The 11 weirdest moments in Apple history
The company's first product was the Apple I, which was just a motherboard with a processor and some memory, intended for hobbyists. Customers had to build their own case and add their own keyboard and monitor, as seen in the picture. It sold for $666.66 — seriously.
Apple had a largely forgotten cofounder, Ronald Wayne. He got out early, selling his shares back to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for $800. If he held on to them, his 10% stake would be worth billions today.
When Steve Jobs' team launched the original Apple Macintosh in 1984, it ran into a weird problem: Software makers thought the Mac's built-in software was so good, there was no way they could compete.
Apple CEO John Sculley had an unconventional solution: He assigned long-time Apple executive Bill Campbell to become the CEO of a new subsidiary called Claris and gave it the rights to all of that software...all so that developers wouldn't realize they were competing directly with Apple on the Mac.
(Claris is still around, and is still owned by Apple. It just changed its name to FileMaker in 1998, after its flagship product, which helps people build simple apps without coding.)
Jobs was actually fired from Apple in 1985 when he tried to oust Sculley. Apple's board of directors took Sculley's side and removed Jobs from his managerial duties. A furious Jobs quit and went on to found NeXT, a computer company making advanced workstations where he had total control.
Under Sculley, Apple would take some oddball detours. In 1986, Apple had the strange idea to get into fashion with The Apple Collection, a line of computer-inspired "finery."
In case you're wondering, Drake's jacket from WWDC 2015 isn't from the Apple Collection. That particular jacket was made exclusively for employees in the 1990's.
Sculley also got Apple into consumer gadgetry, like the QuickTake digital camera...
...the Bandai Atmark video game system, powered by Apple...
...along with weirder hardware, like the Apple Interactive Television Box, which was kind of an early TiVo-style device. It only ever made it to a thousand rooms in the Disneyland Hotel circa 1995, leaving it an odd footnote in Apple history.
Under Sculley, Apple also made the Newton Messagepad, an early personal digital assistant...
...which became an early meme when "The Simpsons" lampooned the Newton with a classic gag where "Beat Up Martin" gets autocorrected to "Eat Up Martha." Apple was so mortified that it inspired them to perfect the original iPhone's autocorrect.
By the time John Sculley was done at Apple, the company was in serious trouble as Microsoft's power only grew. An Apple exec named Michael Spindler took over in 1993...and got fired in 1996 when he couldn't sell the company to IBM, Sun, or Philips, even though they were offering below market value.
Spindler's successor Gil Amelio was basically doomed from the get-go. Under Amelio, Apple stock hit a 12-year low, largely because Steve Jobs himself sold 1.5 million Apple shares in a single transaction. It basically forced Amelio to buy Jobs' NeXT Computer and bring him back to Apple.
From there, Jobs convinced Apple's board to give him the control of the company he'd always wanted. His first major act as CEO: Getting Microsoft to invest $150 million...as announced to booing, jeering Apple fans by a giant projection of Bill Gates' head.
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