Apple launched yet another computer, the Apple III, in 1980. Apple began refining the Apple II, releasing the Apple IIe and the Apple Lisa in 1983. The IIe was never able to live up to the success of the Apple II and the Apple Lisa was an ugly disaster. It was expensive, had limited functionality and was extremely ugly, even for the time.
In 1984, Apple changed the computer market by releasing the Apple Macintosh. The
Macintosh was one of the first computers to use hard drives instead of floppy
disks. People could still use floppy disks, but there was already a built in storage system. The computer used a completely new operating system, which was creatively named System Software 1.0. The commercial for the original Macintosh was the revolutionary 1984 Big Brother Commercial.
This helped the Macintosh gain popularity early on. The Macintosh was a success and Apple continued to make models of the computer. At first, floppy disks were still popular, but over the years, they became less and less used until 1998 when Apple dealt the final blow with
the iMac. There was no slot for floppy disks, meaning that Apple was no longer
letting people use floppy disks in their computers. Speaking of Apple taking
things away, remember when the iPhone used to have a headphone jack?
In 1985, Microsoft was partnered with one of the biggest companies in the computer market at the time, IBM. Microsoft was working with IBM on OS/2. Bill Gates left to make Microsoft Windows. Windows was a revolutionary environment (not an operating system). It was similar to System Software 1.0 but was able to run in colour, unlike System Software. The environment was named Windows because of its multitasking abilities. The Macintosh was also able to multitask.
Microsoft continued making versions of Windows. Windows 3.1 in 1990 was another major release in the Windows series. Microsoft changed the interface, adding icons for applications as opposed to listing them in the disk directory before. Windows 3.1 featured games such as Reversi, Minesweeper and Solitaire.
In Apple headquarters, the Board of Directors was unhappy with the direction the company was going. Steve Jobs often overworked his employees, and this gave a bad impression to the Board. Steve Jobs was unhappy with his position in the company, and decided to resign in 1985. After he left, he founded NeXT Inc. The company featured some employees from Apple who Steve Jobs decided to take with him. Their first of three computers made by the company was the creatively named NeXT Computer. It was an expensive computer that never got off the ground due to its high price and poor marketing. The company only ever made two other computers, all of which had poor sales. Steve Jobs also helped create the Graphics Group (a company that would eventually become Pixar) in 1986. In 1995, they made their first movie, Toy Story, and Jobs was the executive producer. The film was very innovative at the time, as it was completely computer animated, unlike other films at the time. It was a huge success and helped launched Pixar. Apple struggled without the leadership with Steve Jobs. They suffered poor sales and the versions of the Macintosh computer were slipping in sales. Microsoft was gaining even more popularity with its Windows operating system.
In 1995, Microsoft changed the user interface completely and created Windows 95. Every version of Windows after Windows 95 has been based off of Windows 95. 95 introduced the Start button, the Taskbar and the Windows Explorer. One day after the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft threw its hat into the internet ring and launched Internet Explorer.