General Magic was an American software and electronics company co-founded by Bill Atkinson , Andy Hertzfeld , and Marc Porat . Based in Mountain View, California , the company developed precursors to " USB , software modems , small touchscreens , touchscreen controller ICs , ASICs , multimedia email, networked games, streaming TV , and early e-commerce notions." General Magic's main product was Magic Cap , the operating system used in 1994 by the Motorola Envoy and Sony 's Magic Link PDA. It also introduced the programming language Telescript . After announcing it would cease operations in 2002, it was liquidated in 2004 with Paul Allen purchasing most of its patents.
94-640: The original project started in 1989 within Apple Computer , when Marc Porat convinced Apple's CEO at the time John Sculley that the next generation of computing would require a partnership of computer, communications and consumer electronics companies to cooperate. Known as the Paradigm project, the project ran for some time within Apple, but management remained generally uninterested and the team struggled for resources. Eventually they approached Sculley with
188-456: A boardroom coup and called an emergency meeting at which Apple's executive staff sided with Sculley and stripped Jobs of all operational duties. Jobs resigned from Apple in September 1985 and took several Apple employees with him to found NeXT . Wozniak had also quit his active employment at Apple earlier in 1985 to pursue other ventures, expressing his frustration with Apple's treatment of
282-611: A multi-touch iPod Nano , an iPod Touch with FaceTime , and an iPod Shuffle that brought back the clickwheel buttons of earlier generations. It also introduced the smaller, cheaper second-generation Apple TV which allowed the rental of movies and shows. On January 17, 2011, Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he would take another medical leave of absence for an indefinite period to allow him to focus on his health. Chief operating officer Tim Cook assumed Jobs's day-to-day operations at Apple, although Jobs would still remain "involved in major strategic decisions". Apple became
376-529: A $ 309 million profit. On May 6, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the original Macintosh: the iMac . The iMac was a huge success, with 800,000 units sold in its first five months, and ushered in major shifts in the industry by abandoning legacy technologies like the 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch diskette , being an early adopter of the USB connector, and coming pre-installed with Internet connectivity (the "i" in iMac) via Ethernet and
470-401: A US jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple $ 1.05 billion (£665m) in damages in an intellectual property lawsuit. Samsung appealed the damages award, which was reduced by $ 450 million and further granted Samsung's request for a new trial. On November 10, 2012, Apple confirmed a global settlement that dismissed all existing lawsuits between Apple and HTC up to that date, in favor of
564-485: A decade. In the 1990s, Apple lost considerable market share in the personal computer industry to the lower-priced Wintel duopoly of the Microsoft Windows operating system on Intel -powered PC clones . In 1997, Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy . To resolve its failed operating system strategy, it bought NeXT, effectively bringing Jobs back to the company, who guided Apple back to profitability over
658-403: A dial-up modem. Its striking teardrop shape and translucent materials were designed by Jonathan Ive , who had been hired by Amelio, and who collaborated with Jobs for more than a decade to reshape Apple's product design. A little more than a year later on July 21, 1999, Apple introduced the iBook consumer laptop. It culminated Jobs's strategy to produce only four products: refined versions of
752-433: A distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well", and explained that the break would allow the company "to focus on delivering extraordinary products". Though Jobs was absent, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter (Q1 FY 2009) during the recession , with revenue of $ 8.16 billion and profit of $ 1.21 billion. After years of speculation and multiple rumored "leaks", Apple unveiled
846-516: A filing cabinet were shown behind the desk, and a control bar provided access to other features of the device. Several of these tools provided simple access to communication features, such as text messaging and addresses, which are widely used by modern smartphones. The Motorola Envoy provided a convenient way to utilize communication data without a wired connection but, ultimately, the Envoy was held back by its high cost of ownership. The Envoy device had
940-444: A large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. The iPad ran the same touch-based operating system as the iPhone, and all iPhone apps were compatible with the iPad. This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch, though having very little development time before the release. Later that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the U.S. It sold more than 300,000 units on its first day, and 500,000 by
1034-451: A marketing disadvantage. Partners ended production of Magic Cap devices by 1997. General Magic planned to release Magic Cap software development tools with Metrowerks by the summer of 1995. Its other software, Telescript, was "software-agent technology that would search the Web and automatically retrieve information such as stock quotes and airline ticket prices." The script was introduced with
