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Apple Inc.

Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in the 1970s (Linzmayer, 1999), Apple Computer has had a very diverse and interesting history to date. With hugely varying changes to its business model with both its success and struggles changing its business model.

From the first Apple computer, the company has produced innovating computers and managed to become the biggest competitor to Microsoft Corporation yet only holding a small share of the personal computer market (Santo, 2008).

The first computer, the Apple I (Wikipedia, 2009b), used a TV as a display while many other computers had no display at all. At a speed of 60 characters a second, it was slow, but faster then the teletypes used on contemporary machines. It also introduced a bootstrap stored on ROM to make it easier to start up and a fast 1200 bit/s tape cassette interface, which used fewer parts then any similar device on the market.

This was a huge difference from the competing computers, such as the Altair 8800. (Wikipedia, 2009a)
Apple Computer entered the stock market in December 1980, the IPO (Initial Public Offering) of its stock generating more money than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956, 24 years earlier. The outcome was about 300 instant millionaires, greater than any company in history. (Wikipedia, 2009b)

It wasn’t all success though, as in the early 1980s the release of the Apple III proved to be damaging to the company. With a large number of machines being recalled and replaced free of charge to the customer this cost was high for Apple. (Wikipedia, 2009c)

Following the Apple III problems Apple started to produce a new line of computers, called Macintosh computers, and advertised them in the famous 1984 televised commercial (Wikipedia, 2009f).

With time the Macintosh name became a huge success for Apple, which would bring with it desktop publishing packages like PageMaker and a partnership with Adobe Systems. This helped the Macintosh and Apple become the standard for many media based industries and it is still considered the standard today.

In 1985 Steve Jobs was asked to resign by the CEO and Apple’s board of directors. Which saw Apple co-founder Steve Jobs start NeXT, a computer company which produced the operating system which founded the base of the current Mac OS X operating system. And eventually led to Steve Jobs returning to Apple and turning around the business from falling stock prices and financial losses to the successful company it is today.

In 1996 Apple brought out NeXT and this launched Apple’s new online store using the WebObjects from the NeXTSTEP operating system. This was the start of another change for Apple, which led to a new built-to-order manufacturing strategy in 1997.

Gil Amelio was removed by the board of directors, following a 12 year record low stock price and crippling financial losses during 1996 and early 1997. During the 1990’s Apple’s control of the personal computer market had dropped from 20% to 5% as a higher percentage of new computers were sold with Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

With the lack of a CEO at Apple the co-founder Steve Jobs became an interim CEO, and in 2000 he was made CEO of Apple. This saw a number of changes to the products Apple provided and the structure of the business. (Corrigan, 1998)

A new product line up was introduced with the iMac (followed with the iBook and PowerMac G4) and moved Apple’s focus onto the design and aesthetics of its products. Producing a computer that not only worked well but also looked good. This product proved to be a huge success and helped to bring Apple back into the media and public eye. This saw Apple’s stock price increased from 4.06 to 10.23 between January 1st 1998 and January 1st 1999 (Google, 2009a).

10 years on and Apple now produces a different set of products and has a focus on consumer electronics as well as its computer hardware and software. The business model still reflects the focus on design and aesthetics of its products, with the designer of the original iMac being behind the design of the iPod and iPhone (Wikipedia, 2009d). Apple changed its name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. in 2007, to reflect the consumer electronics market it was now involved in (Wikipedia, 2009e).

Over these 10 years the stock price has increased to over 110 and the market capital is over $101.89Billion (as of 10:19AM EDT on 3rd april 2009) (Google, 2009b)

This is a huge change and a success story for Apple, due in part to the corporate structure that Steve Jobs created with in the company. This structure currently consists of 11 executive positions (Apple Inc., 2009a) who run a company of 35,000 employees to deliver its computers, services and consumer devices to the customers.

Apple has also expanded its business model in recent years to focus on the environmental implications and this is reflected in the product descriptions. All of the new computers sold by Apple hold an EPEAT Gold rating and some are ENERGY STAR 5.0 certified (Apple Inc., 2009c; Apple Inc., 2009d; Apple Inc., 2009e; Apple Inc., 2009f; Apple Inc., 2009g). As well as continuing to expand into the consumer market with the iPod and iPhone, and continuing to expand its retail business, started in 2001, which currently stands at over 200 stores worldwide (Apple Inc., 2009 a).


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