April 1, 1976 is considered the first day of work. It was on this day that the first Apple Computer I was first presented to the public. In the first 10 months of operation, the company produced 175 of these hand-assembled computers. The company's first computer was a motherboard without a keyboard, mouse, graphics or sound. Computers were assembled in the old garage of Steve Jobs' parents, Wozniak and Jobs were helped by their relatives and friends.
At that moment, the company even got its own secretary, whose place was taken by the mother of Steve Jobs.
The first batch of computers was bought by an acquaintance of Jobs in his shop, where he himself picked up a case, a power supply for Apple computers. The name for the company did not come up for long, for the inventors the main thing was that in the telephone directory, Apple was higher on the list of Atari, which was popular at that time.
With the first profit, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak rented a mailbox and bought out the first telephone line in order to create at least the appearance of a real corporation.
Revolution in consciousness
Already in 1977, Apple made its first revolution in the computer industry: they created a second computer that had color graphics. Sound appeared in it, the inventors did not forget about the keyboard and the power supply. It was in 1976 that the most famous logo companies - a colored bitten apple. The company grew, they opened a real office, the face of Steve Jobs appeared on the pages and covers of glossy business magazines. Profits have increased several times. In May 1979, Apple employees began work on a new computer aimed at the average user. It is this period that can be called the beginning of the birth of the first Macintosh.On the this moment Apple is valued at around $500 billion, making it one of the most valuable companies in history. Now the company produces not only computers and laptops, but also computer tablets, smartphones, music players. Steve Wozniak retired from the company in 1987, and in 2011 Steve Jobs died of cancer, but despite the fact that both founders of the company are now not involved in its development, the company is thriving.
Apple Inc. ("apple") is a corporation with a special reputation. Thanks to innovative technologies, exceptional quality and aesthetic design of its products, this company has become a real cult among consumers of electronics. Tablet and personal computers, telephones, audio players, software Apple - everything is always popular in all corners of the planet. How was this legendary corporation created? Who was the ideological inspirer of its appearance? What was the original name of Apple? You will learn about all this from this article.
First corporate name
The Apple logo has become one of the most recognizable in the world. There are many rumors and legends around its name. Among the most common versions, there are some really interesting ones. There is no disagreement about how Apple was originally called. The officially registered first name of the company is Apple Computer. It existed under this name for 30 years until it was renamed simply Apple. This step was quite logical, by that time the corporation produced not only computers. But why did the company get the "apple" name? This is discussed ahead.
Why Apple?
According to one version, Steve Jobs decided to stop at the "apple" name because it automatically appeared on the first lines of telephone directories, immediately before the name of Atari, a manufacturer of computer games. In addition, the apple symbolized the environmental friendliness of the company's products. Apple was one of the first to recycle old computer components. All this is true, but if you look at the first logo of the corporation, then other answers will arise to questions about how Apple was originally called, why it was named that way. The symbol of the corporation was a man sitting under a tree, over whose head an apple hung menacingly. The plot is reminiscent of the story of Isaac Newton, right? This means that the name of the company also hinted at the extraordinary ingenuity inherent in its creators. In addition, biblical motifs can be traced in the name of the company. A bitten apple symbolizes temptation. And the popular Apple product line - Macintosh - was named after the variety of apples that its creator, Jeff Raskin, preferred.
How it all began
The history of the creation of Apple is covered in rumors and legends. It all started back in 1970, when two comrades, Steve Jobs, created a personal computer based on the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor. It was essentially a motherboard and looked very unpresentable. However, enterprising friends, one of whom (Wozniak) was a gifted electronics engineer, and the second (Jobs) had an outstanding commercial streak, managed to sell several dozen of their products. On the proceeds in 1976, on April 1, a new company for the production of personal computers was officially registered. We already know how Apple was originally called.
