Apple’s Corporate Structure [Interactive Chart] | Organimi

A brief history of Apple

For three decades, Apple mainly manufactured personal computers, such as the Apple II and Macintosh lines. We might know Apple as a technical powerhouse today, however during this period, they faced rocky sales records and a low market share throughout the whole of the 1990s.

That being said, by the time Jobs and Wozniak looked to take the company public in 1980, the shares were in such high demand that it became the biggest stock market launch since Ford back in 1956. After the success of taking Apple public, Jobs ended up leaving the firm following a disagreement with the chief executive, John Scully.

By 1997, Apple had been losing money for 12 years, and as a result, Jobs was bought back in to save the company from bankruptcy. Steve Job’s restructured Apple, scrapped projects that weren’t profitable and revived employee morale. Under his hand, Apple quickly became profitable again.

Steve Jobs unveiled the first Apple iPhone in 2007. The iPhone stepped ahead of the competition with its revolutionary touchscreen; a world apart from the QWERTY keyboards of the era. Since 2007, Apple has sold more than 500 million iPhones. In the same year, Apple dropped the “Computer” from its name to better represent their new-found place as a market leader in the consumer electronics industry.

More recently, in Q2 2020, Apple overtook Microsoft as the world’s largest company by market capitalization, firmly establishing itself as the world’s foremost technology giant.