Apple at 50 quiz: top sellers, turkeys and turtlenecks
How much do you know about the history of one of the most powerful computing companies on the planet?
April 1, 2026 · 1 min read

Apple at 50 quiz: top sellers, turkeys and turtlenecks
In the 50 years since it was founded, Apple has long been seen as one of the most significant technology companies globally. The design and manufacturing decisions taken in Cupertino, California have affected product design across the world, helping usher in an era of ubiquitous touchscreen computing while insisting on exacting user experience design principles. How much do you know about the history of one of the most powerful computing companies on the planet? Test yourself with these 12 questions.
The Guardian’s Apple at 50 quiz
What was the retail price of the first Apple product, the Apple I?
What is Apple’s highest stock market valuation?
Who directed the famous Apple Superbowl advert 1984?
Ridley Scott
Steven Spielberg
Steven Soderbergh
Kathryn Bigelow
What is the nickname for Apple’s circular US headquarters?
The spaceship
Which of these films was NOT made by Apple?
Killers of the Flower Moon
The Banshees of Innisherin
What was the name of the MessagePad device Apple released in 1993?
How many units of the first iPhone were sold?
Who designed Steve Jobs’s signature black turtleneck?
Alexander McQueen
Stella McCartney
Issey Miyake
How many songs did Apple estimate the first generation 5GB iPod could store?
Apple released a rather unsuccessful games console called what?
Who designed the distinctive Apple logo of the fruit with a bite taken out of it?
Neville Brody
Peter Saville
And finally … which world-famous band was forced to apologise for giving away an album on iTunes?
Rolling Stones
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
1:B - Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said he was unaware of the Satanic link and simply liked 'repeating digits' , 2:D - Apple’s stock market capitalisation - the total value of a company’s publicly traded shares - crossed $4tn in October last year, although it has subsequently fallen below that level, 3:A - The British film and sometime ad director made the acclaimed commercial, 4:B - Locals christened Apple’s Cupertino building with the nickname, 5:D - Since getting into film and TV production, Apple has produced a number of critical hits but Martin McDonagh’s Golden Globe-winning film isn’t one of them, 6:A - The range was available for five years before being discontinued, 7:A - The first iPhone, released in June 2007, has since sold another 3bn units, 8:C - The Japanese designer retired the item from his clothing range after Jobs died in 2011, 9:B - Obviously it depended on song length and file sizes, but Apple marketed the machine with the slogan "1,000 songs in your pocket", 10:C - Apple had intended to make the Pippin platform an open standard for gaming and multimedia devices, and the white-colored Bandai Pippin ATMARK machine was the first release, 11:D - The rainbow Apple logo replaced the original, which featured Isaac Newton under a tree discovering gravity, 12:B - Bono said sorry after his band’s album, Songs of Innocence, was added to the library of unsuspecting account holders in 2014 to promote the iPhone 6 release
0 and above.
Congratulations – and happy birthday to Apple!
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