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#17327827042751128-583: A more modern approach. This led to the Pink project in 1988, A/UX that same year, Copland in 1994, and evaluated the purchase of BeOS in 1996. Talks with Be stalled when the CEO, former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée , demanded $ 300 million in contrast to Apple's $ 125 million offer. Only weeks away from bankruptcy , Apple's board preferred NeXTSTEP and purchased NeXT in late 1996 for $ 400 million, retaining Steve Jobs . The NeXT acquisition
1222-433: A new telephony group. This new team of 60–70 people set out to create a voice recognition-based personal assistant service that would be as close to human interaction as possible. The first service delivered was Portico (code named Serengeti during development), and the interface was called Mary, named after Mary McDonald-Lewis, who voiced Portico, Serengeti and GM's later version, OnStar. Portico synchronized to devices such as
1316-751: A power struggle between Steve Jobs and CEO John Sculley , who had been hired away from Pepsi two years earlier by Jobs saying, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?" Sculley removed Jobs as the head of the Macintosh division, with unanimous support from the Apple board of directors. The board of directors instructed Sculley to contain Jobs and his ability to launch expensive forays into untested products. Rather than submit to Sculley's direction, Jobs attempted to oust him from leadership. Jean-Louis Gassée informed Sculley that Jobs had been attempting to organize
1410-512: A preferential rate. This visit influenced Jobs to implement a GUI in Apple's products, starting with the Apple Lisa . Despite being pioneering as a mass-marketed GUI computer, the Lisa suffered from high costs and limited software options, leading to commercial failure. Jobs, angered by being pushed off the Lisa team, took over the company's Macintosh division. Wozniak and Raskin had envisioned
1504-687: A senior executive to the company's "Founding Partner's Council". The first "General Magic Alliance" hardware products, using the Magic Cap software, were two personal digital assistants (PDAs) that came out in the summer of 1994, with Motorola producing the Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator and Sony producing the US$ 800 (equivalent to $ 1,640 in 2023) wireline Sony Magic Link . Alliance partner AT&T launched its PersonaLink network to host
1598-599: A ten-year license agreement for current and future patents between the two companies. It is predicted that Apple will make US$ 280 million per year from this deal with HTC. In May 2014, Apple confirmed its intent to acquire Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine 's audio company Beats Electronics —producer of the "Beats by Dr. Dre" line of headphones and speaker products, and operator of the music streaming service Beats Music —for US$ 3 billion, and to sell their products through Apple's retail outlets and resellers. Iovine believed that Beats had always "belonged" with Apple, as
1692-585: A time when Telescript application engines would be ubiquitous, and interconnected Telescript engines would form a "Telescript Cloud" across which mobile applications could execute. The company achieved many technical breakthroughs, including software modems (eliminating the need for modem chips), small touchscreens and touchscreen controller ASICs, highly integrated systems-on-a-chip designs for its partners' devices, rich multimedia email, networked games, streaming television, and early versions of e-commerce. According to former General Magic employee Marco DeMiroz, it
1786-533: Is based on NeXTSTEP , OpenStep , and BSD Unix , to combine the stability, reliability, and security of Unix with the ease of use of an overhauled user interface. Second, in May 2001, the first two Apple Store retail locations opened in Virginia and California, offering an improved presentation of the company's products. At the time, many speculated that the stores would fail, but they became highly successful, and
1880-398: Is valued at just over $ 3.2 trillion. Apple has received criticism regarding its contractors ' labor practices, its relationship with trade unions , its environmental practices , and its business ethics, including anti-competitive practices and materials sourcing. Nevertheless, the company has a large following and enjoys a high level of brand loyalty . Apple Computer Company
1974-590: The Apple II series was discontinued. It was expensive to produce, and the company decided it was still absorbing sales from lower-cost Macintosh models. After the launch of the LC, Apple encouraged developers to create applications for Macintosh rather than Apple II, and authorized salespersons to redirect consumers from Apple II and toward Macintosh. The Apple IIe was discontinued in 1993. Apple experimented with several other unsuccessful consumer targeted products during
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#17327827042752068-509: The Apple II , became a best seller as one of the first mass-produced microcomputers . Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh in 1984, as some of the first computers to use a graphical user interface and a mouse . By 1985, internal company problems led to Jobs leaving to form NeXT, Inc. , and Wozniak withdrawing to other ventures; John Sculley served as long-time CEO for over
