man@eilat.cs.brown.edu (Mark H. Nodine) (07/10/90)
In article <22871@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>, schatz@cs.arizona.edu (Bruce Schatz) writes: |>One thing I've always wondered about is the genesis of the company name for |>Apple Computer. The books I've read about the computer all say that Steven |>Jobs had fond memories of working in an orchard one summer and thought that |>Apple would be a friendly sounding name.... Anyone know the "true" story? The story I heard (which is no more guaranteed to be the true one) is that Steven Jobs thought that microcomputers should be so reliable that you should be able to unpack them from the box, plug them in, and be off and running, just as you would with a toaster or any other APPLiance. Recall that those were the days of S-100 buses and buying a whole bunch of cards and hoping that they would be compatible with one another on the bus. So "Apple" was a shortened version of "appliance". Don't know if it's true. --Mark
fiddler@concertina.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) (07/12/90)
In article <44704@brunix.UUCP>, man@eilat.cs.brown.edu (Mark H. Nodine) writes: > In article <22871@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>, schatz@cs.arizona.edu (Bruce > Schatz) writes: > |>One thing I've always wondered about is the genesis of the company name for > |>Apple Computer. The books I've read about the computer all say that Steven > |>Jobs had fond memories of working in an orchard one summer and thought that > |>Apple would be a friendly sounding name.... Anyone know the "true" story? > > The story I heard (which is no more guaranteed to be the true one) is > that Steven Jobs thought that microcomputers should be so reliable that > you should be able to unpack them from the box, plug them in, and be off > and running, just as you would with a toaster or any other APPLiance. > Recall that those were the days of S-100 buses and buying a whole bunch > of cards and hoping that they would be compatible with one another on > the bus. So "Apple" was a shortened version of "appliance". Jobs' views on the "applianceness" of personal computers developed somewhat after the company name was chosen. Probably well into the original development of the first Mac concepts by Jef Raskin's team. He wasn't a lonely voice crying in the wilderness, either, there being a number of proposals for Apple//-family machines that could be expanded without opening the CPU at all, and that meant no DB-<mumble> connectors, either, except for those required by printers. The first guess is probably closer to what happened. There were stories floating around Apple for a while that Jobs was, for a while, a fruitarian in his diet and influenced from that angle. ------------ The only drawback with morning is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day. ------------
blm@6sceng.UUCP (Brian Matthews) (07/12/90)
|One thing I've always wondered about is the genesis of the company name for |Apple Computer. The books I've read about the computer all say that Steven |Jobs had fond memories of working in an orchard one summer and thought that |Apple would be a friendly sounding name.... Anyone know the "true" story? This sounds like a corruption of the story I heard from the Woz one time. This story may not be any truer, but it was years ago and he didn't really have any reason to make this up. Anyways, the real answer is they couldn't think of a name. In fact the two Steves were at the courthouse to file the incorporation papers and still didn't have a name. Jobs was eating an apple (at the time he was a "fruitarian", i.e. most of his diet was fruit. He may still be), so they chose Apple, figuring they could choose a real name later. When it came time to choose a name, they thought about it, and realized that Apple would be early in the phone book, and that apples are "friendly" and would make a nice contrast with what was then (and maybe still is :-)) a very scary word, computer. Thus Apple remained Apple Computer, Inc. -- Brian L. Matthews blm@6sceng.UUCP
tjc@castle.ed.ac.uk (A J Cunningham) (07/12/90)
I dunno if this story is true or not but it's kinda interesting. The Apple Logo (so I am told) is meant to represent the apple that Alan Turing used to commit suicide with. Hence the bite out of the side. Has anyone else heard this? Tony p.s. If you don't know who Alan Turing is you shouldn't be using a computer :-)p -- Tony Cunningham, Edinburgh University Computing Service. tjc@castle.ed.ac.uk If a man among you has no sin upon his hand Let him throw a stone at me for playing in the band.
macman@wpi.wpi.edu (Chris Silverberg) (07/13/90)
>In article <22871@megaron.cs.arizona.edu>, schatz@cs.arizona.edu (Bruce >Schatz) writes: >|>One thing I've always wondered about is the genesis of the company name for >|>Apple Computer. The books I've read about the computer all say that Steven >|>Jobs had fond memories of working in an orchard one summer and thought that >|>Apple would be a friendly sounding name.... Anyone know the "true" story? Well, as Steve Wozniak remembered it, as they were forming their new business to market this computer that they built, they we in the process of filling out paperwork to get their license and so on. Amoung many names that were trying to come up with at CRUNCH time, they picked Apple. One of the reasons was that 'Apple' will preceeded 'Atari' in the phone book. ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. Chris Silverberg AOL: Silverberg Worcester Polytechnic Institute GEnie: C.Silverberg INTERNET: macman@wpi.wpi.edu SYSOP: Main Street U.S.A. BBS FIDONET: 322/575.1 508.832.7725 (1200/2400)