in 1955, and his foster parents were - unlike most other people in Silicon
Valley - blue-collar workers. However, growing up in an environment full of
electronics, Steve came in con tact with this fascinating technology and
was caught by it.
Jobs was a loner and his character can be described as brash, very
ambitious and unshakably self-confident. With his directness and his
persistency he persuaded most people. He had the ability to convey his
notions and vision to other people quite well. An d he was not afraid to
talk to famous people and did never stop talking to them until they gave in
and did what he wanted. His traits could already be observed in his
adolescence, for instance when he - at the age of thirteen - called famous
Bill Hewlett, president of HP, and asked him for spare parts he needed for
his frequency counter.
Although Steve Jobs was five years younger than Wozniak, "the two got along
at once." Apart from their common fascination with electronics, they
"shared a certain intensity." Whereas Woz was intense in digging "deeper
into an intellectual problem than anyone else," Jobs's intensity was in
ambition. Moreover, both were genuine pranksters, and often they fooled
others with their technical knowledge.)
When they heard of "phone-phreaking" - making free long-distance telephone
calls with a device called "blue box" - the two started their first
business venture, building those blue boxes.
In 1972, Steve Jobs went to Reed College in Oregon; however, there he
became more interested in Eastern religions, dropped out a year later and
returned to Silicon Valley, where he took a job with Atari (a young video
game company) until he had saved enough money to go on a trip to India for
some months. Then he went back to California and to his work at Atari.
After attending three different colleges, Wozniak had begun work for
Hewlett-Packard in summer 1973. When Atari planned to develop a new game
called "Breakout," Jobs boasted he could design it in only four days -
quicker and better than anyone else. Jobs t old his friend Woz about it,
and the two designed the game in record time, working four nights and days,
and were paid the promised $700 for it. This experience showed them that
they could work together on a tough project and succeed.
The first Apple
When the Homebrew Computer Club came into existence, Wozniak began
attending its meetings. As he later would recall, Homebrew was a revelation
for him and changed his life. He met people who "shared his love for
computers") and learned from them as well a s he encouraged them with his
technical expertise. Others brought along their Altairs, which Wozniak was
interested in but could not afford. He realized this computer resembled the
Cream Soda Computer he had built some time ago.
Soon after, Chuck Peddle at MOS Tech released his new 6502 microprocessor
chip for only $20, which was a sensation compared to the usual price of
$400 for those chips then. Suddenly, Woz saw his chance and decided to
write the first BASIC for it, which was the most spread programming
language. After finishing with the BASIC, he made a computer for it to run
on. The other hobbyists at Homebrew were impressed by Wozniak's kit, which
actually was a board with chips and interfaces for a keyboard and a video
monitor.
Steve Jobs saw the opportunity of this machine, which they named Apple, and
finally persuaded Wozniak to start a company in April 1976. The two raised
the money for the prototype model with a printed circuit board by selling
Jobs' VW microbus and Wozniak's HP calculators. With the Apple I, Steve
Wozniak had designed a "technological wonder") and made his dream of owning
a computer come true. His friend Steve Jobs played the role of a salesman
and his ambitious promotion made the Apple I "a star in the tight world of
computer freaks.")
The breakthrough for the two Steves came in July, when Paul Terrell ordered
50 Apples for his Byte Shop, however on condition the computers were fully
assembled in a case and equipped with a cassette interface to enable
external data storage.
Jobs could "obtain net 30 days credit") for the parts they needed for their
computer. Working hard in Jobs parents' garage, they managed to construct
the 50 Apples within those 30 days.
The Apple I was continuously refined by Wozniak, and its sales made the
young company known, partly because the company's name appeared on top of
computer lists, which were published by electronics magazines in
alphabetical order.
Building up the company
While the first Apple was being sold, Steve Wozniak had already begun work
on another computer, the Apple II. This machine would have several special
features which had not appeared in any microcomputer before and would make
it "the milestone product that would usher in the age of the personal
computer.")
Jobs and Wozniak sensed the market potential their new computer would have,
but realized they did not have the necessary capital for constructing the
machines. So they tried to sell their computer to several established
companies such as Atari, HP and MOS Tech, which, however, rejected. Looking
out for some venture capital to produce the new computers by themselves,
Steve Jobs met with Mike Markkula, who had been a marketing manager at
Fairchild and Intel.
Markkula was at the age of 38, but had already retired, since he had made a
fortune of many million dollars by his stock option at Intel. He visited
Jobs's garage and became interested in their project. Markkula, the former
marketing wizard at Intel, thought it "made sense to provide computing
power to individuals in the home and workplace" and offered to help them
"draw up a business plan.") Finally, he decided to join the two Steves. He
offered $250,000 of his own money and his marketing expertise for on e
third of the company, which was incorporated as Apple Computer in January
1977. Markkula's decision marked the turning point in Apple's history; he
took care of the business side and arranged all the things necessary to
create a successful company. Markkula's know-how was crucial for Apple,
since Woz and Jobs did not have any business expertise. This knowledge is
very important for new firms. A lot of other start-ups in Silicon Valley
failed as their founders were only engineers, who lost control over their
enterprises when they could not meet the skyrocketing demand for their
products.
In 1977, Markkula hired Mike Scott, who had worked for product marketing at
Fairchild, as the company's president, because he felt Apple needed an
experienced person to run the company.
Jobs, who wanted only the best for his company, also persuaded Regis
McKenna, who ran the biggest and most influential agency in Silicon Valley,
to do public relations and advertising for Apple. McKenna, who worked for
successful Intel and many other companies, brought Apple legitimacy and,
among other things, designed the famous Apple logo. Another important
contribution was the fact that he made Apple the first company to advertise
personal computers in consumer magazines to "get national attention" and "
popularize this idea of low-cost computers.")
Steve Jobs's persistency had persuaded Wozniak, the electronics genius who
designed the machine, McKenna, and Markkula, the business expert. Jobs
himself was the driving force that brought the key components together to
build up a successful company.
Apple II - starting the personal computer boom
In April 1977, the Apple II was introduced to the public at the West coast
Computer Faire (market), where Apple had rented the largest booth just
opposite the entrance. Wozniak's "technological wonder") was a great
success and the first orders were already made. The Apple II was the "first
true personal computer.") It was the first microcomputer able to generate
color graphics and the first with BASIC in ROM and included a keyboard,
power supply and an attractive lightweight and beige plastic case, which
would become standard for subsequent PCs. The Apple II was more
sophisticated than any microcomputer before, and represented a machine,
which could be worked with effectively. Steve Wozniak had put all his
"engineering savvy") into it, and had created a computer he would like to
own.
The Apple II was given a rapturous welcome in the public. In 1977, the
company sold more than 4,000 computers, which were priced at $1,300, and
grew rapidly.
Programs and data for the Apple II were stored on cassette tapes. But this
common way of storage turned out to be quite unreliable and awkward. Mike
Markkula saw the future in floppy disks, which had been developed by IBM in
the early 1970s, and asked Wozniak to design a disk drive for the Apple II.
Woz took the challenge and finished in record time (only one month). His
final design was brilliant: he developed a new technique ("self-sync") and
created the fastest minifloppy disk drive. It was shipped in June 1978 and
proved vital for Apple's further growth. It made possible the development
of serious software such as word processors and data base packages,") which
increased the practical use of the computer decisively.
In 1979, Daniel Fylstra, a programmer from Boston, released VisiCalc for
the Apple II. This spreadsheet was a novelty in computer software. It
relieved business calculations considerably and could be used to do
financial forecasting. It was the first application that made personal
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