Apples Adaptation to Economic and Social Changes - Essay Example

? Apple’s adaptation to global, economic and social changes since 1990 Apple’s adaptation to global, economic and social changes since 1990 Apple, which is one of the largest and the fastest growing companies of the world, had a roller coaster ride with a lot of ups and downs since its inception in the year 1976. After the exit of Mr Sculley who was forced out of Apple after the commercial failure of Newton, Steve Jobs, made a return in to the company in the year 1997 and his return marked the dawn of the new era which was going to establish Apple as a successful entity in the coming years. Steve Jobs came back again as the interim Chief Executive Officer , he laid down the strategies and the goals systemically and started off by building the Macintosh franchise and made an addition of an operating system which was developed at Next Inc. ‘Apple, the Silicon Valley company that has become an icon of personal computing, rose to its greatest heights in the years after Mr. Jobs returned to its helm and opened horizons beyond the desktop.’ (Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times) ‘Rather than growing Apple share, as originally planned , cloners instead took Mac sales away from Apple. Next , Jobs created the machines that would save Apple, the iMac’(O'GRADY, J. D., Apple Inc 2009). ‘Apple needed experienced leadership if it was going to grow as rapidly as called in the business plan.’(LINZMAYER, O. W., & LINZMAYER, O. W, Apple confidential 2.0 2004) The revolution took place in the music industry with the introduction of the iPod music player , and changed the course of the consumer electronics in the favour of Apple. And the market share increased even more when the iTunes Music Store was launched which assisted the users in filling their iPods with their favourite songs(Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times). Since the inception in the year 2003 of the iTunes Music Store, over a 10 billion songs have been downloaded by the users. ‘In April 2010, Apple announced that it had sold more than 300,000 iPads on the device’s first day on the market, a figure that included preorders.’ (Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times) The global economic crisis was not successful in affecting the strong position of the company and within a matter of few years , Apple was declared as the largest company of the world in terms of the market capitalization and announced as the entity which had the most liquid assets.( U.S. balance now less than Apple cash | Financial Post) What made Apple the market leader was the introduction of the smart phones, for which it has now become the market leader. Currently in the smart phone industry, Apple is enjoying the record breaking sales revenue and the profits , showing that the entity adapted very well to the technological advancements in the world. It has become the conqueror of this industry. ‘Apple had an amazing impact on the technology, society and the world. And it continues to innovate to this day’ (O'GRADY, J. D., Apple Inc 2009). Furthermore, the success of the smart phones pushed the entity to consider the idea of a tablet device which was rejected by Jobs back in 2005. iPad was another fine contribution made by Apple, making the entity the pioneer in the tablets industry. Recently Apple introduced the third generation tablet for which it is already reporting the record breaking sales. ‘Apple also said iPad users had downloaded more than one million apps from the company’s App Store and more than 250,000 electronic books from its iBookstore.’ (Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times) ‘Apple is sitting just about as close to the top of the world as possible right now. The world’s most valuable company, it’s got a market capitalization flirting again with the $500 billion mark, and even a flash crash in morning trading on Monday didn’t bring its share prices under $500.’ (Apple’s biggest challenges - The Washington Post) Taking a look at the manufacturers of Apple, Foxconn is the company in China which manufactures the electronics for Apple .After Fair Labour Association expressed its dissatisfaction with the manufacturers over the working conditions and the hours, wages rates of the employees, the company pledged that it will not only curtail the working hours but also increase the wages which will as a result positively affect the working conditions. Today’s society is changing at a very fast pace where the need for technological advancements , innovation , monitoring consumer behaviour and society changes are becoming dire. The modern age of today has poised many challenges for the companies in the market, which need to find and discover new ways to change and embrace the need for innovation instead of continuing with the outdated ancient plans. Radical changes have been adapted by Apple which over the past ten years has changed with the needs of the market and has been very successful with it. Today the company is exposed to many challenges such as the patent wars with the competitors, economic instability, worldwide political instability etc but everyday it comes out strong, and attaches another success story with itself. Where most companies are driven towards the road of change by their customers, Apple is that one company that instead drives changes in the market. Innovation and technology are both changing at an accelerating pace, and have grown exponentially over the last many years. The number of patents been issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over