Computer for every home
In 1976, the first Apple 1 microcomputer was released. Apple's original products were not revolutionary at all. In parallel with it, personal computers were produced by Tandy Radio Shack and Commodore. However, it was the creators of Apple who managed to make their products so bright and desirable for people that they were happy to buy. Steve Jobs introduced into the mind of the consumer the idea that a personal computer is a thing necessary in every home. He ensured that the computer became interesting not only to professional electronics engineers, but also to ordinary people. Apple has managed to make its brand legendary. Computers of the second generation, produced in this company, became the best-selling on the globe. At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, more than five million Apple-branded electronic machines were sold.
Sales problems
In 1980, the office where Apple was located was in disarray and vacillation. Steve Jobs had to lay off forty employees of the company, as the release of third-generation computers was extremely unsuccessful. True, at the same time, the company made the largest initial public offering in the history of the stock exchange. But this did not help the situation. The press predicted the imminent disappearance of Apple. In 1983, Scully John, a talented top manager who had previously held similar position at PepsiCo. Friction immediately began between the main ideological inspirer of the corporation, Steve Jobs, and the new leader.
Company development in the 1980s
In 1984, the original Apple products were supplemented with a line of new 32-bit products The production and sale of such equipment determined the main activity of the company for two decades. It produced computers based on Motorola processors with the Apple operating system installed on them, compatible only with the corporation's proprietary products. In addition, the company has traditionally had strong positions in educational and government organizations, design and publishing. A little later, Apple won a leading position in the music industry. The company was the first to equip its equipment with a computer mouse and a graphical user interface. In 1985, Reagan awarded Wozniak and Jobs with medals for the development of technological progress.
Steve Jobs
In 1985, another fateful event in the history of the corporation happened. - Steve Jobs - was forced to leave it due to disagreements with management. This man was distinguished by frenzied enthusiasm, intolerable character, wild unscrupulousness and incredible charm. He knew how to inspire the most insane enterprises. Only Jobs could convince the board of directors to give $750,000 to a newfangled director (Ridley Scott) for making a commercial for the Apple III computers and pay even more for one minute of super-expensive airtime during the broadcast of the American football Super Bowl. The original Apple products at that time were an order of magnitude worse than those of competitors. But they bought it! It took several months for the consumer to understand that a very mediocre computer with a black-and-white interface and only fifty programs was hidden behind a bright advertising wrapper. And the story of how crazy Jobs leaked into the Xerox PARC secret research center and brought out several revolutionary ideas from there (computer mouse, text editor, etc.) is still the biggest theft in the history of the computer industry. However, the methods used by the legendary co-founder of Apple were too original. So when sales of Apple III computers plummeted, Steve Jobs was asked to leave the company.
Company development in the 1990s
Under the strategically correct and technically sound leadership, Apple Corporation lasted for many years. The development of the company, however, slowed down every year. And by the end of the 1990s, things got really bad for her. Within two years (from 1995 to 1997), sales losses rose to $1.86 billion. Apple was worried better days. Her mastermind, madcap and adventurer Steve Jobs was invited to return. He took another giant step in the development of the company. He began to look for new, not related to production computer technology, markets, and in this area has surpassed himself.
Multimedia revolution in the 2000s
The chronicle of events at this time looks something like this:
- 2001 - iPod audio player - Apple introduced a portable media player to consumers. It struck the imagination of people with its minimal size and impressive capabilities.
- 2003 - iTunes Store - the company opened a multimedia online store in which minimum fee You can download AAC media content that can be played on Apple devices.
- 2007 - iPhone - the company entered the market with its own mobile phone. This touchscreen smartphone was swept off the shelves for any money. It is still very popular today.
Our days
In the 2010s, the authority of Apple in the field of multimedia technology has become recognized and undeniable. In order to finally establish itself in this field, the corporation released in 2010 a tablet computer, the famous iPad. This product has broken all records in terms of sales. Over 1 million tablets were sold in 28 days. For comparison: the first iPhones were bought almost three times slower. They passed the one million mark in 72 days. Steve Jobs claimed that 300,000 iPads were sold on the first day, 250,000 were downloaded e-books and approximately 1 million applications. In the wake of unprecedented demand for Apple products, its financial situation has improved dramatically. In 2011, it was recognized as the most valuable corporation in the world by market capitalization, overtaking the well-known oil company ExxonMobil. In 2012, Apple's share price growth peaked at $705.07. However, by 2013, the company's market capitalization had fallen by 37.6% and now constantly competes for the title of the most valuable company in the world with ExxonMobil.
