These Surprising Facts About Apple Are Hard to Believe

Apple has been one of the biggest global companies for years. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re reading this article on an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or macOS laptop.

Since Apple products, Steve Jobs documentaries, and Apple ads are everywhere, you might think you know Apple inside and out, but you’re probably wrong. After all, a company as massive and famous as Apple has a storied history, one full of facts we’re guessing you’ve never heard. 

Let’s take a look at some of the most surprising and least-known facts about Apple.

When you consider Apple’s immediate employees and third-party suppliers, manufacturers, and app developers, the company is responsible for directly creating or contributing to more than 2 million jobs.

With a current market cap of $2.48 trillion, Apple is more valuable than almost every economy in the world by GDP. In 2022, only four countries had economies bigger than Apple: the U.S., China, Germany, and Japan.

Every day, Apple rakes in around $151 billion in profit. That breaks down to $1,752 per second — a higher profit-per-second than any other global company, including Microsoft, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Facebook, Bank of America, Amazon, and Walmart.

Apple’s total value in 2018 surpassed $1 trillion, making it the first publicly traded company in the U.S. to hit that milestone. In 2020, Apple broke another record by surpassing the $2 trillion market cap — again, the first publicly traded company to do so.

And at the very start of 2022, Apple set another record by hitting the $3 trillion valuation mark for a brief period.

In spite of Apple’s already massive value, the company’s profits are only expected to grow. In January 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted the company would grow faster than both the U.S. and global economies over the coming year. 

While the company hasn’t surpassed the $3 trillion market cap it hit in early January, it’s still valued much higher than Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet.

Even if you prefer Android to iPhone or Windows to macOS, there’s a good chance you or someone else in your household owns at least one Apple product. 

A 2017 poll found that more than 65% of Americans own at least one Apple product and that, on average, each household has 2.6 Apple products at home. 

These stats are fascinating, especially given how high Apple’s prices are — high enough to merit a list of the best credit cards for Apple purchases.

Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. While the company has diversified its products and services in the 15 years since then, iPhone sales still make up 52% of its revenue.

So far in its history, Apple has sold more than 2 billion iPhones worldwide. Apart from a slight dip during the COVID-19 crisis, sales show no signs of stopping.

Apple’s App Store and Apple Music are the two main revenue drivers in Apple’s Services category, but the company also includes cloud storage, AppleCare, Apple TV subscriptions, and more under the Services banner.

Altogether, these sales brought in $68.4 billion in 2021 (compared to $192 billion in net iPhone sales for the same fiscal year).

When the iPod hit the market in 2001, it revolutionized the music industry and gave the then-struggling Apple a breath of new life. Creator Tony Fadell had already been turned down by Philips and RealNetworks when Apple bought into his idea of a better mp3 player.

Good thing they did: iPods laid the groundwork for the iPhone, which Steve Jobs introduced as “a wide-screen iPod with touch controls.”

Apple officially discontinued its last remaining iPod model, the iPod Touch, in May 2022. Immediately afterward, there was a spike in iPod sales on eBay and other sites with some iPods selling for thousands of dollars depending on their condition, storage capacity, and version.

So, if you’ve been looking for ways to make extra money, it could be time to dust off your old iPod, see how well it still works, and head to eBay.

Apple’s original logo was much clunkier than its current streamlined, easy-to-identify apple. 

At first, the company’s planned logo was a picture of the scientist Isaac Newton under the proverbial apple tree that led to his discovery of gravity, complete with a quote about Newton from British poet William Wordsworth.

It’s fair to say that such an awkward logo wouldn’t have done as much for brand recognition as the logo the company (thankfully) went with instead.

While the iPad isn’t Apple’s most profitable product, it’s still the most popular tablet in the world. Apple owns more than 30% of the global tablet market. 

Its next closest competitor, Samsung, holds 18.1% of the market and shipped only 7.3 million tablets in 2021 compared to Apple’s 12.6 million.

If you thought Apple was just a tech company, think again. A year after Steve Jobs left Apple (for the first time), the company created its own line of Apple-product-inspired clothes.

The multicolored apple was on oversized ’80s windbreakers, baseball caps, and puffy sweaters for kids. There were no black turtlenecks in that line.

If you’ve caught even a snippet of an Apple documentary or Steve Jobs film, you know Apple has a fascinating, complex history that extends far beyond the facts we listed here. 

And based on Apple’s exponential growth in the last five years alone, it seems safe to say Apple will be sticking around to add more intriguing facts to its unique story.