Apple introduced the Macintosh personal computer in 1984 and became one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
The Macintosh launched on January 24, 1984, after a famous Super Bowl advertisement directed by Ridley Scott. Its graphical user interface and mouse distinguished it from many command-line computers of the era.
Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The company later expanded from computers into the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, services, and custom-designed chips.
A common mix-up is confusing Apple's market capitalization with its revenue or profit. Market cap is the total value of a company's publicly traded shares, so it changes with the share price.