Why was an apple chosen as the logo for Macintosh?

Question

This one has always boggled me. I've heard some theories like "A" in apple would put them first in phone book listings or one of the guys key to starting the company was name Macintosh. Can somebody shed some light on this?

Answer 1

Macintosh is a type of apple and apparently:

Apple was so named because Jobs was coming back from an apple farm, and he was on a fruitarian diet. He thought the name was "fun, spirited and not intimidating"

Source

The company carried the apple theme on with the Newton (named after Isaac Newton who started the story about how he discovered gravity by watching an arrow fall).

Answer 2

Although the answer given by ChrisF probably answers the question better, I will add a little about the "bite" from the apple:

This CNN article : Unraveling the tale behind the Apple Logo, mentions the common misconception that the apple with bite out of it was a tribute to Alan Turing, who was believe to have committed suicide by eating a cyanide laced apple.

I think it is fitting to acknowledge this (even though its false), given the recent passing of Alan Turing's 100th birthday and his influence on the birth of computer science.

From the above mentioned article:

Janoff says that he received no specific brief from Steve Jobs, and although he's hazy about how he settled on the simple outline of an apple, the reason for the bite is crystal clear: it's there for scale, he says, so that a small Apple logo still looks like an apple and not a cherry.

Answer 3

See also http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_was_Apple_Inc_named_Apple which states, "[...] Steve Jobs has said that he was on a fruit only diet and declared that if no one came up with a better name he would call the company Apple."

Answer 4

Also Jobs was a big Beatles fan. Look into the Apple Computers vs Apple Records lawsuits and how the Beatles albums finally became available for Itunes.