Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures consumer electronics, computer software, and servers. The company's best-known hardware products include Macintosh computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple software includes the OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser; Safari web browser; the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivity software; Aperture, a professional and consumer photography package; Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional film-industry and home audio and video editing software products; and Logic Studio, a professional music and audio production suite. As of June 2012, the company operates 363 retail stores in ten countries, and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. Apple is a generally popular company that manufactures many digital devices including the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod and Mac line-ups.
Established in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was initially called Apple Computer, Inc. for its first 30 years, but dropped the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007 to reflect the company's expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its historic focus on personal computers. Apple has about 35,000 employees worldwide and had worldwide annual sales of US$42.91 billion in its fiscal year ending September 26, 2009. For reasons as various as its philosophy of comprehensive aesthetic design to its distinctive advertising campaigns, Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry. This includes a customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand, particularly in the United States. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008 and in the world in 2009, 2010, and 2011.
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The iPhone (/ˈaɪfoʊn/ EYE-fohn) is a line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It runs Apple's iOS mobile operating system, known as the "iPhone OS" until mid-2010, shortly after the release of the iPad. The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007; the most recent iPhone, the sixth-generation iPhone 5, on September 21, 2012. The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPhone has Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity (2G, 3G and 4G).
An iPhone can shoot video (though this was not a standard feature until the iPhone 3GS), take photos, play music, send and receive email, browse the web, send texts, and receive visual voicemail. Other functions—games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, etc.—can be enabled by downloading apps; as of 2012, the App Store offered more than 775,000 apps by Apple and third parties. There are six generations of iPhone models, each accompanied by one of the six major releases of iOS. The original iPhone was a GSM phone, and established design precedents, such as a button placement that has persisted through all models and a screen size maintained until the launch of the iPhone 5 in 2012. The iPhone 3G added 3G cellular network capabilities and A-GPS location. The iPhone 3GS added a faster processor and a higher-resolution camera that could record video at 480p. The iPhone 4 featured a higher-resolution 960 × 640 "retina display", a higher-resolution rear-facing camera and a lower-resolution front-facing camera for video calling and other apps. The iPhone 4S added an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, a dual-core processor, and a natural language voice control system called Siri. iPhone 5 features the new A6 processor, holds a 4-inch Retina display that is larger than its predecessor's 3.5-inch display, and replaces the 30-pin connector with an all-digital Lightning connector. |
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Infinite Loop is a street encircling the six main buildings of Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California.
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The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc., dealing in computers and consumer electronics. As of July 2010 Apple has opened 295 stores : 225 in 41 US states, 27 in the United Kingdom (23 in England, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Northern Ireland and 1 in Wales), 15 in Canada, 8 in Australia, 7 in Japan, 4 in China, 3 in Switzerland, 3 in Germany, 3 in France, 2 in Italy and 1 in the Netherlands. The stores sell Apple Macintosh personal computers and software, iPods, iPads, iPhones, third-party accessories, and other consumer electronics such as the Apple TV. Many stores feature a theatre for presentations and workshops, the Studio for training with Apple products, and all stores offer a Genius Bar for technical support and repairs, as well as free workshops available to the public. The Apple Retail Store design has resulted from the contributions of firms such as Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Eckersley O’Callaghan, Eight Inc., Gensler, and ISP Design, Inc. to name a few, together with the Apple in-house design team. Shown above is one of the flagship stores in Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France. |
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Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs B. February 24, 1955 – d. October 5, 2011 Steve Jobs was an American entrepreneur and inventor, best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields, transforming "one industry after another, from computers and smartphones to music and movies..." In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak engineered one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Apple Lisa and, one year later, the Macintosh. He also played a role in introducing the LaserWriter, one of the first widely available laser printers, to the market. After a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Jobs returned to Apple as an advisor, and took control of the company as an interim CEO. Jobs brought Apple from near bankruptcy to profitability by 1998. As the new CEO of the company, Jobs oversaw the development of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and on the services side, the company's Apple Retail Stores, iTunes Store and the App Store. The success of these products and services provided several years of stable financial returns, and propelled Apple to become the world's most valuable publicly traded company in 2011. |
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“ | Anyone privy to the release of the iPhone is going to hold on to their current device as long as they possibly can, all but Scotch taping their devices together so that they can crawl over the finish line and into the loving arms of a shiny new iPhone. (Oh, you know the box is gonna be sexy.) | ” |
— John Mayer (2006) |
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