(BTW: What kind of person takes another's story for his own???? wow, sad.)
1982, I'm sitting in my broken rocking chair in Camarillo, left side held up with a concrete block because after tripping on the leg 10 times I finally hack sawed it off. You can't be too picky as the choices of chairs has gone way down since the employees a the local garbage dump watch your every move. This chair was found on the street, next to a garbage can. So in my improved chair, watching Love Boat, drinking coffee, trying to wake up, and thinking of what to name our soon to be first ever company, "purple" pops into my head. Glen Kelly, my boss and Executive VP at Incomnet Inc, Ventura, California, was going in with me to form the company. His second. I was 33, single, Sr. Software Engineer, AA, BS, MS, Computer Science, 7 years programming experience, Aerospace, super computers down to S-100, CPM, and single board computers, assembly, you name it, and wanted my whole life to start a business. Kelly, 5 years older, was partners in start-up computer communications company 15 years before, way more conservative and less crazy than me. I had saved up about $50,000, owned a home, and was willing to risk $5,000. Glen was looking for a tax write off while I was looking to start the next supper successful hardware/software company - like Quibe', Intergalactic Digital Research, or maybe a little hot company "Apple Computer Company", or even Atari! ... so Glen said: "Larry choose a name!".
The first ever IBM P.C. had just come out and I invented a product for it! A memory expansion kit!
A name, we need a name. Microsoft, Logitech, Adaptec, Commodore, Hayes, AST, Atari, Quantum, Labtec, Symatec, Adobe, Number Nine, Sun, Lotus, Diamond Multimedia, ... APPLE!!!
Short, different, strange, no "tech" or "tec", no "soft", no "Micro", not "Berg", not "Kelly" .... um, ... "Purple?" huh? OK, ... strange and different? yes, easy to spell? Years later people on the phone would say "huh" ... I'd respond firmly: "Purple, like the color". Whew. ... a popular song around that time was "A boy named Sue" ... OK, it's a color. It's a sound. It means nothing! There are no good or bad connotations regarding computers or software - that I know about. I thought about it a lot. Short like APPLE. Only one more letter. Apple is a fruit! Purple is a color! An apple makes a great Logo for Apple Computer, Inc. but man, Purple in a black&white computing world was really tough. We came up with a stylized [PC] Purple/Computing. Apple Computer makes computers, but an apple is not a computer and cannot be made into one, though it does have a core. Anyway I didn't have the courage to go with Purple Computer because then "purple" would be a color, where "computing" makes Purple something else - and no one knows what, not even me! What is Purple Computing? (In 2002 IBM did some! With their ASCI Purple for nuclear weapons research) I invent and manufacture computer add-on products, software and hardware! I invent and manufacture communications products. I sold printers. I made millions of cables for ourselves and other companies, like CASIO! Marketing studies done in the '60's where they took a meaninglyless word and asked students if they thought it was "positive" or "negative" and found that the more the word was seen - the more positive it became. Purple Computing was a blank slate we could fill with our own meaning. And we did. By 1988 we had over 50,000 customers world wide and almost EVERY one was satisfied and very happy with "Purple Computing." and no debt with a $million in the bank.
Before the first year of business was done I knew for sure I had to quit my 20 year carrier path as a professional software engineer (and a very good $48K/year w/ benefits job!). We had a hit product! The 8K (yes K as in 1024 bytes) static RAM memory module for a Tandy Model-100 laptop. I quit and bought out Kelly (doubled his money - and moved into a higher tax bracket! - sorry Glen!:) I proceeded to turn my $5k investment (+ $10k to Kelly) into many $millions in the following years - and more importantly, made a lot of peoples lives better along the way!
Purple Computing has a flawless spotless financial record I am very proud of. Customer and vendor satisfaction is outstanding and virtually perfect over 25 years!
(more?) ... who cares? --- hey, I do! ... anyone else? um, probably not, ah does Purple Communications? I've been Purple since 1982. They've been many names and now with IPO money ( many $millions :-(() discovered their "core" is purple... is that like an apple core?
I never incorporated Purple Computing, so I suppose it will die when I do, and I'm almost 62, so long live Purple Computing, long live me.