Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL, LSE: ACP) is an American computer technology corporation with global annual sales in 2005 of US$13.9 billion and 14,800 employees in several countries. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple develops, sells, and supports a series of personal computers, portable media players, computer software, and computer hardware accessories.

The company's most well-known products are the Apple Macintosh line of personal computers, the iPod portable music player, and the iTunes media player. Apple operates retail stores in the United States, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom which provide on-site sales, service and support for Apple and third-party products.

Apple has been a major player in the evolution of personal computing since its founding in 1976. The Apple II microcomputer, introduced in 1977, was a hit with home users. In 1983, Apple introduced the Lisa, the first commercial personal computer to employ a graphical user interface, which was influenced in part by the Xerox Alto. In 1984, the Macintosh (commonly called the "Mac") was introduced, furthering the concepts of a user-friendly graphical user interface, and also introducing the mouse for the first time in a personal computer. Apple's success with the Macintosh became a major influence in the development of graphical interfaces elsewhere, with major computer operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, all appearing on the market within two years of the introduction of the Macintosh. In 1991, Apple introduced the PowerBook line of portable computers, establishing the modern ergonomic form and design that has since become ubiquitous in the portable market. The 1990s also saw Apple's marketshare fall as competition from Microsoft Windows and the comparatively inexpensive IBM PC compatible computers that would eventually dominate the market. In the 2000s, Apple expanded their focus on software to include professional and prosumer video, music, and photo production solutions, with a view to promoting their computers as a "digital hub". It also introduced iPod, a portable digital music player which has become the most popular player on the market.

Due in part to Apple's "counterculture" roots as a company that differentiates itself from IBM and others by encouraging people to "Think Different", Apple has fostered a high level of devotion to the brand amongst some of their users. This is sometimes referred to as the Cult of Mac, where the use of Apple products is deemed to be part of a lifestyle.

Critics of Apple commonly point to their vertically-integrated business model, where all the hardware and software comes from one company; for many years, Apple's hardware was closed and proprietary, and Apple generally refused to adopt prevailing industry standards for hardware, instead creating and implementing their own. This trend was largely reversed in the 2000s.

Corporate culture

Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked the traditional notions of what a corporate culture should look like in terms of organizational hiearchy (flat versus tall), casual versus formal attire, et cetera. Other highly successful firms with similiar cultural aspects from the same time period include Southwest Airlines and Microsoft, and the relative success of these firms (whether a result of their cultural differences or not) resulted widespread adoption of informal corporate culture within the technology industry. Originally, the company stood in opposition to staid competitors like IBM more or less by default, thanks to the influence of its founders; Steve Jobs often walked around the office barefoot even after Apple was a Fortune 500 company. By the time of the "1984" TV ad, this trait had become a key way the company differentiated itself from its competitors.

As the company has grown and been led by a series of chief executives, each with his own idea of what Apple should be, some of its original character has arguably been lost, but Apple still has a reputation for fostering individuality that reliably draws talented people into its employ Furthering these lines, Apple Fellows were created. An Apple Fellow is a person who has been designated as such by Apple Computer in recognition of their extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to personal computing.

Criticism

Apple has been criticized for its vertically integrated business model, which runs against the "received wisdom" of some economists, particularly those who study the computer industry.^{[citation needed]} Others criticize the company by suggesting it has been personality-driven, especially during the two eras of Jobs' tenure.^{[citation needed]} Some even regard the company as a cult or at least having cult-like features. Jobs' charisma, infamously referred to as his reality distortion field, has drawn criticism.^{[citation needed]}

From a technical standpoint, Apple was also criticized for having a closed and proprietary architecture with the original Macintosh and refusing to adopt open standards; for many years a "Not Invented Here" (NIH) culture seemed to prevail The iTunes Music Store continues this trend, utilizing a proprietary digital rights management system called FairPlay that requires burning and re-ripping a CD to place purchased songs on any digital audio player besides the iPod.

That trend was largely reversed with Mac OS X, and the company now has an official policy of adopting relevant open industry standards. Mac OS X is based on a free software/open source kernel and core operating system called Darwin although, following the switch to Intel chips, the source for the Intel version of the Darwin kernel has not been made available by Apple.Apple also uses an open source framework called WebKit in its Safari web browser.

Apple has used industry-standard hardware technologies for many years Many Apple technologies have also become industry standards where no former standard existed, for example Bonjour/Rendezvous zero-configuration networking, and FireWire. Some non-Apple technologies only gained wide industry acceptance after Apple adopted them, including 3.5-inch floppy disks, SCSI, the Universal Serial Bus (USB), Wi-Fi and, of course, graphical user interfaces. Apple has recently adopted an Intel-based architecture. Apple's industry-standard software implementations include iCal, as well as a host of other networking protocols.

Open source software advocates are often critical of Apple's attempt to appeal to their particular movements.^[19] Such advocates claim that such a marketing scheme is not taken seriously enough by Apple because Mac OS X has many proprietary technologies in essential areas. Other open source advocates make a counter-argument that Apple has done much more for open source software than many other major commercial software developers by releasing large portions of source code to the public through the Apple Public Source License (APSL).Some third-party developers are also critical of the competing factions within Apple itself, noting an apparent rivalry between the developers of Cocoa, which came from NeXT, and those of Carbon, which came from Apple. This rivalry is seen as counterproductive and unnecessary by many developers.

Apple's retail initiative has had a mixed reception despite its success promoting the Apple brand. Retailers have suggested that Apple-owned retail stores receive preference when receiving Apple hardware, obtaining limited stock product earlier and at lower prices. This accusation is denied by Apple