Apple holds one of the largest OUI footprints of any company — on the order of 1,514 MA-L blocks, registered to "Apple, Inc." (the sampled blocks carry the legacy registry address 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, though Apple's corporate HQ is now One Apple Park Way). The sheer block count reflects the volume and variety of hardware Apple ships: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro all draw from these allocations, which is why consolidating Apple into a single vendor entry is far more useful than minting dozens of near-identical per-prefix pages. The critical caveat for any Apple OUI work is MAC randomization. Since iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7, Apple devices use a "Private Wi-Fi Address" by default, generated per-SSID with the locally-administered bit set — so a large share of Apple devices on Wi-Fi present addresses that do not resolve to Apple at all. Since iOS 18 the feature exposes three modes (Off, Fixed, Rotating), with Fixed the default on WPA2/WPA3 networks and Rotating (a fresh address roughly every two weeks) the default on weak, open, WEP, OWE, and captive-portal networks. The practical consequence: a globally-administered Apple OUI reliably identifies genuine Apple hardware for asset classification, but the absence of one does not mean "not Apple," and OUI alone is unreliable for Apple inventory or MAC-based access control. A common data-quality trap to avoid: AC:DE:48, frequently mis-cited as Apple, is actually a "Private" IEEE registration — Apple uses it on internal/bridge interfaces but does not publicly own it.
- IEEE assignment
- ~1,514 prefixes → Apple, Inc., registered Cupertino, CA, US [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L
- Registry / block size
- MA-L (24-bit OUI); holds ~1,514 IEEE prefixes (~25.4B addresses) [Confirmed] — maclookup.app (IEEE-sourced, prefix count is a current third-party snapshot and drifts). NOTE: IEEE's public OUI data publishes NO assignment/registration date (oui.csv columns are only Registry, Assignment, Organization Name, Organization Address); any "date registered" on third-party tools is a database artifact, not an IEEE fact. Apple's 08:00:07 block traces to 1980s EtherTalk-era hardware, well before any such artifact date.
- HQ / country
- 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014, US (registry address; corporate HQ now One Apple Park Way, Cupertino) [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L
- Company status
- active [Confirmed] — apple.com
- Device types
- iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, HomePod, Apple Vision Pro [Confirmed] — apple.com
- Notable products
- entire Apple hardware line
- Verified sample prefixes (all MA-L, Apple, Inc.)
- 00:1C:B3, 3C:07:54, 00:03:93, F0:18:98 [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L / maclookup.app
- Historic block (pre-1998 ownership)
- 08:00:07 → "APPLE COMPUTER INC." in the early 08:00:xx Ethernet allocation range; Apple shipped Ethernet hardware from 1987 (Mac II / EtherTalk). Confirms Apple held OUIs decades before any third-party "1998" artifact date. [Confirmed assignment; 1980s dating is inferential from block position + hardware timeline] — IEEE oui.txt, historic Ethernet vendor-code lists
- Special note
- Modern Apple devices use "Private Wi-Fi Address" (MAC randomization) — default since iOS 14/iPadOS 14/watchOS 7, per-SSID; iOS 18+ adds Off/Fixed/Rotating (Fixed default on WPA2/WPA3; Rotating ≈ every 2 weeks on weak/open/WEP/OWE/captive networks). Randomized addresses have the U/L bit set (2nd hex digit 2/6/A/E) and do NOT resolve to Apple. AC:DE:48 is NOT Apple — it is a "Private" registration commonly mis-cited as Apple (and is IEEE's own canonical OUI documentation example). [Confirmed] — support.apple.com (HT102509), IEEE MA-L
- Related vendors
- Beats Electronics (Apple subsidiary; may hold separate registrations)
- Analyst note
- An Apple OUI on a globally-administered address identifies genuine Apple hardware; but private Wi-Fi addresses mean many Apple devices on Wi-Fi present randomized MACs that don't resolve — don't rely on OUI alone for Apple inventory or MAC-based access control.