The Apple success story has two protagonists: Let's get to know the other computer genius 'Steve', Steve Wozniak
Due to his interest in technology while still in high school, Steve, who developed various electronic devices such as amateur radio, voltmeter, calculator and blue box that allows free international calls, did not even have a computer due to financial difficulties. But this interest would make him a computer genius later on…
Born on August 11, 1950 in San Jose, now Silicon Valley, Steve Wozniak is originally from Poland. Wozniak, who was expelled from the school due to unauthorized access to the computer system of the school and many other mischief while he was studying at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1969, returned to his education life at De Anza College thanks to a project he developed in 1971. He was then transferred to the University of Berkeley in 1972.
Stephen Gary Wozniak (born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he co-founded Apple Inc., which later became the world's largest technology company by revenue and the largest company in the world by market capitalization.
Wozniak, who left the university in 1976 due to financial difficulties, started to work as a technician at Hewlett Packard (HP) company and when Steve Jobs started his internship there, Jobs and Wozniak's paths crossed. When Wozniak's idea of producing a personal computer and Jobs' idea of combining the product in question and offering it for sale were combined, the first step on the road to multi-billionaire was taken. Wozniak was not as ambitious as Jobs in the business world. He liked to produce rather than earn money. Jobs persuaded Wozniak to sell the computer, with the promise that if they were not successful, they could at least tell their grandchildren that they had started their own company.
The story of Wozniak and Jobs starting computer production is quite inspiring. In order to solve their financial problems, the duo started to produce their first prototypes in Jobs' bedroom, earning $1300 by selling Wozniak's HP calculator and Jobs' Volkswagen trailer, and continued to work in Jobs' garage when they could not fit in here. They built the Apple I using a cheap microprocessor and a few more chips. Wozniak wanted to sell the Apple I, which he had cost $ 20, to the HP company, where he was still working, for $ 40. However, due to the lack of a computer bus structure suitable for users to add memory and interface cards, Hewlett-Packard did not buy the computer and the Apple I took its place in history as a simple hobby tool.
Due to Hewlett-Packard's rejection, Wozniak and Jobs founded Apple Computer on April 1, 1976. Continuing his work rapidly, Wozniak added new chips to the Apple I and enabled Apple computers to display graphics. Thus, the new Apple computer started to display not only text but also pictures. The marketing genius of Jobs and Wozniak's work yielded positive results and the Apple II found a great place in the market. In 1980 Apple Computer went public, now Wozniak and Jobs were wealthy.
But after that, things didn't go as expected. It was at this time that Wozniak suffered a plane crash and suffered from short-term memory loss. So much so that he could not remember the accident and the hospital period after it for a long time. Deciding to finish school instead of returning to Apple after the accident, Wozniak combined his dog's name and his wife's pre-marital surname to avoid being recognized by the University of Berkeley, where he is notorious, by combining Rocky Raccoon Clark.
He returned with his name and graduated. Wozniak, who returned to Apple, the other half of the apple, of which he was the founder, in 1983, did not want to take part in the management field as before and continued to work only as an engineer. Wozniak, while working part-time at Apple, gave another company a remote control design very similar to Apple products. Stating that the problem between them is not personal, Jobs said that the product is similar to Apple products and that Wozniak cannot benefit from Apple resources. After this incident, cold winds began to blow between Jobs and Wozniak.
Wozniak, who turned to some social responsibility activities in order to eliminate the negative effects of the cold war on people at that time, established a company called "UNUSON" (Unite Us in Song) for this purpose. Wozniak, who organizes festivals that combine technology and music with famous music groups such as U2, Santana, Scorpions, The Police, Ozzy Osbourne, The Clash, under the roof of this company, did not regret this despite having lost 20 million dollars.
Wozniak, who still continues to provide computer assistance to many schools, also continues to teach. He has also been working as a "master engineer" in the company "Fusionio" since 2009.
Wozniak called the Vatican with his blue box, which is his own invention, with which international calls can be made, introduced himself as Henry Kissinger, and hung up when the officials said that the Pope was asleep.