The Macintosh computer began life as the Apple I in 1976 when two friends, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with the aid of some friends built the first of fifty computers for the Byte Shop for $500 each. This first Apple computer came equipped with a display screen (a rarity at the time), and was the first computer with a fully assembled circuit board. Eventually, the little group made and sold two hundred Apple I for $666.66 each. With loan of $250,000 Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Armas Clifford 'Mike' Markkula joined forces to form Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. By mid-1977, they had improved upon the design of the Apple I and the Apple II was made available to the public. Ever wondered why the Company was named, Apple Computer? Simply because the trio realized that Apple" would come before the most famous name in computers at the time, Atari. Over the years, Apple Computers continued to improve, becoming cheaper thereby making it easier for many homes to have a personal computer. Apple was the first computer company to use GUI (Graphical User Interface) in their machines; a concept that was to revolutionize the computer industry. After many trials and errors, Apple came out with a true home computer, the Apple Macintosh or Mac in 1984. The Apple Computer was the beginning of desktop publishing era. Apple revolutionized publishing with its magic combination of a PC, it's LaserWriter printer and specialized software, Aldus PageMaker and MacPublisher. Aldus is now Adobe PageMaker. These components allowed the designing and printing of documents complete with text and graphics. It is for this reason that the Macintosh is still a favorite among the graphic design crowd. Apple faced stiff competition from Microsoft, especially in relation to the cost of PC-clones. Apple's popularity waned and the home PC market was taken over by Bill Gates' Microsoft. However, there are still many different lines of Macs on the market today: the iMac and Power Mac being two of the most popular.
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