Forwards or Backwards

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Apple, a Timeline

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Apple's history is usually told as a run of inventions. Laid out by date it is something else: a company that has almost never gone first, that twice came close to ending, and whose rescue the second time was not a machine but a shop.

This is the timeline, in order, with the dates attached.

1976, a circuit board on a kitchen table at $666.66, about two hundred made. 1979, and the spreadsheet somebody else wrote that made the Apple II worth owning. The twenty-fourth of January 1984 and a $2,495 Macintosh carrying an interface Xerox had built first. 1985, and a thirty-year-old co-founder losing a board fight and leaving. The decade nobody retells, when a long product list, a stalled operating system and licensed clones took the company to the ordinary kind of trouble where a finite amount of cash meets a rate of loss.

Then the turn. The twentieth of December 1996 and $400 million for NeXT, eleven years after removing the man who ran it. The sixth of August 1997, and Microsoft's $150 million in non-voting stock, a patent cross-licence and a commitment to keep shipping Office for the Mac — booed in the hall, and the answer to the only question corporate buyers were asking.

Then the shop. The iPod on the twenty-third of October 2001. The iTunes Music Store on the twenty-eighth of April 2003, 200,000 songs at 99 cents, all five majors signed — and the first time Apple took a cut of a transaction between two other parties. The iPhone on the ninth of January 2007, with no third-party applications at all. And the App Store on the tenth of July 2008, 500 applications, which is the moment a computer company became a landlord.

Then the consequences. The trillions, and the order they arrived in. And the two courts now asking whether the company that builds a platform is entitled to be the only route onto it — the European Commission's €500 million anti-steering fine of 23 April 2025, and the Department of Justice's monopolisation suit, whose motion to dismiss was largely denied on 30 June 2025.

And then the ninth of September 2026, and a folding phone seven years after somebody else's.

Every figure in this film carries its date and its source. Nothing here is a prediction.

Educational documentary. Not financial or investment advice.

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Chapters

  1. A board on a kitchen table
  2. The program that sold the machine
  3. The twenty-fourth of January, 1984
  4. The founder is removed
  5. The decade that nearly ended it
  6. Buying the future back
  7. The sixth of August, 1997
  8. Fewer things, one shape
  9. A thousand songs
  10. The twenty-eighth of April, 2003
  11. The ninth of January, 2007
  12. The tenth of July, 2008
  13. The succession
  14. The trillions
  15. The argument about the toll
  16. The ninth of September, 2026

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Sources and credits

Primary sources

  • Smithsonian National Museum of American History, object record for the Apple I microcomputer (nmah_1692121) — the $666.66 price, Wozniak's liking for repeating digits, about 200 made, and the Homebrew Computer Club reception. Accessed 17 September 2026.
  • Apple, 'Apple Presents iPod', apple.com newsroom, 23 October 2001 — 5 GB, up to 1,000 CD-quality songs, 6.5 ounces, up to 10 hours of battery, $399, and the Jobs quote about the collection going in a pocket.
  • Apple, 'Apple Launches the iTunes Music Store', apple.com newsroom, 28 April 2003 — over 200,000 songs at 99 cents, BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner, and the burn/copy rights Jobs led on.
  • Apple, 'Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone', apple.com newsroom, 9 January 2007 — 4 GB at $499 and 8 GB at $599, US availability June 2007, Europe late 2007, and the 'five years ahead' quote.
  • Apple, 'iPhone 3G on Sale Tomorrow', apple.com newsroom, 10 July 2008 — the App Store opening with more than 500 native applications, more than 125 of them free.
  • Apple, 'Letter from Steve Jobs', apple.com newsroom, 24 August 2011, and Apple's media advisory of 5 October 2011 — the resignation wording, the recommendation of Tim Cook, and Cook's message to staff.
  • MacRumors, '25 Years Ago, Apple Acquired NeXT and Brought Back Steve Jobs', 20/22 December 2021 — the 20 December 1996 announcement, the approximately $400 million price, and the Amelio and Jobs quotes. Apple's own 1996 release is no longer served from a stable public URL; this reproduces it.
  • CNBC, 2 August 2018; CNBC, 19 August 2020; CNBC, 3 January 2022 — Apple first to $1 trillion, $2 trillion and $3 trillion respectively.
  • CNBC and Bloomberg, 28 October 2025 — Apple crosses $4 trillion, third to that mark after Nvidia and Microsoft. 9to5Mac, 28 July 2026 — Apple crosses $5 trillion intraday, second to that mark after Nvidia, which reached it on 29 October 2025.
  • Apple, 'Apple reports third quarter results', apple.com newsroom, 30 July 2026 — quarter ended 27 June 2026: revenue $109.4 billion, up 16 per cent year over year; diluted EPS $2.02, up 29 per cent; gross margin 50.1 per cent, including approximately 2 percentage points from tariff refunds.
  • European Commission, press release IP/25/1085, 23 April 2025 — €500 million fine on Apple for breach of the DMA anti-steering obligation (technical and commercial restrictions preventing developers from informing customers of cheaper offers outside the App Store), and €200 million on Meta on a separate point.
  • Mintz, 'Judge Allows Justice Department's iPhone Monopolization Suit to Proceed', 2 July 2025 — DOJ filed March 2024 in the District of New Jersey; Judge Julien Xavier Neals largely denied Apple's motion to dismiss on 30 June 2025.
  • Apple, 'Apple unveils iPhone Duo', apple.com newsroom, 9 September 2026 — 7.6-inch inner display, 5.4-inch outer display, A20 Pro, from $1,999 for 256 GB, pre-orders 16 October 2026, on sale 23 October 2026 in more than 70 countries with 28 more on 30 October. Apple newsroom archive for September 2026 — iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12 and AirPods 5, all 9 September 2026.

Not regulated financial advice.