The revolutionary Apple IIe, the clunky Lisa, the iPod and iPhone. The resignation, subsequent return and eventual passing of Steve Jobs. And let's not forget Siri.

Over the past 38 years Apple has experienced an extraordinary series of highs, lows and pretty much everything in-between.

While it's facing stiff competition from Samsung and an ageing iTunes infrastructure, Apple remains arguably the most innovative company on the planet. Here's the latest from inside the sleek, sometimes mysterious, but never dull world of Apple.

An apple  a day

Apple was started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wane in 1976 and started off selling personal computers.

Today Apple is the second largest technology company in the world (behind Samsung), and the third largest producer of mobile phones (after Samsung and Nokia). 

From 2008 to 2012 Apple was named by Fortune magazine as the most admired company in the world. Its brand is rated more valuable that Coca Cola.

Mobile monolith

While Apple started as a computer company, it's greatest heights were reached with mobile products.

Apple has sold over 505 million iPhones since launching the product in 2007, making it far and away the company's most popular product.

Coming in second place is the iPod (350 million units sold) and Macintosh computers (desktop and laptop) with 275 million units sold.

iTunes =iDollars

All those iPhones and iPod are plugged into iTunes, Apple's digital content library. 

There has now been 27.2 billion iPhone app store downloads, and 16.5 billion iTunes songs downloaded.

With close to 600 million accounts, iTunes is both the world's largest music seller and the largest single repository of credit card numbers.  

Shopfront

Besides iTunes, Apple Stores are another handy source of revenue.

There are now 424 Apple Stores in 14 countries around the globe. Over a typical day these stores see over 1 million customers. 

Raking it in

In 2013 Apple netted a total revenue of US$171 billion, and declared total assets of US$207 billion.

In July this year Apple reported its App Store had posted record revenue levels, taking the total number of App Store downloads to 75 billion. 

Expect that number to rise once iPhone 6 launches later this year.

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