2162-495: The Apple Newton . By early 1993, Newton (originally designed as a tablet with no communications capabilities) started to attract market interest away from General Magic. In February 1993, the company had 100 employees. On February 8, The New York Times referred to General Magic as "Silicon Valley's most closely watched start-up company." It reported that the company was introducing software technology called Telescript with
2256-701: The C programming language with object oriented extensions. It was used on the Envoy PDA by Motorola and the MagicLink PDA by Sony . Sony and Motorola introduced Magic Cap devices in late 1994, based on the Motorola 68300 Dragon microprocessor. The launch suffered from a lack of real supporting infrastructure. Unlike the Newton and other PDAs being introduced at the same time, the Magic Cap system also did not rely on handwriting recognition , putting it at
2350-518: The Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced the renaming of Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc., because the company had broadened its focus from computers to consumer electronics. This event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV . The company sold 270,000 first-generation iPhones during the first 30 hours of sales, and the device was called "a game changer for
2444-737: The Newton MessagePad released by Apple Inc. in 1993 and the Palm Pilot released by Palm Inc. in 1996. The Motorola Envoy was a particularly notable PDA in view of its built-in wireless communication capability and its well-received user interface , thus referenced by some to be a predecessor of the modern day smartphone. The hardware of the Motorola Envoy included a Motorola Dragon I/68349 microprocessor, 4 MB of read only memory (ROM), 1 MB of random access memory (RAM), and an LCD display. Of particular interest were
2538-509: The Palm Connected Organizer and Microsoft Outlook and handled voicemail, call forwarding, email, calendar etc., all through the user's own personal 800 number . General Magic was the first company to employ a large number of linguists to make their software seem real and responses varied, with General Magic investors receiving several key patents relating to voice recognition and artificial personality. The Portico system
2632-534: The Power Macintosh , the first of many computers with Motorola's PowerPC processor. In the wake of the alliance, Apple opened up to the idea of allowing Motorola and other companies to build Macintosh clones . Over the next two years, 75 distinct Macintosh clone models were introduced. However, by 1996, Apple executives were worried that the clones were cannibalizing sales of its own high-end computers, where profit margins were highest. In 1996, Spindler
2726-526: The Power Macintosh G3 desktop and PowerBook G3 laptop for professionals, and the iMac desktop and iBook laptop for consumers. Jobs said the small product line allowed for a greater focus on quality and innovation. Around then, Apple also completed numerous acquisitions to create a portfolio of digital media production software for both professionals and consumers. Apple acquired Macromedia 's Key Grip digital video editing software project which
2820-481: The SoundJam MP audio player software from Casady & Greene . Apple renamed the program iTunes , and simplified the user interface and added CD burning. In 2001, Apple changed course with three announcements. First, on March 24, 2001, Apple announced the release of a new modern operating system, Mac OS X . This was after numerous failed attempts in the early 1990s, and several years of development. Mac OS X
2914-521: The TRS-80 and Commodore PET , because of its character cell-based color graphics and open architecture . The Apple I and early Apple II models use ordinary audio cassette tapes as storage devices, which were superseded by the 5 + 1 ⁄ 4 -inch floppy disk drive and interface called the Disk II in 1978. The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first killer application of
General Magic - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-654: The chief operating officer . Gassée left the company later that year to set up a rival, Be Inc. The company pivoted strategy and, in October 1990, introduced three lower-cost models: the Macintosh Classic , the Macintosh LC , and the Macintosh IIsi , all of which generated significant sales due to pent-up demand. In 1991, Apple introduced the hugely successful PowerBook with a design that set
3102-539: The iLife suite. At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Jobs announced that Apple would move away from PowerPC processors, and the Mac would transition to Intel processors in 2006. On January 10, 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU. By August 7, 2006, Apple made the transition to Intel chips for
3196-401: The third- and fourth-generation iPads , which featured Retina displays ; and the iPad Mini , which featured a 7.9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. These launches were successful, with the iPhone 5 (released September 21, 2012) becoming Apple's biggest iPhone launch with over two million pre-orders and sales of three million iPads in three days following the launch of
