Refer to a company as "they" or "it".

I prefer "It" but my boss prefers "They" (so I have to as well). I'm now very used to "They" but most of the news items we receive prior to me subbing them have companies as "It". I'd go with singular. A company is a single entity, after all.

Alternatively, you could think about whether a company can realise something or whether the people working there are doing the realising, and reword your sentence to: "The big wigs at Apple should have figured by now that the company won't succeed by..."

I think I frequently hear "those people/dumba**es at xxCorporationxx." The entire phase can be shortened to "They" but that doesn't mean a corporation = they.

While Apple can succeed--by making $5 billion profit or selling 5 billion iPads, I don't think you can make Apple 'figure out' something. The corporate executives, managers, board members, etc 'think' and 'figure out.'

In your example, I'll probably write:
- They should have figured by now that Apple won't succeed by...
- The people at Apple should have figured by now that they won't succeed by...

I think that it depends.

I suppose I've always thought of a company as "they" because the word conveys more than one person--as in who owns it, makes the decisions...

I'm not entirely sure it's right, though.

I personally use 'they', as 'it' seems very impersonal. In my region it is also the preferred personal gender-neutral pronoun.

(Imagine if you were describing someone entering the room as 'When it walked in through the door I wasn't sure if I should address it as 'Madam' or 'Sir'.' It just seems very impersonal and kind of rude.)

The pedants might argue that 'Apple' is a single entity - but that isn't true either. 'Apple' isn't a company - it's a brand name. If you try to be more pedantic (like 'Apple Inc') you'll end up with overly clumsy sentences.

Not only that, but the statements might not even be true. For example, when people talk about 'Apple' developing a certain user interface, it is likely that it wasn't developed by 'Apple Inc', but instead by one of the other connected companies like 'Fingerwerx'. But it isn't 'Apple Inc' - so by trying to be pedantic you'd end up being technically incorrect.

But by simply saying 'Apple developed the technology' is general enough to be acceptable.

So for a normal conversational style I'd go with 'they'.

However, if you want to give the impression that the company is cold, calculating and inhuman you should use 'it'.

Mac

Either can be right. A corporation is a person before he law. A person is a single entity. For a single entity one uses a singular pronoun. Since corporations are not of the male or female sexes, so the pronoun "it" is most appropriate.

If one is thinking of a corporation as a group of people, then those people can be referred to as "they", but that does not mean the corporation, simply those people.

Not surprised much of the madding crowd opts for "they" as a catchall pronoun. That way it doesn't have to think about what it writes . . . I mean they doesn't have to think about what they writes.

Chase said:

Not surprised much of the madding crowd opts for "they" as a catchall pronoun. That way it doesn't have to think about what it writes . . . I mean they doesn't have to think about what they writes.

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Exactly. I use they.

As PeterL stated, a corporation is a legal entity considered by law to be an individual. The law goes so far as to make corporations themselves, rather than the people who run them, responsible for their actions.

Technically, if you are referring to a corporation, only "it" is correct. However, when writing fiction, you can obviously use whichever you prefer. Your choice can tell the reader something about the character and the way he or she thinks, which I think is more important than what is correct and what is not.