6 Boldest Moments in the History of Apple

 

With the release of the iPhone 6 just days away, and breathless press predicting major upgrades, it's hard to believe that just seven short years ago, the debut of the iPhone completely revolutionized the mobile computing market.

Big reveals, transformation and innovative ideas are par for the course for Apple, a company that has been changing the way consumers interact with technology since its inception in a California garage in the seventies.

And so, in honor of the release of the iPhone 6, here are the six biggest and boldest moment in Apple history -- along with the lessons they hold for entrepreneurs.

Photo by Flickr user Ed Uthman.

1. 1976 -- Apple's First Order for the Apple I

Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak met through an electronics engineering club called the Homebrew Computer Club. Sensing that his partner was onto something with a his prototype Apple I, Jobs approached local computer store The Byte Shop about purchasing a kit the duo would produce.

The owner of the Byte Shop, Paul Terrell, made an order of 50 with this stipulation: that the guys would assemble the computers before delivery. Jobs went to Cramer Electronics to order the parts he would need and asked to get them on credit, furnishing the purchase order from the Byte Shop as proof of the first order. Cramer Electronics was stunned by the audacity of Jobs' request, but nonetheless called Terrell to confirm the order.

Through this creative and bold bit of financing, Apple Computers was off and running, without investors or loans.

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1984 Apple Macintosh commercial by Ridley Scott. Screengrab via YouTube

2. 1984 -- Macintosh Debuts in Ridley Scott Superbowl Ad

Apple has long been famous for going against the grain with its marketing and advertising and nothing is a better example of that they its splashy, multi-million dollar commercial for brand-new Macintosh computer during the 1984 Superbowl.

In the ad, a heroine runs through a dystopian future modeled on George Orwell's famous novel and hurls a sledgehammer at a televised vision of conformity, signaling that Macintosh would save the world from plain grey boxes. The commercial certainly turned out to be prophetic.

Watch it on YouTube>>

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Steve Jobs at the WDC 2007. Photo by Flickr user Ben Stanfield

3. 1996 -- The Return of Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was famously removed from the company he founded in 1985 by the board of directors, leading him to sell all but one of his 6.5 million shares of the company. With the proceeds, Jobs bought the young visual effects and animation company Pixar, and founded NeXT, a computer company that laid the groundwork for what would eventually become pivotal design and engineering features in the personal computer market.

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT, returning Jobs to Apple management, and Jobs took the role of interim CEO in 1997. He would stay in the job until illness forced him to step down in 2011. In those intervening years, he took a company that was struggling to stay relevant and enhanced focus on innovative product development and design to make Apple one of the world's most entrepreneurial organizations.

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Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft. Photo by Flickr user Joi Ito

4. 1997 -- Partnering with Microsoft

While they were long set up as dueling enemies by the press, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates actually had plenty in common. Both had dropped out of college and formed their respective computer companies in the mid-seventies.

However, at the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be entering into a partnership with Microsoft that would allow the company to release Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer on its machines. The reason why? "If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose," Jobs explained to the audience at the Expo.

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iPod display in an Apple Store in Cupertino, CA. Photo by Flickr user Alejandro Mallea

5. 2001 -- The iPod Upends the Music Business

The iPod, a portable digital music player, debuted on October 23, 2001, but the product's real impact lay in the way it changed the way people bought music. Instead of buying cassettes, CDs or records, people now downloaded from the iTunes store at a rate of $0.99 per song. The iTunes store also set the stage for Apple's later innovation in the apps and mobile phone market.

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iPhone. Photo by Flickr user William Hook

6. 2007 -- The iPhone Debuts

On January 9, 2007, the company shortened its name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc. Why? It was about to make a major play in the mobile phone market. While not the first smartphone, the iPhone brought the concept to the masses with sleek design, a fully touch-enabled surface, and a fully functioning web browser.

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