the last 50 years has increased exponentially which shows that the changes in the modern age are being handled by the companies who are trying to increase their innovation efforts. But the brand loyal customers of Apple have surpassed the boundaries of early adoption. As per a marketing research in just a matter of seventy three days, the first iPhone crossed the benchmark of million, and the same happened for the iPad as well which reported the record breaking sales figures as well. ‘Apple sold 15.4 million iPads over the holiday quarter and 55 million of the devices in total since they first went on sale in 2010’ (Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times.) Therefore it can be safely concluded that with respect to the global, economic and social changes, Apple not only adapts to changes but at the same time helps in the creation of change in the market place. One thing that is constant in today’s world is change and companies which are successful in managing with this challenge can succeed. The global, economic and social changes have affected the strategic and tactical plans of Apple, but the bottom line is that despite the radical changes that Apple was exposed to, the entity made changes in the market place and the rest of the companies followed the trend that was set out by Apple. All it did was took a creative idea, mould and transformed it into a valuable innovation in the market place. Apple is a revolutionary company which has introduced the revolutionizing products, changing the overall aspect of the marketplace. iDevices which have become the cult products are the newest trend of the industry and the consumers of iDevices who are known are early adopters are what have helped Apple achieve the sky high success. ‘Apple now has more liquid cash and marketable securities on hand than the US government, according to financial statements released by the US Treasury on Wednesday.’ (Apple has more money than the US government - TechSpot News) In the passage of ten years, Apple has grown the share price of its stock from the $12 to the figure of $580. This means that the stock has recorded the return of 4500% meaning that anybody who has invested $1000 in April 2002 will have the return of $48333 today in April 2012 (The Secret Behind Apple's Trillion-Dollar Success | InvestingAnswers).The strong brand image of the company coupled with an unbeatable competitive image have assisted in achieving the ever growing profits. The stock of an Apple can be referred to as the “forever stocks” which means that the company stocks are not affected by the economic downturns; rising interest rates or even if the market crashes. ‘By comparison, if 10 years ago you were to spread a $1,000 investment across the 500 largest companies trading in the U.S. stock market -- which would include companies like Wal-Mart, Exxon, GE, AT&T and others -- you'd end up with just $1,250 today.’(The Secret Behind Apple's Trillion-Dollar Success | InvestingAnswers) The marketing team of Apple is highly talented and the tech giant company is spending days and nights to not only make computers, smartphones, iPhones but they want to make an Experience. An experience, the consumers will remember. ‘The good side of Apple Inc is its products. They are good because they help people do their work more effectively and efficiently, or because they help people enjoy life more, or both. Actually these products aren’t good, they are great – insanely great – as Steve Jobs puts it’ (CRUIKSHANK, J. L. The Apple way 2006) Apple reported the net income growth of 5,067% in a matter of just ten years which was all associated with the launch of the revolutionary products , meaning it went all the way from $65 million in 2002, to today's $33 billion (The Secret Behind Apple's Trillion-Dollar Success | InvestingAnswers). Apart from the product innovation and competitive edge, Apple has been very successful in keeping its production costs low and is devising new ways that could help the entity in earning higher profits for every product irrespective of the social, economic or global turndowns. (The Secret Behind Apple's Trillion-Dollar Success | InvestingAnswers) Bibliography O'GRADY, J. D. (2009). Apple Inc. Westport, Conn, Greenwood Press. WAYNE, R. (2011). Adventures of an Apple founder. [s.l.], 512K Entertainment. LINZMAYER, O. W., & LINZMAYER, O. W. (2004). Apple confidential 2.0: the definitive history of the world's most colorful company. San Francisco, Calif, No Starch Press CRUIKSHANK, J. L. (2006). The Apple way. New York, McGraw-Hill Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times Apple’s biggest challenges - The Washington Post The Secret Behind Apple's Trillion-Dollar Success | InvestingAnswers Apple has more money than the US government - TechSpot News U.S. balance now less than Apple cash | Financial Post Appendix A Books O'GRADY, J. D. (2009). Apple Inc. Westport, Conn, Greenwood Press. WAYNE, R. (2011). Adventures of an Apple founder. [s.l.], 512K Entertainment. LINZMAYER, O. W., & LINZMAYER, O. W. (2004). Apple confidential 2.0: the definitive history of the world's most colorful company. San Francisco, Calif, No Starch Press CRUIKSHANK, J. L. (2006). The Apple way. New York, McGraw-Hill Appendix B Newspapers Apple Incorporated (AAPL) News - Company Information - The New York Times Apple’s biggest challenges - The Washington Post The Secret Behind Apple's Trillion-Dollar Success | InvestingAnswers Apple has more money than the US government - TechSpot News U.S. balance now less than Apple cash | Financial Post Read More