Apple marks the 50th anniversary of its founding on April 1.
The tech giant is one of the world’s most valuable companies, known for innovative products like the iMac, iPhone, and iPod. Its storied past is one of incredible highs, including a $4 trillion market cap, and alarming lows, like its series of stumbles in the 1990s.
It’s had many leaders over the years — most notably Steve Jobs, who put the company on the map with his lofty ideas and unique leadership style. After Jobs stepped down from the position to focus on his health, Tim Cook took over as CEO and has guided the company through much success and turbulent times.
During Cook’s tenure, Apple has launched new products like the Apple Watch, Vision Pro, and AirPods. The company has also launched its own artificial intelligence software, Apple Intelligence.
Here’s a look at Apple’s history in photos, from its inception through its hard times to the triumphant return of Jobs and beyond.
Matt Weinberger and Avery Hartmans contributed to earlier versions of this story.
Apple was cofounded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Los Altos, California.
Apple’s first “office” was the garage at Jobs’ parents’ house. There was a third cofounder, too: Ronald Wayne. Jobs brought Wayne on board to provide business guidance for the two young cofounders.
Wayne sketched the first Apple logo by hand.
The cofounder left the company before it was officially incorporated. He took an $800 check for his shares in the company. Apple would officially incorporate in 1977.
The company’s first product was the Apple I.
It was just a motherboard with a processor and some memory, intended for hobbyists. Customers had to build their own case and add their own keyboard and monitor, as seen in the picture above.
The Apple I was invented by Wozniak, who also hand-built every kit.
Meanwhile, Jobs handled the business end, mainly trying to convince would-be investors that the personal computer market was primed to explode.
The Apple II was introduced in 1977.
The personal computer was designed by Wozniak, and it would go on to take the world by storm. The Apple II’s killer app was VisiCalc, a groundbreaking spreadsheet software that propelled the computer ahead of market leaders Tandy and Commodore, according to the National Museum of American History.
With VisiCalc, Apple could sell the Apple II to the business customer. By 1978, Apple would actually have a real office, with employees and an Apple II production line.
Xerox PARC convinced Jobs that the future of computing was with a graphical user interface (GUI).
In 1979, Apple engineers were allowed to visit the Xerox PARC campus for three days, in exchange for the option to buy 100,000 shares of Apple for $10 a share, according to Newsweek.
A year later, Apple released the Apple III, a business-focused computer intended to counter the growing threat from IBM and Microsoft.
But the Apple III was only a stopgap, and Xerox PARC had led the young Jobs to think in a different direction.
Jobs spearheaded the effort to equip Apple’s next-generation Lisa computer with a GUI, but was bumped from the project thanks to infighting.
Lisa was released in 1983 to much fanfare, but disastrous sales — it was too expensive and didn’t have enough software support, CNBC reported.
Jobs led the next project, the Apple Macintosh.
It was billed as the most user-friendly computer to date. It would go on to become popular with graphic-design professionals, who liked its visual chops (even though it was in black and white).
It was still very expensive, however.
Around the time of the launch of the first Macintosh in 1983, Apple got a new CEO: John Sculley.
Sculley was serving as Pepsi’s youngest-ever CEO, but Jobs, then head of Macintosh development, managed to bring him to Apple with the now-legendary pitch: “Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?” Forbes reported.
In 1984, Apple released the TV commercial that made it a household name.
This ad, appropriately called “1984,” was directed by Ridley Scott and cost the company $1.5 million. It aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, and never again.
This was also when tensions between Jobs and Bill Gates started to run high.
Originally, Microsoft was working hard at making software for the Macintosh. But those plans were scuttled in 1983 when Microsoft revealed that it, too, was working on a graphical user interface called Windows.
The Macintosh had strong sales, but not enough to break IBM’s dominance.
This led to a lot of friction between Jobs — the head of the Macintosh group who liked doing things his own way — and Sculley, who wanted stricter oversight of future products in light of the Lisa disaster and the Macintosh’s disappointment.
Things came to a head in 1985 when Jobs tried to stage a coup and oust Sculley — but Apple’s board of directors took Sculley’s side and removed Jobs from his managerial duties.
A furious Jobs quit and went on to found NeXT, a computer company making advanced workstations where he had total control.
