By Aditya Soni and Akash Sriram<\/p>\n
April 1 (Reuters) – In early 1976 in California, Steve Wozniak had just completed the design of a computer circuit board he intended to share with fellow hobbyists at a prominent local club. His friend \u200cSteve Jobs also saw a business opportunity to manufacture and sell the boards, and thus Apple<\/a> was born.<\/p>\n The company turns \u200c50 on Wednesday. Its rise has shaped both the technology industry and popular culture by making first desktop computers and then smartphones mainstream, popularizing mobile apps and showing \u200bhow tightly integrated devices and software can work.<\/p>\n But the iPhone maker is now under pressure to show it can remain a technology powerhouse in the age of artificial intelligence<\/a> as software rivals Alphabet and Microsoft<\/a> spend tens of billions of dollars to seize a lead.<\/p>\n Its stock is the second-worst performer among the “Magnificent Seven” since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022.<\/p>\n Despite embedding machine learning features in its chips since 2017, analysts and investors say \u200cdelays in roll-out of features, including a revamped Siri, \u2060suggest Apple was underprepared for how consumers would use AI.<\/p>\n Rivals such as OpenAI are also planning to launch AI devices that aim to shake the long-held dominance of smartphones.<\/p>\n Still, Apple’s devices remain widely popular.<\/p>\n Strong demand for \u2060the latest iPhone 17 series drove its December-quarter earnings, while the $599 MacBook Neo – its cheapest laptop ever – had a strong launch.<\/p>\n “The company made it fifty years with no one truly competing with its integrated business model; the fate of its next fifty years may rest on the question of just \u200bhow \u200bcompelling AI ends up being \u2014 and if OpenAI can out-Apple the original,” independent \u200btech analyst Ben Thompson said on Stratechery.com on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Here \u200care five graphics that capture Apple’s rise:<\/p>\n APPLE’S BLISTERING STOCK PRICE GROWTH<\/p>\n The company went public in 1980, but its shares picked up dramatically after the turn of the century as the iPhone became a bestseller and its device lineup expanded. Its in-house M-series chips also drove a surge in Mac sales, aiding the stock.<\/p>\n ANNUAL REVENUE APPROACHES HALF A TRILLION<\/p>\n Apple, one of the world’s most valuable companies, also ranks among the biggest by revenue. Thanks to strong demand for its latest iPhone series, it is expected to post sales of $465 billion in its ongoing fiscal year \u200cending in September.<\/p>\n SERVICES BECOME KEY DRIVER OF APPLE’S GROWTH<\/p>\n Apple’s services business, which houses \u200bits App Store, Apple Music and its streaming service, has become a major \u200bdriver of growth as its expanding base of devices brings in \u200bsteady income from subscriptions and commissions on app sales. That has also led to high-profiles tussles with the \u200clikes of Epic Games, which has tried to challenge \u200bits control over in-app payments.<\/p>\n CHINA, EMERGING \u200bMARKETS GROW THEIR SHARE OF APPLE REVENUE<\/p>\n As the smartphone market in the U.S. saturates, China and emerging markets such as India are playing a greater role in driving its revenue.<\/p>\n THE PRODUCTS THAT MAKE APPLE<\/p>\n The circuit board Wozniak shared with Jobs in 1976 \u200bbecame Apple I, the first in a line \u200cof products in the company’s journey from a garage startup to a consumer electronics giant. Over the years, Apple has \u200bmade hits such as the iPod, and its line-up now includes smartwatches, wireless earbuds and mixed-reality headset Vision Pro.<\/p>\n (Reporting \u200bby Aditya Soni and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Aditya Soni and Akash Sriram April 1 (Reuters) – In early 1976 in California, Steve Wozniak had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1572,14648,49,48,45756,220539,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-574149","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-apple-music","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-steve-jobs","13":"tag-steve-wozniak","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}