3290-551: The 1990s, including QuickTake digital cameras , PowerCD portable CD audio players, speakers , the Pippin video game console, the eWorld online service, and Apple Interactive Television Box . Enormous resources were invested in the problematic Newton tablet division, based on John Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Throughout this period, Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows by focusing on delivering software to inexpensive personal computers, while Apple
3384-535: The App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple. By October 2008, Apple was the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world due to the popularity of the iPhone. On January 14, 2009, Jobs announced in an internal memo that he would be taking a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple until the end of June 2009 and would spend the time focusing on his health. In the email, Jobs stated that "the curiosity over my personal health continues to be
3478-476: The Apple II division and stating that the company had "been going in the wrong direction for the last five years". Wozniak remained employed by Apple as a representative, receiving a stipend estimated to be $ 120,000 per year. Jobs and Wozniak remained Apple shareholders following their departures. After the departures of Jobs and Wozniak in 1985, Sculley launched the Macintosh 512K that year with quadruple
3572-421: The Macintosh as a low-cost computer with a text-based interface like the Apple II, but a plane crash in 1981 forced Wozniak to step back from the project. Jobs quickly redefined the Macintosh as a graphical system that would be cheaper than the Lisa, undercutting his former division. Jobs was also hostile to the Apple II division, which at the time, generated most of the company's revenue. In 1984, Apple launched
3666-583: The Macintosh, the first personal computer without a bundled programming language . Its debut was signified by " 1984 ", a US$ 1.5 million television advertisement directed by Ridley Scott that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. This was hailed as a watershed event for Apple's success and was called a "masterpiece" by CNN and one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time by TV Guide . The advertisement created great interest in Macintosh , and sales were initially good, but began to taper off dramatically after
3760-656: The RAM, and introduced the LaserWriter , the first reasonably priced PostScript laser printer . PageMaker , an early desktop publishing application taking advantage of the PostScript language, was also released by Aldus Corporation in July 1985. It has been suggested that the combination of Macintosh, LaserWriter, and PageMaker was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market. This dominant position in
3854-582: The business world: VisiCalc , a spreadsheet program released in 1979. VisiCalc created a business market for the Apple II and gave home users an additional reason to buy an Apple II: compatibility with the office, but Apple II market share remained behind home computers made by competitors such as Atari , Commodore , and Tandy . On December 12, 1980, Apple (ticker symbol "AAPL") went public selling 4.6 million shares at $ 22 per share ($ .10 per share when adjusting for stock splits as of September 3, 2022 ), generating over $ 100 million, which
General Magic - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-411: The chief executive of the company. By 1994, the "General Magic Alliance" of cross-industry partners had expanded to 16 global telecommunications and consumer electronics companies, including Cable & Wireless , France Telecom , NTT , Northern Telecom , Toshiba , Oki , Sanyo , Mitsubishi , and Fujitsu . Each of the so-called "Founding Partners" invested up to $ 6 million in the company and named
4042-422: The company "developed a precursor of USB , software modems , small touchscreens , touchscreen controller ICs , ASICs , multimedia email, networked games, streaming TV and early e-commerce notions." General Magic's main product was Magic Cap, an operating system (OS) which allowed users to "set their own rules for message alerts and acquiring information" on PDAs, according to CNET . The basic idea behind
4136-455: The company modeled itself after Apple's "unmatched ability to marry culture and technology". The acquisition was the largest purchase in Apple's history. Motorola Envoy The Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator was a personal digital assistant initially slated for release by Motorola in summer 1994 but delayed and then available for public sale in February 1995. It
4230-407: The company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year. It was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company had expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue , with US$ 391.04 billion in 2024. The company was founded to produce and market Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Its second computer,
4324-723: The company's original [device] idea was "practically, dead," with people not buying General Magic devices in quantity. While Portico ran its voice portal business, the original handheld group was spun off in 1998 as Icras . The new company sold the Magic Cap OS as hardware named DataRover and focused on vertical market systems. General Magic announced a major licensing deal and investments from Microsoft in March 1998. The deal gave Microsoft access to certain intellectual property, and helped General Magic move toward integrating Portico with Microsoft products. The OnStar Virtual Advisor
