A bright, shiny Apple turns 30

updated 5:35 p.m. ET March 25, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Silicon Valley's historic orchards have virtually disappeared but one notable fruit still stands: Apple.

As the storied company celebrates its 30th birthday in a week, Apple Computer Inc. will have brushed off its bruises from product failures and arguably misguided decisions to emerge with a shine that's more than skin-deep.

Its brand name and products — from the Mac to the iPod  —resonate as both hip and innovative.

For all of its recent successes, however, Apple also has its share of challenges ahead as it matures into a digital media provider.

In the digital music arena, where Apple dominates, French lawmakers are angling to force the company to change its successful way of chaining its popular iPod player to its online iTunes Music Store.

Recording labels are also chafing at Apple's insistence that its song downloads remain 99 cents apiece. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs rebutted by calling the record industry "greedy."

In the computer space, where Apple is seeing its best sales in years, information-security firms have discovered a few new vulnerabilities in its Macintosh operating system.

Though the security breaches have been innocuous, security experts say they signal that Apple is a higher-profile target now for hackers, who in the past have focused heavily on Microsoft Corp.'s predominant Windows system. (MSNBC.com is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)

"Apple is on more people's radar now that the company is a major force," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consultancy. "And these are all growing pains."

Apple's journey began in 1976 when two college dropouts — Jobs, a marketing whiz, and his friend Steve Wozniak, an engineering genius — filed partnership papers on April Fools' Day, their eyes set on building and selling personal computers. Another friend, Ron Wayne, opted out of the risky venture within two weeks.

Their first product was a build-it-yourself computer kit. A year later, in 1977, the Apple II microcomputer was born. It was not the first personal computer but it was the most successful _ a hit not just among engineers, but home users, too. Many credit the Apple II as the genesis of the personal computer revolution.

Apple's cultural and technological influences only grew from there. Some of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's creations have been duds that failed to make it any money, but became a source of inspiration and income for others.

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