Apple is 40. Today.

Apple turns 40 today. Yep, it was April Fool's Day, I eh, kid you not.

Now employing nearly 150,000 people and with a value of 700 Billion usd, it's been a long road.

Steve Jobs and Woz met in 1971 but it was in 1976 that they launched Apple1, 50 of them, which 'they' built by hand. 

If you still have one, it's worth about 400k usd today. It was launched to their pals at The Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto. 

1977 they launched Apple2; 1978 the external floppy drive; 1980 The Apple3 and went public.

In 1981 Jobs became Chairman; 1983 was the launch of 'Lisa' and John Sculley joined.

1984 was the famous commercial which Jobs originally voiced and then replaced with Richard Dreyfuss; 1985 was when 'Lisa' was dropped and Jobs left.

1987 Woz left; 1989 was the first portable (Mac book); 1991 it launched Quicktime; 1997 Jobs returned and the famous partnership with Microsoft; 1998 was the Imac; 2001 Itunes and the Ipod; 2006 The MacBook Pro.

2007 The Iphone; 2008 The Macbook Air; 2010 The Ipad; 2011 Siri and ICloud.

In 2007 Jobs resigned and Tim Cook took over with Jobs dying that October at 56.

Since then, the Ipad mini in 2012, Beats in 2014 and the Apple Watch.

Long story, great company based entirely on one word.
Innovation.

The Steve Jobs firing from Apple by his best friend, John Sculley, in 1985. John Sculley video talks about it this week for the first time.....and Jobs about Sculley "he destroyed everything, starting with me"

Steve Jobs recruited John Sculley from President at Pepsi (which he had joined in 1963) on the infamous quote that did Sculley want to sell sugar water all his life, or join Jobs and change the world? Sculley had been famous for developing 'The Pepsi Challenge' 1975 taste-test campaign.

That was 1983 and they became best friends describing it as an "amazing partnership". In 1984, there was the famous Superbowl commercial, "1984" (ironically).

Eventually Jobs believed Sculley was "bad for Apple" and a power struggle culminated in a Board showdown in May 1985. Having been best friends, they were now best enemies.

The Board sided with Sculley and 5 months later, Jobs resigned from Apple. Of course in 1986 he started Pixar and in 1995 produced their first feature, 'Toy Story'. Jobs was the Executive Producer.

In 1996 Jobs rejoined Apple and the rest, as they say, is history. Sculley had left/fired in 1993. 

It's pretty clear that the clash was between an innovator and a business head. Sculley was focused on structure, cashflow and traditional business whilst Jobs was just an unruly doer. Jobs, it has to be said, was no angel either.

And Sculley has never talked about it...until this week aged 74. Worth a look.

And then at the very,very end of this piece - hear Jobs talking about Sculley - "I hired the wrong guy.....he destroyed everything I'd spent 10 years working for...starting with me"