A US-based producer of Macintosh (‘Mac’) personal computers and peripherals, and subsequently of the iPod. Founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it pioneered the desktop and windows metaphors for the user interface and was an early market leader in the field. The first commercial spreadsheet, VisiCalc, was developed for its machines. As well as running Apple’s own software, the computers can run Microsoft Windows and other PC applications that it supports. Apple’s products are widely seen as the major alternative to the personal computers based on the IBM PC model. As such, they have attracted a substantial cult following in the academic and high technology worlds, and in design and desktop-publishing applications.