The company constantly surprises the consumer with innovative products. In 2013, Apple released a 64-bit dual-core ARM microprocessor. In 2014, a new personal device appeared on the market - Watch.
Apple headquarters
Cupertino - the city where Apple is located, is located in the headquarters of the corporation is sometimes also called the "campus" because of its large size and resemblance to American university campuses. It occupies about sixty buildings. The six largest of them, on Infinite Loop Street, are the main offices. They are the face of Apple. Everything here calls for "thinking differently": bright offices filled with cutting-edge technology, laboratories in which wireless communications are tested, billboards and stands in huge lobbies flooded with light. There are also GYM's, a cafe and a store selling branded products that are instantly bought up by clouds of tourists. The place where Apple is located will soon be replenished with a second campus, designed for 13 thousand people. He will look like spaceship silver light. Inside it is planned to break the park. This amazing project was developed with the direct participation of Steve Jobs.
Who is the CEO of Apple?
In August 2011, Steve Jobs had to step down as president of Apple for health reasons. This position was taken by the current CEO of the company - Tim Cook. After the departure of the main ideological inspirer, the value of Apple shares fell by 7%. Steve Jobs died after a long illness on October 5, 2011. His death was a resonant event that shook the whole world. Since then, the company's business has been moving with varying degrees of success. In 2013, for example, there was a message that due to the fact that the market value of Apple fell by almost half (from 702 to 390 billion dollars), Tim Cook could leave his post. However, the company still manages to maintain a leading position in the mobile industry, and the demand for "apple" products remains consistently high. Now you know where Apple is located, and not only.
One of the most valuable companies for 2014 is Apple. According to the Fortune Global 500, "Yabloko" took an honorable fifteenth place in 2014, losing a couple of positions to Samsung Electronics. But in 2012, when Apple hit $500 billion in net worth, beating oil and gas company Exxon Mobil, Fortun ranked Apple first. But even 500 billion dollars is not a record for them, because on February 10, 2015, the maximum world record was set in stock trading - 122 dollars per paper, the estimated value of the company amounted to more than seven hundred billion dollars.
From the first birthday, Yabloko had many managers, including Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who entered the Guinness Book of Records as the lowest paid executive director with a daily salary of $ 1.
During the existence of Yabloko, the company's financial indicators either grew rapidly or fell down with the same desire, and the company's managers influenced the technological direction.
Among the significant figures was Steve Wozniak, who became the founder of Apple.
According to statistics from various research centers, the main growth of "Yabloko" was observed during the reign of Steve Jobs, and declines - in the years of his absence. Therefore, we can safely call Steve Jobs the main key figure in the development of the company.
Apple Founders
Over the years of existence and growth, there has been a lot of debate about who is the founder of Apple - Wozniak or Jobs. And is it true that the first Apple computer was assembled in a garage, or is it still in a student laboratory where both Steves worked.
Some authoritative publications, collecting historical information, interviews and answering the question of who is the founder of Apple, wrote "Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak", while others - "Steve Jobs is the only founder of the company."
But both Steves, answering the journalists' question, evasively evaded the answer, not taking on the sole function of the creator. So who became the founder of Apple officially, according to the papers? Most sources say that after all, Steve Jobs is the official and sole creator of the company.
From historical background
The official registration of the company took place in April 1976, although Jobs and Wozniak began their activities much earlier, meeting in the garage and assembling the first computer based on the MOS 6502 Technology eight-bit microprocessor.
Many print media that wrote and write articles about the history of the creation of Apple, opposite the question "who is the founder of apple" indicate: Steve Jobs, although Jobs himself always said:
Steve Wozniak and I worked together to build the first Apple computer.
After the official registration of the company, the first Apple-1 computer saw the light, and a little later - Apple-2, which sold millions of copies.
