company . for the fruit see apple . for other uses of the name apple see apple disambiguation . coordinates 37 19 55 n 122 01 52 w 37.33182 n 122.03118 w 37.33182 ; 122.03118 apple inc. apple campus 1 infinite loop cupertino california type public traded as nasdaq aapl dow jones industrial average component nasdaq 100 component s & p 500 component industry computer hardware computer software consumer electronics digital distribution fabless silicon design corporate venture capital energy production founded april 1 1976 ; 40 years ago 1976 04 01 in cupertino california u.s. founders steve jobs steve wozniak ronald wayne headquarters apple campus cupertino california u.s. number of locations 478 apple retail stores in 17 countries as of march 2016 update 1 area served worldwide key people arthur d. levinson chairman 2 tim cook ceo jonathan ive cdo luca maestri cfo jeff williams coo products mac ipod iphone ipad apple watch apple tv macos ios watchos tvos ilife iwork services apple pay apple store online apple store itunes store ios app store mac app store ibooks store icloud apple music revenue us 233.715 billion 2015 3 operating income us 71.230 billion 2015 3 net income us 53.394 billion 2015 3 total assets us 305.277 billion 2q2016 3 total equity us 174.820 billion 2q2016 3 number of employees 115 000 as of july 2015 update 4 subsidiaries filemaker inc. anobit braeburn capital beats electronics apple energy llc website www.apple.com apple inc. is an american multinational technology company headquartered in cupertino california that designs develops and sells consumer electronics computer software and online services . its hardware products include the iphone smartphone the ipad tablet computer the mac personal computer the ipod portable media player the apple watch smartwatch and the apple tv digital media player . apple s consumer software includes the macos and ios operating systems the itunes media player the safari web browser and the ilife and iwork creativity and productivity suites . its online services include the itunes store the ios app store and mac app store and icloud . apple was founded by steve jobs steve wozniak and ronald wayne in april 1976 to develop and sell personal computers . 5 it was incorporated as apple computer inc. in january 1977 and was renamed as apple inc. in january 2007 to reflect its shifted focus toward consumer electronics . apple nasdaq aapl joined the dow jones industrial average in march 2015 . 6 apple is the world s largest information technology company by revenue the world s largest technology company by total assets 7 and the world s second largest mobile phone manufacturer . 8 in november 2014 in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization apple became the first u.s. company to be valued at over us 700 billion . 9 the company employs 115 000 permanent full time employees as of july 2015 update 4 and maintains 478 retail stores in seventeen countries as of march 2016 update . 1 it operates the online apple store and itunes store the latter of which is the world s largest music retailer . there are over one billion actively used apple products worldwide as of march 2016 update . 10 apple s worldwide annual revenue totaled 233 billion for the fiscal year ending in september 2015 . 3 this revenue generation accounts for approximately 1.25 % of the total united states gdp . 11 the company enjoys a high level of brand loyalty and according to interbrand s annual best global brands report has been the world s most valuable brand for 4 years in a row 12 13 14 with a valuation in 2016 of 178.1 billion . 15 the corporation receives significant criticism regarding the labor practices of its contractors and its environmental and business practices including the origins of source materials . in august 2016 after a three year investigation by the eu s competition commissioner that concluded that apple received illegal state aid from ireland the eu ordered apple to pay 13 billion euros 14.5 billion plus interest in unpaid taxes . 16 contents 1 history 1.1 1976 84 founding and incorporation 1.2 1984 91 success with macintosh 1.3 1991 97 decline restructuring acquisitions 1.4 1997 2007 return to profitability 1.5 2007 11 success with mobile devices 1.6 2011 present post steve jobs era ; tim cook leadership 2 products 2.1 mac 2.2 ipod 2.3 iphone 2.4 ipad 2.5 apple watch 2.6 apple tv 2.7 software 2.8 electric vehicles 2.9 apple energy 3 corporate identity 3.1 logo 3.2 advertising 3.3 brand loyalty 3.4 home page 3.5 headquarters 3.6 stores 4 corporate affairs 4.1 corporate culture 4.2 customer service 4.3 manufacturing 4.3.1 labor practices 4.4 environmental practices and initiatives 4.4.1 energy 4.4.2 toxins 4.4.3 green bonds 4.5 finance 4.5.1 tax practices 4.6 litigation 4.7 privacy stance 4.8 charitable causes 5 see also 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links history main article history of apple inc. 1976 84 founding and incorporation home of paul and clara jobs on crist drive in los altos california . steve jobs formed apple computer in its garage with steve wozniak and ronald wayne in 1976 . the apple i apple s first product was sold as an assembled circuit board and lacked basic features such as a keyboard monitor and case . the owner of this unit added a keyboard and a wooden case . the apple ii introduced in 1977 was a major technological advancement over its predecessor . apple was established on april 1 1976 by steve jobs steve wozniak and ronald wayne 17 18 to sell the apple i personal computer kit . the apple i kits were computers single handedly designed and hand built by wozniak 19 20 and first shown to the public at the homebrew computer club . 