Apple Computer Company was founded on the 1st of April 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the garage of Jobs's parents' home on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, though Wozniak later dismissed the garage as a myth, noting they only moved operations there when the bedroom became too crowded. The company's first product, the Apple I, was a hand-built circuit board designed entirely by Wozniak, sold without a keyboard, monitor, power supply, or case, and priced at $666.66, a number Wozniak chose because he liked repeating digits, unaware of its association with the mark of the beast. To finance the venture, Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator, earning a combined total of $1,300, which was far less than the full selling price of their personal assets. The Apple I was debuted at the Homebrew Computer Club in July 1976, and by the end of 1976, Apple had sold 500 units, generating $775,000 in revenue. The company was incorporated on the 3rd of January 1977, as Apple Computer, Inc., with Wayne selling his 10% share back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 just twelve days after co-founding it. Mike Markkula, a multimillionaire, provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation, setting the stage for exponential growth. In the first five years, revenue doubled approximately every four months, growing from $775,000 in September 1977 to $117 million by September 1980, an average annual growth rate of 533%.
The Macintosh Revolution
In November and December 1979, Steve Jobs and Apple employees, including Jef Raskin, visited Xerox PARC, where they observed the Xerox Alto, featuring a graphical user interface and a mouse. Jobs had negotiated access to PARC's technology in exchange for the right to purchase $1 million worth of Apple's pre-IPO shares, a move that would fundamentally alter the trajectory of personal computing. The Apple Lisa, introduced in 1983, was the first mass-marketed GUI computer, but it suffered from high costs and limited software options, leading to commercial failure. Jobs, infuriated by his removal from the Lisa team, joined the Macintosh division in January 1981, redefining the Macintosh as a graphical system that would be cheaper than the Lisa. The Macintosh was launched on the 22nd of January 1984, with a $1.5 million television advertisement directed by Ridley Scott that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, hailed as a masterpiece by CNN and one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time by TV Guide. The Macintosh shipped for $2,495, a price panned by critics due to its slow performance and limited RAM, but it created great interest and initial sales were good. However, sales began to taper off dramatically after the first three months as reviews started to come in, and the Macintosh was the first personal computer without a bundled programming language. In early 1985, a power struggle between Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had been hired away from Pepsi two years earlier, led to Jobs being stripped of all operational duties and resigning from Apple in September 1985. Sculley removed Jobs as the head of the Macintosh division, with unanimous support from the Apple board of directors, and Jobs took several Apple employees with him to found NeXT. 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.The Decline and Recovery
After the departures of Jobs and Wozniak in 1985, Sculley launched the Macintosh 512K that year with quadruple the RAM, and introduced the LaserWriter, the first reasonably priced PostScript-based laser printer. The combination of Macintosh, LaserWriter, and PageMaker was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market, allowing the company to focus on higher price points, the so-called high-right policy. This policy began to backfire late in the decade as desktop publishing programs appeared on IBM PC compatibles with some of the same functionality of the Macintosh at far lower price points. The Christmas season of 1989 was the first in the company's history to have declining sales, which led to a 20% drop in Apple's stock price. In 1993, the Apple II series was discontinued, and Apple experimented with several other unsuccessful consumer targeted products during the 1990s, including QuickTake digital cameras, PowerCD portable CD audio players, speakers, the Pippin video game console, the eWorld online service, and Apple Interactive Television Box. Enormous resources were invested in the problematic Newton tablet division, based on John Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Throughout this period, Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows by focusing on delivering software to inexpensive personal computers, while Apple was delivering a richly engineered but expensive experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response, and it sued Microsoft for making a GUI similar to the Lisa in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., a lawsuit that dragged on for years and was finally dismissed. The major product flops and the rapid loss of market share to Windows sullied Apple's reputation, and in 1993 Sculley was replaced as CEO by Michael Spindler. Under Spindler, Apple, IBM, and Motorola formed the AIM alliance in 1994 to create a new computing platform, the PowerPC Reference Platform or PReP, with IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple software. In 1996, Spindler was replaced as CEO by Gil Amelio, who was hired for his reputation as a corporate rehabilitator. Amelio made deep changes, including extensive layoffs and cost-cutting, and this period was also marked by numerous failed attempts to modernize the Macintosh operating system. Only weeks away from bankruptcy, Apple's board preferred NeXTSTEP and purchased NeXT in late 1996 for $400 million, retaining Steve Jobs. The NeXT acquisition was finalized on the 9th of February 1997, and the board brought Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. On the 9th of July 1997, Jobs staged a boardroom coup, which resulted in Amelio's resignation after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. The board named Jobs as interim CEO, and he immediately reviewed the product lineup, canceling 70% of models, ending 3,000 jobs, and paring to the core of its computer offerings. The next month, in August 1997, Steve Jobs convinced Microsoft to make a $150-million investment in Apple and a commitment to continue developing Mac software, seen as an antitrust insurance policy for Microsoft. Around then, Jobs donated Apple's internal library and archives to Stanford University, to focus more on the present and the future rather than the past. He ended the Mac clone deals and in September 1997, purchased the largest clone maker, Power Computing. The moves paid off for Jobs; at the end of his first year as CEO, the company had a $309-million profit.The Digital Lifestyle
