Apple celebrates 40th birthday
Apple, one of the largest computer and consumer electronics companies of the world is celebrating its 40th birthday. The company was founded on April 1st 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Today, their products are bought by millions around the world.
Steve Jobs was a visionary and the driving force behind Apple. He wanted to make computers lightweight and easy-to-use. The first computer, the Apple I , was sold for $666 . Only 200 of them were produced. In 1984 the company brought the Macintosh to users. The PowerBook hit the markets in 1991 and was the world's first real laptop computer. It was reinvented in 2006 in the form of the MacBook.
However Apple did not stay in the computer business. At the beginning of the new millennium the company started selling iPods, their revolutionary music players. At the same time iTunes, a new way of buying and storing music , was released.
Apple's success came with the way the company adapted to changing technology. The first smartphone was introduced in 2007. Today, the company generates two-thirds of its income selling iPhones. Three years later Apple hit the market with the first tablet computer, the iPad. Up to now over 250 million have been sold around the world.
Apple Watch is the latest in a series of technological inventions. However, the company is not at the end of producing innovative devices. Future plans call for new technology, for example, smart home gadgets and health care devices.
Today, the electronics giant with its 100 000 employees, has a market value of over $600 billion. At any given moment, about 1 billion Apple devices are in use around the world. Even though current sales figures show that the Cupertino-based company has seen better times, Apple remains one of the most popular brands in technology.
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Words
- adapt = to change in different conditions
- at any given moment = always
- billion = a thousand million
- brand = type of product made by a company
- celebrate = to show that an event is important by doing something special
- consumer electronics = electronic products that are bought by people for everyday use
- current = now, at the moment
- device = a small object or machine that does a certain job
- driving force = here: person who put a lot of energy in building the company
- employee = person who works for a company
- even though = while
- found - founded = start something new
- gadget = small device or machine that does a certain thing
- generate = make
- health care = offer or provide medical services
- hit the markets = start to sell a product
- however = but
- income = the money you get for the things you sell
- innovative = using new method or ideas
- invention = an object that as never been made before
- lightweight = not heavy
- millennium = the year 2000
- reinvent = here: to design something in a new way and sell it again after some period of time
- release = to start to sell
- remain = is still
- revolutionary = something new that hasn't been done before
- series = a number of products, one after the other
- store = save, keep in a place
- value = what something is worth
- visionary = a person who has new ideas about the future