Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino,California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Macline of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPadtablet computer. Its consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife andiWork creativity and productivity suites.
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976 to develop and sell personal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977, and was renamed as Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007 to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer electronics.
Apple is the world's second-largest information technology company by revenue after Samsung Electronics, and the world's third-largest mobile phone maker afterSamsung and Nokia.[4] Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012.[5][6][7][8][9] On September 30, 2013, Apple surpassed Coca-Cola to become the world's most valuable brand in the Omnicom Group's "Best Global Brands" report.[10] However, the company has received criticism for its contractors' labor practices, and for Apple's own environmental and business practices.
As of May 2013, Apple maintains 408 retail stores in fourteen countries[11][12] as well as the online Apple Store and iTunes Store,[13] the latter of which is the world's largest music retailer.[14] Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an estimated value of US$415 billion as of March 2013. As of September 29, 2012, the company had 72,800 permanent full-time employees and 3,300 temporary full-time employees worldwide. Its worldwide annual revenue in 2012 totalled $156 billion.[15] In May 2013, Apple entered the top ten of the Fortune 500 list of companies for the first time, rising 11 places above its 2012 ranking to take the sixth position.[16]
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