Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were outcasts while they were in high school; by 1975, they had withdrawn from Reed College and UC Berkeley, respectively.

Jobs managed to interest Wozniak in assembling a machine and selling it. The machine had only a few notable features. One was the use of a TV as the display system, whereas many machines had no display at all.

Apple II was presented to the public at the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 16 and April 17, 1977. The main difference internally was a completely redesigned TV interface, which held the display in memory. Now not only useful for simple text display, the Apple II included graphics, and, eventually, color.

The Apple III (Apple 3) was designed to take on the IBM PC in the business environment. However, Steve Jobs did not want the computer to have a fan.Unfortunately, the physical design of the case was not sufficient to cool the components inside it. By removing the fan from the design, the Apple III was prone to overheating.

On December 12, 1980, Apple launched the Initial Public Offering of its stock to the investing public. When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history.