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By Marianne Schultz

The Computer History Museum of Mountain View, California has put on display a pair documents from Apple’s early years, outlining the company’s strategic planning, optimism, and doubts as it embarked on a mission to forever change the world with its line of Macintosh computers.

The first is a Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum from 1977, donated by one of Apple’s initial investors, Mike Markkula, while the second is a Macintosh Business Plan from 1981, donated by Dan Kottke, the company’s first employee.

The Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum outlines the offering of up to 150,000 shares of common stock, supported by an evaluation of the market and competitors in relation to Apple’s products and strategy. This was the first offering of shares for the fledgling company following its founding by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Among the risk factors listed at the start of the document are an acknowledgement of the

by New Mexico Business Weekly

While Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs may rule the roost today, having created must-have popular devices like the iPod and iPhone, 32 years ago he was “young and relatively in-experienced in the high volume consumer electronics business.”

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has posted copies of two early Apple Computer Inc. documents — the first business plan for the Macintosh computer and Apple’s first IPO plan — which give insight into Apple’s early days.

In a statement that may make a modern reader chuckle, the 1977 IPO plan says, “Apple Computers’ Management team is young and relatively in-experienced in the high volume consumer electronics business.”

The Macintosh business plan, dated 12 July 1981 and set in antique Mac fonts that look primitive to a modern eye, contains the exhortation “and today is the first day of the rest of your life…”

It compares the performance of the $1,500

By Jacqui Cheng

Are you a history buff and a computer nerd? If so, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View has some Apple documents from as far back as 1977 that give some insight into Apple’s beginnings.

A couple of documents giving insight into Apple’s early days are making the rounds today thanks to The Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, California. Apple’s Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan and Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum have both been posted to the museum’s website, donated by Dan Kottke and Mike Markkula.

According to the CHM, the Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan was released internally in 1982 (but is dated 1981) while the Preliminary Confidential Offering Memorandum (the company’s originally IPO plan) was issued around 1977. The documents themselves are pretty standard, though Apple-watchers will undoubtedly find tidbits of amusement in statements like “Apple Computers’ Management team is young and relatively in-experienced in the high volume