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Apple to Host 50th Anniversary Celebrations Around the World

Apple today announced that it will be celebrating its upcoming 50th anniversary by hosting gatherings "around the world" throughout the month of March.

Apple 50 Logo Feature
Apple's 50th anniversary is on April 1, 2026. The company has yet to reveal exactly where and when it will be hosting additional celebrations, but possibilities include major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tokyo.

"Each gathering highlights human creativity and ingenuity in action, and showcases the remarkable things people can do when they have the right Apple products in their hands," said Apple, in a press release.

"Stay tuned for more updates," said Apple.

17-time Grammy Award-winning music artist and producer Alicia Keys kicked off the celebrations today with a surprise performance at Apple's Grand Central store in New York. Apple invited selected content creators to the impromptu concert, which was also open to the public for anyone who happened to be in the area at the time.

Alicia Keys Grand Central
Apple's CEO Tim Cook, hardware engineering chief John Ternus, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, retail chief Deirdre O'Brien, and others were in attendance at Grand Central.

"Thinking different has always been at the heart of Apple," said Cook. "It's what has driven us to create products that empower people to express themselves, to connect, and to create something wonderful. As we celebrate 50 years, we are deeply grateful to everyone who has been part of this journey and who continues to inspire what comes next."

Tim Cook Alicia Keys
Cook previously shared a "50 Years of Thinking Different" letter.

The letter touches on the upcoming 50th anniversary and says that "the world is moved forward by people who think different." For those unaware, "Think Different" was a famous advertising slogan used by Apple in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

"At Apple, we're more focused on building tomorrow than remembering yesterday," said Cook, in the letter. "But we couldn't let this milestone pass without thanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today."

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Top Rated Comments

ThomasJL Avatar
13 hours ago at 11:33 pm

Would be nice if they remember to invite The Woz.
And Ronald Wayne. Apple was founded by Jobs, Woz, and Wayne.

The 50th anniversary marks the anniversary of the founding of Apple, so therefore the two living founders, Woz and Wayne, should be invited. This is their day, so they should be the central focus of the celebration.

But considering how clueless and mediocre Tim Cook is, it wouldn’t be surprising if Wayne was neither invited nor even mentioned.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
14 hours ago at 10:34 pm
Would be nice if they remember to invite The Woz.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Reason077 Avatar
14 hours ago at 09:54 pm
... or even better, they could have released the first foldable iPhone as a special 50th Anniversary Phone ("FAP").
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Reason077 Avatar
12 hours ago at 12:15 am

I seem to recall that Steve absolutely hated it though. He viewed it at the time as a symbol of a dying Apple. He also despised the Newton, and wanted it killed off. Mainly for the image it held - e.g. - The Simpsons joke where "beat up Martin" was translated to "eat up Martha" due to the Newton's poor handwriting recognition. Amazing how they reinvented the market with the iPhone, then iPad.


It was a great joke, but it's a little unfair to call it bad handwriting recognition when it was the only such device with handwriting recognition at the time. It was extremely impressive technology for its time, years before the Palm Pilot came out with Graffiti (which worked very well, but was a system of simplified gestures rather than true handwriting recognition).

And of course, Apple's work on the Newton led to them investing in a little startup called ARM. Which went on to become the foundation of the chip architecture which underpins all of Apple's devices today.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9 hours ago at 03:43 am
Pretty weird that a 50 year celebration of Apple only seems to involve inviting influencers-of-the-day who are all under the age of 25.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Reason077 Avatar
14 hours ago at 09:49 pm
It's just too bad the new OLED MacBook won't be ready in time for the 50th birthday celebrations. They could have released a special edition and called it the 50th Anniversary Mac ("FAM")!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)