Apple needs no introduction. It was the most valued company in the world at the beginning of 2024.
The story of Apple’s inception dates back to the ‘Two Steves’- Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who met through a common friend in 1971. The duo’s first project was the blue box, which was invented to replace long-distance phone calls. Wozniak manufactured 200 units and Jobs sold each one for $150 and both split the profits. If not for the blue box, Apple would probably never come into existence.
The following year, both Steves dropped out of college. Wozniak started working on video terminals. The new microcomputer inspired him to build a microprocessor for his video terminal. But he needed a microprocessor CPU to build a complete computer. So, Wozniak started hunting for CPUs, but the outcome was disappointing as all the microprocessor chips were out of his budget.
MOS technology gave birth to new chips, so Wozniak quickly wrote a version of BASIC (High-level Programming Language) for a computer to run on. The whole design was on paper hence the MOS technology’s integration made Wozniak tweak his design a bit. Wozniak took the invention to the Homebrew Computer Club to show it off. Jobs was impressed with the design and its commercial potential. This later went on to become Apple I.
The design was soon presented to the company where Wozniak was an engineering intern – Hewlett Packard. They turned down the design on five different occasions. Dejected Wozniak intended to share the schematics of the machine for free but Jobs had other plans.
Eventually, Jobs convinced Wozniak to start a company together in their family garage to manufacture printed circuit boards. However, the initial capital was hard to find. So, Jobs decided to sell his Volkwagon Minibus and Wozniak sold his programable calculator.
Soon in 1976, the company was registered in California. This started as a business partnership between the two Steves and Ronald Wayne. While the two Steves were confident about their foreseen future and capabilities, Wayne who failed at a startup 4 years ago, was a little hesitant.
Less than two weeks to the registration, Wayne gave up his total of 10% stake to the other partners and bid adieu.
The Steves went back to the Homebrew Computer Club with their complete Personal Computer, Apple I. Paul Terrell, the founder of Byte Shop, was impressed with this innovation and gave his card to the duo to keep in touch. Jobs reached out to him and was keen on selling the bare circuit boards of Apple I. Paul outright denied the offer and told Jobs that he was interested only if they delivered completely assembled computers. Jobs went on to come to terms with conditions and took a purchase order of 50.
The Apple I went on sale in 1976 for a retail price of $666.66, but lacked basic inclusions like a monitor, keyboard, and case. About 200 units of Apple I were sold. Soon after the launch Wozniak started working on the design for Apple II and had a working prototype by August 1976.
This was presented to the public in 1977 at the West Coast Computer Faire.
Apple II went on sale in 1977, the main target was to achieve all the bases straight out of the box. This included a built-in keyboard and a case. Eventually, this had graphics integrated into it and had color displayed on the TV. This was priced at a premium of $1298.
Apple II became the chosen computer of the business world but fell behind in the home computers section. They failed to capture this market due to their strong peers.
Later in 1979, Jobs got an opportunity to visit Xerox PARC in exchange for a few shares. The demonstration at PARC convinced Jobs that a Graphical User Interface was the future and began an initiative to include GUI in Apple computers. This gave birth to Apple Lisa, which was named after Job’s daughter.
Due to an internal feud in the Lisa department, Jobs was pushed out from the core team and Lisa was launched in the year 1983. The computer functioned on the GUI but failed at the commercial market due to its high pricing.
The ouster from the team, made Jobs lead the Macintosh division. Wozniak with a coworker had envisioned Macintosh to be a low-cost computer. There was a twist at Apple. Wozniak who had to take up Macintosh, was involved in a plane crash. This allowed Jobs to refine Macintosh into a graphical system which ended up cheaper than Apple Lisa.
Jobs displayed animosity towards the Apple II division, despite it being the primary source of the company’s revenue at the time.
Subsequently, in 1984, Apple launched Macintosh the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language and they spent lots of money on its marketing. The advertisement was so good that CNN called it a “Masterpiece”.
In 1985, Jobs was famously thrown out of the company he founded after a power struggle with the board of directors.
