---
title: "Which came first, Apple or Java?"
description: "Apple vs Java: Apple came first, by 19 years — 1976 against 1995. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/apple-vs-java/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Apple or Java?

**Which came first, Apple or Java?: Apple**

1976 — 19 years before Java

Apple came first, by 19 years. Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded Apple Computer Company.

## Side by side

|  | Apple | Java |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1976 | 1995 |
| Date | 1976-04-01 | 1995-05-23 |
| Category | company | technology |
| What happened | Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded Apple Computer Company. | Sun Microsystems announced Java publicly. |

## Apple

Apple was founded on 1 April 1976, a year and a day after Microsoft. Ronald Wayne, the third founder, sold his 10% stake back for $800 twelve days later. The Apple I was a bare circuit board sold for $666.66; the Apple II of 1977 was the machine that made the company.

## Java

Java was announced in May 1995, having started in 1991 as a project called Oak aimed at interactive television — a market that did not exist yet. Its promise was "write once, run anywhere", achieved by compiling to bytecode for a virtual machine rather than to a specific processor. JavaScript arrived seven months later and was named after it purely as a marketing decision; the two languages are unrelated.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Apple or Java?

Apple, by 19 years — 1976 against 1995.

### When did Apple start?

1976. Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded Apple Computer Company.

### When did Java start?

1995. Sun Microsystems announced Java publicly.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]