Do you ever wonder why Apple is named Apple?
This idea sprung upon as we were staring blankly on our desk and saw these glowing apples on our machines and gadgets. So with a little research here’s what we found out.
Apple company without a doubt holds an exciting corporate-level identity. This is because of the company’s legacy of producing the most reliable and sophisticated products of the 21st century.
Behind this fame, the company has an interesting story behind the name of its brand. There were many speculations of the brand name’s origin. Some people say that they chose this name to prevent people from stereotyping the brand as cold. Some say it deviates the notion of being just pure machinery. Others say that this name was chosen to place their startup in front of Atari when you’re browsing through a phonebook.
The phonebook was a device used in the early days to list down personal contacts of people and businesses.
Atari and Apple
Steve Jobs used to work for Atari as a video game designer. He left the company several months later to find spiritual enlightenment in India.
During the company’s conception, Jobs proposed Nolan Bushnell (Atari founder) a $50,000 stock in the first Apple Computer made from borrowed Atari parts.
Bushnell turned down the offer as he said at that time that he was not interested in ‘home computers’.
Atari was the main competitor of Apple during the 80s when they launched their first personal computers. The first models were named, Atari 400 and 800 and was released in the fall of 1979.
Simply Apple
In one of the founders’ conversations, Steve Jobs suggested this name when he was on his fruitarian diet. Moreover, he added that the name sounds spirited, fun, and not intimidating.
Early photo of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
Between Steve Jobs’s vagabond years from 1975 to 1976, he traveled from California to the state of Oregon. He then spent some time working in apple orchards. This period corresponded during the time when Jobs and Wozniak were operating on the development of their company.
For Allan Turing
It is also known that Allen Turing inspired the bite of the apple logo. Turing died when he chose to bite an apple with cyanide.
It’s an excellent idea that Jobs and Wozniak wanted to honor Turing, the enigma code-breaker who was prominently attributed as the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
But according to the famous logo creator Rob Janoff, the bite was created to give it a sense of scale so no one confuses it with any other fruit like cherry.
Phone book
As mentioned above, the phone book was also a well-known reason behind the ‘Apple’ name. In 1976 when Apple was founded, people often chose a name that was closest to the letter ‘A’. The theory was that if a customer searched for a product, they would start alphabetically.
With a name like Apple, the new computer company would appear in-front of rivals like Atari.
It seems that there is some truth in this.
Jobs said in his 1980 presentation that they named it Apple partly because:
- He simply liked apples.
- Apple is ahead of Atari in the phone book.
Newton and Apple
“Newton, a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought alone”
The very first logo of Apple was an illustration of Newton sitting under a tree designed by Steve Jobs.
This logo represents how Newton discovered gravity when he saw a falling apple while thinking about the forces of nature. Unfortunately, this version of the Apple logo didn’t last long.
Adam and Eve
There is also a theory that the apple with a bite represents the same apple from the Garden of Eden.
As we all know, the bite of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge is said to have started the lost of innocence of Adam and Eve. Likewise, computers are certainly a tool by which we become well-informed.