The downfall for Apple began soon after Jobs left the company. In 1997, it hit rock bottom. Apple wasn’t the company it founded. Microsoft had won the operating system war with Windows 95 and had raced far ahead in market capitalisation.
The Steve Jobs comeback
In 1997, Apple bought NeXT, a company Jobs had founded after he was ousted. He returned as the CEO.
They were still reeling under financial difficulties and it was Bill Gates who decided to invest 150 million dollars into Apple.
Jobs turned Apple around. The tagline “Think different” campaigns had potentially made consumers think different about computers, certain products like iMac which integrated the entire CPU into the monitor itself.
This was also the time when Apple began to look beyond computers – and into portables. Apple’s first such product was in 2001 called iPod, a portable music player.
The rest, as they say, is history.
iPhone was introduced in 2007, leading to a major disruption in the gadget, application and internet world. iPad was introduced in 2010, which was unfortunately the last major announced before Jobs died of Pancreatic cancer.
After the death of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook became the full-time CEO.
Apple Watch was announced in 2014. All these products turned out to be revolutionary. The Apple share price boomed.
In 2019, Apple started to expand its services with Apple credit card, Apple TV Plus and number of games and services.
In 2023, the company announced its next big product. A virtual reality (VR) headset called the Apple Vision Pro.
The rumoured future products are the much-hyped Apple Car and potential foldable iPhones.
Apple Share Price History
| Year | Share Price | Gain / Loss |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | $ 0.15 | |
| 1981 | $ 0.10 | - 33.3% |
| 1982 | $ 0.13 | + 30.0% |
| 1983 | $ 0.11 | - 15.4% |
| 1984 | $ 0.13 | + 18.2% |
| 1985 | $ 0.10 | - 23.1% |
| 1986 | $ 0.18 | + 80.0% |
| 1987 | $ 0.37 | + 105.6% |
| 1988 | $ 0.36 | - 2.7% |
| 1989 | $ 0.31 | - 13.9% |
| 1990 | $ 0.38 | + 22.6% |
| 1991 | $ 0.50 | + 31.6% |
| 1992 | $ 0.53 | + 6.0% |
| 1993 | $ 0.26 | - 50.9% |
| 1994 | $ 0.35 | + 34.6% |
| 1995 | $ 0.28 | - 20.0% |
| 1996 | $ 0.19 | - 32.1% |
| 1997 | $ 0.12 | - 36.8% |
| 1998 | $ 0.37 | + 208.3% |
| 1999 | $ 0.92 | + 148.6% |
| 2000 | $ 0.27 | - 70.7% |
| 2001 | $ 0.39 | + 44.4% |
| 2002 | $ 0.26 | - 33.3% |
| 2003 | $ 0.38 | + 46.2% |
| 2004 | $ 1.15 | + 202.6% |
| 2005 | $ 2.57 | + 123.5% |
| 2006 | $ 3.03 | + 17.9% |
| 2007 | $ 7.07 | + 133.3% |
| 2008 | $ 3.05 | - 56.9% |
| 2009 | $ 7.53 | + 146.9% |
| 2010 | $ 11.52 | + 53.0% |
| 2011 | $ 14.46 | + 25.5% |
| 2012 | $ 19.01 | + 31.5% |
| 2013 | $ 20.04 | + 5.4% |
| 2014 | $ 27.59 | + 37.7% |
| 2015 | $ 26.32 | - 4.6% |
| 2016 | $ 28.75 | + 9.2% |
| 2017 | $ 42.31 | + 47.2% |
| 2018 | $ 39.44 | - 6.8% |
| 2019 | $ 73.41 | + 86.1% |
| 2020 | $ 132.69 | + 80.8% |
| 2021 | $ 177.57 | + 33.8% |
| 2022 | $ 129.93 | - 26.8% |
| 2023 | $ 192.53 | + 48.2% |
| 2024 | $ 228.52 | + 18.7% |
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- During 1980, the share price of Apple was $ 0.15.
- If you had bought shares worth $ 2500 in 1980, you would have 166667 shares today.
- At the end of 2024, the current value of your shares would be $ 38086667.
Apple Share Returns Comparison
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