apple

Fruit of several species of apple tree. There are several hundred varieties of cultivated apples, grown all over the world, which may be divided into eating, cooking, and cider apples. All are derived from the wild crab apple. (Genus Malus, family Rosaceae.)

Apple trees grow best in temperate countries with a cool climate and plenty of rain during the winter. The desired variety is grafted onto rootstocks, and the tree must grow for six to eight years before it produces a good crop of fruit. The tree requires a winter period, in which it is dormant, in order to fruit in the spring, but must be protected from frost while the flowers and fruit are young. Pruning is necessary to produce strong branches, and sprays are used to protect the fruit from pests and to influence its development. The apple has been an important food plant in Europe and Asia for thousands of years.

The continents of Europe and North America (both the USA and Canada) are the main sources of supply, but apples are also produced in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and some parts of Asia. Modern commercial orchards are limited to few species, with trees of ‘dwarf’ growth (2 m/6 ft high), planted 1 m/3 ft apart, for ease and speed of picking by machine.

In 1989 the US apple industry announced it was discontinuing the use of daminozide, a chemical used to ripen apples and make them crisper. Reports indicated that the chemical caused cancer, and that 15% of all apples grown in the USA contained the chemical.

Apple

US computer company, manufacturer of the iPod and Macintosh range of computers.

The success of PCs running Microsoft's Windows 3, launched in 1990, put pressure on Apple and the arrival of Windows 95 started Apple's decline. Apple's annual revenues peaked at US$11.1 billion in 1995, and by 1998 had slumped to US$5.9 billion. For comparison, Compaq, the market-leading PC supplier, increased its sales from US$10.9 billion in 1995 to US$18.1 billion in 1997. In 1997, however, Microsoft invested heavily in Apple, and, in October 1998, Apple announced its first profit (£182 million) in three years. This was largely due to the success of the iMac computer. In 2001, Apple launched its iPod MP3 music player. In April 2003, Apple entered the music sector with the launch in the USA of its iTunes Music Store, an online music download service designed for Macintosh users. The service was extended to users of Windows PCs in October 2003. In 2006 Apple launched its first Intel-chip computers which are able to run both Windows and Mac operating systems.

History In 1977, Apple's founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak received backing from a rich venture capitalist, Mike Markkula, who backed the production of the Apple II. Apple's early market lead in personal computing was destroyed by the entry of the computer industry's behemoth, IBM, in 1981. Unfortunately Apple's imaginative response - the Macintosh, launched 1984 - was a proprietary design and was never able to gain enough market share to compete with thousands of firms making computers compatible with IBM's PCs. In 1994 Apple licensed the Macintosh for the first time, thus enabling other manufacturers to make cheaper machines, the first appearing in 1996. Unfortunately Apple proved unable to compete and reversed its licensing strategy, buying its licence back from Power Computing, and leading Motorola to leave the clone business in 1997. The Macintosh has a very strong following in the creative world, particularly in the publishing and the multimedia industries, thanks to its ease of use and the availability of the most popular software for these applications. Early in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple, which had bought his company NeXT, and became ‘interim chief executive’. Later that year, Microsoft invested US$150 million in Apple. At the beginning of 2000, Jobs became permanent chief executive officer of Apple.