Ch.1 – Brief History and Mission Statement of Apple Inc.

Apple Inc's Brief History 

 Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino California. It was founded on April 1, 1976 by a group of friends Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Their first sale was the Apple I personal computer kit, a computer single handedly designed by Wozniak. Apple was incorporated on January 3, 1977 and a few months later, on April 16, 1977, Apple II, also invented by Wozniak, was introduced in the market. Apple II had the distinct honor of being differentiated from its competitors because of it's ability to successfully mass-produce microcomputer products first and it was this product that would boost the image of Apple Inc. as a whole. Today, Apple Inc. has become 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. Currently the company designs and manufactures computer hardware, software, and consumer electronics, such as smartphones(iPhone), portable media players(IPod), tablet computers(iPod) and with more than 408 Apple retail stores in fourteen countries, Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization.

Apple Inc's Mission Statement

 

"Apple desings Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices."

Source:Apple's Investor Relations FAQ