The Apple-2 industry continued until 1993, improving somewhat from release to release.
Since Apple-2 computers had few competitors in the 80s, the main peak of the popularization of the personal computer from the "Apple" came precisely during this period, more than five million devices were sold.
However, at the same time, the company was also experiencing a failure, releasing an unsuccessful model of the Apple-3 computer, which, surprisingly, did not in the least affect the sale of the first shares of the Yabloko company.
Failures continued to haunt the company in 1981, when Steve Wozniak left the company due to a plane crash, and Jobs was forced to lay off more than 50 employees from the state. mass layoff was associated with the failed Apple-3 project.
To raise the company from the bottom, Jobs invited John Scully to the position of president of the company.
But business relationship between Jobs and Scully did not work out, and Jobs leaves the "Yabloko" by creating the company Next.
Birth of the Macintosh
The famous Macintosh computer first saw the light of day in 1984. For twenty years, the Yabloko company has been producing these computers as the main manufactured product, using Motorolla processors and its own operating system Mac OS.
In the mid-90s, Apple licenses the right to use its own OS to other computer manufacturers, but the licenses were soon revoked.
In 1996, the Yabloko company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Losses amount to more than two billion dollars.
In 1997, the one who is the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, returns to the Yabloko, after which the company's business is going uphill. The company begins to develop new technologies that are not related to computers, and already in 2001 the first iPod music player saw the light.
In 2007, Apple releases the sensational iPhone, and Steve Jobs begins to be called the first person in the world who provided users with pocket Internet.
Three years later, Apple releases the first iPad.
The last three new products released by the company are fundamentally changing the financial situation, and Apple is becoming the most successful manufacturer in the market for modern gadgets.
Litigation
The stunning success of Yabloko gave rise to envious people, and caring competitors one after another began to overwhelm the company with lawsuits.
Even the Finnish company Nokia did not stand aside and in 2009 filed a lawsuit against Yabloko, accusing it of infringing several patents. The court then satisfied the claim from Nokia, and ordered Yabloko to pay compensation.
While 2 giants were suing, the world saw a line of gadgets from Samsung Galaxy, like two drops of water similar to the IPhone and iPad. Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung with the wording “copying the software, interface and design” of the aforementioned gadgets, but in response, Samsung filed a lawsuit against the Apple companies with the same wording that Nokia filed and won in 2009.
The court recognized both companies as violators, having satisfied all claims, and ordered them to pay compensation to each other, and also banned the sale of popular gadgets on their territory by both companies (the lawsuits took place in South Korea).
Death of Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs died in 2011 from an incurable disease. Apple has continued its work and successfully releases new innovative devices.
While protests against protectionist policies federal authorities and big business were held all over the world, specialists from the University of Zurich conducted a mathematical analysis of the relationships of 43,000 transnational corporations and identified companies that have a huge impact on the world.
As the New Scientist writes, to model the image of a global corporate system, the experts processed a gigantic array of data reflecting the ownership relations between the largest transnational corporations (TNCs).
The idea that a few bankers control a significant part of the world economy does not seem so counterintuitive anymore, especially against the background of the protests that have begun on Wall Street.
“Reality is so complex that we had to move away from dogma, such as conspiracy theories or free market theories,” explained study author and complex systems theorist James Glattfelder. “Our analysis is grounded in reality.”
Previous research has shown that a relatively small group of companies and banks own the lion's share of the global economic pie, leaving only crumbs for everyone else. However, these studies have overlooked indirect relationships - the relationship of corporations with subsidiaries and affiliates, which can determine how significant is the influence of the TNC group on world economy, as well as how stable the system itself is.
After sorting through the 37 million companies and investors worldwide represented in the Orbis C database from 2007, the team of scientists selected 43,060 companies owned by multinational corporations, and also identified them total assets. Then they built a model that distributed the economic power of TNCs according to the criteria for the control of some companies over others through ownership of funds and participation in profits. Ultimately, they managed to form a comprehensive map of economic influence.
