In a recent all-hands meeting, Apple CEO Tim Cook told employees to "stay tuned" about the company's plans for its upcoming 50th anniversary. Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, so the company will turn 50 in a few more months.
Following a snippet last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has since shared Cook's full remarks:
I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment — 50 years. It's an extraordinary accomplishment. We've been going back through old archives, old photographs. We've been going back through the products, the services, the people, and I am struck by how much Apple has changed things, how much Apple has changed the world, how much Apple has given to the world. Are we going to celebrate it? You better believe it. We're not ready to say exactly how yet, so stay tuned. Yes. We're not a culture that looks back. So the group of people working on this have had to kind of build a different muscle for this, as our muscle is always about what's next. We've really had to work hard on this to get in a reflective state, but when you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart sing. It really does. I promise some celebration.
While it is likely that Cook was referring to a celebration for Apple employees, the company will almost certainly honor the occasion in a big way publicly too.
Apple went from flirting with bankruptcy in the late 1990s to becoming the world's most valuable public company in the early 2010s. It has introduced many iconic products, including the Macintosh in 1984, the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the Apple Watch in 2015. The company reported an all-time revenue record last quarter, driven by all-time high iPhone sales, so the company is still peaking financially.
