Apple Inc.

"Apple (company)" redirects here. For

other companies, see Apple
(disambiguation) § Organisations and
companies.

Apple Inc. is an American multinational

technology company that specializes in
consumer electronics, computer software,
and online services. Apple is the world's
largest technology company by revenue
(totalling $274.5 billion in 2020) and,
since January 2021, the world's most
valuable company. As of 2021, Apple is
the world's fourth-largest PC vendor by
unit sales,[9] and fourth-largest
smartphone manufacturer.[10][11] It is one
of the Big Five American information
technology companies, along with
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and
Facebook.[12][13][14]

Apple Inc.

Overhead view of Apple Park located in

Cupertino, California

Apple Computer Company[1]

(1976–1977)
Formerly
Apple Computer, Inc.[2]
(1977–2007)

Type Public

Nasdaq: AAPL
Nasdaq 100 component
Traded as DJIA component
S&P 100 component
S&P 500 component

ISIN US0378331005

Computer hardware
Computer software
Consumer electronics
Cloud computing
Digital distribution
Industry Fabless silicon design
Semiconductors
Media
Retail
Financial technology
Artificial intelligence

Founded April 1, 1976; 45 years ago

Steve Jobs
Founders Steve Wozniak
Ronald Wayne

1 Apple Park Way

Cupertino, California,
Headquarters
U.S.

Number of
511 retail stores[3] (2021)
locations

Area served Worldwide

Chairman: Arthur D.
Levinson
Key people
CEO: Tim Cook
COO: Jeff Williams

List

Macintosh
iPod
iPhone
iPad
Apple Pencil
Apple Watch
Apple TV
HomePod
macOS
Airpods
Products iOS
iPadOS
watchOS
tvOS
iLife
iWork
Final Cut Pro
Logic Pro
GarageBand
Shazam
Siri
AirTags

List

App Store
Apple Arcade
Apple Card
Apple Music
Apple Music 1
Apple News+
Apple Pay

Services Cash
Apple Store
Genius Bar
Apple TV+
Apple Fitness+
Apple Books
iCloud
iMessage
iTunes Store
Mac App Store

Revenue
US$274.515 billion[4] (2020)

Operating
income US$66.288 billion[4] (2020)

Net income US$57.411 billion[4] (2020)

Total assets
US$323.888 billion[4] (2020)

Total equity
US$65.339 billion[4] (2020)

Number of
147,000[5] (2020)
employees

Braeburn Capital
Beats Electronics
Claris
Apple Energy, LLC
Subsidiaries Apple Sales International[6]
Apple Services[7]
Apple Worldwide Video[8]
Anobit
Beddit

Website www.apple.com

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve

Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in 1976 to
develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I
personal computer. It was incorporated by
Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer,
Inc. in 1977, and sales of its computers,
including the Apple II, grew quickly. They
went public in 1980 to instant financial
success. Over the next few years, Apple
shipped new computers featuring
innovative graphical user interfaces, such
as the original Macintosh, announced with
the critically acclaimed advert "1984".
However, the high price of its products
and limited application library caused
problems, as did power struggles
between executives. In 1985, Wozniak
departed Apple amicably,[15] while Jobs
resigned to found NeXT, taking some
Apple co-workers with him.[16]

As the market for personal computers

expanded and evolved through the 1990s,
Apple lost considerable market share to
the lower-priced duopoly of Microsoft
Windows on Intel PC clones. The board
recruited CEO Gil Amelio, who attempted
to save the struggling company with
extensive reforms and layoffs. In 1997,
Apple bought NeXT, bringing back Steve
Jobs, who replaced Amelio as CEO later
that year. Apple returned to profitability
under the revitalizing "Think different"
campaign, launching the iMac and iPod,
opening a retail chain of Apple Stores in
2001, and acquiring numerous companies
to broaden their software portfolio. In
2007, the company launched the iPhone
to critical acclaim and financial success.
In 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO due to
health complications, and died two
months later. He was succeeded by Tim
Cook.

In August 2018, Apple became the first

publicly traded U.S. company to be valued
at over $1 trillion[17][18] and the first valued
over $2 trillion two years later.[19][20] It has
a high level of brand loyalty and is ranked
as the world's most valuable brand; as of
2021, more than 1.65 billion Apple
products are in use worldwide.[21]
However, the company receives
significant criticism regarding the labor
practices of its contractors, its
environmental practices, and business
ethics, including anti-competitive
behavior, and materials sourcing.

