Mac or PC? For many, home computers have become synonymous with Windows and Bill Gates,
but there has always been a loyal band of Apple users,whose devotion to the brand and its
co-founder,the late Steve Jobs,is almost religious.Within minutes of his death on October
5,2011,Twitter was overwhelmed with tributes from shocked fans.In the hours and days that
followed,thousands of people made their way to Apple headquarters in California and to Apple
Stores right across the world to lay flowers and light candles.In a fitting tribute to this
gadget guru,many help up an image of a burning candle on their iPone or iPad.So how did a
company named after a fruit create so many fans?
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak dropped out of college and got jobs in Silicon Valley,where
they founded the Apple Computer company in 1976,the name based on Job's favourite fruit.They
designed the Apple I company in Jobs' bedroom,having raised the capital by selling their most
valued possessions-an old Volkswagen bus and a scientific calculator.The later model,the Apple
Macintosh,introduced the public to point and click graphics.It was the first home computer to be
truly user-friendly,or as the first advertising campaign put it,"the computer for the rest of us".
When IBM released its first PC in 1981,Jobs realized that Apple would have to become a more
grown-up company in order to compete effectively.He brought in John Sculley,the president of
Pepsi-Cola,to do the job,asking him "Do you want to just sell sugared water for the rest of your
life,or do you want to change the world?"Sculley and Jobs began to argeue bitterly,however,and
after a power struggle,Jobs was reluctantly forced to resign.
By 1996,Apple was in trouble,due to the dominance of Windows software and the increasing nuber
of PC clones which could use it.Jobs was brought back to the ailing firm for an annual salary of
$1,and the company gradually retutned to profitability.Apple's computers cost more than most PCs,
and have a more limited range of software available for them,but their great apppeal has been teh
attention too design,making Apple the cool computer company.The launch of the stunnin multi-
coloured iMac in 1997,followed by the sleek new iMac in 2002,marked the end of the computer as an
ugly,utilitarian machine,and brought the home computer out of the study and into the lounge.
Apple's fortunes were transformed again with the development of the iPod in 2003,the iPhone in
2007,the iPad in 2010,and the iCloud data storage service in 2011.These beautifully stylish
products and the ease with which they are networked,have changed the way the world reads,watches,
listens,and communicates.