From an unlucky co-founder to an enigmatic logo, the brand that revolutionized technology has a lesser-known side.
Since its beginnings in a California garage in April 1976, Apple has made a mark on the world of technology and popular culture with products enjoyed by millions of consumers across the planet.
Here are five little-known facts about big tech North American company based in Cupertino, California, which celebrates 50 years in 2026.
How the apple was born. “Don’t make it funny”
The origin of the cracked apple logo has sparked numerous rumors, from a reference to Adam and Eve’s forbidden fruit to a tribute to the poisoned apple that killed British mathematician Alan Turing.
The Apple brand actually owes its name to the I like Steve Jobs — one of its founders — for apples.
In an interview with the magazine in 2018, the logo’s creator, American graphic designer Rob Janoff, said he only received one instruction when they commissioned the logo in January 1977.
“Don’t make it funny”Jobs told him, he wanted something simpler than the first “Apple Computer” logo, an illustration of Isaac Newton under a tree.
Janoff explains on his website that he spent two weeks studying cross-sections of apples before opting for a bitten fruit.
The unlucky co-founder
History records Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as the co-founders of Apple. However, a third man signed alongside them the three-page contract that launched the company, on April 1, 1976: Ronald Wayne.
According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, Wayne was an engineer at the video game company Atari and was responsible for hardware engineering and documentation for the fledgling company.
But while his two co-founders dedicated themselves completely to the business, Wayne feared losing his little savings if Apple failed. Resigned 11 days later to his status as co-founder and sold his 10% stake in exchange for two payments of 800 and 1500 dollars. That stake would have been worth around $370 billion in 2026.
Advertisement for “1984”
In a futuristic totalitarian world, a hammer thrown by a young athlete destroys the figure of a “Big Brother” who declaims to indoctrinated citizens from a gigantic screen.
Tens of millions of Americans watched director Ridley Scott’s one-minute ad during the Super Bowl on January 22, 1984.
Aired alongside the Apple computer launch announcement, the spot was inspired by the dystopian novel 1984, by George Orwell.
The ad’s originality lies in the fact that it does not directly show the product, but rather promises a new world of emancipated consumers thanks to personal computers.
Cores pop
Over the years, Apple devices have turned to color to differentiate themselves from the stark white of their competitors. The first-generation iMacs, released in 1998, had transparent casings in shades of blue, green and other colors.
The iPod music player, initially metallic gray, has diversified to encompass a whole spectrum of vivid colors.
Later, the “rose gold” variant of the iPhone 6S, in 2015, gave rise to a large number of imitations, following a trend that lasted several years called “millennial pink”. And now, an orange iPhone has come out.
The “easter egg” at 9:41 am
Almost all advertisements and screenshots for Apple products have one thing in common: they show the same time, 09h41. And it’s not by chance.
Jon Manning, an Australian game creator, said he asked Scott Forstall, then responsible for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, about this in 2010.
Manning explained that this time is a reference to the structure of events at Apple product presentations. “We plan the presentations so that the big product reveal takes place around 40 minutes after the start of the presentation”, said Forstall.