Wozniak later left and sold most of his shares around the same time in 1985, saying the company was going in the wrong direction. With Jobs gone, Sculley had a free hand at Apple.
At first, things seemed great.
Apple introduced its PowerBook laptop and System 7 operating system in 1991. System 7 introduced color to the Macintosh operating system, and would stick around (with updates) until OS X was released in 2001, according to Cult of Mac.
The 1990s would see Apple enter many new markets, none of which really worked out.
Possibly the most famous Apple flop of the ’90s was 1993’s Newton MessagePad, which was Sculley’s brainchild.
It literally created the market for “personal digital assistants,” but it was $700 and did little more than take notes and keep track of your contacts, according to MacWorld.
At the same time, Microsoft’s influence was on the rise.
Macs offered an excellent, but limited, software library on expensive computers.
Meanwhile, Microsoft was selling Windows 3.0 on cheap, commodity computers.
Sculley was relieved of his duties in 1993.
After Apple missed on its first-quarter earnings in 1993, Sculley stepped down and was replaced as CEO by Michael Spindler, a German expatriate who had been with Apple since 1980, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Spindler had the unfortunate job of following through with Sculley’s big PowerPC processor plans, which would prove to be a mistake.
In 1994, the first Macintosh running on a PowerPC was released.
Apple’s fortunes continued to sag as Windows took off. After acquisition talks with IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Philips all fell through, Apple’s board replaced Spindler with Gil Amelio in 1996, The New York Times reported.
Amelio’s tenure was equally troubled.
Under his reign, Apple stock hit a 12-year low (largely because Jobs himself sold 1.5 million Apple shares in a single transaction), according to CNET.
Amelio decided to purchase Jobs’ NeXT Computer for $429 million in February 1997 to bring him back to Apple.
On the July 4 weekend that same year, Jobs would stage a boardroom coup.
Jobs convinced Apple’s board to install him as interim CEO. Amelio resigned a week later.
1997 would also see the introduction of Apple’s famous “Think Different” ad campaign.
It celebrated famous artists, scientists, and musicians. Jobs opposed parts of the original idea for the commercial, such as his narrating it.
Ultimately, Jobs got his way, and the famous ad was narrated by actor Richard Dreyfuss.
Under Jobs’ leadership, the company would make nice with Microsoft.
In August 1997, Jobs took the stage at Apple’s Macworld Expo to announce that Apple had received a $150 million investment from Microsoft.
“We need all the help we can get,” Jobs said, to boos from the audience, CNBC reported.
The late 90s were a new era for hardware and software, too.
Jobs had Jony Ive spearhead the design of the iMac, an all-in-one computer released in 1998.
In 2000, Jobs introduced Mac OS X, based on the NeXT operating system, finally replacing System 7.
And in 2006, Apple finally moved to an Intel-based system architecture.
Apple had two massively influential product releases in the 2000s, beginning with the iPod in 2001.
The iPod blew other MP3 players out of the water and radically altered the way we listen to music. It birthed a number of iterations that would span over a decade, including the iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle, and iPod Touch.
The iPod also launched Apple’s white earbuds as a status symbol.
But the single biggest victory for Apple was 2007’s introduction of the iPhone.
When the iPhone went on sale, customers lined up outside stores in the US to get their hands on one.
The iPad came out in 2010.
Apple positioned the new product as a cross between a smartphone and a laptop. It helped define the modern tablet product category.
The company expanded into services, helping fuel Apple’s growth as iPhone sales lagged.
Under Cook — who took over after Jobs’ death in 2011 — Apple introduced new hardware product lines, including the Apple Watch and AirPods.
Apple also launched its own music and video streaming services, as well as other subscription offerings, such as news and gaming.
The Apple Watch was announced in 2014.
The Apple Watch marked the company’s first venture into wearable technology. It quickly became one of the world’s most popular smartwatches.
Apple’s chief design officer, Jony Ive, left Apple in 2019 and set up his own design shop, LoveFrom.
Apple said at the time that it would become one of LoveFrom’s “primary clients.” The two companies’ relationship wound down in 2022, according to The New York Times, which reported there were frustrations on both sides about the arrangement.
In August 2020, Apple hit a new milestone before other companies.
It became a $2 trillion company — the first company to do so — just 24 months after reaching the $1 trillion threshold.
