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. It is considered one of the Big Five companies in the U.S. information technology industry, along with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Its hardware products include the iPhone smartphones, the iPad tablets computer, the Mac personal computer, the iPod portable media player, the Apple Watch smartwatch, the Apple TV digital media player, the AirPods wireless earbuds, the AirPods Max headphones, and the HomePod smart speaker line. Apple's software includes iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS operating systems, the iTunes media player, the Safari web browser, the Shazam music identifier, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites, as well as professional applications like Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro, and Xcode. Its online services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, iMessage, and iCloud. Other services include Apple Store, Genius Bar, AppleCare, Apple Pay, Apple Cash, and Apple Card.

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer, though Wayne sold his share back to Jobs and Wozniak within 12 days. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc., in January 1977, and sales of its computers, including the Apple II, grew quickly. Apple went public in 1980 to instant financial success. Apple lost considerable market share to the lower-priced duopoly of Microsoft Windows on Intel PC clones. The board recruited CEO Gil Amelio to what would be a 500-day attempt to rehabilitate the financially troubled company—reshaping it with layoffs, executive restructuring, and product focus. He led Apple to buy NeXT in 1997, solving a failed operating system strategy and bringing Jobs back. Jobs regained leadership status, becoming CEO in September 1997. Apple swiftly returned to profitability under the revitalizing "Think different" campaign, rebuilding Apple's status by launching the iMac and iPod, opening a retail chain of Apple Stores in 2001, and acquiring numerous companies to broaden the software portfolio. The company was renamed to Apple Inc. in 2007, reflecting a focus toward consumer electronics, and launched the iPhone to critical acclaim and financial success. In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO due to health complications, and Tim Cook became the new CEO. Two months later, Jobs died, marking the end of an era for the company. In June 2019, Jony Ive, Apple's CDO, left the company to start his own firm, but stated he would work with Apple as its primary client. 

Apple is the world's 4th-largest PC vendor by unit sales as of January 2021. It is also the world's fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer. In August 2018, Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion and just two years later, in August 2020 became the first $2 trillion U.S. company. Apple employs 147,000 full-time employees and maintains 510 retail stores in 25 countries as of 2020. It operates the iTunes Store, which is the world's largest music retailer.

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History of Apple Inc.

Apple Computer Company was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne as a business partnership. The company's first product is the Apple I, a computer designed and hand-built entirely by Wozniak. Wozniak debuted the first prototype at the Homebrew Computer Club in July 1976. 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. 

The Apple II, also invented by Wozniak, was introduced on April 16, 1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire. 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.

The company introduced the Apple III in May 1980 in an attempt to compete with IBM in the business and corporate computing market. 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.

Success With Macintosh 

In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh, the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language. 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. This is now hailed as a watershed event for Apple's success and was called a "masterpiece" by CNN and one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time by TV Guide.

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Intel Transition and Financial Stability

At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Jobs announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Mac computers in 2006. On January 10, 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU. By August 7, 2006, Apple made the transition to Intel chips for the entire Mac product line—over one year sooner than announced. Apple also introduced Boot Camp in 2006 to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X.

Success With Mobile Devices

During his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would thereafter be known as "Apple Inc.", because the company had shifted its emphasis from computers to consumer electronics. This event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The company sold 270,000 iPhone units during the first 30 hours of sales, and the device was called "a game changer for the industry". Apple would achieve widespread success with its iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad products, which introduced innovations in mobile phones, portable music players, and personal computers respectively.

In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Within a month, the store sold 60 million applications and registered an average daily revenue of $1 million, with Jobs speculating in August 2008 that the App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple. By October 2008, Apple was the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world due to the popularity of the iPhone. In June 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4, which introduced video calling, multitasking, and a new uninsulated stainless steel design that acted as the phone's antenna. In October 2010, Apple shares hit an all-time high, eclipsing $300 (~$43 split adjusted). Later that month, Apple updated the MacBook Air laptop, iLife suite of applications, and unveiled Mac OS X Lion, the last version with the name Mac OS X.

On January 6, 2011, the company opened its Mac App Store, a digital software distribution platform similar to the iOS App Store.