4418-688: The core of its computer offerings. The next month, in August 1997, Steve Jobs convinced Microsoft to make a $ 150 million investment in Apple and a commitment to continue developing Mac software. This was seen as an "antitrust insurance policy" for Microsoft which had recently settled with the Department of Justice over anti-competitive practices in the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case. Around then, Jobs donated Apple's internal library and archives to Stanford University , to focus more on
4512-428: The current shape for almost all modern laptops. The same year, Apple introduced System 7 , a major upgrade to the Macintosh operating system, adding color to the interface and introducing new networking capabilities. The success of the lower-cost Macs and PowerBook brought increasing revenue. For some time, Apple was doing very well, introducing fresh new products at increasing profits. The magazine MacAddict named
4606-402: The desktop publishing market allowed the company to focus on higher price points, the so-called "high-right policy" named for the position on a chart of price vs. profits. Newer models selling at higher price points offered higher profit margin , and appeared to have no effect on total sales as power users snapped up every increase in speed. Although some worried about pricing themselves out of
4700-505: The desktop publishing market and estranged many of its original consumer customer base who could no longer afford Apple products. The Christmas season of 1989 was the first in the company's history to have declining sales, which led to a 20% drop in Apple's stock price. During this period, the relationship between Sculley and Gassée deteriorated, leading Sculley to effectively demote Gassée in January 1990 by appointing Michael Spindler as
4794-604: The devices, a closed network that did not connect to the emerging internet. AT&T eventually shut down the PersonaLink network in 1996. The company launched an IPO on NASDAQ in February 1995. General Magic raised $ 96 million in the IPO, and a total of $ 200 million from 16 different investors. The company's stock value doubled after its IPO. Steve Markman was hired to run General Magic in 1996, and he hired Kevin Surace to head
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#17327827042754888-404: The end of the first week. In May 2010, Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989. In June 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4 , which introduced video calling using FaceTime , multitasking , and a new design with an exposed stainless steel frame as the phone's antenna system. Later that year, Apple again refreshed the iPod line by introducing
4982-514: The entire Mac product line—over one year sooner than announced. The Power Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition; the Mac Pro , MacBook , and MacBook Pro became their respective successors. Apple also introduced Boot Camp in 2006 to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X. Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price . Between early 2003 and 2006,
5076-609: The film. The film includes interviews with Marc Porat , Andy Hertzfeld , Joanna Hoffman , Megan Smith , and Tony Fadell . Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered and incorporated in Cupertino, California , in Silicon Valley . It is best known for its consumer electronics , software , and services . Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs , Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne ,
5170-504: The first of more than 500 stores around the world. Third, on October 23, 2001, the iPod portable digital audio player debuted. The product was first sold on November 10, 2001, and was extremely successful, with over 100 million units sold within six years. In 2003, the iTunes Store was introduced with music downloads for 99¢ a song and iPod integration. It quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by June 19, 2008. Two years later,
5264-480: The first prototype Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club in July 1976. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard with CPU , RAM , and basic textual-video chips—a base kit concept which was not yet marketed as a complete personal computer. It was priced soon after debut for $ 666.66 (equivalent to $ 3,600 in 2023). Wozniak later said he was unaware of the coincidental mark of the beast in
5358-399: The first three months as reviews started to come in. Jobs had required 128 kilobytes of RAM, which limited its speed and software in favor of aspiring for a projected price point of $ 1,000 (equivalent to $ 2,900 in 2023). The Macintosh shipped for $ 2,495 (equivalent to $ 7,300 in 2023), a price panned by critics due to its slow performance. In early 1985, this sales slump triggered
5452-653: The following note to Sculley: "A tiny computer, a phone, a very personal object . . . It must be beautiful. It must offer the kind of personal satisfaction that a fine piece of jewelry brings. It will have a perceived value even when it's not being used... Once you use it you won't be able to live without it." The company initially operated in near-complete secrecy. By 1992, some of the world's largest electronics corporations, including Sony , Motorola , Matsushita , Philips and AT&T Corporation were partners and investors in General Magic, creating significant buzz in
