Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne in a garage in Los Altos, California. The Apple II, launched in 1977, was one of the first successful mass-produced personal computers. After turbulent years that saw Jobs fired and eventually return in 1997, Apple embarked on one of the greatest turnarounds in business history.
The iPod (2001), iPhone (2007), and iPad (2010) transformed entire industries. The iPhone in particular reshaped computing, communications, and commerce. Apple’s App Store, launched in 2008, created an ecosystem that has generated over $1 trillion in developer earnings.
Today, Apple is the world’s most valuable public company, with a market cap that has exceeded $3 trillion. Annual revenue tops $380 billion. The company sells over 200 million iPhones per year and has an installed base of over 2.2 billion active devices worldwide.
Apple’s services segment — including the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay, and AppleCare — generates over $85 billion in annual revenue and has become a critical growth driver. Apple Silicon, the company’s custom ARM-based chips (M1 through M4 series), has given Macs a massive performance-per-watt advantage.
Headquartered at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, Apple employs over 160,000 people. The company is led by CEO Tim Cook, who took over after Jobs’s death in 2011. Apple’s commitment to privacy, vertical integration of hardware and software, and brand loyalty keep it at the center of consumer technology.
