Apple is well known for its innovative line of products, including the iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone, and the iPad.

It is a multinational company based in California and established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976. Apple began by creating its first personal computer, the Apple I, which was handmade by Wozniak.

The company was previously called Apple Computer, Inc from its incorporation on January 3, 1977. Later on, the organization changed its name to Apple, Inc in January 2007 to re-establish the company’s image as a creator of an expanded line of products, in addition to its traditional market for personal computers. Apple also has subsidiaries including Braeburn Capital and FileMaker Inc.

Apple has already established a wide customer base for laptops, desktops and other consumer electronics. They are currently dominating in the digital music player industry, grabbing a broad market share from its competitors across the world. The company has already sold around 220 million units of iPods, its popular portable music player. The iPhone, Apple’s mobile communication device, is sold in more than 80 countries.

Its success can be rooted from the company’s focus and investment on aggressive marketing campaigns, unique advertisements, product innovation and aesthetic improvements. Apple was named “the most admired company” in the United States by Fortune Magazine in 2008, and as “the most admired company in the world” in 2009.

Although the over-all market for mobile apps is expected to tighten up in the coming year because of continuous entry into the market, narrowing down the market because of increased competition, there are still many companies that will release their own apps in belief that theirs is better than the others. Steve Demeter, manufacturer of the game Trism, was the envy of the gaming market in 2008 as his game grossed more than $2 million in sales. The key, he says, is to make an application that instantly proves its value.

As Demeter and his company still figure out the next app that will follow his widely successful Trism, companies like the Brooklyn-based Freeverse have emerged to take their share of the market. With the release of Moto Chaser and Flick Fishing, Freeverse have two out of the 10 best selling apps for Apple for 2009.

Despite all of this, Tapulous still remains as one of the top manufacturers of the year, especially with the release of another version of its widely syndicated Tap Tap Revenge brand, the Tap Tap Revenge 3. The Tap Tap Revenge series and other high-grossing applications have combined to reach more than 15,000,000 consumers. After its launching, Tap Tap Revenge 3 was number one on the apps bestseller list on the iTunes Store. It held on to the position for the next 20 days.

According to Bryan Sawler, Muteki Corp CEO, “The higher end studios are the ones getting the most publicity and making it more difficult for most people in the middle to get noticed.” The big man of The Battle of Pirate Bay app developer added that making a quality application is not enough. He also stressed out the need for and the importance of marketing.

However, with the New Year coming and with the continuously growing popularity of the brand, iPhone application pioneers should buckle up as they face greater competition come 2010. As the number of iPhone Apps and their manufacturers multiply over the next year, companies will find it twice as hard to gain profit even for the most successful ones that are now currently in the market.

Though these are just speculations and projections for the coming year, research firm IDC predicts that the number of Apple iPhone apps available to consumers will triple over the next year to more than 300,000. In a report released last September entitled “Forecasting the U.S. Mobile App Gold Rush,” Yankee Group Research estimated that the mobile app industry will expand more than tenfold to $4.2 billion by 2013.

Being a very lucrative industry, major brands and more established players will most certainly take advantage of this relatively new market and slowly begin moving in. This will leave pioneering developers who ultimately grossed millions for individual applications to fight in order to maintain attention and market share.

Tapulous remains the leading developer of iPhone apps for 2009. The company, funded by several high profile investors from the Silicon Valley, is the developer behind the hit Tap Tap Revenge series and other highly popular tap applications that have combined to sell millions of dollars from more than 15,000,000 consumers. Immediately after its release, Tap Tap Revenge 3 was atop the app bestsellers’ list on the iTunes Store for 20 days.

Axiotron has made its business disassembling in official MacBooks, turning them into one-piece touchscreen tablets that are capable of pen input. The “ModBook,” which is what is called now, is available for $699 but requires the buyer to bring with them their MacBook. Ready-to-go ModBook units are sold at $1,199. This device is targeted for designers.

Originally, Axiotron began marketing ModBooks under the label TabletMac. The company even referred to its product as “TabletMac” in at least one legitimate document. Axiotron even moved to trademark the name. An excerpt from the press release is provided below.

“Solution hardware manufacturer Axiotron, Inc. today appointed veteran Apple sales partner Carbon Computing as the exclusive Canadian distributor for the Axiotron ModBook…”

However, MacRumors reports that in the previous year, the label was handed over from Axiotron to Apple. Apple is currently named as the holder of the trademark, be it protecting “Mac” or intending to make its own tablet. Apple fanatics need not be dismayed with the term TabletMac since Apple is just simply protecting what it owns. In the near future, its version of the tablet is more than likely to have a likable and more unique name.

The article in Fortune, despite Jobs’ ups and downs, Apple products like the iPhone and iPod are incredibly popular tools.

After leaving the company for six months in the early part of the year to receive a liver transplant, Jobs, 54, is back heading the 34,000 employees that run his empire.

According to Fortune, “In the past 10 years alone (Jobs) has radically and lucratively reordered three markets — music, movies, and mobile telephones — and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.”

”He is the rare businessman with legitimate worldwide celebrity,” the article goes on.

Jobs’ company was worth about $5 billion in 2000, but today it is worth about $170 billion, making Apple is slightly more valuable than Google, according to Fortune.

Read about “How Jobs transformed Apple.”