According to Wikipedia, Apple, Inc is currently the largest technology firm in the world. It has more money coming in (revenue), and more profit (money it makes after all its expenses are taken out) than both Google and Microsoft put together.
It is a multinational corporation with businesses in many countries around the world. According to Wikipedia, as of 2011, Apple has 357 stores in ten countries around the world. It also has an online store, reaching many more countries. It is the largest publicly traded (on the stock market) company in the world. In 2011, Apple had 60,400 full time permanent employees worldwide. Its sales in 2011 were 108 billion dollars!
Apple started off making personal computers, but later began to focus on the entertainment and music industries. In 2001, Apple introduced the first iPod, and since then, a wide range of iPods, iPhones, iPod Touch and now iPads have been brought to customers around the world.
If you look on Apple.com, Apple’s website, you don’t find much information about the company. The website is mainly a place to find out about the products it sells, and also to find out where to get support if you are having trouble with any of the products.
Apple started out in the USA as a small company making computers in the 1970s. Its most famous founder, Steve Jobs, was kicked out of the company in the 1980s, but came back in the 1990s and helped turn it into the huge international company it is today. Sadly, Steve Jobs died of cancer in 2011.
One of the things Apple does is make it hard for anyone to use its electronic goods with any other website or software.