On the 6th of May 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the original Macintosh: the iMac. The iMac was a huge success, with 800,000 units sold in its first five months, and ushered in major shifts in the industry by abandoning legacy technologies like the 3.5-inch diskette, being an early adopter of the USB connector, and coming pre-installed with Internet connectivity via Ethernet and a dial-up modem. Its striking teardrop shape and translucent materials were designed by Jonathan Ive, who had been hired by Amelio, and who collaborated with Jobs for more than a decade to reshape Apple's product design. A little more than a year later on the 21st of July 1999, Apple introduced the iBook consumer laptop, culminating Jobs's strategy to produce only four products: refined versions of the Power Macintosh G3 desktop and PowerBook G3 laptop for professionals, and the iMac desktop and iBook laptop for consumers. Jobs said the small product line allowed for a greater focus on quality and innovation. Around then, Apple also completed numerous acquisitions to create a portfolio of digital media production software for both professionals and consumers. Apple acquired Macromedia's Key Grip digital video editing software project, which was launched as Final Cut Pro in April 1999, and Key Grip's development also led to Apple's release of the consumer video-editing product iMovie in October 1999. Apple acquired the German company Astarte in April 2000, which had developed the DVD authoring software DVDirector, which Apple repackaged as the professional-oriented DVD Studio Pro, and reused its technology to create iDVD for the consumer market. In 2000, Apple purchased the SoundJam MP audio player software from Casady & Greene, renamed the program iTunes, simplified the user interface, and added CD burning. In 2001, Apple changed course with three announcements: first, on the 24th of March 2001, Apple announced the release of a new modern operating system, Mac OS X, based on NeXTSTEP, OpenStep, and BSD Unix, to combine the stability, reliability, and security of Unix with the ease of use of an overhauled user interface. Second, in May 2001, the first two Apple Store retail locations opened in Virginia and California, offering an improved presentation of the company's products, and at the time, many speculated that the stores would fail, but they became highly successful, and the first of more than 500 stores around the world. Third, on the 23rd of October 2001, the iPod portable digital audio player debuted, and the product was first sold on the 10th of November 2001, and was extremely successful, with over 100 million units sold within six years. In 2003, the iTunes Store was introduced with music downloads for 99 cents a song and iPod integration, quickly becoming the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by the 19th of June 2008. Two years later, the iTunes Store was the world's largest music retailer. In 2002, Apple purchased Nothing Real for its advanced digital compositing application Shake, and Emagic for the music productivity application Logic, making Apple the first computer manufacturer to own a music software company. The acquisition was followed by the development of Apple's consumer-level GarageBand application, and the release of iPhoto that year completed the iLife suite. On the 6th of June 2005, Jobs announced that Apple would move away from PowerPC processors, and the Mac would transition to Intel processors in 2006. On the 10th of January 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU, and by the 7th of August 2006, Apple made the transition to Intel chips for the entire Mac product line, over one year sooner than announced. The Power Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition, and the Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became their respective successors. Apple also introduced Boot Camp in 2006 to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X. Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price, which increased more than tenfold, from around $6 per share to over $80, and when Apple surpassed Dell's market cap in January 2006, Jobs sent an email to Apple employees saying Dell's CEO Michael Dell should eat his words, as nine years prior, Dell had said that if he ran Apple he would shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.The Mobile Era
During his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on the 9th of January 2007, Jobs announced the renaming of Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc., because the company had broadened its focus from computers to consumer electronics. This event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The company sold 270,000 first-generation iPhones during the first 30 hours of sales, and the device was called a game changer for the industry. In an article posted on Apple's website on the 6th of February 2007, Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management, thereby allowing tracks to be played on third-party players if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On the 2nd of April 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in the iTunes Store, effective in May 2007, and other record labels eventually followed suit, with Apple publishing a press release in January 2009 to announce that all songs on the iTunes Store are available without their FairPlay DRM. In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and 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. On the 14th of January 2009, Jobs announced in an internal memo that he would be taking a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple until the end of June 2009 and would spend the time focusing on his health, and though Jobs was absent, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter during the recession, with revenue of $8.16 billion and profit of $1.21 billion. After years of speculation and multiple rumored leaks, Apple unveiled a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on the 27th of January 2010. The iPad ran the same touch-based operating system as the iPhone, and all iPhone apps were compatible with the iPad, giving the iPad a large app catalog on launch, though having very little development time before the release. Later that year on the 3rd of April 2010, the iPad was launched in the US, and it sold more than 300,000 units on its first day, and 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May 2010, Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989. In June 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4, which introduced video calling using FaceTime, multitasking, and a new design with an exposed stainless steel frame as the phone's antenna system. Later that year, Apple again refreshed the iPod line by introducing a multi-touch iPod Nano, an iPod Touch with FaceTime, and an iPod Shuffle that brought back the clickwheel buttons of earlier generations. It also introduced the smaller, cheaper second-generation Apple TV which allowed the rental of movies and shows. On the 17th of January 2011, Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he would take another medical leave of absence for an indefinite period to allow him to focus on his health, and chief operating officer Tim Cook assumed Jobs's day-to-day operations at Apple, although Jobs would still remain involved in major strategic decisions. Apple became the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world, and has consistently been among the most valuable brands since then. In June 2011, Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud, an online storage and syncing service for music, photos, files, and software which replaced MobileMe, Apple's previous attempt at content syncing. This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his death. On the 24th of August 2011, Jobs resigned his position as CEO of Apple, and he was replaced by Cook and Jobs became Apple's chairman. Apple did not have a chairman at the time and instead had two co-lead directors, Andrea Jung and Arthur D. Levinson, who continued with those titles until Levinson replaced Jobs as chairman of the board in November after Jobs's death. On the 5th of October 2011, Steve Jobs died, marking the end of an era for Apple.The Post-Jobs Era
