Apple is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California. It designs, develops and markets consumer electronics, computer software and online services. The company's hardware products include iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, MAC personal computer, iPod portable media player, apple watch smart watch, Apple TV digital media player and homepod smart speaker. Apple's software includes Mac OS and IOS operating system, iTunes media player, Safari web browser, iLife and Iwork creative and productivity suite, and professional applications such as final cut pro, logic pro and Xcode. Its online services include iTunes Store, IOS app store and MAC app store, Apple Music and icloud.

Apple was founded in April 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to develop and sell Wozniak's apple I personal computer. It was merged into Apple computer, Inc. in January 1977. The sales of its computers (including Apple II) have brought considerable momentum and revenue growth to the company. Within a few years, jobs and Wozniak hired a group of computer designers and owned a production line. Apple went public in 1980 to achieve financial success. In the next few years, Apple launched new computers with innovative graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in 1984, and Apple's product marketing advertising received widespread praise. However, the high price of its products and limited software titles caused problems, as did the power struggle among its executives. In 1985, Wozniak left apple, and jobs resigned completely, bringing other Apple employees to his company, and founded his own company, next, the same year.

With the growth of the personal computer market, Apple's computer sales have decreased due to competitors' low-cost products, especially those provided by Microsoft Windows operating system. In 1997, Gil Amelio, then chief executive, decided to buy next in order to bring jobs back, ahead of more senior management changes at Apple. Jobs regained leadership within the company and soon became the new CEO. He began the process of re establishing Apple's position, including opening Apple's own retail store in 2001, repeatedly acquiring software companies to create a software portfolio and changing some of the hardware used in its computers. Once again, it saw success and returned to profitability. In January 2007, Jobs announced to rename Apple Computer, Inc. as Apple Inc. to reflect his focus on consumer electronics products. He also released the iPhone, which has been widely acclaimed and has achieved considerable financial success. In August 2011, jobs resigned as CEO due to health problems, and Tim Cook became the new CEO. Two months later, jobs died, marking the end of the company's era.

Apple's global annual revenue in fiscal 2017 totaled $229 billion. In terms of revenue, apple is the world's largest information technology company and the world's third largest mobile phone manufacturer after Samsung and Huawei. In August 2018, apple became the first US listed company with a market value of more than US $1 trillion. As of 2018, the company has 123000 full-time employees and 504 retail stores in 24 countries. It runs the iTunes Store, the world's largest music retailer. As of January 2018, more than 1.3 billion Apple products have been actively used in the world. The company enjoys high brand loyalty and has been rated as the most valuable brand in the world for many times. However, it has been severely criticized for the Contractor's labor practices, its environmental and business practices (including anticompetitive practices), and its source of original information.