How Apple became a technology giant

Apple (AAPL) was founded on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in Los Altos, California. The tech company has had huge success in product development in the last nearly 50 years, from the Apple I, the iPhone, even the Vision Pro, its most ambitious product yet. Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley takes a look back at Apple’s humble beginnings to its transformation into a tech giant in "Behind The Ticker."

Video Transcript

- Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in Los Altos, California in 1976. That same year, Wozniak built the company's first product, the Apple 1. Apple debuted the Macintosh during Super Bowl XVIII. It was the first mass market personal computer. In 1991, Apple introduced the Powerbook line. In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple. The company purchased Next to use its operating system and named Jobs interim CEO in 1997.

Apple introduced the iMac in '98. Three years later, Apple debuted its first iPod. And that same year, the company opened its first Apple stores. But it was in 2007 that Apple debuted its most important product, the iPhone. Jobs, however, suffered from pancreatic cancer. When Jobs died from the disease in 2011, Cook took over as CEO. In 2015, Apple took the wraps off of its first new device since Cook took over, the Apple Watch. Seven years later, Apple became the world's first publicly traded company to reach a market cap of $3 trillion. In 2023, the company unveiled its most ambitious product yet, the Vision Pro.