The next major product announcement by Apple was on the 19th of January 2012, when Apple's Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for Mac OS X in New York City, as Jobs had wanted to reinvent the textbook industry and education. From 2011 to 2012, Apple released the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, which featured improved cameras, an intelligent software assistant named Siri, and cloud-synced data with iCloud, the third- and fourth-generation iPads, which featured Retina displays, and the iPad Mini, which featured a 7.9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. These launches were successful, with the iPhone 5, released the 21st of September 2012, becoming Apple's biggest iPhone launch with over two million pre-orders and sales of three million iPads in three days following the launch of the iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad, released the 3rd of November 2012. Apple also released a third-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display and new iMac and Mac Mini computers. On the 20th of August 2012, Apple's rising stock price increased the company's market capitalization to a then-record $624 billion, beating the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization previously set by Microsoft in 1999. On the 24th of August 2012, a US jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages in an intellectual property lawsuit, which was reduced by $450 million and further granted Samsung's request for a new trial. On the 10th of November 2012, Apple confirmed a global settlement that dismissed all existing lawsuits between Apple and HTC up to that date, in favor of a ten-year license agreement for current and future patents between the two companies, and it is predicted that Apple will make $100 million per year from this deal with HTC. In May 2014, Apple confirmed its intent to acquire Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's audio company Beats Electronics, producer of the Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones and speaker products, and operator of the music streaming service Beats Music, for $3 billion, and to sell their products through Apple's retail outlets and resellers. Iovine believed that Beats had always belonged with Apple, as the company modeled itself after Apple's unmatched ability to marry culture and technology, and the acquisition was the largest purchase in Apple's history. During a press event on the 9th of September 2014, Apple introduced a smartwatch called the Apple Watch, initially marketed as a fashion accessory and a complement to the iPhone, that would allow people to look at their smartphones less, and over time, the company has focused on developing health and fitness-oriented features on the watch, in an effort to compete with dedicated activity trackers. In January 2016, Apple announced that over one billion Apple devices were in active use worldwide. On the 6th of June 2016, Fortune released Fortune 500, its list of companies ranked on revenue generation, and in the trailing fiscal year of 2015, Apple was listed as the top tech company, ranking third overall with $233 billion in revenue, representing a movement upward of two spots from the previous year's list. In June 2017, Apple announced the HomePod, its smart speaker aimed to compete against Sonos, Google Home, and Amazon Echo, and toward the end of the year, TechCrunch reported that Apple was acquiring Shazam, a company that introduced its products at WWDC and specializing in music, TV, film and advertising recognition, for $400 million, with media reports that the purchase looked like a move to acquire data and tools bolstering the Apple Music streaming service. The purchase was approved by the European Union in September 2018. Also in June 2017, Apple appointed Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to head the newly formed worldwide video unit, and in November 2017, Apple announced it was branching out into original scripted programming, a drama series starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and a reboot of the anthology series Amazing Stories with Steven Spielberg. In June 2018, Apple signed the Writers Guild of America's minimum basic agreement and Oprah Winfrey to a multi-year content partnership, and additional partnerships for original series include Sesame Workshop and DHX Media and its subsidiary Peanuts Worldwide, and a partnership with A24 to create original films. During the Apple Special Event in September 2017, the AirPower wireless charger was announced alongside the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and Watch Series 3, intended to wirelessly charge multiple devices, simultaneously, though initially set to release in early 2018, the AirPower would be canceled in March 2019, marking the first cancellation of a device under Cook's leadership. On the 19th of August 2020, Apple's share price briefly topped $467.77, making it the first US company with a market capitalization of $1 trillion.The Silicon and Services Shift
During its annual WWDC keynote speech on the 22nd of June 2020, Apple announced it would move away from Intel processors, and the Mac would transition 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 the 10th of November 2020, the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and the Mac Mini became the first Macs powered by an Apple-designed processor, the Apple M1. In April 2022, it was reported that Samsung Electro-Mechanics would be collaborating with Apple on its M2 chip instead of LG Innotek, and developer logs showed that at least nine Mac models with four different M2 chips were being tested. The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple's effort to develop its own chips left it better prepared to deal with the semiconductor shortage that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to increased profitability, with sales of M1-based Mac computers rising sharply in 2020 and 2021, and it also inspired other companies like Tesla, Amazon, and Meta Platforms to pursue a similar path. In April 2022, Apple opened an online store that allowed anyone in the US to view repair manuals and order replacement parts for specific recent iPhones, although the difference in cost between this method and official repair is anticipated to be minimal. In May 2022, a trademark was filed for RealityOS, an operating system reportedly intended for virtual and augmented reality headsets, first mentioned in 2017, and according to Bloomberg, the headset may come out in 2023, with further insider reports stating that the device uses iris scanning for payment confirmation and signing into accounts. In June 2023, Apple formally announced its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, which ran its new visionOS operating system, and the headset was released in February of the following year. On the 18th of June 2022, the Apple Store in Towson, Maryland, became the first to unionize in the US, with the employees voting to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. On the 7th of July 2022, Apple added Lockdown Mode to macOS 13 and iOS 16, as a response to the earlier Pegasus revelations, the mode increasing security protections for high-risk users against targeted zero-day malware. Apple launched a buy now, pay later service called Apple Pay Later for its Apple Wallet users in March 2023, the program allowing its users to apply for loans between $50 and $1,000 to make online or in-app purchases and then repaying them through four installments spread over