How did Apple flourish despite Neal Stephenson's prediction that proprietary software companies would fail?
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. The company's hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, the iPad tablet computer, the Mac personal computer, the iPod portable media player, the Apple Watch smartwatch, the Apple TV digital media player, and the HomePod smart speaker. Apple's consumer software includes the macOS and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media player, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites. Its online services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud.
Stanford Research Park Stanford Research Park is a technology park located in Palo Alto, California on land owned by Stanford University. Built in 1951, as Stanford Industrial Park, it claims to be the world's first technology-focused office park. Frederick Terman is often credited with the idea and success of the Stanford Research Park, which was the first university-owned industrial park at the time of its founding and played a key role in creation of Silicon Valley. In 1953, Varian Associates relocated to Palo Alto to become the first tenant of the new Stanford Industrial Park. Early tenants included Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, and Lockheed.