What is the origin of the name Apple?

[Cheese]

My twelve year old daughter Gabby wants to know how the name Apple was conceived. I don't remember, though I'm sure I've been told before. As a noob, I am certain that there are more people interested in the answer to this question. I assured her that her second question, "where did the name microsoft come from?", was pointless, since all things MS should be obsolete by next year this time. Ah, what work there is in the proper upbringing of a young mind.

[medea]

"Steve Jobs had worked during the summer at an apple farm, and admired the Beatles' record label, Apple. He also believed Apples to be the most perfect fruit. He and Steve Wozniak were trying to figure out a name for their new company, and they decided that if they couldn't think of one by the end of the day that was better than Apple, they would choose Apple. They couldn't think of anything better, so on April 1, 1976, Apple Computer, Inc. was born.

But they needed a logo. The first design included Sir Isaac Newton, a tree and a banner that said "Apple Computer." Jobs decided they needed a less busy logo, one that would signify a brand. The second logo attempt was very similar to the current logo, but without the bite taken out of it. Jobs thought this logo looked too much like an orange. The third attempt was the logo that Apple still uses."

[medea]

sorry, forgot to post this pic.

[Cheese]

Many thanks to you for the very informative reply. I especially enjoyed the slightly ancient cover from Apple-1. BONUS!! I know that I can always count on MacRumors for the best info anywhere.

[MacFan25]

Some more info on Apple's history can be found at this site:

www.apple-history.com

[janey]

actually, in all the biographies of Steve Jobs that I have read lately, he named the company Apple because one of his friends had an apple orchard that he did stuff at.

[wdlove]

Thank you medea and MacFan25 for the historical information. Does anyone have what the 1st Apple logo looked like?

[BrittasMac]

I heard that Apple Records influenced Jobs as well as the aforementioned reasons.

[rainman::|:|]

it's also rumored that the bite was carved out of the apple to signify the role of the buyer in customizing and assembling the computer... tho i think it's more likely that it's random.

side note, they began selling their computer kits to local resellers and found themselves needing a standard retail price for their units. Between the Apple name and logo, and the $666.66 price tag, it had a few people upset-- tho Woz later said (paraphrased) 'I just took the two most spiritual numbers i could think of, 777.77 and 111.11 and subtracted one from the other.'

how i would have loved to have been alive in the late '70's, to hang out with those two. Drugs, geeks and engineering-- what more could a guy want?

edit: this is more well known... but... Apple has had other connections with Apple records, including some legal issues with their name-- but it was decided that as long as the computers had nothing to do with music/sound, there was no trademark infringement. So when the Apple computer made a sound other than a Beep, they named it 'sosume', So Sue Me. Little obscure humor... and sosume was an alert sound into the late '90's, but no one ever paid much attention to the name...

:)
pnw

[strider42]

Originally posted by BrittasMac
I heard that Apple Records influenced Jobs as well as the aforementioned reasons.

and then they sued apple. They actually got a settlement a few years ago because when apple started making stuff like iTunes, they were arguably in the music industry as well, in which case apple records had the right to protect their copyright.

[topicolo]

Heh heh. They finally got their revenge after 20 something years :D