Top Inventions of Steve Jobs

Sadly, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple has passed away.  He leaves behind a legacy of invention that has forever changed the way we think about and interact with technology every day.  From the personal computer the computer in your pocket, Jobs influence can be seen and felt all around us.  His once-struggling computer company, living in the shadow of Microsoft, has become a dominant force in the business world, and for this and much, much more, Steve Jobs will always be remembered.  Let’s take a quick look back at some of the top inventions from the mind of Steve Jobs.

The first Apple computer came along in 1976.  Steve Wozniak, working at the time for HP, had been designing computers for a while, but had never actually gone so far as to make one.  As he watched others bring their devices to market, he decided to go ahead and do it.  His friend, Steve Jobs, had some ideas for improving the device, and the two scraped together some cash for printed circuit boards.  The Steves planned to sell the machine as a kit for $666.66, and approached a store called the Byte Shop about selling their machine.  The shop ordered 50 fully assembled devices, and sold them all.  The Apple Computer Company was born.

The Apple II was demonstrated at a home brew computer club in December 1976.  Shortly after, Apple Computer moved from Steve Job’s garage to an office in Cupertino, CA.  In April 1977 the first Apple II was sold for $1,275.  It featured 2 5-1/4″ disk drives!  Plans begin to manufacture an enhanced Apple II, which would be named Annie.

Plans also begin for a “super computer” which would be called Lisa.  The Lisa was a more advanced system than the Macintosh of that time in many respects, such as its inclusion of protected memory, cooperative multitasking, a generally more sophisticated hard disk based operating system, a built-in screensaver, an advanced calculator with a paper tape and RPN, support for up to two megabytes (MB) of RAM, expansion slots, a numeric keypad, data corruption protection schemes such as block sparing, non-physical file names (with the ability to have multiple documents with the same name), and a larger higher-resolution display.

Also known as the Mac 128K, the Apple Macintosh appeared on the cover of Byte Magazine.  It was introduced in January, 1984.  The computer had no “Mac” name on the front, but rather just the Apple logo.  Later models would have a “Mac 128K” printed on the back to distinguish them from the newer Mac 512K.  The 128K refers to the amount of RAM in the machine.  128K was pretty darn good at the time.  The Mac 128K also had a 3.5″ 400 KB floppy drive, a 1-bit 512 x 342 pixel b&w monitor, a mouse, and a couple applications such as MacWrite and MacPaint.

Apple introduced several new machines through the 80′s including the Apple III in 1983, the The Macintosh XL in 1985, and the Macintosh portable in 1989.

The Mac Plus debuts in June 1986 and sells for $1,195.  It was the first Macintosh model to include a SCSI port, which launched the popularity of external SCSI devices for Macs, including hard disks, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, printers, and even monitors.

Steve Jobs also became involved with NeXT Computer in 1986.

The NeXT Computer was considered a very high-end machine in its day and sold for $6,500.  Tim Berners-Lee used the NeXT in 1991 to create the first web browser and web server.  The original Wolfenstein and Doom were also created using the NeXT.

Apple slumped in the 90′s without Jobs, but upon his return in 1997 he did some major management changes, and installed a new leadership team.  Apple began turning around again and in 1999 introduced the iBook portable computer.  The iBook G3/300 codenamed P1, featured a 300 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) processor, 32 MB or 64 MB of RAM, a 3.2 GB or 6.0 GB hard drive.

In 2001, Apple introduced the G4 with dual 1.25 GHz processors and 512 MB of RAM, upgradeable to 2 GB. It also featured the Apple SuperDrive, which combines a DVD-R and a CD-RW drive. A 120 GB Hard Drive rounded out the package.  It sold for $3,300 without a monitor.

While still involved with NeXT Computer, Jobs acquired Graphics Group for $10 million.  It was later renamed Pixar, and the results of that company we have seen for many years now pioneering animation.  Pixar’s first big hit came in 1995, and was called Toy Story.

In 2003, Jobs introduced iTunes Music Store for the PC and Mac, effectively altering forever the way people listen to and purchase music.  iTunes is now in version 10.5, and will feature new iTunes Match software that integrates with Apple’s iCloud service.

The following year, in 2004, Jobs announced the mini iPod, which would dovetail into Apple’s new line of mobile products.

In 2005, Jobs announced the Motorola-made Rokr, the precursor to the iPhone.  The Rokr  is the first phone to be integrated with Apple Inc.’s iTunes music player. It was launched on September 7, 2005 during a special media-only event by Apple in San Francisco, California.

The following year, in 2006, Jobs showed off the new MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo processor during the 2006 Macworld.

In 2007, Apple revolutionized smartphones with the introduction of the iPhone.  Google’s competing Android platform followed very soon after.  The iPhone kicks off a huge user-built jailbreak community, dedicated to unlocking the vast potential of the device.

In 2010, the iPad makes its debut and kicks off a world-wide tablet computer frenzy.  The iPad quickly becomes the dominant tablet, and has remained so ever since.

The following year, an improved iPad 2 is released.  A buying fever ensues, leading to long unavailability of the product.  Customers buy up multiple items and start selling them at inflated prices on eBay.  Chinese teenagers begin selling their organs just to own one.

On October 4th, we saw the release of the iPhone 4S, the successor to the wildly popular iPhone 4.  Though it wasn’t the complete rebuild that some were hoping for, it certainly maintains the same Apple drive for quality, excellence, and ease of use for the general public.  It will be the last of his innovative products that Steve got to see, but we’re thankful that he at least got to stay with us long enough to see it announced.

To subscribe, like us on Facebook

More Blog Stories