Key dates in the history of Apple: 1976: Co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak unveil the first Apple computer in Palo Alto, California. It consists of little more than a circuit board and costs just under $700.
1977: The Apple II with a one-megahertz processor becomes the first mass produced computer and an instant hit.
1980: Apple becomes a publicly traded company.
1983: Lisa, the first personal computer featuring a mouse for navigating and desktop icons and folders, is introduced. Its failure is blamed on a daunting price of nearly $10,000.
1984: The Macintosh computer makes its debut. It is affordable and features innovations such as a disk drive, built-in monitor, and a mouse.
1985: Jobs resigns after being stripped of control of Apple in an internal power struggle.
1986: Apple chief executive John Sculley becomes company president. Jobs starts computer company NeXT and buys Lucasfilm's computer graphics division, renaming it Pixar.
1996: Apple buys NeXT and makes Jobs an Apple adviser.
1997: Jobs replaces Gil Amelio as head of Apple. Arch-rival Microsoft invests 150 million dollars in the company.
1998: Jobs revamps Apple's product line, churning out colorful $1,300 iMac desktop computers designed with monitors and drives in the same casing.
1999: The iBook, marketed as a mobile iMac, is introduced.
2001: Apple launches a portable MP3 digital music player, the iPod, for $399 and opens its first retail store in Palo Alto.
2003: Apple opens online music store iTunes.
2004: Jobs undergoes an operation for pancreatic cancer.
2007: Apple introduces the iPhone, launching the era of the touchscreen smartphone.
2009: Jobs goes on medical leave in January, returning to work in June after undergoing a liver transplant.
2010: Jobs unveils the iPad in January and the touchscreen tablet computer goes on sale in April, becoming a huge hit. Apple surpasses Microsoft in May as the largest US technology company in terms of market value.