![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/p09-260330-324.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAFP, SAN FRANCISCO, United States<\/p>\n
Apple Inc celebrates its 50th anniversary as artificial intelligence (AI) challenges the Silicon Valley legend to prove it can deliver yet another culture-changing innovation.<\/p>\n
Steve Jobs, a driven marketing genius, and Steve Wozniak, who invented the Apple computer, revolutionized how people use technology in the Internet age and built a company now worth more than US$3.6 trillion.<\/p>\n
The two college dropouts changed the way people use computers, listen to music and communicate on the go, giving rise to lifestyles revolving around smartphone apps.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: Justin Tallis, AFP<\/p>\n
Apple\u2019s hit products \u2014 the Mac, the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad \u2014 command a cult-like following, long after the company\u2019s humble beginnings on April 1, 1976 in Jobs\u2019 Cupertino, California garage.<\/p>\n
Apple has sold more than 3.1 billion iPhones since the handsets debuted in 2007, generating about US$2.3 trillion in revenue, according to Counterpoint Research.<\/p>\n
For Counterpoint analyst Yang Wang (\u6c6a\u967d), the iPhone is the most successful consumer electronics product ever, reshaping human communication while becoming \u201ca global fashion and status symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the iPhone, Apple shook up home computing with the 1984 Macintosh, whose icon-based interface and mouse made computing accessible beyond specialists \u2014 and sparked a legendary rivalry between Jobs and Microsoft Corp\u2019s Bill Gates.<\/p>\n
\u201cApple was founded on the simple notion that technology should be personal, and that belief \u2014 radical at the time \u2014 changed everything,\u201d chief executive Tim Cook said in an anniversary letter posted online.<\/p>\n
Apple transformed the music market with the iPod and iTunes, made the smartphone a mass-market staple with the iPhone, and took tablets mainstream with the iPad. The Apple Watch quickly seized the lead in the smartwatch market, despite debuting later than its rivals.<\/p>\n
While not an inventor, Jobs \u2014 who died in 2011 at age 56 \u2014 was renowned for his uncompromising drive to marry technology with design to create products that were intuitive and hassle-free.<\/p>\n
Apple marketed the Macintosh as the \u201ccomputer for the rest of us,\u201d but it was the iPhone that fulfilled that promise, said David Pogue, author of the recently released \u201cApple: The First 50 Years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The iPhone\u2019s dominance reshaped Apple\u2019s business model. With the premium smartphone market widely seen as saturated, Cook has increasingly turned to selling digital content and services to the company\u2019s vast existing base of users.<\/p>\n
Central to that strategy is the App Store, which Apple made the sole gateway to software on its devices, taking a cut of transactions \u2014 and thereby drawing accusations of monopoly abuse, regulatory scrutiny in Europe and court orders in the US to open up its platform.<\/p>\n
No country has been more central to Apple\u2019s rise \u2014 or more fraught for its future \u2014 than China, with Cook cementing ties to the Asian superpower through regular appearances at local Apple stores and official visits.<\/p>\n
Cook was the mastermind of the strategy that made China the primary manufacturing base for Apple devices, with the vast majority of iPhones assembled by contractor Foxconn Technology Group (\u5bcc\u58eb\u5eb7) and other suppliers in Chinese factories.<\/p>\n
It is also one of Apple\u2019s largest consumer markets, generating tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.<\/p>\n
But the company faces mounting pressure on both fronts: trade tensions and tariffs have accelerated efforts to diversify manufacturing to India and Vietnam, while competition from domestic rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co (\u83ef\u70ba) has eaten into Apple\u2019s Chinese market share.<\/p>\n
A concern haunting investors is that Apple appears to be easing into generative AI while rivals Google, Microsoft and OpenAI race ahead.<\/p>\n
A promised upgrade to its Siri digital assistant was delayed, in what analysts called a rare stumble for the company.<\/p>\n
And rather than relying on its own engineers to overhaul Siri, Apple has turned to Google for AI capability.<\/p>\n
But whether built in-house or outsourced, Apple\u2019s obsession with user privacy and its premium hardware could position it to drive widespread adoption of personalized AI \u2014 and make it profitable, a goal that has proved elusive for much of the AI industry.<\/p>\n
Already, Apple\u2019s AirPods are being steadily improved with sensors and smart software, and lessons learned from the Vision Pro could feed into AI smart glasses to rival Meta Platforms Inc\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the ones that always seem able to create something so simple that users just fall in love with it,\u201d Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFP, SAN FRANCISCO, United States Apple Inc celebrates its 50th anniversary as artificial intelligence (AI) challenges the Silicon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80,9889,9888],"class_list":["post-371749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-9888"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}