Contents

1) Inroduction
2) History
• 1976–1980: The early years
• 1986–1993: Rise and fall
• 1994–1997: Attempts at reinvention
• 1998–2005: New beginnings
• 2005–present: The Intel partnership
3) Business
4) Corporate affairs
5) Advertising
6) Environmental record
7) Criticism
 Introduction
Apple Inc is an American multinational corporation with a focus on designing and
manufacturing consumer electronics and software products. The company's best-known
hardware products include the Macintosh line of personal computers, the iPod line of
portable media players, and the iPhone. Apple's software products include the Mac OS X
operating system, iTunes media browser, the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity
software, and Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio- and film-industry software
products. The company operates more than 200 retail stores in eight countries and an online
store where hardware and software products are sold.
Established in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 and incorporated January 3, 1977, the
company was called "Apple Computer, Inc." for its first 30 years, but dropped the word
"Computer" on January 9, 2007 to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the
consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers. Apple
has about 28,000 employees worldwide and has worldwide annuak sales of US$24 billion in
its fiscal year ending September 29, 2007.
History
1976–1980: The early years
Apple was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne,to
sell the Apple I personal computer kit. They were hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to
the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with
CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips)—less than what is today considered a complete
personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at
US$666.66.
Apple was incorporated January 3, 1977 without Wayne, who sold his share of the company
back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800.
The Apple II 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 it came with color
graphics and an open architecture.
By the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line. The
Apple II was succeeded by the Apple III in May 1980 as the company competed with IBM
and Microsoft in the business and corporate computing market.
In 1984, Apple next launched the Macintosh. The Macintosh initially sold well, but follow-up
sales were not strong. The machine's fortunes changed with the introduction of the
LaserWriter, the first laser printer to be offered at a reasonable price point, and PageMaker,
an early desktop publishing package. The Mac was particularly powerful in this market due
to its advanced graphics capabilities, which were already necessarily built-in to create the
intuitive Macintosh GUI. It has been suggested that the combination of these three products
was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market. As desktop publishing
became widespread, Apple's sales reached new highs and the company had its initial public
offering on September 7, 1984.
Apple's sustained growth during the early 1980s was partly due to its leadership in the
education sector, attributed to their adaptation of the programming language LOGO, used in
many schools with the Apple II. The drive into education was accentuated in California with
the donation of one Apple II and one Apple LOGO software package to each public school in
the state.

1986–1993: Rise and fall

Having learned several painful lessons after introducing the bulky Macintosh Portable in
1989, Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991, which established the modern form and
ergonomic layout of the laptop computer. The same year, Apple introduced System 7, a
major upgrade to the operating system which added color to the interface and introduced new
networking capabilities. It remained the architectural basis for Mac OS until 2001.
The success of the PowerBook and other products led to increasing revenue. For some time,
it appeared that Apple could do no wrong, introducing fresh new products and generating
increasing profits in the process. The magazine MacAddict named the period between 1989
and 1991 as the "first golden age" of the Macintosh.
During this time Apple experimented with a number of other failed consumer targeted
products including digital cameras, portable CD audio players, speakers, video consoles and
TV appliances.
Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows, focusing on delivering software
with cheap commodity PCs while Apple was delivering a richly engineered, but expensive,
experience.

1994–1997: Attempts at reinvention

The Apple Newton was Apple's first foray into the PDA markets, as well as one of the first in
the industry.
By the early 1990s, Apple was developing alternative platforms to the Macintosh, such as the
A/UX. The Macintosh would need to be replaced by a new platform, or reworked to run on
more powerful hardware.
In 1994, Apple allied with IBM and Motorola in the AIM alliance. The goal was to create a
new computing platform (the PowerPC Reference Platform), which would use IBM and
Motorola hardware coupled with Apple's software. The AIM alliance hoped that PReP's
performance and Apple's software would leave the PC far behind, thus countering Microsoft.
The same year, Apple introduced the Power Macintosh, the first of many Apple computers to
use IBM's PowerPC processor.
On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the Apple Store, tied to a new build-to-order
manufacturing strategy.

