The iPod line of media players comes from Apple's "digital hub" category.The line started while Apple was developing software for the growing market of personal digital devices. Digital cameras,camcorders and organizers already had well-established mainstream markets but, as Apple would say, the music player market had devices that were big and clunky or small and useless, so Apple started manufacturing its own music player line.
Apple Inc(commonly reffered to as simply Apple) is a multinational corporation that designs and markets a large variety of products,from computer software and consumer electronics,to personal computers.Apple is best known for its iPod line of music players(that can also play video files on the new iPod Touch models) and the touch screen based iPhone mobile phones as well as for the iPad tablet computer, but also for the Machintosh line of computers which were the first major development of Apple.The corporation is also successful in software development as Apple is the creator of the Mac OS X operating systems, of the iTunes media manager and many more such features or devices, such as the iLife suit of multimedia creativity or the iWork suit of productivity software. Apple also developed an operating system for its own line of mobile phone called iPhone.
Apple named the software iOS and has currently reached the fourth generation of iOS. The corporation was established on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California and was incorporated on January 3,1977.The original name of the company was Apple Computers, Inc.,but the word "computer" was removed after 30 years of company activity on January 9, 2007 due to their wish of expressing its expansion towards consumer electronics and other products,which differs from their main focus (personal computer). As of September 26,2009, Apple registered a total number of 34,300 full time employees and 2,500 part-time employees worldwide and had worldwide annual sales of 42,91 billion dollars in its fiscal year ending on September 26, 2009. Apple established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry as Fortune magazine declared Apple the most admired company in the U.S. in 2008 and the most admired company in the entire world in 2008,2009 and 2010.The company has also received widespread criticism for its contractors' labor, environmental and business practices.
On April 1, 1976, Apple founders,Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, sold the first Apple product ever to be made.This also represented the date when Apple Inc. was established.The first Apple product was named Apple I and was hand-built by Steve Wozniak. First shown to the public at the Hombrew Computer Club, the Apple I was sold as an assembled circuit board but it lacked key features such as a keyboard,a display and a case.The one who bought the unit in this picture added a keyboard and a wooden case to it.