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04/01/2006:

"The appeal of Apple"

It has flirted with disaster but the firm that changed the way we work is 30 today.

It is not quite the birthday present that Apple Computer would have wished for. A courtroom battle between the maker of the iPod and the Beatles' Apple Corps record label is threatening to take the shine off the US technology firm's 30th anniversary celebrations today.

The high court heard yesterday that Apple Computer denied any breach of an agreement made 15 years ago that the Californian computer company would not use its apple trademark "in connection with musical content".

Anthony Grabiner, defending Apple Computer, said the iTunes Music Store did not breach the 1991 agreement as it was merely sending digital files. "Data transmission is within our field of use," he said, adding that it was not allowed to sell Beatles tracks through iTunes.

It is unlikely that a legal battle with the world's most famous musicians was on the minds of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they started Apple on April Fool's Day 1976. With their friend Ronald Wayne, they set up the firm from a Californian garage as wide-eyed, technology-obsessed twenty-somethings. And while Apple's fortunes have endured a rollercoaster ride over the years, their vision of affordable, user-friendly home computers has revolutionised how we live and work.
guardian.co.uk