To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Thirty-Four Years Ago Today Apple Changed The World Of Technology Forever

Thirty-Four Years Ago Today Apple Changed The World Of Technology Forever

Nobody could have seen it coming then, but Steve Jobs had just set the ball rolling on one of the world’s biggest ever success stories

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

On this day in 1984, the world of technology changed forever.

They didn't know it then, but the people who attended the Apple Annual Shareholder's Meeting on Tuesday 24 January 1984 to watch Steve Jobs unveil the latest machine from the Apple Company - the Mackintosh - were witnessing the birth of the biggest company in the world.

Sure, it took some time to get there, but now Apple is worth £166 billion ($234.7bn) worldwide, and had a revenue of more than £152bn ($214.6bn) last year alone.

Steve Jobs Unveiled the Apple Macintosh 34 Years Ago.
YouTube

Back in 1984 Apple was a small fish in the personal computing pond. They had released a few machines that were pretty good, but they were more expensive to buy and they were being beaten by companies like the giant IBM and more popular machines like the Commodore 64.

They took a huge risk in creating the Mackintosh as many software companies were working to make their machines compatible with the IBM PC. Apple broke the mould by creating their own machine that ran on their own software and had nothing in common with the IBM computer whatsoever.

They also made it so it could be used by anyone - the world's first truly accessible personal computer. One of the biggest innovations was the use of a mouse, which seems strange now, but then was revolutionary.

Since then, Apple has grown from strength to strength. They have kept innovating and changing the game as they have gone along.

Their next huge innovation was the iPod - such a simple idea, a portable music player, yet Apple perfected the art in 2001 and have sold 390 million units since then.

As it happens, the maximum storage you could get for an iPod was 128GB. That is 1,000,000 times as much storage as you got with the first Mackintosh. The computer age comes at you fast.

Then the release of the iPhone happened in 2007. The world of mobile phone technology changed forever. Apple weren't the first to imagine a smart phone, but they were the most successful and continue to lead to charge for smart phones to this day.

Over 1.2 billion iPhones have been sold since the start, over 11 generations. The latest iPhone has facial recognition technology as well as a whole load of other features that must have seemed so far into the future on that Tuesday in 1984.

The Latest Apple iPhone X.
Apple

They still remember it though. If you have an incomplete download on a Mac operating system, the date modified box will read: 24 January 1984.

Featured Image Credit: PA / YouTube

Topics: Phones and Gadgets, UK News, US News, technology news, Apple, iPhone