Last Updated -
January 28, 2026
Explore the business model, global strategy, and market performance including insights into its position in China.
Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple Inc. designs and sells iPhone, Mac, iPad, and a broad lineup of wearables, home devices, and accessories such as Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple complements its hardware with services including the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay, and AppleCare. The company serves consumers and organizations worldwide through a mix of direct channels and partner distribution.
Apple builds its product lines on its own software platforms, including iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS, which helps keep experiences consistent across devices. This platform approach supports an ecosystem where services, accessories, and third-party apps connect to the core devices and extend their usefulness over time.
In fiscal 2025, ended September 27, 2025, Apple reported $416.2 billion in net sales, with Services contributing $109.2 billion. The company employed about 166,000 full-time equivalents at year end. Apple’s stated purpose is to make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than it found it.
Apple earns most of its revenue from premium consumer hardware, then expands lifetime value through software, services, and accessories tied to its device ecosystem. Apple designs and develops nearly the entire solution for its products, including hardware, operating systems, first-party apps, and related services. At the same time, most manufacturing and final assembly is performed by outsourcing partners across Asia and other regions, which keeps Apple asset-light on factories while it focuses on product definition, supply chain orchestration, and customer experience.
Services have become a core profit engine alongside devices. In fiscal 2025, Apple reported $416.2 billion in total net sales, including $109.2 billion from Services. Apple sells directly through its retail and online stores and direct sales force, while also relying on carriers and other resellers. In 2025, direct and indirect channels accounted for 40% and 60% of net sales.
China sits at the center of Apple’s Greater China segment, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In fiscal 2025, Greater China net sales were $64.4 billion, down 4% from $67.0 billion in fiscal 2024. Apple linked the decline mainly to lower iPhone sales, with higher Mac sales partly offsetting the drop.
Mainland China’s smartphone market stayed intensely competitive. Omdia estimates 2025 shipments fell 1% to 282.3 million units. Apple shipped 45.9 million units for the year and held a top-three position. In Q4 2025, Apple led the market with 16.5 million units shipped and a 22% share, supported by year-end promotions and national subsidy policies that shaped channel pricing and demand timing.
Services attach remains an important stabilizer, with Apple citing growth led by the App Store and cloud services. In China, performance is shaped by upgrade cycles around iPhone launches, broad carrier and reseller reach, and sustained pressure from Huawei, vivo, OPPO, and Xiaomi as local brands move further into premium tiers.
Apple’s growth story is shifting toward higher-margin, recurring revenue while keeping iPhone as the volume and profit anchor. In fiscal 2025, Apple delivered $416.2 billion in net sales, with Services at $109.2 billion (+14% year over year). Services gross margin reached 75.4%, highlighting why subscriptions, payments, cloud, and advertising matter more each year. Apple also increased R&D to $34.6 billion in 2025, reflecting heavier investment in software platforms, silicon, and infrastructure.
A central near-term lever is on-device and cloud-assisted AI delivered through Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute. Apple began rolling out Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 and then expanded language and regional support in 2025, broadening addressable demand outside US English markets. Apple positions Private Cloud Compute as a way to run larger models on Apple silicon servers while limiting data retention and access. In January 2026, Reuters reported a multi-year Apple–Google partnership to integrate Gemini models into a revamped Siri later in 2026, which signals faster product iteration and rising dependence on external frontier-model partners.
On hardware, Apple continues to push premium mix and performance differentiation through Apple-designed chips and tighter hardware-software integration. Apple reported iPhone net sales growth in 2025 driven by higher sales of Pro models, while Services growth was supported by advertising, the App Store, and cloud services. Apple also highlighted a major multi-year US investment plan that includes domestic supply chain and silicon-related manufacturing expansion.
New platforms remain longer-cycle options. Vision Pro established Apple’s “spatial computing” category and expanded beyond the US into markets including China, Japan, and Germany, building a base for future developer tooling and enterprise use cases.
This Company Profile was written by Dominik Diemer
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