Apple's journey: innovation, influence, and iconic branding

What are Apple's core products and history?

Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, Inc., is a multinational corporation that creates consumer electronics, personal computers, computer software, and commercial servers, and is a digital distributor of media content. Apple’s core product lines are the iPhone smart phone, iPad tablet computer, iPod portable media players, and Macintosh computer line.

Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, and incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California. Jobs understood that in order for the company to grow, it would require professional management and substantial funding. He convinced Regis McKenna, a well-known public relations specialist for the semiconductor industry, to represent the company; he also secured an investment from Michael Markkula, a wealthy veteran of the Intel Corporation who became Apple’s largest shareholder and an influential member of Apple’s board of directors. The company became an instant success Now Apple is the world’s second-largest information technology company by revenue after Samsung Electronics, and the world’s third-largest mobile phone maker.

Steve Jobs' early life and career

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to a pair of graduate students who gave him up for adoption because their parents did not want them to marry. Steve was adopted at birth by Clara and Paul Jobs. His mother taught him to read before he went to school. Steve and his father would work on electronics in the family garage, taking apart and reassembling televisions, radios and stereos.

He went to Reed College in Oregon, but dropped out after six months. He stayed at Reed and went to some classes that interested him, slept on the floors of friends’ rooms, and got meals at a Hare Krishna temple.

In 1986, he bought the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm and started Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs let the animators continue to create the stories, but insisted on attention to detail and design.

Despite, growing ill-health, Jobs continued working at Apple until August 2011, He played a key role in the creation of the Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, MacBook, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad. He died on Oct. 5, 2011, of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Apple's iconic logo evolution

Newton sitting under an apple tree. It was almost immediately replaced by Rob Janoff’s “rainbow Apple”, the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. The logo was designed with a bite so that it would not be confused with a cherry. The colored stripes were conceived to make the logo more accessible, and to represent the fact the Apple II could generate graphics in color. This logo is often erroneously referred to as a tribute to Alan Turing, with the bite mark a reference to his method of suicide.

Both Janoff and Apple deny any homage to Turing in the design of the logo.

On August 27, 1999, Apple officially dropped the rainbow scheme and began to use monochromatic logos nearly identical in shape to the previous rainbow incarnation. An Aqua-themed version of the monochrome logo was used from 1999 to 2003, and a glass-themed version.

Apple's marketing philosophy and impact

Emphaty, focus, and impute, in 1977 this was the marketing philosophy of Apple and thirty-five years later, this philosophy remains at the core of what makes Apple so effective at creating and profiting from loyal customers.
In the past year, Apple has added another major product line the iPhone to its existing Mac and iPod offerings. While all three of these product areas share common qualities namely, style and ease of use Apple and its advertising agency take very different approaches to get that message across.

Despite their differences, Apple ads have in common at least one major advantage over many competitors’ commercials: if you love or hate the spots, you’ll likely remember them, and that’s the first step to building a successful image.

This company communicates in the Language of its audience. Sure, the jargon is there for those that need it, but it’s presented in a way that makes you want to learn about megapixels, rather than shy away from them.

Apple isn’t content with being a leader in sales alone, they want to own the market itself.

The Macintosh debut was directed by Ridley Scott, aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl on January 22, 1984, and is now considered a “watershed event” and a masterpiece.” 1984 used an unnamed heroine to represent

the coming of the Macintosh as a means of saving humanity from “conformity” (Big Brother). These images were an allusion to George Orwell’s noted novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a televised “Big Brother.”