Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company incorporated and headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. The company was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1977; as of 2023, Apple is the largest technology company by revenue, with billion.

The company was founded to produce and market Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Its second computer, the Apple II, became a best seller as one of the first mass-produced microcomputers. Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh in 1984, as some of the first computers to use a graphical user interface and a mouse. By 1985, internal company problems led to Jobs leaving to form NeXT, Inc., and Wozniak withdrew to other ventures. Apple lost considerable market share in personal computer industry to the lower-priced Wintel duopoly of the Microsoft Windows operating system on Intel-powered PC clones. In 1997, Apple was weeks away from bankruptcy. To resolve its failed operating system strategy, it bought NeXT effectively bringing Jobs back to the company, who guided Apple back to profitability over the next decade with the introductions of the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices to critical acclaim — as well as the iTunes Store — launching the "Think different" campaign, and opening the Apple Store retail chain. These moves elevated Apple to consistently be one of the world's most valuable brands since about 2010. Jobs resigned in 2011 for health reasons, and died two months later; he was succeeded as CEO by Tim Cook.

Apple's current product lineup include portable and home hardware such as iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV; software such as iOS and macOS; and various services like the Apple Pay digital payment system, iCloud storage service, and multimedia streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV+. Apple is one of the current Big Five American information technology companies; for the most part since 2011,}} Apple has been the world's largest company by market capitalization and the company is the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales, the largest manufacturing company by revenue, and the largest vendor of mobile phones in the world. Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion in 2018, and as of June 2024 is valued at just over $3.2 trillion. It has a large following and a high level of brand loyalty, though has received criticism regarding its contractors' labor practices, its environmental practices, and its business ethics, including anti-competitive practices and materials sourcing. Provided by Wikipedia