At 40, There's Never Been a Tech Company Quite Like Apple (qz.com)

Mike Murphy, reporting for Quartz: Forty years ago today, two college dropouts decided to start selling cobbled-together computers out of a garage in California because they couldn't afford the ones on the market. They had an intricate wood-cut logo, not much money or manpower, and their first computer only sold about 175 units. But in the years between then and now, Apple has become one of the most valuable companies in the world, spurring revolutions in how we communicate, use computers, listen to music, and to a lesser extent, tell the time. [...] Some critics think that Apple is boring now, setting itself up to iterate on its successes and lock customers into their services with products that are very good, but nothing they haven't really seen before. This is a solid business strategy that will provide strong returns for years to come, but not those eye-popping leaps we've seen before. Here's a video Apple published recently showcasing 40 of its most remarkable products.

Comments

Re:college dropouts?

[netsavior]

It is mostly something that people say to fool themselves into thinking it can happen to them. Ever notice these famous "college drop-outs" had the luxury of dropping out of prestigious and expensive universities? Someone drops out of Reed, Harvard, or Yale has a better chance of making it than someone who graduates from a state university.

If you are already on third base, you don't have to hit the ball in order to score.

Re:college dropouts?

[Jason Levine]

I wonder what the stats are about percentage of college dropouts (or never even attended college) who successfully started their own company vs percentage of college dropouts who tried to start their own company and failed vs percentage of college graduates who did the same. You hear all these stories of "So-And-So dropped out of college and started a multi-million-dollar company" but you don't hear the "So-And-So dropped out of college, tried to start his own business, failed miserably six months in amassing a ton in personal debt, and went to live in his parents' basement for the next three years while he tried to dig himself out of debt" stories.