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Steve jobs biography essay level 5
Steve jobs biography essay level 5
Brief history of apple corporation
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Apple Computer, Inc.
Case Description:
This case basically walks you through the ups and downs in the history of the Apple Company. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started the company in 1976 with the Apple I. In 1984, the company expanded with the Macintosh, which was the first affordable computer. After the introduction of the Macintosh, the company continued to grow and introduced the Mac II, Powerbook, iMac, and most recently the iPod line. Apple was the market leader up until the mid 1980's when IBM was introduced to the public. Gateway, Dell, and HP were soon to follow, and they too acquired some of the market share that had once belonged to Apple. Apple has consistently failed to gain market share over the past decade and has even posted quarterly losses- something unheard of in the beginning. Apple's recent initiatives in advertising and distribution seem to be successes, but the company must still endure the economic uncertainly that is in the marketplace today while simultaneously finding a way to compete with Microsoft and the other leaders in the computer industry.
Symptoms:
Apple's consistent loss of market share and posted losses in 2001 and 2002 are signs that the company faces an underlying problem.
Problems:
The issues facing Apple are wide ranged. First and foremost, they company needs to better its competitive strategies in order to gain back some of the market share that it has lost to corporations such as Dell, IBM, HP, and Gateway. Apple also needs to position itself to "steal" PC users and convince them that Apple software and operating systems are superior to those available on PCs.
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths -Apple has maintained a good reputation for quality.
-The company uses innovative advertising campaigns.
-Their new products are producing large revenues (iPod).
-They have a good balance in their distribution channels.
-Apple has the most stable operating system available.
Weaknesses -They lack the ability to convert PC users to their system.
-The company spends too much on advertising.
-Apples are seen as computers for professionals.
-The lack a good sales forecasting method.
Opportunities -Apple can expand with the switcher program and new stores.
Apple Computer Inc designs, manufactures, and markets personal computers and related personal computing and communication solutions. The return of Steve Jobs, the companies founder, as CEO has pulled the company’s stock price up 775-percent through his launch of innovative products such as the iMac computer line. On January 5, 2000, Jobs announced that he was dropping interim from his CEO title and taking the job full-time. With this news and Apple’s new products such as the iBook, a portable pc and Quick TV, an internet television access feature, Apple Computer is headed for success and is sure to increase their share in the computer market.
Apple is a king in the technology world; poisoning every area of the industry that they have introduced a product too. They are slowly weeding their competition out. The only a company thrives in the thorn bush market is if they are in cahoots with apple. Apples co-founder Steve Jobs, started the company with all intention of dominating the market. The only obstacle for them is the Anti-trust law created ages ago. Apple, in their attempt to take the market over, has been racking up evidence against themselves. There reach has leaped boarders and even caught the attention of the European Union. Apple is pushing their boundaries and in the future will eventually cross the line in to monopolistic actions.
to Apple Inc. in 2007. The company which had pc driving its growth over the years transformed into more of a Smartphone company. Mac pc was impressive in terms of hardware but it was Windows operating system which gave it a tough competition. To achieve a sustainable growth Apple should be focused more towards development of its operating system. Android is the main competitor for iOS. Android which is Linux based and partly open source, is more PC like than IOS. Android is easily customizable as compared to apple IOS. Apple should work aggressively towards working of development of more number of apps with the developers across the industry so as to increase the reach of IOS and making it a more preferable choice among its
Also, Apple is threatened by a plethora of things: many people are trying to imitate the company and the products, there are many organizations that are creating phones that look identical to the iPhone on the outside but on the inside look nothing alike, many consumers fall victim to the actual to fake iPhone products, also the company Apple is threatened by Samsung due to the fact that iPhones made huge a bold decision to remove the headphone jack sending some consumers to companies like Google, Sony, Motorola and Samsung, also due to the high product prices the company faces threats from competitor due to their low to high pricing, lastly due to increase in overall manufacturing of products in other parts of the world due to the increase in labor, it could lead the company to also increase the iPhones for higher price in order to offset the profit
Apple was foundered in 1976 and was one of the leaders in design of the personal home computer. It easy-to-use Apple II was one of the leaders of educational computers. In addition, Apple’s developed and introduced the macintosh computer in 1984. However, the company had a high turn over rate of employees and had grown quickly. The leadership of the company suffered, and organizational charts were not formed thus as the company grew each division created its own mini company concept within Apple. Due to the disjointed structure, Steve Jobs hired John Scully in 1983 to reorganize the company. Mr. Scully flatten the hierarchy and combined sales and marketing. However, issues developed in 1984 with the high overhead of distribution centers and the decline in sales of Apple and Macintosh products. Also, an internal power struggle between Scully and Jobs created disharmony within the corporation.
The company not only produces the number of highly technological devices, but also has a great brand ideology lying behind. The following chapters would review each of factors determining Apple`s success.
