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Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered and incorporated in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year. It was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company had expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue, with US$391.04 billion in 2024.
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 withdrawing to other ventures; John Sculley served as long-time CEO for over a decade. In the 1990s, Apple lost considerable market share in the 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" advertising 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 includes portable and home hardware such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV; operating systems such as iOS, iPadOS, and macOS; and various software and services including Apple Pay, iCloud, and multimedia streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV+. Apple is one of the Big Five American information technology companies; for the most part since 2011, Apple has been the world's largest company by market capitalization, and, as of 2023, is the largest manufacturing company by revenue, the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales, the largest vendor of tablet computers, 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.
Apple has received criticism regarding its contractors' labor practices, its relationship with trade unions, its environmental practices, and its business ethics, including anti-competitive practices and materials sourcing. Nevertheless, the company has a large following and enjoys a high level of brand loyalty.