From a garage in California to a company worth $3 trillion, Apple is now considered the most valuable, influential and powerful company in the world. It is based in Cupertino, California and produces all the famous digital gadgets, like iPhones, Macs and iPads. But have you ever wondered how Apple got so big and what makes it so successful? Let’s answer this question by looking back at history first.

How and where was Apple founded?

Apple Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak - young hackers and college dropouts, who brought to the world a new conception of the way people viewed computers. They wanted to make computers convenient, easy in use and small enough for people to have them in their homes or offices. 

For business capital, Jobs sold his Volkswagen minibus and Wozniak - his programmable calculator. The first created product of the company was Apple I, a motherboard with a processor and memory. It was priced at $666, selling around 175 units in 10 months.

What is the story behind the Apple logo?

The Apple logo has undergone only two significant designs, and slight color transitions over the 40 years it has existed. The first logo was designed by Ronald Wayne in 1976. The event that led Isaac Newton to discover the law of gravity was his number one inspiration. The logo represented Isaac Newton and an apple hanging above his head, it also had an inscription that said, ‘Newton… A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought alone.’

Steve Jobs didn’t like it and thought it was complicated, outdated, and not representing the ideology of the company. That’s why in the same year, the company changed its logo.

After reaching out to Job Janoff, a corporate logo designer from Regis McKenna, he got precisely the emblem he wanted. Janoff was the one who designed the iconic logo – the Bitten Apple, which is one of the most recognizable symbols in history. 

What makes Apple more successful than other companies?

Steve Jobs built Apple on a formula that equals simplicity. This means that the products made are not complicated. Let’s take an iPhone as an example: a 6-year-old child can use it without facing any difficulties as well as a 70-year-old person.
Each new Apple product has some technical improvement that was not seen in the last version of that device. That is one of the reasons why people are ready to wait in line for hours simply to get the latest iPhone when it is released.
Apple's whole brand is focused on satisfying and catering to the requirements of its consumers, their customer service is virtually unrivaled. From the very beginning, Apple developed devotion in its customers and made every one of them a part of the Apple community. It would be also wrong not to mention Apple’s excellent strategies and marketing.

What is the impact of Apple on modern society?

The last 10 years can be viewed as ‘the Apple decade’. Apple products went mainstream, rearranged existing industries, changed the world and triggered a societal shift. It’s hard to believe, but right this second over 900 million iPhones are in active use. 

First of all, thanks to good cameras and accessible photo-editing apps, Apple transformed photography from a hobby not available for everyone to a part of everyday life. Second of all, before the iPhone came out, the way most people accessed the Internet was through their computer, if they had one. With the appearance of the iPhone, the way was paved for people in poor countries to have access to the internet. And finally, Apple’s software program - iTunes, not only made it easier to get music, but it made music cheaper and more accessible to the masses.

There is no doubt that Apple single-handedly changed our world and will continue to shape it with every new release. The company has a bright future and is bound to get only bigger. What will be Apple’s next revolutionary product?