Home Title Page Introduction Background Information Potential Benefits Further Research Required Conclusion Bibliography

Apple's Impact on Society
George Mason University

Background Information

Apple Inc. is a multination corporation that creates consumer electronics, computer software, and commercial servers. Its main source of revenue came originally from the iPod, but now more so from the iPhone, iMac/Macbook, and the iPad. These products have changed the way people see technology. Apple won the JD Powers and Associates Award for Smartphone Customer Satisfaction three years in a row, and currently the iPhone 4 gains popularity with over 3 million sales as of September of this year. There is also a large variety of software that Apple has invented such as the Mac OS X operating system, the iTunes music media browser, iPhoto photograph browser, iMovie movie browser, and plenty more. The company was originally called Apple Computer Inc, for the first thirty years of the business, but then the Computer was dropped to reflect their ongoing expansion of the company. If they had the word Computer in their title, it indicated that those were the only products that they sold. In 2008, Fortune Magazine stated that Apple is “the most admired company in the United States.” A company like Apple started so small with majority of people not knowing or understanding what the company was, or how truthfully successful it would turn out to be. On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne created Apple. Currently, Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, and with each day creating new products to make the company thrive even more (Apple). In the beginning, the Apple I personal computer kits were hand-built by Wozniak, and were shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard only and went on sale in July 1976, market-priced at $666.66 ($2.5 thousand in 2009 dollars, adjusted for inflation.) (Time Magazine). After the Apple I, a year later the Apple II came out. The Apple II was introduced in April of 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It was different from its major rivals because it included color graphics and an open architecture framework. Apple’s competitors were superseded at this point. A continuous rivalry from then had been put into action between Apple and all other companies who tried to create and mock all of Apple’s products.

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional