In 1985 a power struggle developed between Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had been hired two years earlier. In 1996, Michael Spindler was replaced by Gil Amelio as CEO. On July 9, 1997, Gil Amelio was ousted by the board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. Jobs became the interim CEO and began restructuring the company's product line.

Apple Corporate Office | Headquarters is located in 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014

he first home computer with a GUI or graphical user interface was the Apple Lisa. The very first graphical user interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. Steve Jobs, visited PARC in 1979 (after buying Xerox stock) and was impressed and influenced by the Xerox Alto, the first computer ever with a graphical user interface. Jobs designed the new Apple Lisa based on the technology he saw at Xerox.

On April 1, 1976, the Apple computer was born. Steven Wozniak, a high school drop-out who worked for Hewlett-Packard, dabbled in computer-design and created what would become the Apple I. His high school buddy Steven Jobs, also a drop-out, worked for Atari and convinced him that the two should form a company to market the new computer, which eventually took off in 1977 with the Apple II. By 1980, the Apple III was released and their company employed several thousand workers. Jobs and Wozniak

So begins the rocky, but enormously successful, story of the most revolutionary computer in history. The early Mac’s user-friendly interface, with such features as the trash can, windows, drag-and-drop file moveability, and plug-in-and-play compatibility, predated by far the efforts of those developing the PC. Bill Gates’ admonitions to his R&D people to “Make it like the Mac!”* can only be construed as the highest compliment. Even today’s Mac G4, with its velocity engine and 128-bit-wide architecture, smokes the fastest PC, as proven in side-by-side tests performing complex processing operations in Photoshop with enormous files. In addition, the Mac has been determined to be a more productive and economical platform in all aspects of the computing world.**

* Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, by Jennifer Edstrom and Marlin Eller; Henry Holt and Company, Inc., New York, NY 1998.

** Norris and Wong is a San Francisco based technology consulting firm specializing in personal computer productivity enhancement. They develop custom applications on both Macs and PCs for an exclusive clientele. Their very detailed study compared Macs and Windows in regards to: 1) Adding and removing applications, 2) Reorganizing the desktop for convenience, 3) Hard disk space management, 4) Adding and upgrading hardware components, 5) Backing up files, 6) Troubleshooting system conflicts and other problems, and 7) Recovery from system failures. In EVERY CASE, the Macintosh had MAJOR advantages. They conclude "These differences will translate into significant FINANCIAL SAVINGS and PRODUCTIVITY benefits for Macintosh users."

This article by no means attempts to relate the lengthy history of Apple’s development. For that, please visit Glenn Sanford’s wonderful and encyclopedic Apple History site to see a sample page from his website. What you will find here are computer models that have been some of the more revolutionary highlights of Apple’s output.