1998–2005: New beginnings

On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the
Macintosh 128K: the iMac. The iMac design team was led by Jonathan Ive, who would later
design the iPod and the iPhone. The iMac featured current technology and a groundbreaking
design. It sold close to 800,000 units in its first five months and returned Apple to
profitability for the first time since 1993.
Through this period, Apple purchased several companies to create a portfolio of professional
and consumer-oriented digital production software. In 1998, Apple announced the purchase
of Macromedia's Final Cut software, signaling its expansion into the digital video editing
market. The following year, Apple released two video editing products: iMovie for
consumers, and Final Cut Pro for professionals, the latter of which has gone on to be a
significant video-editing program, with 800,000 registered users in early 2007. In 2002 Apple
purchased Nothing Real for their advanced digital compositing application Shake,as well as
Emagic for their music productivity application Logic, which led to the development of their
consumer-level GarageBand application. iPhoto's release the same year completed the iLife
suite.
On May 19, 2001, Apple opened the first official Apple Retail Stores in Virginia and
California. The same year, Apple introduced the iPod portable digital audio player. The
product was phenomenally successful — over 100 million units were sold within six years.
In 2003, Apple's iTunes Store was introduced, offering online music downloads for US$0.99
a song and integration with the iPod. The service quickly became the market leader in online
music services, with over 5 billion downloads by June 19th 2008.
2005–present: The Intel partnership
In the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs
announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Mac computers in 2006. On
January 10, 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to
utilize Intel's Core Duo CPU. By August 7, 2006 Apple had transitioned the entire Mac
product line to Intel chips, over 1 year sooner than announced.
Delivering his keynote at Macworld on January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced that Apple
Computer, Inc. would from that point on be known as Apple Inc. The event also saw the
announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV.
Business
Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked the
traditional notions of what a corporate culture should look like in terms of organizational
hierarchy (flat versus tall, casual versus formal attire, etc). Other highly successful firms with
similar cultural aspects from the same time period include Southwest Airlines and Microsoft.
Originally, the company stood in opposition to staid competitors like IBM more or less by
default, thanks to the influence of its founders; Steve Jobs often walked around the office
barefoot even after Apple was a Fortune 500 company. By the time of the "1984" TV ad, this
trait had become a key way the company attempts differentiated itself from its competitors.
Corporate affairs
Apple has a history of vertical integration in their products, manufacturing the hardware on
which they pre-install their software.
During the Mac's early history Apple generally refused to adopt prevailing industry standards
for hardware, instead creating their own. This trend was largely reversed in the late 1990s
beginning with Apple's adoption of the PCI bus in the 7500/8500/9500 Power Macs. Apple
has since adopted USB, AGP, HyperTransport, Wi-Fi, and other industry standards in its
computers and was in some cases a leader in the adoption of such standards such as USB.
FireWire is an Apple-originated standard which has seen widespread industry adoption after
it was standardized as IEEE 1394.
Ever since the first Apple store opened, Apple has sold third party accessories. This allows,
for instance, Nikon and Canon to sell their Mac-compatible digital cameras and camcorders
inside the store. Adobe, one of Apples oldest software partners, also sells its Mac-compatible
software, as does Microsoft, who sells Microsoft Office for the Mac. Books from John Wiley
& Sons, who publishes the For Dummies series of instructional books, are a notable
exception however. The publisher's line of books were banned from Apple Stores in 2005
because Steve Jobs disagreed with their editorial policy.
Advertising
Since the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984 with the 1984 Super Bowl commercial to the
more modern 'Get a Mac' adverts, Apple has been recognized in the past for its efforts
towards effective advertising and marketing for its products, though it has been criticized for
the claims of some more recent campaigns, particularly 2005 Power Mac ads.
Apple’s first logo, designed by Jobs and Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an
apple tree. Almost immediately, though, this was replaced by Rob Janoff’s “rainbow Apple,”
the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it, possibly
as a tribute to Isaac Newton's discoveries of the gravity (the apple), and the separation of
light by prisms (the colors). This was one of several designs Janoff presented to Jobs in 1976.
While it is generally accepted to have referred to Isaac Newton, another explanation exists
that the bitten apple pays homage to the mathematician Alan Turing, who committed suicide
by eating an apple he had laced with cyanide. Turing is regarded as one of the fathers of the
computer. The rainbow colors of the logo are rumored to be a reference to the rainbow flag,
as a homage to Turing's homosexuality.
In 1998, with the roll out of the new iMac, Apple began to use a monochromatic logo—
supposedly at the insistence of recently returned Jobs—nearly identical in shape to its
previous rainbow incarnation. However, no specific color is prescribed throughout Apple's
software and hardware line. The logo's shape is one of the most recognized brand symbols in
the world, identifies all Apple products and retail stores (the name "Apple" is not even
present) and has been included as stickers in nearly all Macintosh and iPod packages through
the years.
Environmental record
Greenpeace, an environmentalist organization, has controversially confronted Apple on
various environmental issues, including promoting a global end-of-life take-back plan, non-
recyclable hardware components, and toxins within the iPhone hardware. Since 2003 they
have campaigned against Apple regarding their chemical policies, in particular the inclusion
of PVC and BFRs in their products. On May 2, 2007, Steve Jobs released a report
announcing plans to completely eliminate PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008.
Greenpeace runs a "Guide to Greener Electronics", which rates companies on chemical-
disposal waste-reduction practices. In the first edition, released in August 2006, Apple scored
2.7/10. In subsequent editions Apple's score has improved steadily. Apple has soon improved
its score to a 4.1/10, placing it in the 45 percentile among 17 other electronic companies and
10th in the rankings.
At the 2007 Macworld Expo, Greenpeace presented a critique of Apple. Rick Hind, the
legislative director of Greenpeace's toxics campaign, said, "(The company) is getting greener,
but not green enough." Hind commented further, "The Macbook Air has less toxic PVC
plastic and less toxic BFRs, but it could have zero and that would make Apple an eco-
leader.""
Climate Counts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to directing consumers toward the
greenest companies, gave Apple 11 points out of a possible 100 which placed the company
last among electronics companies. Climate Counts also labeled Apple with a "stuck icon,"
and the environmental group added that Apple was "a choice to avoid for the climate
conscious consumer." Steve Jobs responded "get out of the computer business (and) go save
some whales."
The Environmental Protection Agency rates Apple highest amongst producers of notebook
computers, and fairly well compared to producers of desktop computers and LCD displays.
In 2007 and 2008, Apple updated the Macbook Pro's backlighting and LCD screens, updating
from cold cathode lamps to mercury-free LEDs and arsenic free LCDs respectively.

