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Amount charged to advertising expense for the period, which are expenses incurred with the objective of increasing revenue for a specified brand, product or product line.

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Additions made to capitalized computer software costs during the period.

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For each income statement presented, the amount charged to expense for amortization of capitalized computer software costs.

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The current period expense charged against earnings on long-lived, physical assets not used in production, and which are not intended for resale, to allocate or recognize the cost of such assets over their useful lives; or to record the reduction in book value of an intangible asset over the benefit period of such asset; or to reflect consumption during the period of an asset that is not used in production.

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Net fair value of all derivative instruments designated as fair value hedging instruments.

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The maximum useful life of a major finite-lived intangible asset class. A major class is composed of intangible assets that can be grouped together because they are similar either by their nature or by their use in the operations of a company.

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The minimum useful life of a major finite-lived intangible asset class. A major class is composed of intangible assets that can be grouped together because they are similar either by their nature or by their use in the operations of a company.

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Loss recognized during the period that results from the write-down of goodwill after comparing the implied fair value of reporting unit goodwill with the carrying amount of that goodwill. Goodwill is assessed at least annually for impairment.

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Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $) Share data in Millions, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended								2 Months Ended	3 Months Ended	34 Months Ended	2 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
	Sep. 24, 2011 Year Contract Country Store Vendor	Sep. 25, 2010	Sep. 26, 2009	Sep. 24, 2011 Building Year	Sep. 24, 2011 Equipment Year	Sep. 24, 2011 Leasehold Improvements Year	Sep. 24, 2011 Minimum	Sep. 24, 2011 Maximum	May 31, 2011 Apple iPhone	Sep. 24, 2011 Apple iPhone	Mar. 27, 2010 Apple iPhone	May 31, 2011 Apple iPad	Sep. 24, 2011 Apple iPad	Sep. 24, 2011 Apple iPod touch	May 31, 2011 Apple iPod touch	Sep. 24, 2011 Apple Mac	Sep. 24, 2011 Apple TV	Sep. 25, 2010 Apple TV	Sep. 24, 2011 Apple Mac OS and iLife software
Antidilutive Securities Excluded from Computation of Earnings Per Share [Line Items]
Deliverable in arrangements	3
Amortization related to capitalized software development costs	$ 30,000,000	$ 48,000,000	$ 25,000,000
Advertising expense	933,000,000	691,000,000	501,000,000
Measurement of tax position, minimum likelihood of tax benefits being realized upon the ultimate settlement	Greater than 50%
Measurement of tax position, minimum likelihood of tax benefits being realized upon the ultimate settlement, percentage	50.00%
Potentially dilutive securities excluded from the computation of diluted earnings per common share because their effect would have been antidilutive	1.7	1.6	12.6
Net fair value of all derivative instruments designated as fair value hedging instruments	0	0	0
Depreciation and amortization expense	1,600,000,000	815,000,000	606,000,000
Goodwill impairment charges	0	0	0
Intangible asset impairment charges	0	0	0
Amortized acquired intangible assets with definite lives period (in years), minimum	3
Amortized acquired intangible assets with definite lives period (in years), maximum	7
Estimate of the selling price for software upgrade right (USD/unit sold)									10	16	25	10	16	11	5	22	5	10
Estimated life of hardware device									24 months	24 months		24 months	24 months	24 months	24 months	48 months	24 months		36 months
Capitalized software development costs			$ 71,000,000
Estimated useful life of internal use software			3 years				3 years	5 years
Estimated useful lives of assets (Years)				30	5	10