We all know that companies like Apple have thousands of employees behind the scenes, making the magic happen. Some of Apple's employees work in Apple Stores of course, but many more work at Apple Park and similar offices around the world. But as a collective, they're what makes Apple tick.
So have you ever wondered just how much hard work went into getting Apple into the position that it's in today? Turns out someone did, so they ran the numbers.
Since 1976 Apple employees have worked 307,090,000 hours in total. That's a little more than 307 million hours.
How's that compare?
That's according to figures put together by EmailToolTester as part of a larger look into what goes into growing a business.
"We think it’s important for all entrepreneurs to recognize that success comes from a team, and want to put into context the amount of effort that has gone into making some of the most aspirational names in tech," the report says. So how does Apple stack up in terms of the hours worked to turn it into a company that others try to imitate?
Well, Apple's 307,090,000 hours is a minuscule figure compared to Samsung's 14,698,822,569. Amazon? 13,996,911,794 hours. Microsoft was the only other company above Apple in the chart with 4,709,910,411 hours.
"Samsung, the oldest company in our analysis, leads the way with over 14.6 billion hours worked by its employees since its inception in 1969," EmailToolTester says. "The online ecommerce giant, Amazon (initially called Cadabra) started much later in 1994 but is not far off the electronics leader in terms of the number of employee hours at almost 14 billion."
So there we have it. The next time you're in an Apple Store checking out the best iPhones ever made, remember that the employee you're talking with is partly responsible for Apple being Apple. As were the thousands of people who worked huge numbers of hours before them.
