Tech Companies

Apple Inc.

The latest news about Apple Inc.

Goodbye PowerPoint, Hello iPad
Small businesses are increasingly using iPad apps to make sales presentations, citing the flexibility, portability, intimacy, and an element of the unexpected as all being good for sales.

Overview
Culture
Recruiting
Facts & Resources
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Overview

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. makes personal computers, mobile communication devices and portable media players. It also sells a wide variety of related hardware, including printers, speakers and headphones. Its products are sold worldwide through online stores, retail stores, distributors and a direct sales force. Apple also sells digital music, videos and software applications through its online music store, iTunes.

Apple helped change the way people work in the 1980s, when it pioneered the desktop personal computer. After falling on hard times in the 1990s, it was left for dead by some and survived only after an investment from CEO Steve Jobs's long-time rival, Microsoft Corp.founder Bill Gates.

But Jobs's return revitalized the company, whose iPod digital-media player revolutionized the way consumers listen to music. Its iPhone smartphone has been selling as fast as Apple can make it. In 2010, Apple introduced the iPad tablet computer and sold two million in less than two months, prompting the release of the iPad 2 in March of 2011. The second generation of the device sold an estimated 1 million units in its debut weekend.

Apple's sales growth and stock-price gains have far outpaced those of other large tech firms this past decade.

Culture

You aren't likely to find endless meetings and bureaucracy at Apple. Its message to prospective employees is “leave your neckties, bring your ideas." A casual dress code and individuality are nurtured, and flex schedules are the norm.

But the relaxed atmoshphere has its limits. Apple is renowned for its secrecy and has been known to seek out and dismiss employees who leak product info. The company's late co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, had a cult-like following among Apple employees and customers and was often described as demanding and temperamental.

Jobs had a history of health issues which led him to take numerous medical leaves from his role as CEO of the company before stepping down on August 24, 2011. Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook replaced Jobs as the company's new CEO. On October 5, 2011, Jobs passed away in his home after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 56.