Apple: The First 50 Years
In time for Apple’s 50th anniversary, “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue tells the iconic company’s entire life story: how it was born, nearly died, was born again under Steve Jobs, and became, under CEO Tim Cook, one of the most valuable companies in the world.
The 600-page book features 360 full-color photos, new facts that correct the record and illuminate Apple’s subversive culture, and 150 fresh interviews with the legendary figures who shaped Apple into what it is today.
Publication date: March 17, 2026
Simon & Schuster
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On April 1, 1976, two scruffy twentysomethings, both named Steve, founded a startup. Their goal: To bring the revolutionary power of computers to everyone.
Over the next five decades, Apple reshaped the technology and cultural landscapes, introducing the public to breakthroughs like the mouse, laser printing, CD-ROM, WiFi, digital video, home networking, touchscreen phones, and tablets. Jobs’s obsessive eye for detail set the stage for products—Mac, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch—that married advanced technology with beauty, simplicity, and fine design.
Deeply researched and lavishly illustrated in color, Apple: The First 50 Years includes new interviews with 150 key people who made the journey, including Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Jony Ive, and many current designers, engineers, and executives. The book busts long-held myths; goes backstage for both the titanic successes (450 million iPods, 700 million iPads, 2.2 billion iPhones) and the instructive failures (Lisa, Apple III, MobileMe); and assesses the forces that challenge Apple’s dominance as it enters its second half century.
Bursting with tales of frenetic all-nighters, engineering genius, and creative rebellion, this book is a true testament to Apple’s unique and innovative vision, and a must read for anyone whose life Apple has touched.
David Pogue on Tour
Join David for an evening of conversation in a city near you:
Tour dates to
be announced!
Top 10 Surprises in Apple: The First 50 Years
Apple didn’t start in a garage.
Apple was Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs’s fourth business venture.
There was a third founder.
Steve Jobs was not Apple’s first CEO—nor its second, third, or fourth.
Steve Jobs did not originate or name the Macintosh; in fact, he forced out the man who did.
John Sculley did not fire Steve Jobs.
The tablet came before the phone.
Jobs never fired anyone he’d just met in the elevator.
And he didn’t write the “Think Different” ad.
The Newton saved Apple.
David Pogue is a seven-time Emmy Award winner for his stories on “CBS Sunday Morning,” a five-time TED speaker, host of 20 “NOVA” specials on PBS, and a New York Times bestselling author.
He’s written about Apple for his entire career, including 13 years as a Macworld columnist, 13 more as the New York Times tech columnist, and 20 years as the #1 bestselling author of books about Macs and iPhones. He lives with his family in New York.
Apple through the years.
Watch David moderate the “Apple Mac at 40” event at the Computer History Museum in 2024. And sing along to his “iPhone: The Music Video,” which went viral in 2007.