Apple is celebrating its 50th anniversary today, marking five decades since the company was founded on April 1, 1976.
Apple was established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in California, beginning life in a garage with the goal of making computers more personal and accessible. What started with the Apple I and Apple II would eventually grow into one of the world’s most valuable and influential technology companies.
Over the past 50 years, Apple has introduced some of the most recognizable consumer products in history. The Macintosh helped popularize the graphical user interface in the 1980s, while the iMac brought a new focus on design and simplicity to personal computers in the late 1990s.
Apple’s biggest breakthrough came in 2001 with the launch of the iPod, which transformed the music industry and helped establish the company as a major consumer electronics brand. That was followed by the iPhone in 2007, a product that reshaped the smartphone market and remains Apple’s most important device today.
Since then, Apple has expanded into new categories including the iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple TV, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro. The company has also built a major services business around products like the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud, Apple Pay, and Apple Arcade.
Apple has used its 50th anniversary to celebrate creativity, music, technology, and storytelling through events around the world. In New York, Alicia Keys performed at Apple Grand Central, while London saw performances from Mumford & Sons and DJ Nia Archives at Apple Battersea. In Paris, Apple hosted French music producers and artists at Apple Champs-Élysées, while Shanghai featured a special fashion show from designer Feng Chen Wang during Shanghai Fashion Week.
Other celebrations included a performance from Chris Lee in Chengdu, a live appearance from virtual artist Mori Calliope in Tokyo, and a Today at Apple session in Vancouver with figure skater Elladj Baldé. Apple also hosted creative and accessibility-focused events in Mexico City and Washington, D.C., while in Australia, the Sydney Opera House was transformed into a digital art display powered by works created on iPad and Procreate.
As Apple turns 50, the company enters its next decade as one of the biggest names in technology, with more than two billion active devices in use around the world and a product lineup that stretches far beyond the Mac computers it was built on.
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