Apple Company

In 1996, Apple was a struggling company that had lost more than 70% of its market capitalization in the past decade. Apple’s sales had fell dramatically and their new personal computers weren’t particularly popular with consumers. The return of Steve Jobs to the company was a turning point for Apple and initiated a new era for the firm. With the launch of innovative products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple became the biggest brand in the world. Now it remained to be seen if Tim Cook would be able to continue to develop new products and maintain Apple’s success.

Apple Incorporation is one of the largest organizations dealing into Information Technology. Apple has a host of products ranging from Laptops, Desktops, Mobile Phones and Multimedia Devices. The company has been extremely innovative in the field of multimedia and it owes it success to one of the greatest innovators, Steve Jobs. The company has always believed in innovation and that is the major reason why it has been so successful in the mobile phone segment. In recent years Apple is second only to Samsung in the Global Mobile Phone industry. However the operations have been largely based in the United States and in times of recession any organization needs to focus on economies of scale and thus focus on growth

Without Jobs, Apple was falling apart. In 1996, Apple agrees to buy NeXT for more than $400 million. Apple didn’t buy just NeXT, but they also bought Steve Jobs back. Jobs became the chief executive and Apple’s a multi-billion dollar company thanks to products like the iMac and iPods. Jobs said, “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Blumenthal says, “ In an almost unbelievable way, the dots had connected again. Jobs had been thrown out of Apple, started a company that struggled, and then sold that company to Apple, his first love, where he was now in charge. Of course, none of it would have happened had he not been fired” (197).

The Apple computer began reading and writing 4 kilobytes which was 20,000 times slower than today. Between then and now, Apple has progressed far from where it began. The Mac offered point and click technology which was comprehensible and easy to use. It did not take an expert to set up and use, causing technology to spread quickly through the common people. Jobs says in his speech, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”, then explains how if he believes this is untrue, something needs to be changed. He believes that if he is doing something he does not enjoy, something needs to be done

Porter’s four competitive strategies does Apple engage in are cost-leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, cost-focus strategy and focused- differentiation strategy. Explanation is as below.

“Apple was two months from bankruptcy” in September 1997 which led to CEO Steve Jobs to reconstruct their plan. In order to bring Apple back up into the competitive market, Jobs implement a new strategy which “shrunk Apple to a scale and scope suitable to the reality of its being a niche produce in the highly competitive personal computer business. He cut Apple back to a core that could survive” (12). What made Job successful was focusing on the sources and barriers to be successful in the market and to utilize the opportunities that came by. The strategy of eliminating unnecessary cost or reducing risk help transform Apple’s business

Jobs’ passion for his work was arguably the most important factor that went into his success in achieving the American Dream. Some argue that he took his passion too far, pushing his family and personal life away in order to focus on his work. Their argument, however, is formed without regard to the fact that the products he created would not be as creative and useful as they are today if he failed to put in as much love and attention to his creations as he did. After Jobs was fired from his own company, he recalls watching Apple fall without him, lamenting that “’Sculley destroyed Apple by bringing in corrupt people and corrupt values […] They cared about making money – for themselves mainly, and also for Apple – rather than making great

Jeffrey Young and William Simon provide new perspectives on the legendary creation of Apple, detail Jobs’s meteoric rise, and the devastating plunge that left him not only out of Apple, but out of the computer-making business entirely.The authors examine the takeover and Jobs’s reinvention of the company with the popular iMac and his transformation of the industry with the revolutionary iPod. iCon is must reading for anyone who wants to understand how the modern digital age has been formed, shaped, and refined by the most influential figure of the

In 1984 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak released the Macintosh. Jobs obsessed over the design from the corners of the computer to the color. The Macintosh was designed to fit on a desk in a home office. In September in 1985, jobs left Apple to soon find NeXT and Pixar. Next started in 1989 in a Pixar started in 1985.

By the time 1980 rolled around Apple had garnered thousands of fans and employees. Jobs had begun developing the Lisa but was taken off the project by the president of Apple. Instead of giving up with his ideas all together he decided the best course of action would be to take over someone else 's project, which just happened to be Macintosh. Around this

Steven countered the PC movement by introducing the Macintosh. The "Mac" was radical, it was all driven by a mouse and had a graphical display. When the machine was introduced during the Super Bowl in 1984, Steve Jobs described it as kind of like watching a gladiator going to the arena and saying "here it is". [Scott 1991, page 71].

As millions around the world swipe through their iPhones today, not much thought is given to the visionary man who played a pivotal role in the development of this innovative device. Steve Jobs, the man behind the development of iPhone and multiple other devices such as the iPods, iPads etc., was the backbone of Apple Inc. (CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs, 2011). Under his guidance and supervision, Apple Inc. has achieved new heights by re-defining the manner in which we, as consumers of electronics, interact with technology (Kane & Fowler, 2011). Apple Inc. not only introduced new and innovative devices into the market but also fulfilled Jobs vision of taking complicated technologies and simplifying them so that they can be used as consumer products (CNBC Titans: Steve Jobs, 2011). Jobs’ technology company was unique from others as it was the “one that developed tightly integrated packages of hardware and software.” (Steve Jobs: Insanely Great, 2011). Jobs creative ideas and visionary thinking enabled Silicon Valley to transform from a fruit orchard into the technology industry’s innovation center of U.S. today (Kane & Fowler, 2011).

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in California in 1976. Their mission was to introduce an easy to use computer to market, which led to a computing revolution and quickly became the industry leader by selling more than 100,000 Apple IIs in 1980. After IBM entered PC market, IBM PCs, which used Microsoft’s DOS (OS), gained more market share and became the new standard for the PC industry. At the same time, Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984. However, Apple’s net income fell 62% due to the Mac’s slow processor speed and lack of software limited sales. In 1985, Steve Jobs was forced out and John Sculley took charge of the Mac. Under the direction of Sculley, Apple

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple as an advisory and with the purposes of reshaping the product line. The changes made by Jobs resulted in increased sales and $309 million in profits. Job changed the mindset of Apples management and development team. He encourage them to have the “think different” management style that promotes the development of products that are ahead of the technology and design curve, and a creative retail strategy. It is this strategy that would eventually make Apple the best-selling company in the PC industry.

Apple’s competitive position changed fundamentally in 1981 when IBM entered the PC market. The IBM PC, which used Microsoft’s DOS operating system (OS) and a microprocessor (also called a CPU) from Intel, was a relatively “open” system that other producers could clone. Apple, on the other hand, practiced horizontal and vertical integration. It relied on its own proprietary designs and refused to license its hardware to third parties.