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From Steve Jobs’ garage to $123 billion profit – the story of Apple

Apple store

Apple Computers was founded on April 1, 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Apple now has more than 500 retail locations all around the world and its total number of employees in 2021 was 154,000.

READ MORE: “SAVE THE WORLD FROM CONFORMITY” – APPLE’S INCREDIBLE “1984” SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL

The tech giant's record 2022 profit of $123 billion is in stark contrast to the company's humble beginnings, which saw Jobs and Wozniak building the Apple I in Jobs' garage.

The first Apple computers were without a monitor, keyboard, or casing.

The Apple II revolutionized the computer industry with the introduction of the first-ever color graphics.

Sales jumped from $7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980, the year Apple went public.

Wozniak left Apple in 1983 due to losing interest in the day-to-day running of Apple Computers.

Jobs then hired PepsiCo's John Sculley to be president.

However, this move backfired and after much controversy with Sculley, Jobs left in 1985 and went on to bigger and better things.

Apple went from strength to strength through the rest of the 1980s and in 1990 it reached its highest profits yet.

This was, however, mostly due to the plans that Jobs had already set in motion before he left, most notably his deal with a tiny company called Adobe.

Together the two companies created the phenomenon known as desktop publishing.

1984 Super Bowl commercial

We cant forget about Apple's legendary commercial.

Apple spent $1 million on a 60-second spot that premiered at the Superbowl.

Luckily, the ad was a winner, as all the local cinemas and TV stations showcased the unique ad.

Within 100 days, Apple sold 72,000 computers.

Back in 1985, Sculley turned down an appeal from Microsoft founder to license its software.

His decision later came back to haunt him as Microsoft became Apple's toughest competition in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s.

Over the course of a few years, Apple's market share suffered slowly after its peak in 1990 and by 1996, experts believed the company to be doomed.

It was not until 1997, when Apple was desperately in need of an operating system, that it bought out NeXT Software and the board of directors decided to ask for some help from an old friend - Steve Jobs.

Jobs became interim CEO (Jobs was not officially the CEO until 2000).

Jobs decided to make some changes and made an alliance with Microsoft to create a Mac version of its popular Office software.Not long after this decision was the turning point for the company.

Jobs revamped the computers and introduced the iBook followed by iPod, which became the market leader.

The iPhone was introduced in 2007 and became one of the world's most successful products.

Other popular products include the iPad, tablets, and Apple Watch.

Most recently Apple has expanded its services segments with its Apple Card, Apple News for news, Apple Arcade for games, and the Apple TV+ for streaming original content produced by Apple.

Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but Apple continues on with his legacy with Tim Cook at the helm as the CEO.

It employs more than 150,000 people around the world and recorded its best ever profits of $123.90 billion in 2022.

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