The finale Tuesday night was one Jobs would have loved \u2014 a\u00a0 huge celebration for employees and invited guests at Apple Park in Cupertino with none other than Paul McCartney as the headliner<\/a>.<\/p>\n RELATED: A farmer\u2019s letter revealed what Apple would become: Inside a reporter\u2019s first look at the company<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAt Apple, we\u2019re more focused on building tomorrow than remembering yesterday,\u201d CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter posted on Apple.com<\/a>. \u201cBut we couldn\u2019t let this milestone pass without thanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today \u2014 our incredible teams around the world, our developer community, and every customer who has joined us on this journey.\u201d<\/p>\n When Jobs recruited John Sculley to be Apple\u2019s new CEO in 1983, he asked the PepsiCo executive if he wanted to spend the rest of his life selling \u201csugar water\u201d or take Jobs\u2019 offer to change the world.<\/p>\n And they did \u2014 many times. So in yet another way to celebrate the milestone, here\u2019s a look back at five times Apple transformed the way we work, play and connect with each other.<\/p>\n June 10, 1977: The debut of the Apple II<\/p>\n Steve Wozniak\u2019s Apple I was the company\u2019s first product, and its finances were buoyed by an original purchase order of 50 computers at $500 a piece from Paul Terrell, owner of the Byte Shop in Mountain View. But it was the much more advanced Apple II released a year later that finally made personal computing a reality.<\/p>\n Unlike previous attempts, the Apple II was sold as a complete package, not a kit that would delight hobbyists to assemble but mystify the average consumer. Replacing the original cassette tape storage with an external floppy disk drive in 1978 only made it more popular \u2014 especially at schools, where many Generation X students of the 1980s got their first look at a computer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Apple II computer was all of Apple\u2019s revenues for the first 10 years. That one computer kept going,\u201d Wozniak said in an interview at the Tech for Global Good ceremony in San Jose in January. \u201cAnd then once the world discovered these personal computers, they were everywhere. And other companies wanted to come in and make it.\u201d<\/p>\n How does the company that started personal computing re-assert itself as an upstart revolutionary in the market? By painting its competition as bland, soulless drones and Apple as the avatar of freedom. Conceived by advertising firm Chiat\/Day and directed by Ridley Scott, the commercial aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII and instantly became the most interesting thing about the game.<\/p>\n It was ostensibly an ad for the Macintosh, though the computer never appears in the spot. Jobs introduced it to incredible fanfare two days later at the Flint Center at De Anza College in Cupertino. The ad \u2014 which was entered into the Clio Hall of Fame in 1995 and can be found on YouTube<\/a> \u2014 was never broadcast again, but it didn\u2019t need to be: News stations ran it over and over, providing Apple with free publicity and cool cachet ahead of its product launch.<\/p>\n Chiat\/Day would perform a similar feat in 1997, following Jobs\u2019 return to Apple, with \u201cThink Different,\u201d<\/a> a memorable campaign that again set Apple apart as one of \u201cthe crazy ones\u201d that changes the world. The theme remains so entwined with Apple\u2019s counterculture identity that it\u2019s still echoed in the company\u2019s 50th anniversary message, \u201c50 Years of Thinking Different.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n It was hard to know what to make of the iMac when it hit the market. People were used to computers shaped like boxes. This one, designed by Jony Ive, was more like an egg or a gumdrop, its futuristic look emphasized by its translucent case and aqua color (officially known as Bondi Blue). Instead of a disk drive, it had a USB port, something new for an Apple product that made lots of people buy adapters to connect their existing printers and drives.<\/p>\n But the dorm-ready computer was a hit, selling about 6.5 million units in its various colors<\/a> in the next five years. As Apple would learn again and again in the next quarter-century, the design was a more appealing selling point than the RAM.<\/p>\n Jobs and Apple didn\u2019t invent the digital music player with the iPod, they just made it better than it had ever been. Jon Rubinstein, who was then Apple\u2019s head of hardware engineering, recruited Tony Fadell \u2014 who went on to co-found Nest Labs \u2014 to design and lead production on the project. Vinnie Chieco, a San Francisco copywriter, is credited with coining the name<\/a> because the device reminded him of the white space pods in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n Wozniak said it was a watershed moment for Apple and for Jobs, who had endured several product disappointments, including the Lisa and Apple III computers and NeXT\u2019s expensive but unloved computer workstation.