Apple

The Apple logo.

Apple is an American technology company founded on 1976-04-01 initially to sell home computers and software, but has since expanded into software, phones, and media distribution. It was founded by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Ronald Wayne. The company was originally designed with a hacker-friendly mentality, encouraging customers to open up the computers, manipulate the hardware, and customize the software as part of their hobby, but, once the ego of Steve Jobs took over, the company became more tyrannical locking down everything and charging a fee for the "privilege" of using their products.

Personal

I first remember seeing the occasional Apple II computer in my elementary school, though I didn't use it much. Of the few people I knew who had an 8-bit home computer, none owned an Apple. As I entered the 1990s, most of the home computers I saw were IBM compatibles, and, when my family bought our first computer in 1991, Apple's prices were far more than the competition, so it pretty much guaranteed to not be our computer of choice. I remember seeing a Macintosh at a business somewhere, and being impressed by the high resolution, but I didn't think the monochrome display made it worth it. Throughout the 1990s, I saw only a few people with Apple computers, each of them loved the brand, and I had to admit they usually looked impressive. However, I was only interested in video games at the time, and I never saw any good games on Apple computers, so I didn't care about the platform, and I found the prices I saw at tech stores to be insultingly high. My ire for Apple only grew as I learned about their service policies which discouraged home modification and prevented companies from becoming authorized service centers too close to each other. By the time I was in my late teens I had completely written the company off as garbage and each new Apple product and Steve Jobs talk I heard about, I only made me hate the company more. Seeing ridiculously closed products like the iPhone, where you can only run software pre-approved by Apple, made ill. Although my hatred for the company hasn't dwindled, I now hate Microsoft nearly as much, so it kind of balances out.

Products

Hardware

• Apple I
• Apple II
• Apple IIgs
• Macintosh Classic
• Macintosh

Software

Since I have very limited experience with Apple products, there isn't any software developed by Apple that is important to me.

Logos

• 

  Original logo (1976-1977).

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  Rainbow apple logo (1977-1998). This is the logo I saw as a child.

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  The liquid logo (1998-2003). I remember this style being especially popular in the early 2000s.

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  The plain logo. (1999-curent). Why did so many people companies switch to an extremely boring logo?

Links