At 50, Apple confronts its next big challenge: AI - Taipei Times

Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

Apple Inc celebrates its 50th anniversary as artificial intelligence (AI) challenges the Silicon Valley legend to prove it can deliver yet another culture-changing innovation.

Steve Jobs, a driven marketing genius, and Steve Wozniak, who invented the Apple computer, revolutionized how people use technology in the Internet age and built a company now worth more than US$3.6 trillion.

The two college dropouts changed the way people use computers, listen to music and communicate on the go, giving rise to lifestyles revolving around smartphone apps.

Apple’s hit products — the Mac, the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad — command a cult-like following, long after the company’s humble beginnings on April 1, 1976 in Jobs’ Cupertino, California garage.

Apple has sold more than 3.1 billion iPhones since the handsets debuted in 2007, generating about US$2.3 trillion in revenue, according to Counterpoint Research.

For Counterpoint analyst Yang Wang (汪陽), the iPhone is the most successful consumer electronics product ever, reshaping human communication while becoming “a global fashion and status symbol.”