Which is why technically HP would've owned some of the IP for the Apple I. I remember hearing some account in a book where he told jobs "Wait a second; I did some of this at work, I used their equipment, I think my employer owns this." But then they got HP to sign a release that they had no interest in the IP, and then they were all good to start the company and get funding. Bet HP is kicking themselves for signing that release, though.
"Hey, this kid named Steve down in systems has been using one of the PROM burners to work on some hobbyist computer that he and another Steve who doesn't work for us have been working on.
I got a letter from one of them asking if that was OK -- it was just signed Steve."
HP sells more personal computers than Apple, and has for effectively as long as they've competed in the market, overtaking Apple in 1997.
They didn't bother Competing with Apple for nearly two decades, and once they entered the market, they were beating Apple about a year and a half after launch.
[−]tonyedgecombe · 2026-11-15 Sun 09:45 UTC ·
link
They never really made much money on it though, for a long time the only thing keeping the company afloat was printer ink.
I got a letter from one of them asking if that was OK -- it was just signed Steve."
They didn't bother Competing with Apple for nearly two decades, and once they entered the market, they were beating Apple about a year and a half after launch.