six weeks without any interest or fees. In November 2023, Apple agreed to a $25-million settlement in a US Department of Justice case that alleged Apple was discriminating against US citizens in hiring, creating jobs that were not listed online and that required a paper submission application, while advertising these jobs to foreign workers as part of recruitment for PERM. In January 2024, Apple announced compliance with the European Union's competition law, with major changes to the App Store and other services, effective on March 7, enabling iOS users in the 27-nation bloc to use alternative app stores, and alternative payment methods within apps, adding a menu in Safari for downloading alternative browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox. In June 2024, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence to incorporate on-device artificial intelligence capabilities, and on the 1st of November 2024, Apple announced its acquisition of Pixelmator, a company known for its image editing applications for iPhone and Mac, having previously showcased Pixelmator's apps during its product launches, including naming Pixelmator Pro its Mac App of the Year in 2018 for its innovative use of machine learning and AI, and in the announcement, Pixelmator stated that there would be no significant changes to its existing apps following the acquisition. On the 31st of December 2024, a preliminary settlement was filed in the Oakland California federal court that accused Apple of unlawfully recording private conversations, through unintentional Siri activations, and of sharing them with third parties, including advertisers, and Apple agreed to a $95-million cash settlement to resolve this lawsuit in which its Siri assistant violated user privacy, denying any wrongdoing, allowing affected users to potentially claim up to $20 per device, with attorneys seeking $28.5 million in fees from the settlement fund.The Future of Apple
In 2025, Apple undertook its largest investment initiative to date, announcing a commitment to spend over $500 billion in the United States over the following four years, including the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Houston to produce servers supporting Apple Intelligence, expansion of research and development in fields like silicon engineering and AI, and the establishment of a new advanced manufacturing academy in Detroit. The company also pledged to double its US Advanced Manufacturing Fund and increase collaboration with American suppliers, aiming to create tens of thousands of jobs related to R&D, AI, and manufacturing technologies. The software landscape at Apple underwent a transformation in 2025, with Apple introducing the new Liquid Glass design language, rolling out unified system design updates across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and other platforms, and significantly expanding the capabilities of Apple Intelligence, the company's personal AI system, to address previous criticisms of fragmented interfaces, and use on-device and cloud-based AI to improve privacy and user experience. Despite continued growth in its services sector, including a new all-time high for services revenue in the March quarter and the launch of updated models such as the iPhone 16e and M4 MacBook Air, Apple faced significant challenges, contending with a 19% decline in stock value year-to-date, ongoing antitrust investigations by the US Department of Justice, and legal disputes involving the App Store. Competition in the AI space escalated, with rivals gaining ground, and high-profile departures and political tensions, including calls for Apple to manufacture iPhones domestically or face tariffs, added to the pressure, making 2025 one of the most challenging years for CEO Tim Cook. In December 2025, Cook met with US House members to push back against the App Store Accountability Act which could require that Apple authenticates users' ages and possibly collect sensitive data on children. On the 12th of January 2026, Apple announced a partnership with Google Gemini for AI-powered Siri, and in January 2026, Apple acquired Q.ai, an Israeli artificial intelligence startup specializing in imaging and machine learning technologies for audio processing, with the financial terms not disclosed, though media reports estimated the acquisition at nearly US$2 billion, Apple's second-largest purchase to date, and following the deal, Q.ai's founders and approximately 100 employees joined Apple. As of 2023, there are over 2 billion Apple devices in active use worldwide, and in February 2023, that number exceeded 2 billion devices. In 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization's Madrid Yearly Review ranked Apple's number of trademark applications, filled under the Madrid System, as 10th in the world, with 74 trademark applications submitted during 2023, and Apple was ranked the No. 3 company in the world in the 2024 Fortune 500 list. Apple's product lineup includes portable and home hardware like the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV, several in-house operating systems such as iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and various software and services including Apple Pay and iCloud, as well as multimedia streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV. Since 2011, Apple has for the most part been the world's largest company by market capitalization, and, as of 2025, is valued at just over $4 trillion, making it the largest manufacturing company by revenue, the fourth-largest personal computer vendor, the largest vendor of tablet computers, and the largest vendor of mobile phones. Apple has received criticism regarding its contractors' labor conditions, its relationship with trade unions, its environmental practices, and its corporate ethics, including anti-competitive tactics, materials sourcing, and its acquisitions of smaller businesses, but nevertheless, the company has a large following and enjoys a high level of customer loyalty, and has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most valuable brands since the late 2000s.Apple Computer Company was founded on the 1st of April 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the garage of Jobs's parents' home on Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, though Wozniak later dismissed the garage as a myth, noting they only moved operations there when the bedroom became too crowded. The company's first product, the Apple I, was a hand-built circuit board designed entirely by Wozniak, sold without a keyboard, monitor, power supply, or case, and priced at $666.66, a number Wozniak chose because he liked repeating digits, unaware of its association with the mark of the beast. To finance the venture, Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator, earning a combined total of $1,300, which was far less than the full selling price of their personal assets. The Apple I was debuted at the Homebrew Computer Club in July 1976, and by the end of 1976, Apple had sold 500 units, generating $775,000 in revenue. The company was incorporated on the 3rd of January 1977, as Apple Computer, Inc., with Wayne selling his 10% share back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 just twelve days after co-founding it. Mike Markkula, a multimillionaire, provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation, setting the stage for exponential growth. In the first five years, revenue doubled approximately every four months, growing from $775,000 in September 1977 to $117 million by September 1980, an average annual growth rate of 533%.
