames him for the failure of the Macintosh. In the end, Jobs gives the board of directors an ultimatum: him or Sculley. And since the board of directors sides with the CEO, stripping Jobs of control over the Macintosh team as well, the founder leaves his own company.

The Newton: symbol of a bygone era

Don’t know about the Newton? You’re not alone. Just like the entire Steve Jobs-less era, this Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is a product best forgotten. It marked Apple’s first serious foray into mobile computing in 1993 under John Sculley. The Newton is operated with a stylus, recognises handwriting and is designed to fit calendars, notes and communication right in your jacket pocket.

You could call the Newton a predecessor of the iPad. But the technology just isn’t ready yet. In practice, the PDA struggles with a short battery life, sluggish hardware and notoriously unreliable handwriting recognition. The media ridicules many misunderstood notes, and a steep price around $1,000 doesn’t help matters. Apple sticks with the idea for several iterations, but never achieves mass-market success.

For Apple, the Newton symbolises the difficult 1990s – a time marked by numerous product lines, an unclear strategy and a declining market share. The company is deep in the red by 1993, and the Newton’s failure seals Sculley’s fate – he leaves. His successor, Michael Spindler, is also unable to turn things around. He’s gone by 1996.

The next CEO, Gilbert Amelio, brings Steve Jobs back in 1997 by buying his new company, NeXT. Apple’s on the brink of collapse, and Amelio, like his predecessor, is soon removed from his post by the board. Steve Jobs finally takes the helm again, albeit initially only as interim CEO. He scraps the Newton and numerous other projects. The vision of a digital companion with touchscreen controls resurfaces years later as the iPhone and iPad – fully developed by then.

iMac: a resurrection

1998’s iMac G3 marks a turnaround for Apple. Steve Jobs is back. The colourful all-in-one computer in a transparent case is also the first major success of design legend Jony Ive. It breaks away from the grey uniformity of other PCs and completely does away with outdated features like the floppy disk drive. Instead, it focuses on USB, easy internet setup and a clear message: «It just works.»

Strategically, the iMac represents more than just design. Following Jobs’ return, Apple streamlines its catalogue to just four product lines. The iMac’s aimed at consumers and is designed to attract new buyers, while the Power Mac and PowerBook cater to professionals. A deal with Microsoft secures Office for Mac and brings in an investment worth hundreds of millions. Jobs delivers the final step of his strategy in 1999 with the iBook, a mobile consumer PC.

The iMac is a huge success. It sells better than any other computer before it and brings Apple back into the black. The all-in-one device reestablishes the brand as a trendsetter in the consumer market and paves the way for an integrated product family in which design, software and services are seamlessly coordinated. A philosophy that Apple maintains to this day.

iPod: Apple becomes a lifestyle brand

Around the turn of the millennium, Apple once again struggles with a slump in sales. The PC market is saturated, and Mac hardware is increasingly outperformed by Intel-based systems from competitors. Added to this are delays in the launch of the new Mac OS X operating system. To make up for this, Steve Jobs launches the first non-Mac product since the Newton in October 2001: the iPod.

The portable MP3 player marks Apple’s transition from computer manufacturer to lifestyle company. 1,000 Songs in Your Pocket is more than just a slogan. The iPod combines a fast hard drive, the then-new FireWire port and intuitive control via the Click Wheel. When combined with iTunes and later the iTunes Music Store, it creates a closed ecosystem.

The iPod enters a market in flux. The music industry and consumers are grappling with digitisation, while Napster and file-sharing networks make piracy popular. Apple positions itself as a bridge between record labels and users: legal downloads and easy synchronisation, but strict control over formats and devices. The iPod becomes a cash cow and turns Apple into a mass-market brand. In 2002, the storage capacity is increased from five to 20 gigabytes and the player becomes Windows-compatible. Within a few years, its market share exceeds 70 per cent.

