In 1977, the Apple II was invented. It was the first personal computer to come in a plastic case and include color graphics. The Apple II was the first Apple computer to be exported to Europe. They were shipped through an independent distributor called Euroapple. That same year, Apple became the first company to advertise personal computers in consumer magazines. Apple sales increased even more in 1978 with the introduction of the Apple Disk II, a floppy drive.
In 1979, Apple�s first printer was introduced. It was called the Silentype. Also in 1979, the Apple Education Foundation was established. Its goals were to grant Apple systems to schools and teachers that wished to develop new classroom software and integrate computers into their classrooms. The company continued to grow reaching $100 million in sales. In 1980, the Apple III was introduced as well as Apple FORTRAN, which proved to be a catalyst for high-level technical and educational programs.
In 1981, Wozniak was injured in a plane crash and soon after Jobs became chairman of Apple Computers. Wozniak left the company and returned to school. That same year, the Apple Language Card was introduced. It allowed Apple II users to run programs in Pascal, FORTRAN or Pilot. In 1983 Jobs recruited John Sculley to help with the competition from IBM. Within in a short time, Sculley became the president and CEO of Apple. Under his leadership, an employee-training program called Apple University was created and Apple became the youngest company ever to have earned a spot on the Fortune 500.
The MacIntosh was introduced in 1984. It sold very well in the beginning, but people did not like its undersized RAM and lack of hard drive connectivity. Apple�s landmark �1984� commercial aired during the Super Bowl. This was the only time it aired, but was replayed dozens of times by news and talk shows, making it one of the most talked-about, best remembered ads in television history. The following year, Jobs resigned from the company as a result of many arguments with Sculley. Soon after, the company started going downhill. However, the company started turning around again with the introduction of the Laserwriter and PageMaker, which were the first affordable laser printer and Desktop Publishing programs on the market. In 1987, Apple successfully sold its one millionth MacIntosh computer and in 1988, Apple filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and Hewlett Packard for copyright infringement, which would later be settled.
In 1993, the Apple Board of Directors released Sculley from his position as CEO and he subsequently resigned from the company. Spindler became the new CEO for the next two and a half years. During this time Apple continued to spiral downward and at the end of 1995 it reported a $68 million loss for the quarter. Spindler was asked to resign and was replaced by Gil Amelia who tried to make the company profitable again, but was unsuccessful.
In late December of 1996, Apple announced it would be acquiring NeXT and that Steve Jobs would be returning. After Gil Amelia resigned, Jobs was given an expanded role at Apple as the interim CEO. Jobs made many changes in the next few years including an almost entirely new Board of Directors and an alliance with Microsoft. In November of 1997, Apple released two new machines, the PowerMac G3 and the PowerBook G3. In addition, in 1997 Apple started selling computers on the web and by phone. Apple was once again making a profit and Jobs became the permanent CEO.
In 1998, Apple introduced the iMac, which had a great deal of power at an affordable price. Soon the iMac became the best-selling computer in the nation. Apple continued to be profitable throughout 1999 with the introduction of new products such as the iBook, PowerMac G4, and iTools, but in July 2000 they released the PowerMac G4 Cube, which turned out to be a failure.
In the second half of 2001, sales had begun to slow down. To increase sales Apple opened retail stores, selling computers and other digital products. In addition, they revised the PowerBook G4 and iBook lines. Apple also introduced the iPod, a small hard-drive, based digital music player. In 2002 Apple released its flat screen iMac, and iPhoto, a program for digital camera users.
As technology advances, the Apple Company intends to once again become an industry leader by creating new programs and products that will be appealing and affordable to consumers.