The biggest myths about Apple dispelled: A look inside 5 decades of the company’s history

Apple was founded 50 years ago today, on April 1, 1976, by two scruffy twentysomethings named Steve—Steve Jobs and Steve “Woz” Wozniak—but not in a garage, as legend has it. On that date, Ron Wayne, a 41-year-old senior designer whom Jobs met at Atari, took a two-page partnership agreement down to the Santa Clara County registrar’s office, and Apple was born. That agreement gave each of the Steves 45% of the company, and Wayne the final 10%, according to the new book, Apple: The First 50 Years, by reporter David Pogue, who has covered the company for 41 years. “That year, they were thrilled to sell 150 of those Apple I boards,” Pogue writes. Five decades later, in 2026, “its annual revenue approached $400 billion a year—more than Meta, Netflix, and Intel combined.” So, how did we get here? Fast Company spoke with Pogue, who says Jobs is a big part of the answer—but not for the reason you might think. [Image: Simon & Schuster] While the gene