Due to Apple 's secrecy characteristic it is very difficult to gather information on the organizational concern of Apple. One of the most important organizational issue I came across was their threat to lose extremely talented employee 's. As Jay Yarow quoted John Gruber in his article, 'The Single Biggest Problem That Apple Faces, And Almost Nobody Is Talking About It ', the concern isn 't the talent leaving Apple to work for Apple 's competition. Instead their
Apple is a company that has been round for many years. There are over 55 million people who use an apple product or are considered to have at least one apple product in their home. The apple products range from larger devices such as there amazingly known Mac books which are there computer based system to there much small hand held based device called the iPhone. That device allows a person to make calls all while have the convent amenities that a laptop would have. They also have the very popular iPod as well as Apple TV. They have expanded into an empire that everyone is trying to become as well as beat. As many people know there is history and hard work that has to take place in order for a business to be successful. Many people will refer to the success of apple as the underdog company that made despite the odds. Founder Steve Jobs was a regular person with a dream. He started of building an Apple computer in his parent’s living room and later moved to the garage true to lack of space. Later on in his building career a neighbor of Steve Jobs introduced him to Stephen Gary Wonzniak. Wonzniak was an engineer and Jobs was a market maven and together they have the skills to build and properly promote. The computer they were trying to promote was fairly expensive computer. Jobs was so dedicated to this idea of transforming this computer from what it was to something that is able to be sold to the public he reached out to Bill Hewlett and asked him to donate some parts for a class projects .
Apple’s SWOT analysis includes strengths that adhere to its great success; such strength is Apple’s marketing and advertising campaigns. Apple incorporates its products to portray a sleek, new, cool, the latest, and must-have technology image to its consumers. Our customer loyalty allows us to continue growing as a corporation and increases our already well-established brand awareness and reputation. Our strong financial performance is an outcome of our internal strengths highlighted. Apple’s weaknesses include, but are not limited to our patent infringements, defects that occur in our products, our declining market share, as well as our incompatibility with other os devices. Realizing our weaknesses allows us to develop goals that will correct these areas we currently need work on. The opportunities of our external environment; such as the ...
Computers and technology makes it easier for entrepreneurs to enter this market. Not only are major tech companies competing against one another, but they are also competing against little programmers that know how to code. In our time you will never know with certainty when a small group of engineers or computer scientists are going to create, “next big thing”. Apple has been able to have a competitive advantage over its competitor by creating the highest quality products and services. Some of Apple’s current competitors are Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, and a few other tech companies as well. Most people strongly people Apple is one of the stronger company its industry, but then again some other people have biased views. Financially, they are the strongest company in the world. Also people are always willing to pay a premium for their products because of their durability, quality, and prior experiences with Apple products. Apple is always on the look at for new innovative ideas and concept that are being produced by self-motivated entrepreneurs. They are always looking to hire bright minds and let them develop within the company. A lot of entrepreneurs, programmers and engineers do not have a problem working for Apple because of their well-established perks. Apple offers its employees of the best benefits in the world. They also fairly compensate their employees that work in the front-end store as
In the late 1990s, with the release of Windows, Apple was placed on the right track. Apple released its’ 20th Anniversary Macintosh in 1997 which marked the beginning of Apple’s return (Crofford, 2011). The next year, Apple released the IMac, which was a highly received by the public. Apple reported over $80 billion in cash on its’ last Form 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Emerson, 2011). Today Apple produces several different products including IPhone...
From 1980 to 1996, Apple’s competitive range in the PC industry was rocky. Although Apples products were unique and well built, they were overpriced compared to competing products from IBM and others. As competitor prices dropped, Apple prices stayed the same and the company saw a decline in sales as customers opted to purchase from its competitors. John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, took many steps to improve the company’s competitive advantage. One of those steps was to compete with price by producing a low-cost computers that appealed to a mass-market. The second step was to form an alliance with rivals IBM and Novel in order to create new operating systems and applications...
Apple Inc. was established by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1, 1976 as a computer designer, developer and seller company. However, the company shifted its focus from only personal computer to include other consumer electronics such as portable media player and mobile phone in 2007. Apple Inc becomes one of the most popular makers in its field since it seems that its popularity has increased according to a report on www.statista.com that Apple Inc’s products sales was generally increasing throughout the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2014. On the one hand, it has increased its revenue from about 14 billion US dollars to more than 170 billion US dollars in 2013. All in all, the company is highly successful corresponding to its products’ development and their sales growth in world’s market.
Apple management must bridge the perceived innovation gap with some sort of product breakthrough. Otherwise, it is reasonable for the company to accept lower Street expectations built upon the premise that while the company remains an exceptional production, distribution and branded business, the days of unparalleled enterprising innovation and leadership may be ebbing.
Steve Jobs one of the founding fathers of Apple Inc used strategic planning to his advantage by making Apple’s mission a simple one- bringing easy to use computers to the general market, revolutionizing the computer market. In 2007, after thirty years, the organization changed its name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc., this was a significant move because the organization became more independent, and it was no longer known as a vendor to Macintosh personal computer line (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). This strategic move paid off; a year and half later, Apple Inc.’s third quarter net profit of $1.07 billion on a $7.46 billion in revenue (Yoffie & Slind, 2008). SWOT Analysis of Apple, Inc. Strengths (Competitive Advantage)