History

Main article: History of Apple Inc.

1976–1984: Founding and

incorporation

See also: History of Apple § 1975–1985:

Jobs and Wozniak

In 1976, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in

his parents' home on Crist Drive in Los
Altos, California.[22] Although it is widely
believed that the company was founded in
the house's garage, Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak called it "a bit of a myth".
[23]
Jobs and Wozniak did, however, move
some operations to the garage when the
bedroom became too crowded.[24]

Apple's first product, the Apple I,

designed by Steve Wozniak, was sold as
an assembled circuit board and lacked
basic features such as a keyboard,
monitor, and case. The owner of this unit
added a keyboard and wooden case.

The Apple II Plus, introduced in 1979,

designed primarily by Wozniak

Apple Computer Company was founded

on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve
Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne as a business
partnership.[22][25] The company's first
product is the Apple I, a computer
designed and hand-built entirely by
Wozniak.[26][27] To finance its creation,
Jobs sold his only motorized means of
transportation, a VW Microbus, for a few
hundred dollars, and Wozniak sold his
HP-65 calculator for US$500 (equivalent
to $2,274 in 2020).[28] Wozniak debuted
the first prototype at the Homebrew
Computer Club in July 1976.[29][30] The
Apple I was sold as a motherboard with
CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips
—a base kit concept which would not yet
be marketed as a complete personal
computer.[31] It went on sale soon after
debut for US$666.66 (equivalent to
$3,032 in 2020).[32][33][34][35][36]:180
Wozniak later said he was unaware of the
coincidental mark of the beast in the
number 666, and that he came up with
the price because he liked "repeating
digits".[37]

Apple Computer, Inc. was incorporated on

January 3, 1977,[38][39] without Wayne,
who had left and sold his share of the
company back to Jobs and Wozniak for
$800 only twelve days after having co-
founded Apple.[40][41] Multimillionaire
Mike Markkula provided essential
business expertise and funding of
US$250,000 (equivalent to $1,067,683 in
2020) to Jobs and Wozniak during the
incorporation of Apple.[42][43] During the
first five years of operations, revenues
grew exponentially, doubling about every
four months. Between September 1977
and September 1980, yearly sales grew
from $775,000 to $118 million, an average
annual growth rate of 533%.[44][45]

The Apple II, also invented by Wozniak,

was introduced on April 16, 1977, at the
first West Coast Computer Faire.[46] It
differs from its major rivals, the TRS-80
and Commodore PET, because of its
character cell-based color graphics and
open architecture. While early Apple II
models use ordinary cassette tapes as
storage devices, they were superseded by
the introduction of a 5+1⁄4-inch floppy
disk drive and interface called the Disk II
in 1978.[47][48] The Apple II was chosen to
be the desktop platform for the first "killer
application" of the business world:
VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program released
in 1979.[47] VisiCalc created a business
market for the Apple II and gave home
users an additional reason to buy an
Apple II: compatibility with the office.[47]
Before VisiCalc, Apple had been a distant
third place competitor to Commodore and
Tandy.[49][50]

By the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff

of computer designers and a production
line. The company introduced the Apple III
in May 1980 in an attempt to compete
with IBM in the business and corporate
computing market.[51] Jobs and several
Apple employees, including human–
computer interface expert Jef Raskin,
visited Xerox PARC in December 1979 to
see a demonstration of the Xerox Alto.
Xerox granted Apple engineers three days
of access to the PARC facilities in return
for the option to buy 100,000[52] shares
(5.6 million split-adjusted shares as of
March 30, 2019[update])[39] of Apple at the
pre-IPO price of $10 a share.[53]

Jobs was immediately convinced that all

future computers would use a graphical
user interface (GUI), and development of
a GUI began for the Apple Lisa.[54][55] In
1982, however, he was pushed from the
Lisa team due to infighting. Jobs then
took over Wozniak's and Raskin's low-
cost-computer project, the Macintosh,
and redefined it as a graphical system
cheaper and faster than Lisa.[56] In 1983,
Lisa became the first personal computer
sold to the public with a GUI, but was a
commercial failure due to its high price
and limited software titles, so in 1985 it
would be repurposed as the high end
Macintosh and discontinued in its second
year.[57]