The Macintosh Revolution
In November and December 1979, Steve Jobs and Apple employees, including Jef Raskin, visited Xerox PARC, where they observed the Xerox Alto, featuring a graphical user interface and a mouse. Jobs had negotiated access to PARC's technology in exchange for the right to purchase $1 million worth of Apple's pre-IPO shares, a move that would fundamentally alter the trajectory of personal computing. The Apple Lisa, introduced in 1983, was the first mass-marketed GUI computer, but it suffered from high costs and limited software options, leading to commercial failure. Jobs, infuriated by his removal from the Lisa team, joined the Macintosh division in January 1981, redefining the Macintosh as a graphical system that would be cheaper than the Lisa. The Macintosh was launched on the 22nd of January 1984, with a $1.5 million television advertisement directed by Ridley Scott that aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, hailed as a masterpiece by CNN and one of the greatest TV advertisements of all time by TV Guide. The Macintosh shipped for $2,495, a price panned by critics due to its slow performance and limited RAM, but it created great interest and initial sales were good. However, sales began to taper off dramatically after the first three months as reviews started to come in, and the Macintosh was the first personal computer without a bundled programming language. In early 1985, a power struggle between Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had been hired away from Pepsi two years earlier, led to Jobs being stripped of all operational duties and resigning from Apple in September 1985. Sculley removed Jobs as the head of the Macintosh division, with unanimous support from the Apple board of directors, and Jobs took several Apple employees with him to found NeXT. 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.
The Decline and Recovery
After the departures of Jobs and Wozniak in 1985, Sculley launched the Macintosh 512K that year with quadruple the RAM, and introduced the LaserWriter, the first reasonably priced PostScript-based laser printer. The combination of Macintosh, LaserWriter, and PageMaker was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market, allowing the company to focus on higher price points, the so-called high-right policy. This policy began to backfire late in the decade as desktop publishing programs appeared on IBM PC compatibles with some of the same functionality of the Macintosh at far lower price points. The Christmas season of 1989 was the first in the company's history to have declining sales, which led to a 20% drop in Apple's stock price. In 1993, the Apple II series was discontinued, and Apple experimented with several other unsuccessful consumer targeted products during the 1990s, including QuickTake digital cameras, PowerCD portable CD audio players, speakers, the Pippin video game console, the eWorld online service, and Apple Interactive Television Box. Enormous resources were invested in the problematic Newton tablet division, based on John Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Throughout this period, Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows by focusing on delivering software to inexpensive personal computers, while Apple was delivering a richly engineered but expensive experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response, and it sued Microsoft for making a GUI similar to the Lisa in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., a lawsuit that dragged on for years and was finally dismissed. The major product flops and the rapid loss of market share to Windows sullied Apple's reputation, and in 1993 Sculley was replaced as CEO by Michael Spindler. Under Spindler, Apple, IBM, and Motorola formed the AIM alliance in 1994 to create a new computing platform, the PowerPC Reference Platform or PReP, with IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple software. In 1996, Spindler was replaced as CEO by Gil Amelio, who was hired for his reputation as a corporate rehabilitator. Amelio made deep changes, including extensive layoffs and cost-cutting, and this period was also marked by numerous failed attempts to modernize the Macintosh operating system. Only weeks away from bankruptcy, Apple's board preferred NeXTSTEP and purchased NeXT in late 1996 for $400 million, retaining Steve Jobs. The NeXT acquisition was finalized on the 9th of February 1997, and the board brought Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. On the 9th of July 1997, Jobs staged a boardroom coup, which resulted in Amelio's resignation after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. The board named Jobs as interim CEO, and he immediately reviewed the product lineup, canceling 70% of models, ending 3,000 jobs, and paring to the core of its computer offerings. The next month, in August 1997, Steve Jobs convinced Microsoft to make a $150-million investment in Apple and a commitment to continue developing Mac software, seen as an antitrust insurance policy for Microsoft. Around then, Jobs donated Apple's internal library and archives to Stanford University, to focus more on the present and the future rather than the past. He ended the Mac clone deals and in September 1997, purchased the largest clone maker, Power Computing. The moves paid off for Jobs; at the end of his first year as CEO, the company had a $309-million profit.