Criticism
The Danish Consumer Complaints Board reported a fault with Apple's iBook line and
criticized Apple's lackluster response to the issue, indicating quality-control and customer
support problems at Apple. The iBook had a fault that caused the computer to break down
after a certain number of computer restarts, usually outside of Apple's standard one year
warranty period. Websites such as AppleDefects.com have been set up detailing issues on
Apples product portfolio.
Apple has been criticized for post-launch price changes, most notably after the price of the
iPhone was reduced by $200 just two months after its release, resulting in a flood of
complaints to Apple. Apple did however attempt to rectify complaints by offering $100 store
credit to early iPhone customers.
Apple has been accused of pressuring journalists to release their sources, with regards to
leaked information about new Apple products, going as far as filing lawsuits against "John
Does".In particular, Apple fought a protracted battle against the Think Secret web site which
resulted in a "positive solution for both sides". No sources were revealed.
There has been criticism of the iPhone and the iPod being locked into iTunes and creating a
iTunes store monopoly for these devices . Similarly, Apple has not licensed its FairPlay DRM
system to any other company, preventing users from listening to DRM protected music
bought from sources other than the iTunes Store.
In 2006, Apple was criticized by the Mail on Sunday for possible sweatshop conditions in
factories in China where contract manufacturers make the iPod. Immediately after the
allegations, Apple launched an extensive investigation and worked with their manufacturers
to remove all unacceptable conditions but did not find any instances of sweatshop conditions.
The batteries in the iPod, iPhone and MacBook Air are not easily replaced by users.
Apple was caught up in controversy regarding the online sales of music in the European
Union where, as a single market, customers should be free to purchase goods and services
from any member state. iTunes Stores there restricted users to only allow the purchase of
content from the country to which their payment details originate, which also forced users in
some countries to pay higher prices. On December 3, 2004 the British Office of Fair Trading
referred the iTunes Music Store to the European Commission for violation of EU free-trade
legislation. Apple commented that they did not believe they violated EU law, but were
restricted by legal limits to the rights granted to them by the music labels and publishers. PC
World commented that it appeared "the Commission's main target is not Apple but the music
companies and music rights agencies, which work on a national basis and give Apple very
little choice but to offer national stores".
 The used literature

1) www.apple.com
2) www.en.wikipedia.org
3) www.ComputerHistory.org