Have you updated your iPhone yet?
No, I haven’t gotten around to it.
Is it any good?
Yeah!
I feel like with every update, it keeps getting better and better.
Steve Jobs was a genius.
Hard to believe it all started in his garage with Steve Wozniak and the Apple 1 back in
the mid-70’s.
He started Apple in his garage?
Wow, I didn’t know that.
Yes.
As a matter of fact, they had so many sales with the Apple 1 and Apple 2 that it wasn’t
long until they became one of the top companies in the United States.
I really love my Mac computer.
I prefer Windows actually.
I love my iPhone, but I’ve never owned a Mac computer.
Really?
Mac’s rule!
I’m an Apple fanatic.
Did you know Jobs actually introduced the Macintosh - or Mac - back in 1984?
Unfortunately, at the time, the Mac computer was quite basic and didn’t include any Microsoft
software.
Sales plummeted and it wasn’t long after that that the directors of Apple gave him
the boot.
That’s so interesting.
Apple has a cult following now.
But wait…
Wasn’t Jobs with Apple right up until he passed away?
Yes, it’s an interesting story really.
Although Jobs got fired, he never got discouraged.
He started a new company called NeXT.
Then he made one of the greatest business decisions of his life.
He purchased Pixar, which creates computer-animated movies.
The move made him a billionaire.
So, I would say in some ways Apple did him a favor when they let him go.
But you still didn’t explain...
I thought Steve Jobs was still the face of Apple right up until his death.
Well, after Jobs left Apple, things really started to go downhill, and they ended up
begging him to return.
Luckily for them, he agreed and turned the company’s luck around.
When he took over again, the company was in bad shape.
He canceled seventy percent of Apple’s products and laid off thousands of people.
Then they released the colorful iMac – actually that was the first Mac that I ever owned.
Then in the early 2000’s they released the iPod and then the iPhone and then the iPad.
And…well… the rest is history.
It’s all really impressive.
It’s interesting though…
there are lots of great products that never make it big like Apple.
Why do you think they’ve been so successful?
Well, Steve Jobs was a genius at marketing.
When he went back to Apple after being ousted, he marked his return with the “Think Different”
ad campaign.
He associated Apple with unconventional thinkers such as Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.
It was an enormous success.
The way he introduced new products at events was brilliant.
And his idea to open a chain of Apple stores to ensure that Apple’s products would be
presented in a favorable light was downright genius.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Apple computers, but I don’t know if I could really
make the switch.
I’m just so used to Windows.
But you may have twisted my arm to at least look into them.