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Apple History

In many ways, the computer has been the formative invention of the second half of the twentieth century, much as the automobile was for the first half. As rapid technological change has enabled computers to become ever more powerful and at the same time smaller and less expensive, they have moved into every aspect of life. When the first electronic computer, ENIAC, was built in the 1940's, it was a monstrosity of wires and vacuum tubes occupying an entire room and so hungry for power that legend tells of it dimming the lights of all Philadelphia when it was first turned on. Within a matter of years the transistor made it possible to make electronic devices several orders of magnitude smaller than previously imagined, and the subsequent development of integrated circuits further fueled the move to miniaturization. With VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration), it became possible to put the power of the earliest computers on a single piece of silicon, the microchip.
Into this atmosphere of tremendous change came two young men, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. Each arrived at his interest in computers through a different route, but when they met one another, their ideas of the role of computing meshed and they began to seek a common vision. Jobs was a mystic who had come to believe that science and technology, not religious contemplation, was the key to human betterment, but continued to pursue his goals with a mystical fervor. Stephen Wozniak combined a more practical approach to hardware with a cheerful belief in the innate goodness of humanity. While Stephen Wozniak was still a high-school student experimenting with electronics, he came to recognize the important principle that design must work with the human element to be truly successful.1 The two of them worked together for a while in a partnership to make "blue boxes," illegal devices to enable people to manipulate telephone systems. After a few brushes with danger and the law, both young men decided to pursue a...