The ompany Apple - Research Paper Example

This paper studies Apple, the company’s history and changes over a period of time. The story began in the Santa Clara Valley of California, then known for its fruit orchards, world know it as Silicon Valley after Apple. Steven Paul Jobs and Stephen Gary Wozniak (Woz) were introduced by Woz’s neighbor, Bill Fernandez. Bill and Woz worked together for building their first computer from parts discarded by local companies due to cosmetic defaults. They named it after their favorite beverage, “cream soda computer”.

Those days computers were discouragingly expensive. Woz was compelled to design computers on paper. He concentrated on minimizing the number of components in order to design as clean electronics as possible. After withdrawing from college in 1971, 16-years-old Steven Jobs met 21-years-old Woz. Jobs convinced Woz for mass production and selling of the computer design he made. The duo, Woz, the engineer, and Jobs, the marketing maven, worked amazingly well and the rest is history (O’Grady 1-2).

Jobs needed computer parts for his class project; he called Bill Hewlett at his home and asked him. Hewlett not only gave him required parts, but also gave him a summer job at HP assembly frequency counters as an appreciation of the initiative Jobs took. Woz went back to academics and enrolled into University of California, simultaneously, he joined hands with Jobs who convinced him for the dream of owning a company (O’Grady 2).On his mother’s indication, Woz built “blue boxes” by following the instructions in 1971 issue of Esquire.

The born marketer, Jobs purchased the parts and sold them in the dorms for $150 each under the alias Oaf Tobark. Jobs shared the profits with Woz alias Berkeley Blue, whose job was to build devices (qtd in O’Grady 2). Woznaik joined Homebrew Computer Club in 1975.HCC was an early computer enthusiasts’ group, several of Silicon Valley pioneers remained a part of the club at some point. Woz’s first major project was the Computer Conversor. Woz’s assistance was solicited by Alex Kamradt for developing a video-teletype machine for company’s minicomputers.

Stimulated by teletype and inspired by an Altair 8800, Woz integrated a dedicated microprocessor into his lowly teletype and transformed it into a completely functional computer (O’Grady 2-3). Woz could not afford purchasing Central Processing Unit (CPU); therefore, he worked at HP and kept tinkering with Altair at home. As MOS Technology released their 6502 processor for only $20, Woz adapted his 6800 paper designs to run on MOS processor. Woz completed Apple I and demonstrated it at Homebrew Club.

Jobs immediately identified its potential to sell it to the hobbyists (O’Grady 3). Apple I stood out because a standard television was used as a monitor when other computers had no display at all. No doubt, it was faster than teletype at that time, but its speed was not exceptional. In terms of design, Apple I was the pioneer. Woz was a maven when it comes to minimizing the number of chips in a certain design. He minimized price and complexity by simplifying the debugging process. His chip reduction strategy was the most cherished and respected among his peers.

Apple I had boot code on a Read Only Memory (ROM), later Woz added loads and save programs to cassette on Paul Terrell’s suggestion (O’