Companies that own the world
Scholars point to a core of 1,318 lock-in companies whose ties to other companies can hardly be called anything other than "incestuous." Each of these 1,318 companies had the closest relationship with two or more other companies (average number of affiliated partners was 20). And although the official income of these corporations barely exceeds 20% of global operating revenue, through their satellite firms they actually own the majority of the world's companies operating in the "real" economy sector (the so-called blue chip - iconic manufacturing companies, famous brands and etc.). Thus, about 60% of global income is concentrated in the tentacles of corporate monsters.
The study also found that the majority of financial chains go in the direction of a "superenclave" of 147 companies. Their assets intersect with each other, in fact being common property, which gives this unspoken financial conglomerate control of 40% of global corporate wealth. "Basically, less than 1% of companies are able to control 40% of the entire network," says Glattfelder. And he adds that most of these "supercorporations" are financial institutions. Thus, the top 20 includes investment holdings Barclays plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Commenting on the analysis carried out by Swiss experts, macroeconomics expert John Driffil from the University of London said that the value of the study lies not even in the fact that it shows how a small number of people control the entire world economy. In his opinion, the main reason for which it was worth conducting such research is to understand how stable this system is.
The authors of the study themselves believe that the analysis could help make the system itself more stable. In particular, by finding the most vulnerable aspects, economists will be able to propose measures to prevent future collapses that affect the entire economy. Perhaps the world needs global antitrust rules to weaken and limit overly strong ties between TNCs, Glattfelder said. But so far, such norms exist only at the national level.
In itself, the concentration of power is neither good nor bad, the Swiss researchers note. But the close interconnections of the corporate core can just be assessed in terms of harm and benefit. As the global financial crisis that began in 2008 showed, such networks are highly unsustainable. "As soon as one company is in distress, it immediately pulls the rest," Glattfelder explained.
"Generally, this study did not discover anything new, but only confirmed visually those conclusions that could previously be drawn on the basis of simple logic," says the rector Training Center"FINAM" Ph.D. Yaroslav Kabakov.
“If the US dollar is the main world currency, then those corporations that are shareholders of the Federal Reserve Banks that issue this very currency, quite logically turn out to be the owners and controllers of the lion's share of world assets,” he noted in a conversation with the site. “Perhaps, partial amendments regarding shares in global capital can be brought in, given the fact that a significant part of companies around the world are still non-public, and a significant part is controlled by states.This will slightly shift the share of world wealth controlled by listed companies downward, but will not change the essence of the phenomenon ".
The expert also adds that the instability of this system is not its vulnerability or disadvantage - it just allows this group to increase its control. "In periods of crisis, they turn off the money tap, and then buy up cheaper assets for dollars, which are printed and provided to them by the US Federal Reserve, which they willingly control," Kabakov said.
Top 10 of 147 Supercorporations
The founder and owner of the largest poker room on the planet is Isaiah Sheinberg, an Israeli programmer who used to work for the Canadian branch of IBM Corporation. And although the company's turnover has reached $ 1.4 billion, and the number of PokerStars employees exceeds 1,000 people, there is very little reliable information about the founder of the poker room.
Even the exact year of Isaiah's birth is not known - either 1946 or 1947. In 1988, he purchased a home in suburban Toronto, a home he still owns.
In the 1990s, Scheinberg worked as a programmer at IBM, where he helped create the Unicode standard, which is now used by almost all computer companies (IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, HP). In the late 1990s, Scheinberg created a program for playing virtual poker and registered a company Rational Entertainment Enterprises Ltd based in Costa Rica.
About the creation of the PokerStars room
This is what the PokerStars website looked like when it was launched in 2001
Sheinberg founded the poker room with the help of his father. On the tragically famous date of 2001 - September 11 - a beta version was born. Poker players were offered to play online poker for play money. In December 2001 The first games for real dollars began to be held.
As already mentioned, the room was first registered in Costa Rica. Then the company began to work on about. Maine, this island is under British jurisdiction. Isaiah decided to move to the island because he was attracted by the almost complete absence of taxes on business income.