<\/p>\n \u201cThen he had something else \u2013 iPod. Instantly sales doubled, revenues doubled, profits doubled. The iPod was his Apple II,\u201d Wozniak said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a computer, but he knew what people wanted. He knew people. He was really good at that.\u201d<\/p>\n The iPod was discontinued in 2022, but its legacy lives on every time someone listens to a podcast.<\/p>\n Again, Apple was late to the party on mobile phones, but it was worth the wait. The iPhone combined the recently introduced iPod Touch with a phone and an internet connection. The BlackBerry and Palm Treo \u2014 up until then the preferred gadgets of the C-suite class \u2014 didn\u2019t stand a chance. Neither did flip phones, which went from being the cool accessory on campus to something that grandma used.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,\u201d Jobs said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco<\/a>, where iPhone was introduced. \u201cIt\u2019s very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. \u2026 Apple\u2019s been very fortunate in that it\u2019s introduced a few of these.\u201d<\/p>\n With the iPhone came endless apps (and app stores to sell them), video conferencing, personal GPS mapping and a photo application that made cameras practically obsolete for everyone but purists.<\/p>\n In 2001, Apple \u2014 frustrated with how big-box retailers sold their products \u2014 took matters into its own hands and opened the first Apple stores in Tysons, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and Glendale, California. Today, there are more than 500 stores, stylishly appointed in glass and light wood, in more than two dozen countries. Like car dealerships of the 1950s and \u201960s, you went to Apple stores to \u201ckick the tires\u201d on new releases, trying to make up your mind \u2014 again \u2014 between the AirPods 3 Pro and the AirPods Max 2.\u00a0 Stopping by the Apple store became part of the shopping experience at Valley Fair or University Avenue.<\/p>\n The stores also became the epicenter for product launches, with people lining up for hours<\/a> to get their hands on the newest iPhone or iPad like they were concert tickets. And the boldly named \u201cGenius Bar\u201d turned a normally frustrating task \u2014 learning to use a new tech gadget or dealing with a malfunctioning one \u2014 into something more akin to a salon appointment.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-APPLE50SAL-0402-1.jpg\")
An Apple II computer is on display at the newly opened Apple Museum in Warsaw, Poland on May 29, 2022. (Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI\/AFP via Getty Images)\u00a0
\nJan. 22, 1984: Macintosh \u20181984\u2019 commercial<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-APPLE50SAL-0402-2.jpg\")
This is a still from video of Apple Computer’s famous “1984” commercial aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, which introduced the Macintosh personal computer. (AP Photo\/HO\/Apple)\u00a0
\nAug. 15, 1998: The iMac makes Apple cool again<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-APPLE50SAL-0402-3.jpg\")
The iMac personal computer went on sale on Aug. 15, 1998. (Photo By Getty Images)\u00a0
\nOct. 23, 2001: \u20181,000 songs in your pocket\u2019<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-APPLE50SAL-0402-5.jpg\")
A man touches the Apple iPod mp3 music player on display during the Macworld Conference and Convention January 8, 2002 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. (Photo by Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)\u00a0
\nJan. 9, 2007: Apple reinvents the phone<\/p>\n![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-APPLE50SAL-0402-4.jpg\")
Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up an Apple iPhone at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, in this Jan. 9, 2007, file photo. (AP Photo\/Paul Sakuma, File)\u00a0
\nBonus revolution: The Apple store<\/p>\n
![\"Ross](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-APPLE50SAL-0402-6.jpg\")
Ross McIntosh, along with his son, Ryan, 6, picks up his new Apple Titanium PowerBook on the opening day of the Apple Store at South Coast Plaza on Saturday, December 1, 2001. The opening drew over a thousand people and featured t-shirt giveaways, a Genius Bar where Mac users could get answers to their Mac questions, and demos in the Apple theater. (Bruce C. Strong\/Orange County Register)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past 50 years, Apple has been changing the world. In a way, Apple created its own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[6856,417,184,387,7,8,186,418,181,23,2581,100,419,88,90,89,198,2280,200,1970],"class_list":{"0":"post-246863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-around-town","10":"tag-bay-area","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-california-news","14":"tag-cupertino","15":"tag-history","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-local-news","18":"tag-national-news","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-news-columnists","21":"tag-san-jose","22":"tag-san-jose-headlines","23":"tag-san-jose-news","24":"tag-santa-clara-county","25":"tag-silicon-valley","26":"tag-south-bay","27":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}