Have The Last 30 Years At Apple Been As Good As The First 10?

When Woz gave the world the Apple II along with the floppy drive to allow for DOS to boot the inexpensive master piece from Cupertino, California, it would set up a standard for the small company that many would hold it to for years to come. Major successes came after, like the Macintosh, but have the last twenty years been as great as the first ten? Sure, the iPod, only in its infancy, is a success like none Apple has seen since that Apple II but what about the years before that? Has there been anything to really celebrate over the course of the thirty years of a very colorful history?

It seems when Wozniak was forced to leave the very company he co-founded just a year after the release of the Macintosh, things started to peter out for Apple. Sure, it had the color Mac, the AV Mac, the clones, and even the cube, but what really can Apple write home about in-between ‘84 and ‘04?

You know, every company goes through spells of lulls. Apple is no exception. It started off with a bang, no doubt, but after the fireworks are done, everyone goes home. That kinda happened with Apple for a while until Steve Jobs came back in the late ’90s. His first order of “clean up” was ditching the clones that really didn’t seem to do much for Apple other than take money away from its bottom line. Guess IBM could have learned from that as it now no longer makes a single PC… which it invented. Second thing Jobs did was introduce a budget line of computers and while the iMac did a lot to change the industry it did not have quite the same effect the original Mac had on the computer world as a whole. Next was the update of the operating system, a BIG update, which became known as OS X. Again, even with the help of the Switch campaign, it didn’t have a huge impact on the computer world but what a masterpiece it was and continues to be. Then the iPod and now the Mac on Intel chips.

The Intel move is probably the biggest news in Apple’s history since Woz felt Motorola was the way to go way back when. It’s too early to tell if this will be one of the most monumental moves for Apple in its 30 year history, but it sure is to make some tremendous marks in the computer industry for sure.

So, have the last twenty been as good as the first ten? Probably not, but take a look at other companies’ last twenty and you might find that Apple rather does shine in comparison. Here’s toasting to another thirty, Apple!

[tags]os x,steve jobs,good 30 years,great early success,no middle,apple history,wozniak[/tags]