Apple Inc., an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California. It’s one of the most valuable brands today, it’s often surprising when people learn that Apple’s first computers were built in a small garage in California.
As a boy Steve Jobs and his father worked in family garage repairing and reconstructing electronics, Steve learned how to work with electronics which instilled confidence and determination in young Jobs, the family garage also had a big role in his career, the garage not only developed Jobs’ interest in electronics but also became their workplace when Jobs and Wozniak started their company and later their house became one of the historic site of Los Altos in 2013.
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell Wozniak’s Apple I personal computer. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc.
In January 1977, the sales of its computers, including the Apple II, grew quickly. Within a few years, Jobs and Wozniak had hired a staff of computer designers and had a production line. Apple went public in 1980 to instant financial success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers featuring innovative graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in 1984.
One of their first big orders was from a local retailer who ordered 50 computers at $500 apiece, which they were able to produce in just 30 days. Although Wayne had already abandoned the business, Jobs and Wozniak successfully reached their goal in just 30 days.
In January 2007, Jobs announced the iPhone, which saw critical praise and significant financial success. In August 2011, Jobs resigned as CEO due to health complications, and Tim Cook became the new CEO. Two months later, Jobs died, marking the end of an era for the company.
Today Apple is the world’s largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s third-largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung and Huawei. Apple is well known for its size and revenues. Its worldwide annual revenue totalled $265 billion for the 2018 fiscal year.
In April 2017 Apple opened its campus named Apple Park which is located in Cupertino, California, United States. It opened to employees in April 2017, while construction was still underway. Its research and development facilities are occupied with more than 2,000 people.
Its circular design and extreme scale have earned a media nickname of “the spaceship”. Located on a suburban site totalling 175 acres, it houses more than 12,000 employees in one central four-storied circular building of approximately 2,800,000 square feet.
Steve Jobs wanted the whole campus to look less like an office park and more like a nature refuge. Eighty per cent of the site consists of green space planted with drought-resistant trees and plants natural to the Cupertino area.