Management

Apple Computers in the Brink of PC Industry

On April Fool 's Day , 1976 , Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I computer and started the Apple Computers . It was then followed by more than 350 products that surprised the IT community , enlivened the PC Industry and promised a whole new world for computer technology

The competitive environment in the PC industry started as low-competition in the 1970s . From the mid-1960s onward , IBM dominated the business mainframe segment . IBM was the most successful firm in the 1960s because it combined technical

and marketing capabilities ADDIN EN .CITE BresnahanTimothy F Bresnahan Shane GreensteinTechnological Competition and the Structure of Computer IndustryJournal of Industrial EconomicsJournal of Industrial Economics http /www .stanford .edu tbres /research /techcomp .pdf (Bresnahan and Greenstein . In 1972 , the invention of microchip sprang the revolution of computer technology it fueled a siege of innovations that galvanized the overall U .S electronics industry into a force with revenues . The United States dominated the computer industry up to the 1980s , with 80 percent of the industry 's revenues worldwide . Most of these revenues were produced by less than ten companies , with IBM as the leader ADDIN EN .CITE Gilder5512George Gilder Computer Industry The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics2006Novembe r 6The Library of Economics and Libertyhttp /www .econlib .org /LIBRA RY /Enc /ComputerIndustry .html (Gilder "Computer Industry

Competition-avoidance was apparent during the microcomputer segment in the late 1970s and early 1980s . Competition was avoided because microcomputers (using 8 bit micro-computing ) were far smaller and cheaper compared to mainframe computers suiting for small decentralized tasks and games . People could program and assemble their computers During this period , Apple and CP /M machines dominated as microcomputer platforms eclipsed the mainframe world

The 16-bit era of the 1980s dislocated the dominant 8-bit platforms Many new platforms were proposed , but once again two platforms dominated , the IBM-PC ' and the Apple Macintosh who showed admirable persistence , surviving well over a decade , through a stunning amount of technical progress . Competition was becoming prevalent as the PC became more complicated . The development of GUI for home computers was pioneered by Apple Lisa but was quickly overshadowed by more affordable Apple Macintosh . Apple Macintosh prototypes were given to Bill Gates that led to the development of Microsoft Windows for IBM PCs in 1985 using many of the elements of the Macintosh OS . With this , a long legal battle began between Apple Computer and Microsoft with a court settlement stating that Microsoft would be allowed unlimited use of the Macintosh GUI . IBM PC became the industry standard architecture ' but backward compatibility led to Window 's succession as it quickly became the Wintel (Windows /Intel ) standard at the beginning of 1990s

The Macintosh was indeed a de facto in computing not just simply because of its GUI . Because of its introduction of desktop publishing and computer animation through Apple 's partnership with Adobe Systems , it became a brand for Apple 's success . Because of this , the Macintosh became the genuine platform for industries...