The Digital Lifestyle
On the 6th of May 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the original Macintosh: the iMac. The iMac was a huge success, with 800,000 units sold in its first five months, and ushered in major shifts in the industry by abandoning legacy technologies like the 3.5-inch diskette, being an early adopter of the USB connector, and coming pre-installed with Internet connectivity via Ethernet and a dial-up modem. Its striking teardrop shape and translucent materials were designed by Jonathan Ive, who had been hired by Amelio, and who collaborated with Jobs for more than a decade to reshape Apple's product design. A little more than a year later on the 21st of July 1999, Apple introduced the iBook consumer laptop, culminating Jobs's strategy to produce only four products: refined versions of the Power Macintosh G3 desktop and PowerBook G3 laptop for professionals, and the iMac desktop and iBook laptop for consumers. Jobs said the small product line allowed for a greater focus on quality and innovation. Around then, Apple also completed numerous acquisitions to create a portfolio of digital media production software for both professionals and consumers. Apple acquired Macromedia's Key Grip digital video editing software project, which was launched as Final Cut Pro in April 1999, and Key Grip's development also led to Apple's release of the consumer video-editing product iMovie in October 1999. Apple acquired the German company Astarte in April 2000, which had developed the DVD authoring software DVDirector, which Apple repackaged as the professional-oriented DVD Studio Pro, and reused its technology to create iDVD for the consumer market. In 2000, Apple purchased the SoundJam MP audio player software from Casady & Greene, renamed the program iTunes, simplified the user interface, and added CD burning. In 2001, Apple changed course with three announcements: first, on the 24th of March 2001, Apple announced the release of a new modern operating system, Mac OS X, based on NeXTSTEP, OpenStep, and BSD Unix, to combine the stability, reliability, and security of Unix with the ease of use of an overhauled user interface. Second, in May 2001, the first two Apple Store retail locations opened in Virginia and California, offering an improved presentation of the company's products, and at the time, many speculated that the stores would fail, but they became highly successful, and the first of more than 500 stores around the world. Third, on the 23rd of October 2001, the iPod portable digital audio player debuted, and the product was first sold on the 10th of November 2001, and was extremely successful, with over 100 million units sold within six years. In 2003, the iTunes Store was introduced with music downloads for 99 cents a song and iPod integration, quickly becoming the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by the 19th of June 2008. Two years later, the iTunes Store was the world's largest music retailer. In 2002, Apple purchased Nothing Real for its advanced digital compositing application Shake, and Emagic for the music productivity application Logic, making Apple the first computer manufacturer to own a music software company. The acquisition was followed by the development of Apple's consumer-level GarageBand application, and the release of iPhoto that year completed the iLife suite. On the 6th of June 2005, Jobs announced that Apple would move away from PowerPC processors, and the Mac would transition to Intel processors in 2006. On the 10th of January 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU, and by the 7th of August 2006, Apple made the transition to Intel chips for the entire Mac product line, over one year sooner than announced. The Power Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition, and the Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became their respective successors. Apple also introduced Boot Camp in 2006 to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X. Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price, which increased more than tenfold, from around $6 per share to over $80, and when Apple surpassed Dell's market cap in January 2006, Jobs sent an email to Apple employees saying Dell's CEO Michael Dell should eat his words, as nine years prior, Dell had said that if he ran Apple he would shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
The Mobile Era
During his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on the 9th of January 2007, Jobs announced the renaming of Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc., because the company had broadened its focus from computers to consumer electronics. This event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The company sold 270,000 first-generation iPhones during the first 30 hours of sales, and the device was called a game changer for the industry. In an article posted on Apple's website on the 6th of February 2007, Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management, thereby allowing tracks to be played on third-party players if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On the 2nd of April 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in the iTunes Store, effective in May 2007, and other record labels eventually followed suit, with Apple publishing a press release in January 2009 to announce that all songs on the iTunes Store are available without their FairPlay DRM. In July 2008, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and 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. On the 14th of January 2009, Jobs announced in an internal memo that he would be taking a six-month medical leave of absence from Apple until the end of June 2009 and would spend the time focusing on his health, and though Jobs was absent, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter during the recession, with revenue of $8.16 billion and profit of $1.21 billion. After years of speculation and multiple rumored leaks, Apple unveiled a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on the 27th of January 2010. The iPad ran the same touch-based operating system as the iPhone, and all iPhone apps were compatible with the iPad, giving the iPad a large app catalog on launch, though having very little development time before the release. Later that year on the 3rd of April 2010, the iPad was launched in the US, and it sold more than 300,000 units on its first day, and 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May 2010, Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989. In June 2010, Apple released the iPhone 4, which introduced video calling using FaceTime, multitasking, and a new design with an exposed stainless steel frame as the phone's antenna system. Later that year, Apple again refreshed the iPod line by introducing a multi-touch iPod Nano, an iPod Touch with FaceTime, and an iPod Shuffle that brought back the clickwheel buttons of earlier generations. It also introduced the smaller, cheaper second-generation Apple TV which allowed the rental of movies and shows. On the 17th of January 2011, Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he would take another medical leave of absence for an indefinite period to allow him to focus on his health, and chief operating officer Tim Cook assumed Jobs's day-to-day operations at Apple, although Jobs would still remain involved in major strategic decisions. Apple became the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world, and has consistently been among the most valuable brands since then. In June 2011, Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud, an online storage and syncing service for music, photos, files, and software which replaced MobileMe, Apple's previous attempt at content syncing. This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his death. On the 24th of August 2011, Jobs resigned his position as CEO of Apple, and he was replaced by Cook and Jobs became Apple's chairman. Apple did not have a chairman at the time and instead had two co-lead directors, Andrea Jung and Arthur D. Levinson, who continued with those titles until Levinson replaced Jobs as chairman of the board in November after Jobs's death. On the 5th of October 2011, Steve Jobs died, marking the end of an era for Apple.
