If you scroll back 40 years ago, you will find Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne starting Apple Computers on April 1, 1976.
Apple just released a 40-second video reminding itself, and the world, of its most important contributions to tech history.
Here are some "then and now" comparisons based on the company's prestigious 40 years of existence.
Personal Computers
Apple I was the company's first device, which launched in 1977. It sported a little more than a circuit board, having no keyboard, no screen and no case. Wozniak was in charge of manufacturing, and he priced the Apple I at $666.66. The device featured 4 KB of standard memory, but there was an option to get either 8 KB or 48 KB via expansion cards. It worked on an exclusive text-based interface and was able to display 40 x 24 characters.
In 2016, Apple offers portability via the three MacBook variants and desktop performance in form of the iMac computer, which holsters all its hardware into a 21.5 or 27-inch AIO. With a 5K resolution, the larger iMac boasts five times the quality level found in HD. When looking at contemporary memory size, the minimum 8 GB of RAM is 2 million times bigger than the processing power from the Apple I.
Music
The first portable MP3 players appeared in the '90s, but Apple did not immediately jump in the bandwagon. The first players had a capacity of about 32 MB of storage.
In October 2001, Apple was launching the first iPod. Today's version has access to more than 20 million songs, cloud storage, and digital music can be streamed via smartphone or tablet. Today, the smallest MP3 Player from Apple, the iPod Nano, holsters 2 GB of music. That is 64 times more than the first players from 20 years ago.
Smartphones
When the original iPhone rolled out in 2007, it came with a storage capacity of 4 GB or 8 GB and a 3.5-inch screen sporting resolutions of 320 x 480p. This means that the average resolution was 165 pixels per inch (ppi). The rear facing camera (the only one, at the time) was a 2-megapixel, unable of shooting videos. The App Store was only an idea, and the initial iPhone landed with just a few apps.
In comparison, the iPhone 6s from 2015 has a solid configuration. It brings at least 16 GB storage, four times as much as the original iPhone, alongside a 4.7 or 5.5-inch screen. The ppi count of the smaller iPhone 6s variant is almost twice as high as the one from the original iPhone.
The main rear camera on the iPhone 6s is six times more powerful than the venerable iPhone from 2007, not to mention that the selfie-snapper is twice and a half as good.
Tablets
Apple did have its own flukes, and Newton MessagePad that launched in 1993 with a stylus was one of them. In spite of its novelty and note-taking abilities, the device was too early for its time and lacked in reliability.
The latest iPad Pro is a different breed, entirely. Its 9.7-inch display can handle 4K video and is pressure sensitive, opening up creative ways of using the contemporary stylus, the Apple Pencil. Note taking is sharp and precise, with the manufacturer touting that the iPad Pro is the go-to tool for design professionals of today and tomorrow.
Apple had a slew of impressive achievements over the years, and there's no denying that it changed the way people use and view technology. Check out the video below to see Apple's 40 years in 40 seconds.
