There once was a farmer in 1796 named Farmer John. He had apple seedlings in that farm in Ontario, Canada. He noticed that those seedlings were not ones he had noticed before. There were 20 of those seedlings. He noticed them while clearing out the farm, which he had just bought. He transplanted the seedlings, cultivated them, and one survived. From that tree came a new breed of apples. Now, Farmer Johns last name was McIntosh. So what do you think whoever named this apple (presumably Farmer John himself) named this new breed? The McIntosh of course!

Zoom up many years later to 1976. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak (Woz), and Ronald Wayne had just created Apple Computer. The apple, at that time, was Steve Jobs’ favorite fruit. He liked the name more than other considered choices and it also put them ahead of Atari (and IBM for that matter) in the phonebook.

Zoom up 8 years and Apple is a very profitable company. The very exciting computer was about to be released. The Macintosh, or Mac, was Apple’s newest, biggest thing. Trying to continue the success of the Apple II, the Macintosh was Apple’s dream. Judging from the name of the company, why do you think they chose that name? Thats right, from Farmer John’s McIntosh apple. The Mac(intosh) comes from the name of the apple which is named after Farmer John McIntosh. (By the way, the reason they didn’t use any other type of apple (gala, fuji etc.) is because the McIntosh was Steve Jobs’ favorite apple.)

Unfortunately, the Macintosh didn’t work to Apple’s expectations and to make matters worse, Steve Jobs got thrown out of the company. After that it was a continuous stream of computers that hardly nobody bought. Microsoft and IBM were about as close to taking over the world as anyone had ever been without actually being a politician, and at Apple, everyone was exhausted, tired and broken down. Apple was at one point 90 days from bankruptcy (imagine if Steve Jobs didn’t return?!). But we know what happened. Steve Jobs came back and saved it from the rubble. He (actually Sir Jony Ive) came up with the iMac, the reintroduction to the Mac(intosh) and profitability.

So you see now the kind of impact that Farmer John has had on Apple? In a series of coincidences, he gave his name to both kinds of apples, the fruit and to a computer. Thank you Farmer John for your unbeknownst contribution to Apple. Now, next time when you see a Mac, you might think a bit more about all the little bits of history that makes Apple, Apple.

Thanks for reading,

Joe