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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 partnership 3) Business 4) Corporate affairs 5) Advertising 6) Environmental record 7) Criticism Introduction Apple Inc is an American multinational with a focus on designing and manufacturing consumer electronics and products. The company's best-known hardware products include the line of personal , the iPod line of portable media players, and the iPhone. Apple's software products include the Mac OS X , iTunes media browser, the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software, and , 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, on April 1, 1976 and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was called "Apple , Inc." for its first 30 years, but dropped the word "Computer" on , 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 , and ,to sell the kit. They were hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the . The Apple I was sold as a (with CPU, RAM, and 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 . By the end of the , 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 in the business and corporate computing market. In 1984, Apple 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 , and PageMaker, an early 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 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 in 1989, Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991, which established the modern form and ergonomic layout of the computer. The same year, Apple introduced , 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 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 in the AIM alliance. The goal was to create a new (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 , the first of many Apple computers to use IBM's PowerPC processor. On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the , 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 : 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 for their advanced digital compositing application ,as well as for their 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 & 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 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 ," 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 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