On December 12, 1980, Apple (ticker

symbol "AAPL") went public selling
4.6 million shares at $22 per share ($.39
per share when adjusting for stock splits
as of March 30, 2019[update]),[39]
generating over $100 million, which was
more capital than any IPO since Ford
Motor Company in 1956.[58] By the end of
the day, 300 millionaires were created,
from a stock price of $29 per share[59]
and a market cap of $1.778 billion.[58][59]

1984–1991: Success with

Macintosh

See also: Timeline of Macintosh models

and Timeline of the Apple II family

The Macintosh, released in 1984, is the

first mass-market personal computer to
feature an integral graphical user
interface and mouse.

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh,

the first personal computer to be sold
without a programming language.[60] Its
debut was signified by "1984", a
$1.5 million television advertisement
directed by Ridley Scott that aired during
the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on
January 22, 1984.[61] This is now hailed as
a watershed event for Apple's success[62]
and was called a "masterpiece" by
CNN[63] and one of the greatest TV
advertisements of all time by TV Guide.
[64][65]

Macintosh sales were initially good, but

began to taper off dramatically after the
first three months due to its high price,
slow speed, and limited range of available
software.[66][67][68][69]:195 In early 1985,
this sales slump triggered a power
struggle between Steve Jobs and CEO
John Sculley, who had been hired two
years earlier by Jobs[70][71] using the
famous line, "Do you want to sell sugar
water for the rest of your life or come with
me and change the world?"[72] Sculley
decided to remove Jobs as the general
manager of the Macintosh division, and
gained unanimous support from the Apple
board of directors.[73][70]

The board of directors instructed Sculley

to contain Jobs and his ability to launch
expensive forays into untested products.
Rather than submit to Sculley's direction,
Jobs attempted to oust him from his
leadership role at Apple.[74] Informed by
Jean-Louis Gassée, Sculley found out that
Jobs had been attempting to organize a
coup and called an emergency executive
meeting at which Apple's executive staff
sided with Sculley and stripped Jobs of all
operational duties.[74] Jobs resigned from
Apple in September 1985 and took a
number of Apple employees with him to
found NeXT Inc.[75] Wozniak had also quit
his active employment at Apple earlier in
1985 to pursue other ventures, expressing
his frustration with Apple's treatment of
the Apple II division and stating that the
company had "been going in the wrong
direction for the last five years".[16][15][76]
Despite Wozniak's grievances, he left the
company amicably and both Jobs and
Wozniak remained Apple shareholders.[77]
Wozniak continues to represent the
company at events or in interviews,[15]
receiving a stipend estimated to be
$120,000 per year for this role.[36]

The outlook on Macintosh improved with

the introduction of the LaserWriter, the
first reasonably priced PostScript laser
printer, and PageMaker, an early desktop
publishing application released in July
1985.[78] It has been suggested that the
combination of Macintosh, LaserWriter,
and PageMaker was responsible for the
creation of the desktop publishing market.
[79]

The Macintosh Portable, released in 1989,

is Apple's first battery-powered portable
Macintosh personal computer.

After the departures of Jobs and Wozniak,

the Macintosh product line underwent a
steady change of focus to higher price
points, the so-called "high-right policy"
named for the position on a chart of price
vs. profits. Jobs had argued the company
should produce products aimed at the
consumer market and aimed for a $1,000
price for the Macintosh, which they were
unable to meet. Newer models selling at
higher price points offered higher profit
margin, and appeared to have no effect
on total sales as power users snapped up
every increase in power. Although some
worried about pricing themselves out of
the market, the high-right policy was in
full force by the mid-1980s, notably due
to Jean-Louis Gassée's mantra of "fifty-
five or die", referring to the 55% profit
margins of the Macintosh II.[80]:79–80
Selling Macintosh at such high profit
margins was only possible because of its
dominant position in the desktop
publishing market.[81]

This policy began to backfire in the last

years of the decade as new desktop
publishing programs appeared on PC
clones that offered some or much of the
same functionality of the Macintosh but at
far lower price points. The company lost
its monopoly in this market and had
already estranged many of its original
consumer customer base who could no