5546-458: The iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad (released November 3, 2012). Apple also released a third-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display and new iMac and Mac Mini computers. On August 20, 2012, Apple's rising stock price increased the company's market capitalization to a then-record $ 624 billion. This beat the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization previously set by Microsoft in 1999. On August 24, 2012,
5640-465: The iTunes Store was the world's largest music retailer. In 2002, Apple purchased Nothing Real for its advanced digital compositing application Shake , and Emagic for the music productivity application Logic . The purchase of Emagic made Apple the first computer manufacturer to own a music software company. The acquisition was followed by the development of Apple's consumer-level GarageBand application. The release of iPhoto that year completed
5734-562: The iTunes Store, effective in May 2007. Other record labels eventually followed suit and Apple published a press release in January 2009 to announce that all songs on the iTunes Store are available without their FairPlay DRM. In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch . Within a month, the store sold 60 million applications and registered an average daily revenue of $ 1 million, with Jobs speculating in August 2008 that
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#17327827042755828-754: The idea of spinning off the group as a separate company, which occurred in May 1990. In 1990 Marc Porat , Andy Hertzfeld , and Bill Atkinson in Mountain View, California founded it. Apple took a minority stake in the company, with John Sculley joining the General Magic board. Porat, Hertzfeld and Atkinson were soon joined at General Magic by Susan Kare , Joanna Hoffman (vice president of marketing), hardware pioneer Wendell Sander, Walt Broedner and Megan Smith who joined from Apple Japan, and most of Apple's System 7 team, including Phil Goldman and soon after Bruce Leak and Darin Adler . In 1990, Porat wrote
5922-432: The incorporation of Apple. During the first five years of operations, revenues grew exponentially, doubling about every four months. Between September 1977 and September 1980, yearly sales grew from $ 775,000 to US$ 118 million, an average annual growth rate of 533%. The Apple II , also designed by Wozniak, was introduced on April 16, 1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire . It differs from its major rivals,
6016-408: The industry". In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management , thereby allowing tracks to be played on third-party players if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On April 2, 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in
6110-428: The industry. Sculley, Motorola CEO George Fisher , Sony president Norio Ogha, and AT&T division chairman Victor Pelsen became board members. As the operations expanded, the company reportedly let rabbits roam the offices to inspire creativity. In 1992–1993, while Sculley was still a director of General Magic, Apple entered the consumer electronics market with a poorly-received "personal digital assistant" that became
6204-476: The intent of creating a "standard for transmitting messages among any machines that compute, regardless of who makes them." The Telescript programming language made communications a first-class primitive of the language. Telescript is compiled into a cross-platform bytecode in much the same fashion as the Java programming language , but is able to migrate running processes between virtual machines. The developers saw
6298-593: The intent of creating a "standard for transmitting messages among any machines that compute, regardless of who makes them." The company also announced the software Magic Cap , an operating system catering to communications. Telescript would eventually come out in 1996 at the start of the internet boom. In an article titled "Here's Where Woodstock Meets Silicon Valley," on February 27, 1993, The New York Times reported that General Magic had backing from "American Telephone and Telegraph, Sony, Motorola, Philips Electronics and Matsushita Electric Industrial." Marc Porat remained
6392-487: The market, the high-right policy was in full force by the mid-1980s, due to Jean-Louis Gassée's slogan of "fifty-five or die", referring to the 55% profit margins of the Macintosh II . This policy began to backfire late in the decade as desktop publishing programs appeared on IBM PC compatibles with some of the same functionality of the Macintosh at far lower price points. The company lost its dominant position in
6486-456: The most part since 2011, Apple has been the world's largest company by market capitalization , and, as of 2023 , is the largest manufacturing company by revenue , the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales , the largest vendor of tablet computers , and the largest vendor of mobile phones in the world. Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to be valued at over $ 1 trillion in 2018, and, as of June 2024 ,
6580-418: The most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world. In June 2011, Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud , an online storage and syncing service for music, photos, files, and software which replaced MobileMe , Apple's previous attempt at content syncing. This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his death. On August 24, 2011, Jobs resigned his position as CEO of Apple. He
