Apple Computer

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Apple Computer

By Jamie Bartels

It was April 1st, 1976 when Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs decided to sell a machine that they had put together in Wozniak's garage. Since its creation, the Apple computer company has been through many trying times and has recently returned from the brink of doom to become once more a prospering computer company capable of giving Intel and Microsoft a run for their money.

Apple had been on a downward slide until recently. With a plethora of CEO's, none being able to turn around the company, it seemed as though Apple was on the verge of collapse. The sub $20 price of Apple stock in 1996, as well as the first quarter report of a staggering $710 million loss only seemed to confirm most people’s belief that Apple was dead. Miraculously this was not the case.

The original CEO of Apple Steve Jobs returned in 1997. From that point on he proceeded to restore Apple to its current standing today. Jobs’s first action as CEO of Apple was to change Apple’s policy relating to Apple clones. In exchange for a 5-year patent cross-license, Jobs convinced Microsoft to purchase $150 million in Apple Stock. Next, Jobs dissolved the licensing of the Mac operating system, which had enabled companies like Power Computing to make computer clones which ran the Macintosh operating system.

But it was not until 1998 with the release of the iMac that Apple started its great comeback. The iMac was so successful because it was aimed at a consumer market. At only $1299, it was the cheapest computer for the performance offered.

This was not the end of Apple’s climb, 1999 is turning out to be their biggest year yet. Sales skyrocketed with the release of the Power Mac G3, an incredibly fast machine, with a sleek, easy to open case. Apple followed up with the Power Book G3, a gorgeous black machine that runs at processor speeds at up to 400 megahertz.

Later in 1999, Apple released the iBook, referred to by Apple ads as "An iMac to Go." Now Apple has released the Power Mac G4. The Power Mac G4 is Apple's newest, and most astounding product. Capable of calculating up to and exceeding 1 billion floating point calculations per second, the G4 is able to produce a sustained Gigaflop, which qualifies it as a super computer. To give an example of its speed, consider that the G4 processor is able to run 3 cycles, or 3 billion floating point calculations, before the light from the screen touches the user’s face. Running at speeds of 400MHz and 450MHz, with models running up to 700MHz due out in early 2000, the G4 is currently the fastest computer on the market, nearly three times faster then the Pentium III. With Apple's stock price at an all time high of $92, and the iBook and Power Mac G4 selling quite well, Apple is on its way back up to the top of the computer industry.