Apple became the first public company to close with a market cap above $3 trillion.
The stock closed at $193.97 in June 2023. Apple’s ecosystem, led by the iPhone, iPad, and Services, has driven consistent growth through booms, downturns, and even a pandemic. Months later, Apple’s valuation dropped to $2.8 trillion ahead of the iPhone 15 launch in September.
Some Apple fans were disappointed by the new iPhone 15.
Following the September launch, some Apple fans said the iPhone 15 looked nearly identical to its predecessors. They claimed it’s a design choice that reflected Apple’s lack of innovation on the smartphone front.
The biggest change was the shift away from the Lightning charging port to USB-C. The launch reflected Apple’s transition into a more incremental phase rather than era-defining moments.
Apple has faced regulatory scrutiny.
In January 2024, Apple was forced to crack open its App Store after the European Commission pushed the company to comply with the Digital Markets Act.
Under the DMA, third-party app stores would finally be allowed on Apple’s iOS operating system in the EU. That would allow developers to distribute their apps beyond the App Store, which takes a cut from app sales.
The law aims to prevent Big Tech, which the EU calls “gatekeepers,” from dominating the digital marketplace. It forced Apple to open up parts of its digital walled garden in Europe.
Apple also saw iPhone sales slump in China, a major market, at the start of 2024, losing its rank as the top smartphone provider in the country.
iPhone sales in China dropped by 24% during the first six weeks of 2024, according to Counterpoint Research, as local rivals like Huawei took a larger share of the region’s smartphone market.
In February 2024, Apple launched its nearly $3,500 Vision Pro headset.
It’s an AI-driven “mixed-reality” headset that allows users to toggle between the digital and real worlds. However, the reception to the Apple Vision Pro was mixed.
Some initial users expressed awe over the Vision Pro’s spatial computing capabilities. Others, however, said the headset’s design, blurry screen, and lack of use cases don’t justify its high price. These issues may have led some customers to return the product within two weeks of purchase.
Following the Vision Pro release, Apple killed its electric car weeks later, shifting its focus to generative AI.
Apple worked on its self-driving electric car, a multibillion-dollar effort dubbed “Project Titan,” for nearly a decade before deciding to pull the plug, Bloomberg first reported.
Execs told nearly 2,000 employees part of the electric-vehicle team that many would be moved to the company’s artificial-intelligence division, per the outlet.
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple in March 2024.
The DOJ accused the iPhone maker of using anti-competitive tactics to dominate the smartphone market. It was a direct challenge to how the iPhone ecosystem works and how Apple makes money from it.
In the suit, the DOJ and 16 attorneys point to everything from the Apple Watch’s incompatibility with non-iPhones to the awkward green-bubble text messages sent through Android phones as evidence that Apple uses unfair practices to beat its competitors.
Apple denies these accusations.
The iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air came out in 2025.
The base iPhone 17 features a 6.3-inch display, upgraded Ceramic Shield 2 for added durability, and Apple’s A19 chip designed to power its Apple Intelligence features.
Apple said the iPhone 17 Pro is equipped with its most powerful chip yet, and boasts camera capabilities comparable to having eight professional lenses in a single device.
The model has helped the iPhone regain its footing in China.
Meanwhile, the iPhone Air is the company’s thinnest and most power-efficient model to date at 5.6 millimeters, with Ceramic Shield on both the front and back. It also introduces a new “plateau” design that integrates the front and rear cameras, speaker, and other components.
Apple hit a $4 trillion market cap for the first time in October 2025.
Apple secured a $4 trillion market capitalization for the first time in October 2025, becoming only the third public company ever to be worth that much, after Nvidia and Microsoft.
The company introduced its cheapest laptop yet in the MacBook Neo.
The tech giant unveiled its new MacBook Neo in March 2026 at a special event in New York City.
It sells for $599, making it $500 cheaper than the new M5 MacBook Air, which starts at $1,099.
Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee described the MacBook Neo as “potentially Apple’s most disruptive product in the last 10-plus years.”
On April 1, 2026, Apple celebrates 50 years in business.
Apple has survived a lot of ups and downs to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It’s commemorating the milestone with a series of celebrations attended by public figures, Apple execs, and loyal fans, including a presentation at Shanghai Fashion Week and live music performances.
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