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My appleII Notes-14

My AppleII Notes-14

00/11/12　A Personal Guide to the Corporate History of Apple

Booksのカテゴリをいくつかのサブカテゴリに分け、History/Biographyのサブカテゴリを作ったので、アップル社の主要な出来事と関わりの深い出版物の関係について気のついた点をまとめてみた。I divided the category of books on Apple into subcategories, including one called History and one called Biographies. I have tried to indicate on the chronology where a major Apple event is covered in depth by a particular book.

１．Main Categories

◯パーソナルコンピュータの歴史／評論 ◯ History/Review of Personal Computers

いずれもコンピュータ図書の歴史に名を残す名著だと思う。 I think the above are all masterpieces and their titles will remain in the history of books on computers. The first Japanese version of "Hackers" came out in March, 1987. I have a third edition of the fourth impression from August 1996 August, and I am pleased to say that the new book is still in print even now. Also "Fire In The Valley"("Heroes of the Personal Computer Revolution", English title of the Japanese version ) was published in 1984 in the United States, and a revised edition that includes details of Apple’s recent years  was released in 2000 as part of The Updated Classics series from McGraw-Hill. This shows that this book is still highly rated in the United States.

◯コーポレートヒストリー／インサイドレポート／インタビュー ◯ Corporate History/Inside Reports/Interviews

1984年の"The Little Kingdom" （『アメリカン・ドリーム』）、 "West of Eden" （『エデンの西』）、 "Apple" （『アップル』）と読破すると「Apple IIを中心とした創業期」、「Macintoshの誕生の前後」、「スカリ−の時代とそれ以降」という3つの大きな流れでヒストリーを堪能できる。"The Little Kingdom" ( "American Dream", title of Japanese version), "West Of Eden", and "Apple" are three books from 1984 that allow us to enjoy reading about the "founding period with a focus on the Apple II", “before and after the birth of Macintosh ", and "The Era of Scully - and later ", respectively. If you were to read just one book, then I would recommend "Infinite Loop", but, at the moment the book has not been published in Japanese. The whole of Apple's history is not really covered altogether in one book, but  Owen Linzmaier published two volumes of his book on Apple: "The Mac Bathroom Reader“ (“With Love to Macintosh”, English title of Japanese version)" and "Apple Confidential". They are packed with behind the scenes stories about Apple. To follow the path of Apple in Japan since its landing on her shores, reading Yutaka Saito’s "Under the Apple Tree" is a must. This is a book on which he spent a lot of time and effort writing.

◯ Biographies/Personal Profiles

このジャンルではウォズ3册、ジョブス６册とジョブスが優勢。In this subcategory, there are three books on Woz and six books on Jobs. There are more books on Jobs because there is simply more about him to write. He was an active businessman, founder of Apple Computer, and CEO of Pixar before returning to Apple and turning the company around. Woz’s biographies focus on his work as an inventor from 70s to the middle of the 80s  The content of the books are inevitably similar to each other. "Jobs & Wozniak" is a picture book for elementary school students.

◯ Autobiographies

1. About autobiographies

 In the United States, it seems that all retired top management types get to sign a highly-paid contract with a major publisher for a book on the inner workings of business. I think Amelio's book is typical of the genre. On the other hand, John Scully's book is serious and makes excellent reading on business because it was written while he was still working at the top. The book also includes messages he wrote to Apple employees. If you read through these two books and "Apple", then you will find that they cover about the same period of time and that comparisons are made with the managers’ own evaluations and the objective evaluations of third parties and the mass media. What is even more interesting is finding the differences in these evaluations.