The Post-Jobs Era
The next major product announcement by Apple was on the 19th of January 2012, when Apple's Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for Mac OS X in New York City, as Jobs had wanted to reinvent the textbook industry and education. From 2011 to 2012, Apple released the iPhone 4s and iPhone 5, which featured improved cameras, an intelligent software assistant named Siri, and cloud-synced data with iCloud, the third- and fourth-generation iPads, which featured Retina displays, and the iPad Mini, which featured a 7.9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. These launches were successful, with the iPhone 5, released the 21st of September 2012, becoming Apple's biggest iPhone launch with over two million pre-orders and sales of three million iPads in three days following the launch of the iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad, released the 3rd of November 2012. Apple also released a third-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display and new iMac and Mac Mini computers. On the 20th of August 2012, Apple's rising stock price increased the company's market capitalization to a then-record $624 billion, beating the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization previously set by Microsoft in 1999. On the 24th of August 2012, a US jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages in an intellectual property lawsuit, which was reduced by $450 million and further granted Samsung's request for a new trial. On the 10th of November 2012, Apple confirmed a global settlement that dismissed all existing lawsuits between Apple and HTC up to that date, in favor of a ten-year license agreement for current and future patents between the two companies, and it is predicted that Apple will make $100 million per year from this deal with HTC. In May 2014, Apple confirmed its intent to acquire Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's audio company Beats Electronics, producer of the Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones and speaker products, and operator of the music streaming service Beats Music, for $3 billion, and to sell their products through Apple's retail outlets and resellers. Iovine believed that Beats had always belonged with Apple, as the company modeled itself after Apple's unmatched ability to marry culture and technology, and the acquisition was the largest purchase in Apple's history. During a press event on the 9th of September 2014, Apple introduced a smartwatch called the Apple Watch, initially marketed as a fashion accessory and a complement to the iPhone, that would allow people to look at their smartphones less, and over time, the company has focused on developing health and fitness-oriented features on the watch, in an effort to compete with dedicated activity trackers. In January 2016, Apple announced that over one billion Apple devices were in active use worldwide. On the 6th of June 2016, Fortune released Fortune 500, its list of companies ranked on revenue generation, and in the trailing fiscal year of 2015, Apple was listed as the top tech company, ranking third overall with $233 billion in revenue, representing a movement upward of two spots from the previous year's list. In June 2017, Apple announced the HomePod, its smart speaker aimed to compete against Sonos, Google Home, and Amazon Echo, and toward the end of the year, TechCrunch reported that Apple was acquiring Shazam, a company that introduced its products at WWDC and specializing in music, TV, film and advertising recognition, for $400 million, with media reports that the purchase looked like a move to acquire data and tools bolstering the Apple Music streaming service. The purchase was approved by the European Union in September 2018. Also in June 2017, Apple appointed Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to head the newly formed worldwide video unit, and in November 2017, Apple announced it was branching out into original scripted programming, a drama series starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and a reboot of the anthology series Amazing Stories with Steven Spielberg. In June 2018, Apple signed the Writers Guild of America's minimum basic agreement and Oprah Winfrey to a multi-year content partnership, and additional partnerships for original series include Sesame Workshop and DHX Media and its subsidiary Peanuts Worldwide, and a partnership with A24 to create original films. During the Apple Special Event in September 2017, the AirPower wireless charger was announced alongside the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and Watch Series 3, intended to wirelessly charge multiple devices, simultaneously, though initially set to release in early 2018, the AirPower would be canceled in March 2019, marking the first cancellation of a device under Cook's leadership. On the 19th of August 2020, Apple's share price briefly topped $467.77, making it the first US company with a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
The Silicon and Services Shift
During its annual WWDC keynote speech on the 22nd of June 2020, Apple announced it would move away from Intel processors, and the Mac would transition 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 the 10th of November 2020, the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and the Mac Mini became the first Macs powered by an Apple-designed processor, the Apple M1. In April 2022, it was reported that Samsung Electro-Mechanics would be collaborating with Apple on its M2 chip instead of LG Innotek, and developer logs showed that at least nine Mac models with four different M2 chips were being tested. The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple's effort to develop its own chips left it better prepared to deal with the semiconductor shortage that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to increased profitability, with sales of M1-based Mac computers rising sharply in 2020 and 2021, and it also inspired other companies like Tesla, Amazon, and Meta Platforms to pursue a similar path. In April 2022, Apple opened an online store that allowed anyone in the US to view repair manuals and order replacement parts for specific recent iPhones, although the difference in cost between this method and official repair is anticipated to be minimal. In May 2022, a trademark was filed for RealityOS, an operating system reportedly intended for virtual and augmented reality headsets, first mentioned in 2017, and according to Bloomberg, the headset may come out in 2023, with further insider reports stating that the device uses iris scanning for payment confirmation and signing into accounts. In June 2023, Apple formally announced its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, which ran its new visionOS operating system, and the headset