Steve Jobs has transformed Apple's strategy in the 13 months since he returned from corporate exile. Licensing the Mac OS is all but a memory. Online sales have been embraced. A grammatically clunky but still striking corporate message is abroad. The new G3 line of Power Macs is the company's hottest product launch ever. And today, Apple announced its first profitable quarter since Bob Dole was a contender. A chronology of Apple since Jobs came back:
20 December 1996: Apple, seeking to modernize its graying Macintosh operating systems, announces it will acquire Jobs' Next Inc., the company that created the NextStep operating system and WebObjects, for US$400 million. The bigger news: Eleven years after he was ousted, Jobs returns as an advisor to the company he cofounded.
9 July 1997: Apple's board fires chairman and chief executive Gil Amelio, the former National Semiconductor leader and alleged turnaround artist who directed Apple's march to a series of huge losses. The company announces a greater role for Jobs, but says he will not become CEO.
22 July: Apple releases System 8, the first thorough Mac OS makeover in three years. System 8 becomes the company's best-selling software title, with an estimated 3 million copies sold through 6 January.
8 August: At Boston Macworld, Jobs announces big news: Apple will take a $150 million investment from Microsoft and get a commitment from its erstwhile bête noire to develop future Mac versions of Office and Internet Explorer. He also announces dramatic changes to the board of directors. In addition to himself, Oracle's Larry Ellison, former IBM big Jerry York, and Intuit chief Bill Campbell get seats at the table.
18 August: Borrowing heavily from Weiden Kennedy's Nike campaign, Apple urges the world to "Think Different." The campaign is the work of TBWA Chiat/Day, the agency responsible for Apple's legendary "1984" ad. Images appropriated in the attempt to make the market see how profound Apple really is: Martha Graham, the Dalai Lama, Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali, Gandhi, Picasso.
2 September: Apple buys out Power Computing's Mac license and limits Mac OS use by other licensees. The move effectively kills clone competition to its own line of machines.
15 October: The company announces a loss of $161 million in its fiscal fourth quarter.
4 November: Apple announces a partnership with CompUSA to open Mac "stores-within-stores" in 57 of the chain's outlets. Apple's share of store sales climbed from 3 percent to 14 percent from October through December.
10 November: Jobs gathers the Apple tribe to launch the Mac G3 line. The new machines use Motorola's new PowerPC 750 microprocessor and feature speeds as high as 266 Mhz. Following the lead of Dell Computer, whose land-rush online businesses uses Jobs' WebObjects, the company opens its first digital storefront.
11 December: Announcement: In just 30 days of operation, $12 million in orders have been booked through the online store.
13 January 1998: Apple Computer announces a $47 million profit during the first fiscal quarter - the first since the fourth quarter of '96.
To come: Although its effort to bring a low-end Macintosh-based computer (Pippin) to market failed, Apple is expected to enter the network computer race. Also: The world holds its breath for announcement of a permanent CEO to relieve Jobs of day-to-day operational duties.... The company's next-generation OS, Rhapsody, is slated for release in the third quarter.
