Apple Inc.I will start by telling a little about the history of Apple and how it has grown over the last 10 years or so, I will also talk about some new Apple products such as Apple TV and iPhone, as well as the change of name, the new direction they've chosen to take with their marketing, and what it's helped them accomplish over the last couple of years. Apple Inc. has come a long way from what it was. The computer market has always been a PC-based system, driven primarily by the Microsoft software platform. Apple Computers has long struggled to establish itself in the computer market, clashing with competitor Microsoft which held a monopoly on the market. Microsoft had such a strong following throughout the business world that it was very difficult for Apple to make any kind of impact against its competitor Microsoft. In 1997 Bill Gates invested $150 million in Apple Computers and agreed to create Microsoft Office for the Macintosh platform which was a huge step forward for the struggling company. This gave Apple the leap forward it needed to react and enter the mainstream consumer market. On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod which revolutionized the secure music player industry. It was the best way to listen to CD-quality songs on a small portable player that fits in your pocket. There were many other types of mp3 players at the time, however the ease of transferring music to the iPod was second to none. With the automatic sync feature via iTunes it has made things very simple for the average consumer. I bet there aren't many people in this class who don't have an iPod, otherwise the percentage of people with an mp3 player would be......half of paper......ves with the iPhone trying to conquer even the mobile phone market. The opportunities are almost endless and iPhone technology makes managing email, web browsing or text messaging very attractive for the business market. It's all the average consumer looking for a toy with phone capabilities. All these other products using the Mac platform and the fact that Apple is making the switch from Windows to Mac so easy is changing people's views on Apple and making them think twice about what computer choice they want to make next time they buy a computer. So next time you think about buying a computer, think about it. Apple has really thought of everything and is taking action. If they can pull off their marketing strategy, I predict that one day, not too far away, they will take over the world.