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Industry :

1. Computer hardware
2. Computer software
3. Consumer electronics
4. Cloud computing
5. Digital distribution
6. Fabless silicon design
7. Semiconductors
8. Media
9. Retail
10. Financial technology
11. Artificial intelligence

Products :

1. Macintosh
2. iPod
3. iPhone
4. iPad
5. Apple Watch
6. Apple TV
7. HomePod
8. macOS
9. iOS
10. iPadOS
11. watchOS
12. tvOS
13. iLife
14. iWork
15. Final Cut Pro
16. Logic Pro
17. GarageBand
18. Shazam
19. Siri

Services :

1. App Store
2. Apple Arcade
3. Apple Card
4. Apple Music
5. Apple News+
6. Apple Pay
7. Apple Store
8. Apple TV+
9. Apple Fitness+
10. Apple Books
11. iCloud
12. iMessage
13. iTunes Store
14. Mac App Store

Apple Silicon Transition 

During its annual WWDC keynote speech on June 22, 2020, Apple announced it will transition the Mac away from Intel processors to processors developed in-house. The announcement was expected by industry analysts, and it has been noted that Macs featuring Apple's processors would allow for big increases in performance over current Intel-based models. On November 10, 2020, the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and the Mac Mini became the first Mac devices powered by an Apple-designed processor, the Apple M1.

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iPod :

On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod digital music player. Several updated models have since been introduced, and the iPod brand is now the market leader in portable music players by a significant margin. More than 390 million units have shipped as of September 2015.

iPhone :

At the Macworld Conference & Expo in January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the long-anticipated iPhone, a convergence of an Internet-enabled smartphone and iPod. The first-generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, for $499 (4 GB) and $599 (8 GB) with an AT&T contract. On February 5, 2008, it was updated to have 16 GB of storage, in addition to the 8 GB and 4 GB models. A second version, the iPhone 3G, was released on July 11, 2008. On October 13, 2020, Apple introduced the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Apple TV :

At the 2007 Macworld conference, Jobs demonstrated the Apple TV (Jobs accidentally referred to the device as "iTV", its codename, while on stage), a set-top video device intended to bridge the sale of content from iTunes with high-definition televisions. The device, running a variant of Mac OS X, links up to a user's TV and syncs over the wireless or wired network with one computer's iTunes library and can stream content from an additional four. The Apple TV originally incorporated a 40 GB hard drive for storage, included outputs for HDMI and component video, and played video at a maximum resolution of 720p.

iPad :

On January 27, 2010, Apple introduced their much-anticipated media tablet, the iPad. It offers multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats including newspapers, e-books, photos, videos, music, word processing documents, video games, and most existing iPhone apps using a 9.7-inch screen. It also includes a mobile version of Safari for web browsing, as well as access to the App Store, iTunes Library, iBookstore, Contacts, and Notes. Content is downloadable via Wi-Fi and optional 3G service or synced through the user's computer.

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Software and Service 

Apple develops its own operating systems to run on its devices, including macOS for Mac personal computers, iOS for its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch smartphones and tablets, watchOS for its Apple Watch smartwatches, and tvOS for its Apple TV digital media player. Apple also offers online services with iCloud, which provides cloud storage and synchronization for a wide range of user data, including documents, photos, music, device backups, and application data.

Headquarters

Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1–6 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. This Apple campus has six buildings that total 850,000 square feet (79,000 m2) and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos. Apple has a satellite campus in neighboring Sunnyvale, California, where it houses a testing and research laboratory. In December 2015, Apple bought a 70,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in North San Jose, California previously used by Maxim Integrated in an $18.2 million deal.

Board of Directors :

As of October 26, 2019 the following individuals sit on the board of Apple Inc.

● Arthur D. Levinson (chairman)

● Tim Cook (executive director and CEO)

● James A. Bell (non-executive director)

● Al Gore (non-executive director)

● Andrea Jung (non-executive director)

● Ronald Sugar (non-executive director)

● Susan Wagner (non-executive director)

List of Chief Executives :

1. Michael Scott (1977–1981)
2. Mike Markkula (1981–1983)
3. John Sculley (1983–1993)
4. Michael Spindler (1993–1996)
5. Gil Amelio (1996–1997)
6. Steve Jobs (1997–2011)
7. Tim Cook (2011– present [2021])