[ad_1]
August sees the birth of classic computers, an unlikely combination of technology and the final chapter in the story of one of Silicon Valley’s most significant leaders. Read on for details.
August 3, 1977: Radio Shack releases the TRS-80
In the year 1977 saw the release of three new home computer industry pioneers: the Apple II, the Commodore PET, and the TRS-80. The latter is when Radio Shack employee Don French was inspired to design his own personal computer after purchasing an Altair kit for MITS.
French pitched the concept of selling home computers to Radio Shack Vice President John Rock. The pair then went to California to visit National Semiconductor and ended up recruiting one of their disgruntled employees, Steve Leinger, onto the project. In the year
The TRS-80 succeeded beyond Radio Shack’s high expectations. The company is expected to sell only hundreds of the computers. Instead, the TRS-80 sold over 10,000 units in its first month. It went on to sell over 100,000 before the end of 1977. It outsold both the Apple II and the Commodore PET by huge margins.
The success of the TRS-80 inspired Radio Shack to launch a full line of home computers. The company released the TRS-80 Model II in 1979 and the Model III in 1980. By the time Radio Shack retired the line in the early 1990s, the company had sold nearly two and a half million units.
August 6, 1997 Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple
Apple’s resurgence into a profitable company in the late 1990s would not have been possible without the help of its longtime rival, Microsoft. After Apple’s board of directors recently appointed rehired founder Steve Jobs as interim chief executive, he instituted sweeping changes across the company to address deep-rooted problems eroding Apple’s bottom line. But the company needs money to stay afloat. So he did the previously unthinkable and approached Microsoft CEO Bill Gates for a big investment.
The deal made sense to Gates, who sees Apple as a more valuable partner than nemesis. In the year As Steve Jobs put it when he announced his investment at Macworld Expo in 1997, “If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prosperous, we have to let go of the idea that Apple has to beat Microsoft.” lose”
In exchange for $150 million, Microsoft received 150,000 non-voting Apple shares. The Gate company has agreed to support Microsoft Office for Mac for at least five years. The gambit worked, and Apple became a prosperous company again. Microsoft sold all of Apple’s stock in 2005, costing the company $550 million.
In the year August 12, 1981: The IBM Personal Computer goes on sale.
As the name suggests, International Business Machines sells enterprise-grade computers to corporations. However, in the late 1970s, IBM saw its profits in its core business and turned its attention to the personal computer market. In the year In 1980, company executives appointed laboratory director Bill Lowe to form a task force aimed at designing a home computer that would compete with Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack products.
Within a year, the group of 12 delivered an IBM personal computer. Unlike the proprietary operating systems in the competition, the machine featured an open architecture that allowed companies and individuals to design compatible software and peripherals. When the machine went on sale in 1984, it was an instant success, selling over four billion dollars worth of computers.
A number of units were sold to swamp rivals Apple, Commodore and Radio Shack. It wasn’t long before the terms “personal computer” and “PC” became shorthand for IBM machines. For the remainder of the 1980s, the personal computer was the de facto industry standard for home computing machines. Many companies began basing their designs on the IBM PC, coining the terms “IBM compatible” and “IBM clone.”
Unfortunately, IBM’s dominance did not last long. In the year As early as 1986, the empire was shrinking amid intense competition from Silicon Valley in the 1980s. The decline continued into the 1990s, and the company officially exited the personal computer industry in 2005 when Lenovo acquired the IBM PC Group.
August 16, 1995: Internet Explorer launched
Microsoft recognized the potential of the World Wide Web early on and commissioned Thomas Reardon to lead six Microsoft software engineers to develop Internet Explorer in 1994. The first version of the software was launched with Microsoft Plus! add-on package for Windows 95 a year later. The company released subsequent versions for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT in late 1995.
Although adoption caught on quickly, it wasn’t until Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer 3.0 into new versions of Windows in 1996 that Microsoft began to dominate the browser market. The free inclusion of Explorer with Windows caused major damage to earlier browsers such as Netscape Navigator and led to the browser wars of the late 1990s. In 2003, the Explorer reached a peak market share of 95 percent, leaving its competitors in the dust.
The success of Internet Explorer has led competitors to claim that Microsoft has violated US antitrust laws. An investigation by the United States Department of Justice led to the government trying to break up the company. After a trial and a series of appeals, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that Microsoft had, in fact, abused its monopoly power. Microsoft has agreed to a deal that allows users to uninstall Explorer and allow other PC manufacturers to install competing browsers.
The settlement did not immediately affect Internet Explorer’s dominance. However, competition from newer browsers including Firefox and Google Chrome has eroded Microsoft’s market share. As the use of Internet Explorer declined in the 2000s and 2010s, the company created a new browser called Microsoft Edge to replace Internet Explorer. Microsoft officially ended support for the final version of the software on June 15, 2022.
In the year August 18, 1947: Hewlett-Packard Incorporated
In 1934, Stafford University students Bill Hewlett and David Packard became close friends during a two-week camping trip that saw the start of one of the world’s oldest and most respected IT companies. Founders of Silicon Valley. After graduating, Terman advised Hewett & Packard during the start of their new company in the late 1930s.
After deciding on a coin-flip for their startup’s name, the partners worked to build Hewlett-Packard out of a rented garage near Stanford University. Not only was this the first tech company to start in a garage, but the National Register of Historic Places recognizes the building as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
One of the company’s first customers was The Walt Disney Company, which purchased 12 HP Premiere Audio Oscillators for theater sound systems for the release of the film Fantasia. The company continued to produce products for use in the American war in the 1940s.
Hewlett Packard was officially incorporated in 1947, 9 years after its founding, and became a publicly traded company in 1957. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the company began producing the most popular computer technology of the 1960s. And the company proves itself as a powerhouse by developing many products that we take for granted today. In the year In 2015, the company had such a big growth that it had two corporations, HP Inc. And Hewlett Packard Enterprise was forced to split.
August 24, 2011: Steve Jobs resigns
In the year When Steve Jobs returned to Apple as a consultant in 1997, it was unclear whether he intended to oust then-CEO Gil Amilio and stage a boardroom coup to take control of the company he founded. However, once completed, Jobs began a journey to transform Apple from a near-bankrupt enterprise into one of the greatest corporations the world has ever known.
Under Job’s leadership, the company not only shut down failed product lines, but also pioneered many new innovations that shaped technology in the 21st century. The introduction of the iMac and Mac OS X returned Apple’s computer business to profitability. iTunes and the iPod have revolutionized how music is bought and listened to. The iPhone redefined what a smartphone was and set the standard that all other manufacturers would soon follow. And the iPad was a breakthrough in tablet computing, again setting a model for other tech companies to emulate.
In the year When Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, he vowed to stay with the company as long as his health permitted. First he sought homeopathic treatment for the disease. When that failed to stop the cancer from spreading, he underwent surgery in mid-2005. And after years of rumors about his health, he took a six-month break from Apple in 2009 to undergo a liver transplant. Then, after a year of good health, Jobs was given another license. In the year He was 56 years old.
His successor as CEO, Tim Cook, carried Apple in the direction of Jobs and in 2018, Apple became the most valuable company in the world.
[ad_2]
Source link
