FIRST IN LINE on November 2 2017 an odd scene played out in front of Apple Stores around the world In Chicago Illinois a customer walked up to the Apple Store on North Michigan Avenue at 11 00 a m However he did not enter the building Instead the customer stood outside waiting Over the next 12 hours more than 200 people joined him In New York City campsites popped up on the sidewalks in front of Apple Stores As darkness fell people stretched out on air mattresses or lawn chairs or crawled into small tents Similar lines stretched in front of Apple Stores from London England to Sydney Australia to Hong Kong and beyond Apple employees are used to this phenomenon The folks waiting outside the stores are their most loyal customers These die-hard followers were waiting for the stores to open at 8 00 a m on November 3 That was when a radically redesigned smartphone the For years Apple fans have lined up on release day to get the latest version of the iPhone 5
iPhone X would be available for the first time This device with a starting price of 999 was guaranteed to fly off the shelves For years Apple devotees have endured lack of sleep no bathrooms and the wind rain and snow to get their hands on the company’s latest devices Apple’s iPHONE X From 2007 until 2017 every iPhone shared the same basic design a large screen with space above it for a speaker and space below it for a single physical button The iPhone X was the first significant departure from this style The phone’s screen goes from edge to edge with almost no border There is no longer a physical button below the screen At the top of the screen is a small cutout notch containing a speaker cameras and sensors Previous iPhones were unlocked with the user’s fingerprint on the single button below the screen The iPhone X instead unlocks when its cameras recognize the user’s face mix of advanced technology with sleek design has won it millions of fans over the past four decades When the Chicago Apple Store finally opened its doors on November 3 Kapish Sharma was the sixth person to enter the store He had driven up from Indiana and stood in line for 15 hours Our wait was worth it Sharma said as he walked out of the store with an iPhone X in his hand 1 THE RACE TO 1 TRILLION Apple has many loyal fans and its products have found mainstream success around the globe On January 17 6
2018 Apple was valued at 911 906 billion more than any company in world history 2 Other tech giants are racing to catch Apple each one vying to be the first publicly traded corporation worth 1 trillion One reason for Apple’s success is what industry experts call the Apple ecosystem Apple sells hardware devices including smartphones laptops and tablets It also designs the operating systems that run on these devices meaning that the hardware and software are created to work well together The more Apple products a person has the more benefits he or she gets A person with both an iPhone and a MacBook laptop can use text messaging on both devices People who buy music on the iTunes Store can listen to it across all their Apple devices User data including photos emails and lists of contacts is easily shared across Apple smartphones tablets and computers The interconnectedness of this ecosystem encourages users to stick with Apple products Having one Apple product can make it more enticing to buy another The result is highly profitable for Apple Apple is a resilient company that has ridden a roller coaster of dizzying success and near catastrophic failure for 40 years The company was founded by two young 7
