Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California. Apple is the world’s largest technology company by revenue, with US$394.3 billion in 2022 revenue. As of March 2023, Apple is the world’s biggest company by market capitalisation.
As of June 2022, Apple is the fourth-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales; the largest manufacturing company by revenue; and the second-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft.
Apple became the first publicly traded U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion in August 2018, then at $2 trillion in August 2020, and at $3 trillion in January 2022. In June 2023, it was valued at just over $3 trillion.The company receives criticism regarding the labor practices of its contractors, its environmental practices, and its business ethics, including anti-competitive practices and materials sourcing. Nevertheless, the company has a large following and enjoys a high level of brand loyalty. It has also been consistently ranked as one of the world’s most valuable brands.
Apple offers a broad line of services that it earns revenue on, including advertising in the App Store and Apple News app, the AppleCare+ extended warranty plan, the iCloud+ cloud-based data storage service, payment services through the Apple Card credit card and the Apple Pay processing platform, a digital content services including Apple Books, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple TV+, and the iTunes Store.
As of the end of 2021, services comprise about 19% of the company’s revenue.Many of the services have been launched as of 2019 when Apple announced it would be making a concerted effort to expand its service revenues.
Board of directors
As of January 20, 2023, the board of directors of Apple Inc. includes:
- Arthur D. Levinson (chairman)
- Tim Cook (executive director and CEO)
- James A. Bell
- Al Gore
- Alex Gorsky
- Andrea Jung
- Monica Lozano
- Ronald Sugar
- Susan Wagner
Previous CEOs
- Michael Scott (1977–1981)
- Mike Markkula (1981–1983)
- John Sculley (1983–1993)
- Michael Spindler (1993–1996)
- Gil Amelio (1996–1997)
- Steve Jobs (1997–2011)