6674-480: The next decade with the introductions of the iMac , iPod , iPhone , and iPad devices to critical acclaim as well as the iTunes Store , launching the " Think different " advertising campaign, and opening the Apple Store retail chain. These moves elevated Apple to consistently be one of the world's most valuable brands since about 2010. Jobs resigned in 2011 for health reasons, and died two months later; he
6768-486: The number 666, and that he came up with the price because he liked "repeating digits". Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated in Cupertino, California , on January 3, 1977, without Wayne, who had left and sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $ 800 only twelve days after having co-founded it. Multimillionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $ 250,000 (equivalent to $ 1,257,000 in 2023) to Jobs and Wozniak during
6862-505: The period between 1989 and 1991 as the "first golden age" of the Macintosh. The success of lower-cost consumer Macs, especially the LC, cannibalized higher-priced machines. To address this, management introduced several new brands, selling largely identical machines at different price points, for different markets: the high-end Quadra series, the mid-range Centris series, and the consumer-marketed Performa series. This led to significant consumer confusion between so many models. In 1993,
6956-451: The present and the future rather than the past. He ended the Mac clone deals and in September 1997, purchased the largest clone maker, Power Computing . On November 10, 1997, the Apple Store website launched, which was tied to a new build-to-order manufacturing model similar to PC manufacturer Dell 's success. The moves paid off for Jobs; at the end of his first year as CEO, the company had
7050-420: The price of Apple's stock increased more than tenfold, from around $ 6 per share ( split-adjusted ) to over $ 80. When Apple surpassed Dell's market cap in January 2006, Jobs sent an email to Apple employees saying Dell's CEO Michael Dell should eat his words. Nine years prior, Dell had said that if he ran Apple he would "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders". During his keynote speech at
7144-485: The product's momentum, the intent was to spin off Hayes’ group with Wray leading the product management. However, because of failure to agree on technology licensing terms, the spin-off stalled. By 1999, the company's stock had plunged significantly, with Forbes attributing the drop to "losses, layoffs and missed projections." Most of the management that was involved in bringing Portico to market left by early 2000 to pursue other interests with Internet startups. A new team
7238-480: The system was to distribute the typical computing load across many machines in the network using Magic Cap, which was a fairly minimal operating system that was essentially a UI . The UI is based on a "rooms" metaphor; for example, e-mail and an address book can be found in the office, and games might be found in a living room. User applications were generally written in Magic Script, a utility language variant of
7332-516: The wireless communications capabilities of the Envoy. Its built-in communication components included a radio modem capable of 4,800 bits per second communication, a fax and data modem , and an infrared transceiver capable of 38.4 kbit/s of data transfer. The Envoy also included a PCMCIA interface to expands its communications or other capabilities. The housing had dimensions of 3.5 cm (height) x 17.3 cm (width) x 14.4 cm (depth) and weighed about 0.77 kg. The Motorola Envoy
7426-421: Was also scaled back and sold through many partners including Quest and Excite . At its peak, the system supported approximately 2.5 million users. In 1997 Steve Markman hired Linda Hayes as Chief Marketing Officer, who in turn hired a new marketing team, which launched Portico. The Portico launch is attributed with lifting General Magic's stock price from $ 1 in 1997 to $ 18 in 2000. According to Fast Company ,
7520-488: Was brought in led by Kathleen Layton. The new team took the company in the direction of turning its voice services into enterprise software offerings. The company announced it would cease operations on September 18, 2002. The company was liquidated in 2004. The OnStar assets were turned over to EDS to run for General Motors. The patents were auctioned by the court. Most of the patents the company had developed were purchased by Paul Allen . According to Electronics Weekly ,
7614-424: Was built to run General Magic's Magic CAP operating system , and it combined wireless, telephone, and infrared modems in a single PDA package. Andy Rubin led development of the Motorola Envoy. Personal digital assistants (i.e. PDA's) were electronic handheld organizers that were used in the 1990s to communicate via email, manage calendars, store contact information, and manage files. Examples of PDAs include
7708-480: Was delivering a richly engineered but expensive experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response; it sued Microsoft for making a GUI similar to the Lisa in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp. The lawsuit dragged on for years and was finally dismissed. The major product flops and the rapid loss of market share to Windows sullied Apple's reputation, and in 1993 Sculley
7802-669: Was developed at this time as well for General Motors . In 1999 the Marketing Team developed a separate consumer product called MyTalk. Created by Kevin Wray, the MyTalk product was a success and went on to win the Computerworld Smithsonian Award for the first commercially successful voice recognition consumer product. Today MyTalk was also listed in the permanent Smithsonian Museum collection. Because of
7896-458: Was finalized on February 9, 1997, and the board brought Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. On July 9, 1997, Jobs staged a boardroom coup that resulted in Amelio's resignation after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. The board named Jobs as interim CEO and he immediately reviewed the product lineup. Jobs canceled 70% of models, ending 3,000 jobs and paring to
7990-479: Was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs , Steve Wozniak , and Ronald Wayne as a partnership . The company's first product is the Apple I , a computer designed and hand-built entirely by Wozniak. To finance its creation, Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus , and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator. Neither received the full selling price but in total earned $ 1,300 (equivalent to $ 7,000 in 2023). Wozniak debuted
8084-598: Was launched as Final Cut Pro in April 1999. Key Grip's development also led to Apple's release of the consumer video-editing product iMovie in October 1999. Apple acquired the German company Astarte in April 2000, which had developed the DVD authoring software DVDirector, which Apple repackaged as the professional-oriented DVD Studio Pro , and reused its technology to create iDVD for the consumer market. In 2000, Apple purchased
8178-582: Was more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956. By the end of the day, around 300 millionaires were created, including Jobs and Wozniak, from a stock price of $ 29 per share and a market cap of $ 1.778 billion. In December 1979, Steve Jobs and Apple employees, including Jef Raskin , visited Xerox PARC , where they observed the Xerox Alto , featuring a graphical user interface (GUI). Apple subsequently negotiated access to PARC's technology, leading to Apple's option to buy shares at
8272-500: Was on January 19, 2012, when Apple's Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for Mac OS X in New York City. Jobs stated in the biography Steve Jobs that he wanted to reinvent the textbook industry and education. From 2011 to 2012, Apple released the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 , which featured improved cameras, an intelligent software assistant named Siri , and cloud-synced data with iCloud;
8366-480: Was one of the first PDAs to operate the Magic CAP software, which made extensive use of the built-in wireless communications components of the device. The main screen of Magic CAP displayed a desktop having a phone icon, Rolodex icon , Postcard/writing instrument icon, notebook icon, and calendar book icon, thus simulating real-world productivity tools used by many people. Similarly, a clock, an inbox, an outbox, and
8460-581: Was replaced as CEO by Gil Amelio , who was hired for his reputation as a corporate rehabilitator. Amelio made deep changes, including extensive layoffs and cost-cutting. This period was also marked by numerous failed attempts to modernize the Macintosh operating system (MacOS). The original Macintosh operating system ( System 1 ) was not built for multitasking (running several applications at once). The company attempted to correct this by introducing cooperative multitasking in System 5, but still decided it needed
8554-607: Was replaced as CEO by Michael Spindler . Under Spindler, Apple, IBM , and Motorola formed the AIM alliance in 1994 to create a new computing platform (the PowerPC Reference Platform or PReP), with IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple software. The AIM alliance hoped that PReP's performance and Apple's software would leave the PC far behind and thus counter the dominance of Windows. That year, Apple introduced
8648-472: Was replaced by Cook and Jobs became Apple's chairman. Apple did not have a chairman at the time and instead had two co-lead directors— Andrea Jung and Arthur D. Levinson —who continued with those titles until Levinson replaced Jobs as chairman of the board in November after Jobs's death. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs died, marking the end of an era for Apple. The next major product announcement by Apple
8742-517: Was succeeded as CEO by Tim Cook . Apple's current product lineup includes portable and home hardware such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch , Mac , and Apple TV ; operating systems such as iOS , iPadOS , and macOS ; and various software and services including Apple Pay , iCloud , and multimedia streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV+ . Apple is one of the Big Five American information technology companies; for
8836-610: Was the " Fairchild of the 90s." A documentary film General Magic opened at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2018. It was later shown at the SFFilm Festival in San Francisco on November 3, 2018. The company founders had hired filmmakers including Sarah Kerruish to document their development process in the 1990s, and Kerruish included some of that original footage of General Magic's offices in
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