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"Apple has taken firm root in America. Just over half of all households in the country own at least one Apple product, a new survey says, showing just how far the reach of the company has come in the last decade.\nAt the turn of the 21st century, Apple was in rough shape. It had narrowly avoided bankruptcy, and Steve Jobs' return as CEO a few years earlier was turning the company around, but the market share of its products \u2014 then almost exclusively Mac computers \u2014 was dismal, at about 2% worldwide.\nThen came the iPod, which begat the iPhone and the iPad. As Apple's gadgets gobbled up market share (and in some cases created new markets), its Macs experienced a rebound, too. Now, according to CNBC's All-American Economic Survey, 51% of U.S. households own at least one Apple product.\nFew brands have such a deep reach among American consumers. Certainly, product categories such as refrigerators or even smartphones have achieved even deeper penetration, but looking at single companies, it's a short list with probable names such as GE (light bulbs) or 3M (Scotch tape). Reducing to just technology companies would make it even shorter.\n\nSEE ALSO: Sorry, Google: Apple is America\u2019s Valentine This Year [STUDY]\nOf the households that own Apple products, they own an average of three, making the overall ownership rate of the American public 1.6 Apple products per household. About 25% plan to buy another Apple product in the next year.\nThe survey shows Apple buyers tend to skew male, young, with higher education and incomes (77% of households making $75,000 or more have an Apple product). If you have kids, the likelihood of being an Apple household grows \u2014 61% compared with 48% if you don't.\nAs far as politics is concerned, both Republicans and Democrats appear to like Apple products equally, with 56% of people counting themselves a member of either party owning Apple, although a greater portion of Democrats plan to buy more products soon.\nCNBC's survey polled 836 Americans via both landlines and cellphones over three days in March. The network says it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4%.\nDo you own Apple products? Why did you pick Apple instead of another brand? Let us know in the comments.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, arakonyunus\nBONUS: The History of Mac OS X\n\n\nA Timeline of Mac OS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Timeline of Mac OS\n\nFor nearly 30 years, the Macintosh operating system has helped define desktop computing.\nWith the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple is readying for its next evolution and is getting closer than ever at merging the desktop with the mobile OS. Let's take a look back at 28 years of Mac OS history.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJan. 24th, 1984: System 1 Released\nThe first GUI-based operating system available to consumers and the first every Macintosh operating system, known as System 1, was released. It was unique because it lacked a command line, which every other computer used at the time. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGUIs and Icons\nThe GUI, or graphical user interface, was based on work Steve Jobs observed while he was visiting at Xerox PARC nearly five years earlier, and it's the earliest iteration of all operating systems we use today. The icons used by the original operating system were created by Susan Kare, and many are still in use today, or have become cult hits to the true Apple fans.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJanuary, 1986: System 3 Released\nSystem 3 was significant for Macintosh and computing because it had the first instances of Hierarchical File System, which allowed files to be stored in a treed-directory format that we\u2019re now used to. Before that, Files could be only stored one level deep.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMay 13, 1991: System 7 Released\n\nAfter several iterations, System 7 was released on the widest array of platforms ever. It was the first operating system that required a computer to have a hard drive, as it was too large to work comfortably with floppy disks. It was also one of the first to have features like drag-and-drop files, the ability to use virtual memory, and the first OS to be ported to Apple\u2019s new PowerPC platform.\nImage courtesy barjack, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJanuary, 1997: Mac OS 7.6 Released\n\nThis was the first version to use Mac OS in the name, dropping the \u201CSystem\u201D. This arose out of Apple's need to copyright the operating system, as it was appearing on more third-party computers.\nImage courtesy Arne Kuilman, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJuly 22, 1997: Mac OS 8 Released\nMac OS 8 was released in mid-1997, marking the return of Steve Jobs to Apple, and it sold 3 million copies in six months. It featured a updated visual style known as Platinum.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPropelled by the iMac\nMac OS 8 was also the operating system that appeared on the first iMacs that were released in 1998, as Apple began exploring all-in-one computers.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOctober 23, 1999: Mac OS 9 Released\n\nThis operating system was somewhat of a transition between OS 8 (it was called 8.7 in development), and OS X, which had already been released in some form as Mac OS X Server. It added more support for Airport wireless networking, remote software updates and a beefed-up Sherlock Search.\nImage courtesy FHKE, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMarch 24, 2000: Mac OS X Unveiled\n\nAfter profits continued to fall at Apple, they brought Steve Jobs as interim CEO and gave him free reign to make the changes he felt were necessary. His main objective was to update the increasingly dated looking Mac OS. A big feature of the new operating system was a radical interface makeover; the new interface, Aqua, was a glossier, modern look for the operating system. Two notable features included the colorful control buttons in the top left corner of applications, and the Dock, a new menu for launching applications. This version of OS X was codenamed \u201CCheetah.\u201D\nImage courtesy ToobyDoo, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAugust 23, 2002: Jaguar Released (OS X 10.2)\n\nJaguar was the first iteration of OS X marketed by its codename. It was much faster and more stable than the previous versions of OS X, which were criticized for being extremely sluggish. It released an updated Address Book, as well as a Mail client with a spam filter.\nImage courtesy Brandon R NZ Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nApril 29, 2005: Tiger Released (OS X 10.4)\n\nTiger was released to one of the widest receptions in Apple history. It sold 2 million copies after its first six weeks on the market. It was also the first operating system to support Apple machines running the Intel x86 processors. It was on the market for 30 months: the longest of any iteration of OS X. Apple was also sued by TigerDirect.com for copyright infringement for the OS\u2019s name, but Apple won the suit.\nImage courtesy iBjorn, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOct. 26, 2007: Leopard Released (OS X 10.5)\n\nLeopard represented a dramatic visual departure from Tiger. It introduced Cover Flow browsing into finder, a redesigned Dock, and a transparent menu bar. It introduced the backup utility Time Machine. It was that last operating system to support PowerPC-based computers, as all further OS X iterations would only work with Intel-based Macs. The release was delayed almost a year while Apple worked on the iPhone.\nImage courtesy bizmac, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJune 20, 2011: Lion Released (OS X 10.7)\n\nLion\u2019s release began to mark the merger between iOS on mobile devices and Mac computers. It was the first OS available primarily for download in the App Store for $29.  Apple claimed the new OS had over 250 new or updated features, including a controversial AutoSave feature that removed Save As from many applications and frustrated some users.\nImage courtesy swanksalot, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFeb. 16, 2012: Mountain Lion Announced (OS X 10.8)\n\nThe integration into iOS continues with Mountain Lion\u2019s announcement. The new operating system, released to developers the day it was announced, ditches iChat in favor of iMessage, heavily merges with your Twitter account, and adds more support of iCloud. It also makes it easier to share on Vimeo and Flickr. \nImage courtesy Nigel@hornchurch, Flickr.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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