PokerStars is the leader in online gambling
PokerStars in 2005 - 20,000 players at the tables
In 2006, the US Congress introduced amendments to the legislation on gambling entertainment, as a result, many large organizations, such as PartyPoker, left the US virtual gambling market, as they were listed on the stock exchanges, and remaining on the US market could devalue their shares, i. e. Basically just go bankrupt.
I took advantage of this private poker room PokerStars, he did not leave the American market, but found additional reserves and occupied the vacant segment, becoming the industry leader.
Stars, unlike competitors, accepted money from American poker players. The number of clients has increased significantly.
June 10, 2006, on the eve of the ban on online poker in the United States, the traffic of players on PokerStars was only 14.000 players
June 15, 2006. After the ban on online poker in the USA, the traffic of players on PokerStars jumped "to heaven" and did not fall any lower 60.000 players
Screen shots of the PokerStars homepage show the difference in traffic between June 10 and June 15, 2006.
Then the traffic of the poker room increased almost 3 times! And all because of the ban on online poker in the US.
For example, if in 2006 there were approximately 20,000 active players, then in In 2009, there were already about 240,000 people on the site. The value of the company has risen to $10 billion. However, after the events known as "Black Friday"(this happened in 2011), the company stopped accepting users from the States.
In early 2006, Scheinberg signed an agreement with a London-based investment bank regarding an initial public offering of PokerStars shares for sale in an IPO. Among the potential investors were such famous brands as Rank Group and William Hill. It was thought that Isaiah would choose to merge with 888 Holding. But when the UIGEA went into effect in the US, PokerStars announced that it was postponing the offering.
Isaiah Scheinberg also likes to play poker. So, for example, in 1996, he became 25th in the Hold'em tournament at the WSOP in Vegas.
PokerStars has formed its own group of professionals - Team PokerStars Pro, with whom the room signs sponsorship contracts. It includes the world's best poker players.
You can read more about the PokerStars Pro Team in our other articles:
About the Scheinberg family PokerStars employees are described as extremely pleasant and friendly people who continue to work on the Isle of Man, although the accumulated huge fortune has long allowed them to retire.
Today, Isaiah and his sons continue to lead the rum. The Scheinbergs own 75% of the firm, with the remainder owned by poker room employees.
Personnel reshuffle of the company
The parent company of PokerStars is the Rational Group, which has appointed a new person to the position of COO. They became Rafi Ashkenazi, who was previously one of the managers of Playtech. He now runs two of the Rational Group's leading poker rooms, including PokerStars.
Rafi has been appointed to "be responsible for maintaining the 'best customer support and service on the planet' that contributes to the company's leadership in the online poker industry."
PokerStars today
PokerStars is the largest online poker room. The most available to play popular species poker games including Texas Hold'em, Omaha and 7Stud. The game is played for "conditional" and real money (Canadian and American dollars, euros and British pounds). The cheapest games have a BB of $0.02, the most expensive are $2,000.
The site usually has at least 130,000 players. During peak hours or during the organization of popular tournaments, this figure sometimes reaches 350,000. PokerStars previously released an application only for PC, but since 05/11/2012 it has appeared for Android and iOS operating systems
In total, PokerStars has about 50,000,000 members. The best poker players choose precisely because no other resource hosts such a daily huge amount tournaments and cash games. PokerStars has the strongest internet security system.
More recently, a resource has joined the PS family PokerStars.fr operating under a French government patent, PokerStars.it, which operates under a patent from the Italian government, as well as PokerStars.ee, which received a patent from the Estonian government.
PokerStars is the official sponsor of some of the world's largest offline tournaments: European Poker Tour (EPT), Asia Pacific (APPT), Latin American (LAPT), Australian New Zealand (ANZPT), Russian Poker Series (RPS).
Numbers and facts about PokerStars:
Form of ownership: Ltd.
Founded: 2001
Founders: Isaiah and Mark Sheinberg.
Location: O. Man, Douglas.
Industry: Internet gambling.
Turnover: $1.4 billion
Net income: half a billion dollars
Number of employees: more than 1000.
Parent organization: Rational Group.