VOL 47: Apple Inc. History: Apple After Jobs' 1985 departure, NeXT Acquisition-8
Hey Friends 🤓,
Trust you all had a great week 🤗?
This is the 8th post in a blog series on Apple Inc. History. Our comprehensive history of Apple will take you from its humble beginnings in the 1970s to Jobs' departure and subsequent return to Apple. Join us in following the Apple story!
Today at a Glance:
Quote of the Week
Jean-Louis Gassée takes over from Steve Jobs
Near-bankruptcy
Acquisition of NeXT
Past Greats 👴
Business & Startups
Random Facts
Tweet of the Week
Quote of The Week
“I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.”
— — —
Marie Curie
So, Sculley was in control and could run Apple as he saw fit. Now we'll see where that leads the company in the coming months.
Jean-Louis Gassée takes over from Steve Jobs
The most recent stop on our Apple history tour saw Jobs leave the company after a disagreement with the board. It wasn't entirely unexpected, and the news wasn't met with the same level of dread as his cancer diagnosis many years later. Indeed, Wall Street reacted positively to Jobs' departure, and Apple stock rose.
CEO John Sculley appointed Jean-Louis Gassée, who had been Apple's Director of European Operations since 1981, to succeed Jobs and lead Macintosh development. Fewer positions could have been more prestigious in a company whose very existence was based on that single iconic product line - especially at a time when the company's focus and ethos were about to change dramatically.
Aside from overseeing conventional computer development, Gassée was also in charge of much of Apple's behind-the-scenes development, where designers were dreaming up new products that would one day propel the company to new heights. Two of the results of those efforts, the Newton MessagePad and the eMate, were particularly foresighted, pointing to Apple's later dominance of lightweight computing via the iPad and iPhone, but they didn't see the light of day until after Gassée's departure from Apple.
His tenure lasted from 1981 to the end of the decade when the emphasis on high-priced premium products began to wane. IBM clones were becoming more affordable, and with the rise of Windows and low-cost desktop publishing software, even Apple's most devoted customers were tempted to defect.
Near-bankruptcy
In 1994 Apple launched eWorld, an online service that provided email, news, and a bulletin board system. It was decommissioned in 1996.
In 1995, it was decided to (officially) begin licensing the Mac OS and Macintosh ROMs to third-party manufacturers who began producing Macintosh "clones." This was done to achieve greater market penetration and additional revenue for the company. However, the Clonintoshes competed with Apple's own Macs, lowering Apple's own sales.
This decision resulted in Apple having a market share of more than 10% until 1997 when Steve Jobs was re-hired as interim CEO to replace Gil Amelio. Jobs quickly discovered a loophole in Apple's licensing contracts with clone manufacturers and terminated the Macintosh OS licensing program, effectively ending the Macintosh clone era. As a result of this action, the Macintosh computer market share dropped from 10% to around 3%.
During the 1990s, Apple attempted to create a new operating system to replace System 7, which was already considered obsolete. Pink was the nickname given to the new operating system project, and Apple attempted to create a new operating system. Apple dubbed the operating system Taligent and enlisted the assistance of IBM in its development. However, disagreements between Apple and IBM led to Apple abandoning the project and IBM completing it.
Apple was just weeks away from going bankrupt when it decided it needed to acquire another company's operating system. Sun's Solaris and Microsoft's Windows NT were among the candidates considered. Ellen Hancock (former Chief Technology Officer at Apple Computer) reportedly preferred Solaris, whereas Amelio preferred Windows. Amelio reportedly spoke with Bill Gates about the idea, and Gates promised to put Microsoft engineers to work.
Acquisition of NeXT
In 1996, the struggling NeXT company beat out Be Inc.'s BeOS (an operating system for personal computers first developed by Be Inc. in 1990) in a bid to sell its operating system to Apple. On December 20, 1996, Apple decided to buy Steve Jobs' company, NeXT, and its NeXTstep operating system for $429 million and 1.5 million shares of Apple stock.
Not only would this reintroduce Steve Jobs to Apple's management for the first time since 1985, but NeXT technology would become the foundation of the Mac OS X operating system.
We’ll continue from here next week.
The reason behind this historical perspective is that I want to educate people who have no computer background about the history and development of what has gone before and where we are today.
PAST GREATS
MARIE CURIE (1867 – 1934)
Marie Curie is remembered for discovering two new chemical elements, radium and polonium, as well as her significant contribution to cancer research.
A Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who pioneered radioactivity research. She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, the first and only woman to receive the Nobel prize twice, and the only person to receive the prize in two scientific fields.
Her husband, Pierre Curie, shared her first Nobel Prize, making them the first married couple to do so and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was the first woman to be appointed as a professor at the University of Paris in 1906.
She maintained her enthusiasm for science throughout her life, conducting the first research into the use of radiation to treat tumours and founding the Curie Institutes, which are important medical research centres. In 1929, President Hoover of the United States presented her with a $ 50,000 gift from American friends of science to purchase radium for use in the Warsaw laboratory.
Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934, at the age of 66. The cause of her death was given as aplastic pernicious anaemia, a condition she developed after years of exposure to radiation through her work.
Marie Curie's career as a scientist flourished due to her ability to observe, deduce, and predict. She is also thought to be the first woman to make such an important contribution to science.
Business & Startups
Treepz
Treepz Inc is building Africa's largest shared mobility platform by leveraging technology to make transportation more predictable, structured, and accessible to all Africans.
Treepz is one of Africa's leading shared mobility startups, with nearly 10,000 daily rides completed on its platform, with unique services such as shared daily rides and transportation software tailored for schools and transport businesses.
Their app connects commuters with buses. The company owns over 900 vehicles, including cars and vans, and it offers intrastate and interstate transportation to its customers.
To see what’s in the works with Treepz, visit the
website.
Random Facts
Queen Elizabeth's 1953 coronation at Westminster Abbey was the first coronation to ever be televised, and according to the royal family's website, it was watched by 27 million people in the United Kingdom.
Tweet of The Week
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