Apple Incorporation

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino,

California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software,

online services, and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac

line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet

computer. Its online services include iCloud, iTunes Store, and App Store. Its consumer

software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the

Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork 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 after Samsung and

Nokia.[5] Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States

in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012.[6][7][8][9][10] 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.[11] However, the company has received criticism for

its contractors' labor practices, as well as for its own environmental and business practices.

As of June 2014, Apple maintains 425 retail stores in fourteen countries,[12][13] as well

as the online Apple Store and iTunes Store,[14] the latter of which is the world's largest

music retailer.[15] Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market

capitalization, with an estimated market capitalization of $446 billion by January, 2014.

[16] As of September 29, 2012, the company had 72,800...