was released in February of the following year. On the 18th of June 2022, the Apple Store in Towson, Maryland, became the first to unionize in the US, with the employees voting to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. On the 7th of July 2022, Apple added Lockdown Mode to macOS 13 and iOS 16, as a response to the earlier Pegasus revelations, the mode increasing security protections for high-risk users against targeted zero-day malware. Apple launched a buy now, pay later service called Apple Pay Later for its Apple Wallet users in March 2023, the program allowing its users to apply for loans between $50 and $1,000 to make online or in-app purchases and then repaying them through four installments spread over six weeks without any interest or fees. In November 2023, Apple agreed to a $25-million settlement in a US Department of Justice case that alleged Apple was discriminating against US citizens in hiring, creating jobs that were not listed online and that required a paper submission application, while advertising these jobs to foreign workers as part of recruitment for PERM. In January 2024, Apple announced compliance with the European Union's competition law, with major changes to the App Store and other services, effective on March 7, enabling iOS users in the 27-nation bloc to use alternative app stores, and alternative payment methods within apps, adding a menu in Safari for downloading alternative browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox. In June 2024, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence to incorporate on-device artificial intelligence capabilities, and on the 1st of November 2024, Apple announced its acquisition of Pixelmator, a company known for its image editing applications for iPhone and Mac, having previously showcased Pixelmator's apps during its product launches, including naming Pixelmator Pro its Mac App of the Year in 2018 for its innovative use of machine learning and AI, and in the announcement, Pixelmator stated that there would be no significant changes to its existing apps following the acquisition. On the 31st of December 2024, a preliminary settlement was filed in the Oakland California federal court that accused Apple of unlawfully recording private conversations, through unintentional Siri activations, and of sharing them with third parties, including advertisers, and Apple agreed to a $95-million cash settlement to resolve this lawsuit in which its Siri assistant violated user privacy, denying any wrongdoing, allowing affected users to potentially claim up to $20 per device, with attorneys seeking $28.5 million in fees from the settlement fund.
The Future of Apple
In 2025, Apple undertook its largest investment initiative to date, announcing a commitment to spend over $500 billion in the United States over the following four years, including the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Houston to produce servers supporting Apple Intelligence, expansion of research and development in fields like silicon engineering and AI, and the establishment of a new advanced manufacturing academy in Detroit. The company also pledged to double its US Advanced Manufacturing Fund and increase collaboration with American suppliers, aiming to create tens of thousands of jobs related to R&D, AI, and manufacturing technologies. The software landscape at Apple underwent a transformation in 2025, with Apple introducing the new Liquid Glass design language, rolling out unified system design updates across iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and other platforms, and significantly expanding the capabilities of Apple Intelligence, the company's personal AI system, to address previous criticisms of fragmented interfaces, and use on-device and cloud-based AI to improve privacy and user experience. Despite continued growth in its services sector, including a new all-time high for services revenue in the March quarter and the launch of updated models such as the iPhone 16e and M4 MacBook Air, Apple faced significant challenges, contending with a 19% decline in stock value year-to-date, ongoing antitrust investigations by the US Department of Justice, and legal disputes involving the App Store. Competition in the AI space escalated, with rivals gaining ground, and high-profile departures and political tensions, including calls for Apple to manufacture iPhones domestically or face tariffs, added to the pressure, making 2025 one of the most challenging years for CEO Tim Cook. In December 2025, Cook met with US House members to push back against the App Store Accountability Act which could require that Apple authenticates users' ages and possibly collect sensitive data on children. On the 12th of January 2026, Apple announced a partnership with Google Gemini for AI-powered Siri, and in January 2026, Apple acquired Q.ai, an Israeli artificial intelligence startup specializing in imaging and machine learning technologies for audio processing, with the financial terms not disclosed, though media reports estimated the acquisition at nearly US$2 billion, Apple's second-largest purchase to date, and following the deal, Q.ai's founders and approximately 100 employees joined Apple. As of 2023, there are over 2 billion Apple devices in active use worldwide, and in February 2023, that number exceeded 2 billion devices. In 2023, the World Intellectual Property Organization's Madrid Yearly Review ranked Apple's number of trademark applications, filled under the Madrid System, as 10th in the world, with 74 trademark applications submitted during 2023, and Apple was ranked the No. 3 company in the world in the 2024 Fortune 500 list. Apple's product lineup includes portable and home hardware like the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV, several in-house operating systems such as iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, and various software and services including Apple Pay and iCloud, as well as multimedia streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV. Since 2011, Apple has for the most part been the world's largest company by market capitalization, and, as of 2025, is valued at just over $4 trillion, making it the largest manufacturing company by revenue, the fourth-largest personal computer vendor, the largest vendor of tablet computers, and the largest vendor of mobile phones. Apple has received criticism regarding its contractors' labor conditions, its relationship with trade unions, its environmental practices, and its corporate ethics, including anti-competitive tactics, materials sourcing, and its acquisitions of smaller businesses, but nevertheless, the company has a large following and enjoys a high level of customer loyalty, and has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most valuable brands since the late 2000s.