Computer History Museum Gives Tech Entrepreneurs Insights into Early Growth of Industry’s Pioneers

The Computer History Museum, located in Mountain View, CA, consists of an intriguing collection of facts and artifacts that chronicle the growth of computer technology as an industry.  Have you ever wondered what Steve Jobs’ and Steve Wozniak’s vision for Apple Computer was 32 years ago?  The museum just posted on its Web site the first business plan for the Macintosh computer and Apple’s first IPO plan.  These plans offer insights that some entrepreneurs will find surprising, some will find funny and some are sure to find inspiring.  For instance, Steve Jobs, whose iPod and iPhone offerings are considered among the most dominating devices in personal electronics today, described himself in 1977 as “young and relatively in-experienced in the high volume consumer electronics business.”

The museum’s Web site is packed with information including a timeline of computing from 1939 when Hewlett-Packard was founded in a Palo Alto, California garage. HP’s first product was the HP 200A Audio Oscillator, which rapidly became a popular piece of test equipment for engineers. Walt Disney Pictures ordered eight of the 200B model to use as sound effects generators for the 1940 movie “Fantasia.”

For more from the timeline, visit the Computer History Museum’s Web site
http://www.computerhistory.org/highlights/earlyapple/