２．2. Year of Publication and Trends in that Year

Many books describing the era of Apple’s founding were published in 1984. It is thought so many were published in 1984 due to the time lag between the national recognition of the remarkable growth of Silicon Valley,  stock offerings, etc. in 1980 and books about the subject actually coming out; however, this can be considered convenient in terms of topicality because it overlaps nicely  with the year of the Macintosh launch. The circumstances and stories on the development leading to the Macintosh and  Jobs’ resignation in 1985 have been described in detail in "West Of Eden" and  "Steve Jobs The Journey is the Reward" ("Steve Jobs" English title of Japanese version). They were published in 1988 and 89, respectively, and it turns out that a period of 2 to 3 years was necessary for the players to calm down and start speaking in a proper fashion about  what happened  inside and outside the company in 1985. The peak in 1994 seems to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Macintosh launch, and in 2000 publications tend to take the return of Jobs to Apple in 1996 as a starting point. If I were to follow this as a logical progression, I would  predict the next peak of publication will be in 2004, which is the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh release. (Refer to Table 1 Main events and related book chronology)

3. And from now

In 1986, when I bought a Macintosh 512K (Dyna Mac), both Woz and Jobs were in the process of leaving Apple, and despite this being the period when the founding was over, it does seem strange upon reflection that Apple was still being managed by the two people who were the company's co-founders. 1976-1985 There continued presence was no doubt because the path followed by Apple in the nine years between 1976 and 1985–even though the success of the the company that Apple became after this period is still quite exceptional–had an influence on Silicon Valley and personal computing that simply cannot be measured.
It is indeed remarkable in the history of management in the 20th century that, during a time when many companies in Silicon Valley have evolved and disappeared, Apple has grown as a personal computer specialist for more than 20 years while continuing to do so much by trial and error.
In addition, looking back on the chronological table of 24 years again, in the ten years from 1986 until 1996, when Jobs was welcomed again as a leader, Apple appeared to overcome many crises in order to ensure its future.  Am I only the person who gets this impression?

Table 1 Main Events and Related Books Chronology

YEAR

 【Major events】

1976

· March: Woz completed Apple-1 prototype.

 · April:  Apple Computer, Inc. founded and makes debut with Home-Brue- Computer Club.

 · June:   Apple-1 released ($ 666.66).

1977

· January: Mike Marrkura  chairman and CEO; Officially registered as a company.

 · April   : Apple II announced at the 1st West Coast Festival (WCCF).

 · June   : Apple II official launch ($ 1,298). Apple II  imported into Japan.

1978

 · June   : Disk II released.

1979

· June   : Apple II Plus released (48K Memory, New ROM installed, US $ 1,195)

 · October: Personal Software, Inc. releases Visicalc.

  · December: Sales of 3,500 units for year, a 400% increase over the previous year; 350 employees.

1980

 · September: Apple III announced at the National Computer Conference ($ 3,495).

 · September: Employees exceed 1,000.

 · December: Stock made available to the public.

1981

· February: Woz in private airplane crash.

 · August: IBM announces IBM PC.

 · August: Sales of Apple II exceeded 300,000; Number of employees  2,500.

 · September: Apple's first large-capacity hard disk; Profile released ($ 3,499).

1982

· January: Apple and Microsoft collaborate; Agreement made on development of  software for Macintosh.

 · November: Apple Fest held in San Francisco with 5,000 products on show.

 · December: Breakthrough sales of $100 million per year for the first time as a personal  computer company; Staff celebrate "Billion Dollar Party".

 

1983

 · January: Apple IIe released ($ 1,395). Lisa released ($ 9,995).

 · April: John Sculley appointed president and chairman.

 · June: 1 millionth Apple II unit shipped.

 · December: Imagewriter released ($ 675).

1984

 · January: CM "1984" broadcast during Super Bowl. Macintosh announced ($ 2,495).

 · April: Apple IIc announced at "Apple II Forever Conference"; Apple III  discontinued.

 · September: Macintosh 512 K (Fat Mac) announced ($ 3,195); Lisa changed to Macintosh XL.

 · November: Apple II sells 2 millionth unit.

1985

· January: Release of LaserWriter ($ 6,999); AppleTalk ($ 50) announced at   a regular shareholders meeting.

 · February: Woz resigns.

 · March:   Employees now  5,800. Temporarily stops three main factories; Release of Apple IIe enhanced; Apple loses some of its magic.

 · May:    Production of Macintosh XL stops.

 · June: Big personnel changes;  Jobs removes leading people; Three plants close and 1,200 lose jobs, accounting for 30% of employees; Quarterly results in the red for the first time.

 · August: Canon  Japan release "Dynamac" in Japan with Japanese processing function added.

 · September: Steve Jobs resigns; Establishes Next.

