Apple Incorporation. Overview of the Company and its Major Operations - Research Paper Example

? Apple Inc. Annotated bibliography or summary of articles Apple Inc. History. (2008). http www.ipodtopctransfer.com/news/apple-inc.html This article provides a comprehensive history and developments of Apple company. It provides details about the ups and downs faced by the company in the past and how it overcome it. The influence of Steve Jobs in the company and the development of “i” series products etc are explained in detail in this article. Kim R (2010) Apple Passes Microsoft As Top Tech Company, Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/BUDJ1DL0IU.DTL This article provides details about the achievements of Apple company in the recent past. It compares Apple’s performances against the performances of the competitors. Moreover it provides more details about Apple’s strengths and business strategies which helped it to become the number one technological company in the world. Krazit, T (2008). Apple's Mac Strength Could Keep Tech Industry on a Rol. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9926068-37.html This article mainly focusses on Apple’s financial performances in the recent past. It says that apple is one among the few American companies which escaped from the recent recession. It analyses the performances of apple’s different business units individually to get more comprehensive picture about apple’s performances as a whole. Apple and Environment (2011), Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/environment/ This article is taken from Apple’s own website. It says many things about the commitments of Apple in maintaining sustainable business practices. It says that apple has better knowledge about the environmental impacts caused by their activities and they are taking every possible step to reduce environmental problems as much as possible. Steve Jobs Issues Statement on Apple’s Environmental Commitments (2007), Retrieved from http://www.texasenvironment.org/pr_story.cfm?IID=342 This article analyses the reliability of Apple’s claims as an environmentally friendly company with the help of some statistical analysis. It compares Apple’s environmental protection activities against similar activities of other companies. Overview of the company and its major operations and challenges it faces “Apple was founded in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit” (Apple Inc. History, 2008). It is currently the second largest company in the world in market capitalization and also the most valuable technological company in the world (Kim 2010). Apple faced many challenges in the past mainly because of the stiff competition from Microsoft. However, they were able to bounce back with the introduction of its “i” series produces such as iMac, iPhone, iPad, iPod iTune etc at the begging of the twenty first century. Apple is the number technological company in the world now and consumers all over the world rates apple products above its competitor’s products. Krazit (2008) has pointed out that the Wall Street is expecting Apple to report “earnings per share of $1.07 on revenue of $6.9 billion in 2008”. In his opinion “Apple is a company which is under-promising and over-delivering” (Krazit, 2008).  Its founder and charismatic leader Steve Jobs passed away recently and many people have the belief that the loss of Steve may affect Apple immensely in future. It should be noted that Apple was one the verge of closing down during the latter part of twentieth century when Steve stayed away from the company for a while. A suitable replacement for Steve is the major challenge facing by Apple at present. Analysis of Apple’s efforts to improve/promote environmental sustainability  Apple follows sustainable business practices which helped them to become one of the topmost companies in the world. Apple has comprehensive knowledge about the environmental impacts caused by their activities. According to Apple’s claims Apple products are “designed to use less material, ship with smaller packaging, be free of toxic substances used by others, and be as energy efficient and recyclable as possible” (Apple and Environment, 2011). Apple is not at all interested in producing products which may affect the environment drastically. All Apple products can be easily recycled. For the first time, Apple announced some metrics and goals for their take back program’s performance, stating that they collected 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, which is 9.5% of the products sold 7 years ago (using the metric that Dell uses), which is similar to the percent collected by Dell and HP. But Apple is projecting an increase in this rate to 20% in 2008, and 30% by 2010, which would surpass the levels projected by Dell or HP (Steve Jobs Issues Statement on Apple’s Environmental Commitments, 2007) Apple knows better than others that sustainability of their business cannot be ensured if they forget about their social commitments. They are ready to pay something to the communities in which they operate in return to the community resources being used by them. In most of the countries in which Apple operates, they undertake some kind of activities related to environmental protection. Thoughts about the responsibilities companies have towards environmental sustainability  Environmental protection is one of the major responsibilities of the companies since majority of the pollution problems and environmental impacts are caused by the industries and manufacturing units. All kinds of manufacturing operations affect the environment in one way or others. In some cases, the indirect damages caused by a manufacturing operation could be more than that caused by the direct damage. For example, Google is a company which is engaged in search engine business. A layman may not understand how Google may contributing to the environmental problems since searching may not cause any damages to the environment. However, it should be noted that when people use Google search engine for getting some information, they are making use of computers which are powered by electricity. Any kind of electricity production can cause severe damages to the environment. In that respect, Google is causing indirect damages to the environment. Companies are making huge profits by exploiting the community resources. It is their duty to spend a substantial portion of their profits for the protection of the environment. It should be noted that proper environment is necessary to sustain a business for longer periods. Coca Cola has had a habit of exploiting under water resources from wherever they operate. People staying near to Coca Cola companies started to face drinking water problems as a result of the injudicious exploitation of ground water and underground water. They forced to close down their operations at many places because of the agitations from the locals. In short, companies have major responsibilities in protecting our environment. References 1. Apple Inc. History. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.ipodtopctransfer.com/news/apple-inc.html 2. Apple and Environment (2011), Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/environment/ 3. Krazit, T (2008). Apple's Mac Strength Could Keep Tech Industry on a Rol. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9926068-37.html 4. Kim R (2010) Apple Passes Microsoft As Top Tech Company, Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/26/BUDJ1DL0IU.DTL 5. Steve Jobs Issues Statement on Apple’s Environmental Commitments (2007), Retrieved from http://www.texasenvironment.org/pr_story.cfm?IID=342 Read More