• Apple’s market cap is 2.8 trillion.
• Apple made 365 billion dollars in revenue in 2021.
• Apple made 94 billion in profit last year.

Apple was the first trillion dollar company, two trillion dollar company and probably the first three trillion dollar company while also very likely to be the first company to make 100 billion in profit in a single year.

Today is Apple’s birthday and the company turns 46 years old today.

That said, when they launched IBM was already a multi billion dollar company and sold 60% of all computers around the world globally.

Apple launched with a 22 year old selling computers out of his garage, with the computers having wood covers and they sold the first one on April Fools Day for $666 each.

All said and done, what made Apple different than these other mega companies?

First up, the name.

Apple

Reason for the name was the apple fell on Issac Newton and the apple was the inspiration needed to get everyone in the world with a computer.

IBM

International Business Machine

Sounds pretty cold and gives the idea it’s only for businesses.

The other computers of the late 70s and early 80s didn’t sound much better.

• Commodore 64
• ZX Spectrum
• Amstrad CPC
• BBC Micro

Those were the biggest brands in computers during the 80s and Apple was the only one which didn’t have a name that gave the idea it was out of a science fiction movie.

Which sounds like that shouldn’t give Apple an edge, but regardless of price, features and other factors, Apple universally beats every other brand for Christmas gifts yearly.

The second difference was style.

Big example to this was the Apple Store’s, which Steve Jobs launched in the early 2000s and began the fastest selling retail chain in history to break a billon dollars in revenue.

One of the biggest ideas Jobs had was making the Apple Store’s look and feel more like the Rolex stores.

• High end
• Showing products in a premium way
• Only focused on select products

Every other retail store for computers would be filled with a ton of products scattered all over and try to upsell people on a snickers bar at the counter, while buying a $1,500 computer.

Apple copied a style which wasn’t common for fans of computers, but copied one that reminded people of luxury brands.

Something which holds for how they word products, package them and market them.

Which an emphasis on style has helped other companies before.

When EA Games launched, most gaming companies sold games in ziplock bags, with maybe a simple wood packaging. EA copied the record industry for unique packaging and had an early advantage in a crowded market.

And final big thing to what makes Apple what it is.

Waiting

The Altair was the first personal computer, which came out in 1974.
The Apple 2, which was Apple’s first big computer came out in 1977.

The first MP3 player came out in 1997, with Saehan from South Korea.
The iPod came out in 2001.

The first smart phone came out in 2002 with the BlackBerry.
The iPhone came out in 2007.

A lot of people think the key to success in business is being first.

Facebook started when MySpace, LinkedIn, GeoCities and Friendster were popular.
Amazon didn’t sell products outside of books until the dotcom bubble began to fizzle and they learned what’s hard to sell online and what’s not.
Google came long after Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and AOL.

Apple obviously has some smart people and amazing technology, but so did IBM and countless other companies.

46 years later, the thing they had which really no one else even attempted was making computers feel friendly and luxurious.

So, happy birthday