The boondoggle of the Macintosh
Steve Jobs was a visionary when he saw potential in that board designed by Steve Wozniak and that would eventually become the Apple I, a precursor to the company’s later success. However, in 1985 he had little left of that vision. Or at least that was the view of the demanding board of directors led by John Sculley, Jobs’s star signing whom he had recruited two years ago from Pepsi.
In any company it is essential to have income, but in a technology company that was already listed on the stock market at the time, it was even more so. And the disastrous sales figures for the Macintosh ended up serving as icing on the cake after a few years in which Jobs invested excessive money in developments like the Apple Lisa that did not end up gaining a foothold in the market, generating too many losses and gradually destroying the trust of the board.
Sculley was the one who ultimately made the decision to remove Steve Jobs from the Macintosh department and ultimately caused the co-founder to leave what had been his home. Knowing the character of Jobs, he did not intend to remain as a simple adviser or shareholder. He wanted to be able to put his vision at the service of the cause, but at Apple it was no longer possible after his dismissal. So he flew.
It gave him time to found NeXT and Pixar
Steve Jobs’ stage outside of Apple was perhaps not as widely recognized in the media, but years later it is shown that he left his mark on many levels. He founded NeXT Computer, a company that would ultimately serve to save Apple itself and which introduced interesting teams dedicated to professional work in companies and advanced users.
Steve Jobs is also remembered from this time as one of the founders of Pixar, which was really born as a computer company. It was with the purchase of Graphics Group, a section of Lucasfilm, with which the famous production company began to sow its already elongated figure, highlighting Toy Story as the first one hundred percent computer-animated film.
Triumphant return and the rest is history
We cannot intuit the future of Apple if the dismissal of Jobs had not occurred, but the facts show us that it was not a decision that translated into success. John Sculley had to give up his position in 1993 to Michael Spindler and after him came Gil Amelio.
The company was on the verge of bankruptcy and Amelio turned to the only man who had managed to build Apple from nothing: Steve Jobs. This did not want to be a simple advisor, but he wanted to captain that half-sunken ship as CEO, a wish that Amelio granted and that was possible thanks to the purchase of NeXT. All this in the year 1997.
What happened next is very recent and is what Apple still drinks from, an essential part of its history and without which the company would not be the company with the highest market value today. In 2001 came the iPod, in 2007 the iPhone. Jobs’s last great invention was the iPad in 2010 and since his death in 2011, the company has not stopped growing, this time led by Tim Cook.