21 the apple i was sold as a motherboard with cpu ram and basic textual video chips which was less than what is now considered a complete personal computer . 22 the apple i went on sale in july 1976 and was market priced at 666.66 2 772 in 2016 dollars adjusted for inflation . 23 24 25 26 27 28 apple was incorporated january 3 1977 29 without wayne who sold his share of the company back to jobs and wozniak for 800 . 18 multimillionaire mike markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of 250 000 during the incorporation of apple . 30 31 during the first five years of operations revenues grew exponentially doubling about every four months . between september 1977 and september 1980 yearly sales grew from 775 000 to 118m an average annual growth rate of 533 % . 32 the apple ii also invented by wozniak was introduced on april 16 1977 at the first west coast computer faire . it differed from its major rivals the trs 80 and commodore pet because of its character cell based color graphics and open architecture . while early apple ii models used 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 . 33 the apple ii was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first killer app of the business world visicalc a spreadsheet program . 34 visicalc created a business market for the apple ii and gave home users an additional reason to buy an apple ii compatibility with the office . 34 before visicalc apple had been a distant third place competitor to commodore and tandy . 35 36 by the end of the 1970s apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line . the company introduced the apple iii in may 1980 in an attempt to compete with ibm and microsoft in the business and corporate computing market . 37 jobs and several apple employees including jef raskin visited xerox parc in december 1979 to see the xerox alto . xerox granted apple engineers three days of access to the parc facilities in return for the option to buy 100 000 shares 800 000 split adjusted shares of apple at the pre ipo price of 10 a share . 38 jobs was immediately convinced that all future computers would use a graphical user interface gui and development of a gui began for the apple lisa . 39 in 1982 however he was pushed from the lisa team due to infighting . jobs took over jef raskin s low cost computer project the macintosh . a race broke out between the lisa team and the macintosh team over which product would ship first . lisa won the race in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public with a gui but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and limited software titles . 40 on december 12 1980 apple went public at 22 per share 41 generating more capital than any ipo since ford motor company in 1956 and instantly creating more millionaires about 300 than any company in history . 42 1984 91 success with macintosh see also timeline of macintosh models the first macintosh released in 1984 was the first mass market personal computer featuring an integral graphical user interface and mouse . in 1984 apple launched the macintosh the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language at all . 43 its debut was signified by 1984 a 1.5 million television commercial directed by ridley scott that aired during the third quarter of super bowl xviii on january 22 1984 . 44 the commercial is now hailed as a watershed event for apple s success 45 and a masterpiece . 46 47 the macintosh initially sold well but follow up sales were not strong 48 due to its high price and limited range of software titles . the machine s fortunes changed with the introduction of the laserwriter the first postscript laser printer to be sold at a reasonable price and pagemaker an early desktop publishing package . it has been suggested that the combination of these three products were responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market . 49 the macintosh was particularly powerful in the desktop publishing market due to its advanced graphics capabilities which had necessarily been built in to create the intuitive macintosh gui . in 1985 a power struggle developed between jobs and ceo john sculley who had been hired two years earlier . 50 the apple board of directors instructed sculley to contain jobs and limit his ability to launch expensive forays into untested products . rather than submit to sculley s direction jobs attempted to oust him from his leadership role at apple . sculley found out that jobs had been attempting to organize a coup and called a board meeting at which apple s board of directors sided with sculley and removed jobs from his managerial duties . 48 jobs resigned from apple and founded next inc. the same year . 51 the macintosh portable released in 1989 was apple s first battery powered portable macintosh personal computer . after jobs departure the macintosh product line underwent a steady change of focus to higher price points the so called high right policy named for the position on a chart of price vs. profits . jobs had argued the company should produce products aimed at the consumer market and aimed for a 1000 price for the macintosh which they were unable to meet . newer models selling at higher price points offered higher profit margin and appeared to have no effect on total sales as power users snapped up every increase in power . although some worried about pricing themselves out of the market the high right policy was in full force by the mid 1980s notably due to jean louis gass e s mantra of fifty five or die referring to the 55 % profit