Criticism emerges regarding proprietary formats and a reliance on Apple’s ecosystem. But the success proves Steve Jobs right. With the iPod, Apple has to scale its supply chains, manufacturing and retail operations to an entirely new level. The lessons learned from this experience lay the groundwork for the subsequent iPhone boom – from the integration of hardware and software to mass production and marketing.

MacBook: new partnerships and minimalism

As the PC market shifts toward laptops in the mid-2000s, Apple follows suit. In 2006, the company switches from PowerPC to Intel processors, instantly making the MacBook and MacBook Pro more powerful and energy-efficient than Apple’s previous laptops. The new hardware also opens the door to Windows’ world: Microsoft’s operating system can now be installed using Boot Camp.

In 2008, Steve Jobs pulls the first MacBook Air out of a yellow envelope. This «world’s thinnest laptop» has a wedge-shaped design and is made entirely of aluminium. It brings multitouch to the trackpad and reduces the number of ports to a minimum – drawing similar criticism to that of the first iMac. The tension between form and function continues to define Apple to this day. An emphasis on design and integration repeatedly clashes with the needs of professionals, who want devices that are repairable, expandable and equipped with standardised interfaces.

iPhone: a device that changed the world

«An iPod. A phone. And an internet communicator. […] These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone.» At MacWorld 2007, Steve Jobs unveils the device that will change Apple – and the whole world – forever. As a joke, he first shows an iPod with a rotary dial, much to the audience’s amusement. Looking back from today’s perspective, in an age of pre-produced, glossy videos, I sorely miss those legendary live keynotes.

Apple’s smartphone has no buttons. Instead, it relies entirely on a revolutionary multitouch interface on a 3.5-inch screen. Technologically, the first version is limited in many ways, but that doesn’t matter. The iPhone sports a must-have appeal unlike any device before it, and it delivers Apple’s most successful launch to date.

In truth, the real turning point comes in 2008 with the App Store. Apple creates a platform where third-party developers can sell their apps, while the company controls the infrastructure, billing and curation. To this day, this business model remains one of the most profitable concepts in the industry – and a subject of antitrust lawsuits.

Over the next few years, the iPhone continues to evolve rapidly, making Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world. In 2010, the concept of touch controls and the App Store is brought to the iPad. It’s the last major product released under Steve Jobs; in October 2011, the Apple founder dies of cancer.

M1 MacBook Air: efficiently portable

Before his death, Jobs names Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook as his successor. Over the next few years, Cook restructures the company and, above all, optimises its supply chains. He faces plenty of criticism too; under his leadership, Apple no longer delivers innovation on the scale of the iPhone. But from a business perspective, the new CEO does everything right. He boosts revenue, profits and market capitalisation.

Under Cook, Apple manufactures more and more of its device components in-house. On the one hand, this reduces dependence on other manufacturers. On the other, it allows for better integration of hardware and software. The investment pays off: starting in late 2020, the California-based company no longer manufactures custom chips solely for the iPhone, but for its computers too. With the M1, Apple revolutionises energy efficiency.

The M1 MacBook Air outshines the competition as an affordable office laptop with long battery life and impressive performance, all with a fanless design. Shortly thereafter, Pro models with more powerful chips follow, which are again more efficient than Intel and AMD CPUs. Apple’s technical dominance in the laptop market continues to this day, and with the MacBook Neo, it’s now also making inroads into the budget segment.

Meanwhile, Tim Cook’s era is coming to an end. Rumours about his resignation as CEO have been growing lately. He’ll likely step down in two or three years at the latest. Hardware chief John Ternus is the most likely candidate to succeed him. The 50-year-old fits Apple’s image, is young enough, popular with the staff and is taking on ever more responsibility.

Following in the footsteps of marketing genius Steve Jobs and supply chain specialist Tim Cook, Apple could see an engineer take the helm with Ternus as CEO. It’ll be interesting to see if he sets a new direction and whether Apple will once again produce more radical innovations. What do you think a retrospective in another 50 years will say?

We discuss Apple’s anniversary in the latest episode of our Swiss-German Take a Byte podcast too:

Samuel Buchmann

Senior Editor

Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.ch

My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.

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