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Which came first, Apple or Microsoft?

Which came first, Apple or Microsoft?
Microsoft
1975 — one year before Apple

Microsoft came first, by one year. Gates and Allen founded Micro-Soft in Albuquerque.

Side by side

Apple Microsoft
Year 1976 1975
Date 1976-04-01 1975-04-04
Category company company
What happened Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded Apple Computer Company. Gates and Allen founded Micro-Soft in Albuquerque.

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.

Microsoft

Microsoft was founded in April 1975 to sell a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 — a product they had demonstrated before writing all of it. It predates Apple by almost exactly one year. The hyphen was dropped in 1976 and the company moved to Washington state in 1979.

Common questions

Which came first, Apple or Microsoft?
Microsoft, by one year — 1975 against 1976.
When did Apple start?
1976. Jobs, Wozniak and Wayne founded Apple Computer Company.
When did Microsoft start?
1975. Gates and Allen founded Micro-Soft in Albuquerque.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)

How these figures are compiled and checked