1986

 · January: Macintosh Plus ($ 2,599) and Lasewriter Plus ($ 6,798) released at San Francisco MacWorld.


·Restructuring results in revenue increasing significantly.  

 · April: Kanji Talk 1.0 announced.

 · September Apple IIGS and enhanced Apple IIc announced.

1987

 · January: Platinum Apple IIe announced($829).

· March:   Macintosh SE ($2,898) and Macintosh II ($3,898) released.
 

1988

 · January: LaserWriter II announced.

 · March:   Apple CD SC announced.

 · August:  HyperCard announced.

 · September: Apple IIc Plus with color system announced ($ 1,099);

 · GS / OS for Apple IIGS announced (US $ 39); Mac IIX (68030 with 68882) ($ 7,769) and FDHD announced.

1989

 · January: Macintosh SE/30 announced ($ 4,369).

  · July:     Apple IIGS System Software Version 5.0 announced.

 · August:  1MB Apple IIGS released ($ 1,149).

 · September: Macintosh Portable, IIcx, IIci announced.

 

1990

 · March: Macintosh IIfx released.

 · April:  Sculley announces commitment to develop a system to run Apple II software on Macintosh for the education market.

 · October: Macintosh Classic ($ 1,800), Macintosh LC ($ 2,400), Si ($ 3,800) announced.

 · PowerBook series (PB 100 $ 2,500).

· December: HyperCard IIGS announced.

1991

 · March: Apple IIe Card ($ 199) released.

 · May:  New OS "System 7" for Macintosh announced.

 ·June:　　With worsening sales, 900 people, which is 10% of workforce,  lose jobs.

 

1992

 · March: Cooperating with Sharp; Begin developing PDA.

 · October: Launch "Performa" series in Consumer Market; Duo system announced (Duo 230 $ 2, 610).

1993

 · February: Macintosh Color Classic and Sentris 610/650 at MacWorld Expo.  

 · Tokyo.A A    Macintosh cumulative sales exceed 10 million units.

 · June:   Deficit of 188.3 million dollars recorded in the third quarter of 1993. Scully resigns as CEO and becomes chairman.

 · J uly:   Launch of large scale restructuring. 2,500 employees lose jobs.

 · August: Newton MessagePad announced ($699).

 · October: Scully resigns as chairman taking responsibility for poor performance and is replaced by Michel Spindle; Centris 660 AV released; MacTV released and then production immediately discontinued.

1994

 · January: Highest ever quarterly revenue recorded  in 

  · Apple history.

 · February: Inexpensive machines announced, e.g., LC 575 ($ 1,700).

 · March: Power Macintosh 6100/60, 7100/66, etc. announced.

 · September: Start licensing of MacOS.

1995

· January: QuickTime VR announced.

 · November: announces OpenDoc.

1996

 · June: Spindler resigns as President and Chairman  Gilbert Amelio  assigned as  his successor.

 · December: Apple Computer acquires Next Software; Jobs returns as an  advisor.

1997

 · March:  4,100 people lose jobs, which is over 30% of total employees;. Stop  development of open Doc, etc.

 · April:  20th anniversary model "Spartacus" announced.

 · July:   Amelio resigns. OS 8 announced.

 · August: Jobs becomes director; Substantial personnel changes made to main board of directors; Extensive cooperation with Microsoft announced.

 · September: Power Computing Co., Ltd. acquired as part of OS license revocation.

 · December: Think Different campaign begins.

1998

 · March: New development of Newton OS stopped.

 · May:  iMac announced, OSX announced.

1999

· January:  PoweMac G3 announced.

 · July:      iBook announced.

 · September: PoweMac G4 announced.

 · October:   OS 9.0 announced

 

2000

 · July:      PoweMac G4 Cube announced.

 · September: Mac OSX Public Beta announcement.

2001

·March: Mac OSX sales start. 

 · May:  Full model change of iBook.

 · July:  Production discontinued of G4 Cube.

(Chronology: reference material)

The Apple II Guide 1992: Apple Computer
Wired:  December 1997 issue "Rhapsody in Mist; 20 Year History of Apple Computer"
Apple:  500 Days on Thin Ice SOFT BANK