Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), formerly Apple Computer, Inc., is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company was founded on April 1, 1976, and incorporated on January 3, 1977. The word "Computer" was removed from its name on January 9, 2007, to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer electronics after the introduction of the iPhone. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Its software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser and the iLife and iWork creativity and production suites.

Apple is the world's third-largest mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012. However, the company has received criticism for its contractors' labor practices, and for Apple's own environmental and business practices.

As of November 2012, Apple has 394 retail stores in fourteen countries as well as the online Apple Store and iTunes Store. It is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an estimated value of US$626 billion as of September 2012. The Apple market cap is larger than that of Google and Microsoft combined. As of September 29, 2012 (2012 -09-29), the company had 72,800 permanent full-time employees and 3,300 temporary full-time employees worldwide. Its worldwide annual revenue in 2010 totaled $65 billion, growing to $156 billion in 2012.