Happy birthday Apple

Apple Computer is 30 years-old today

Apple celebrates its 30th birthday today and is currently riding high following a boom and bust ride in the industry.

The company was founded on 1 April 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne and originally operated out of Jobs's garage.

Apple's first offering was the Apple I personal computer, which sold for $666.66 and was showed off at the now-famous Homebrew Computing Club. The Apple I was essentially just a motherboard and was hardly a computer by today's standards.

The company first tasted success with the Apple II in 1977, but the real breakthrough came with the development of its revolutionary graphical user interface.

The Apple Lisa was the first machine to use the GUI in 1983, although its $9,995 price tag and a lack of software stopped it from being a success.

In 1984, Apple released its first revolutionary Macintosh computer. The 'Mac' was the first computer using a GUI to be commercially successful. The addition of desktop publishing software and a laser printer that was reasonably priced helped push it forward as the tool for publishers.

Jobs quit the company in 1985 following a power struggle and went off to form NeXT which was ultimately a doomed project.

Apple thrived in the laptop market in 1991 with the introduction of the Powerbook 100. Designed by Sony, this was a far cry from Apple's cumbersome Macintosh Portable launched in 1989.