Today, most people in the United States and most of the modern world are familiar with at least one of the Apple companies products, whether it is the iMac computer, macbook parts, ipods andiphone parts , and the latest iPhone. This company started in 1976 by three men who wanted to make the computer available and accessible to people for their own personal use, not just something that could be found at a lab or in an office. It began with the Apple I personal computer kit which was individually built by one of the three men, Steve Wozniak. Throughout the late 70’s they continued to create things that would change the way computers worked like the floppy disk to store data and by creating programs that allowed the use of color, graphics and spreadsheets for businesses.

During the 1980’s Apple made their first large impression on the public with an ad campaign for the Macintosh personal computer. They had a famous director create a commercial to be shown during the Super Bowl in 1984 that cost {1.5 million dollars|$1,500,000. Several believe, that that one of a kind ad and the buzz about it, gave the Apple company their start in being one of the largest companies around. The commercial was titled 1984 and was a spin on George Orwell’s novel by the same title.

The next decade continued to bring more changes and inventions for the Apple company with some of the intial people leaving the company and new people taking over. At this point only one out of the first 3 men was still with the company. In 1991, the Powerbook was introduced which was a more portable laptop computer that was a new concept for computers in general. All of the concepts that they came up with seemed to succeed until the mid to late 90’s.

Without much success, the company tried other electronics besides computers. Some of the things that failed were digital cameras, portable CD players, speakers and other appliances for televisions. All of the problems took a toll on the company and their stock headed for a decline for the first time since it went public in 1980. The start of Windows software seemed to single handedly get the company back on it;s feet again as well as the creation of the iMac computer by Jonathan Ive.

Ive later designed the much loved iPod and iPhone and began a fan following to Apple that no other electronic or computer company ever experienced. The loyalty that a lot of customers have to Apple and their products is very strong. In 2001, Apple opened up their first retail store and even today, thousands of fans will line up outside the doors of a new store opening. The latest favorite item is the App store that allows 3rd party applications to be sold for the iPhone and iTouch and is estimated that the App store may become a billion dollar business for Apple.