Use of English PRO

A little birdie (0) TOLD me that competing fiercely (1) ............ a share of the emerging home-computer market in 1979, a successful young company called Apple was developing its Lisa computer, the second commercial machine (2) ............ utilise a Graphic User Interface (GUI). The engineers at Apple knew that success (3) ............ in being able to precisely render an image visible on screen onto a printed page (4) ............ being confined to just one printer, and the company's founding executive, the late Steve Jobs, had in the Lisa a product that he knew could change the world of office communications. (5) ............, it was to be the Lisa's successor, the seminal Macintosh, that would ultimately change that world. The Apple Macintosh computer was launched in January 1984 through a high-profile marketing (6) ............ that deployed an advert directed by Ridley Scott and a national premiere during the half-(7) ............ break of that year's Superbowl, the USA's most popular televised sporting event. Priced at $2,495, it was the first commercially available desktop computer with a GUI and mouse, and its acknowledged potential amongst the design and graphical arts communities was profound. The (8) ............, as they say, is history.