Company Review - Research Paper Example

A brief analysis of the history of Apple Inc would suggest that the firm has gone through significant challenges due to the competitive nature of the industry. Since Apple produced hardware which can run its own operating system therefore it restricted its marketability. It was mostly because of this reason that Microsoft was successful in gaining almost whole market share when it rolled out its own operating system which can run on any hardware platform. However, Apple made a turn around and expanded itself into different other markets thus gaining widespread success.

Its real success came with the introduction of Apple Ipod- an MP3 music player which can play songs and videos besides being handy in storing and viewing pictures. Apple Iphone – the smartphone from Apple is one of the leading smartphones in the world and is even overtaking Nokia- a long time market leader in mobile phones besides giving tough challenge to other firms. It has also recently launched tablet computer with the name of Apple IPAD which has also proved one of the most innovative and successful products in the industry.

This paper will discuss the history of Apple, its products, mission and vision statements besides discussing some of the trends in the industry. History of Apple Apple Inc is one of the leading multinational organizations in the world engaged in the business of consumer electronics, personal computers as well as software. Established in 1976, Apple was started by three individuals however, later on it was managed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apple Inc was incorporated as Apple Computers and rolled out its first model of computers during 1976.

The earliest device manufactured by Apple Computers therefore was a handmade motherboard with a built-in CPU and other accessories considered as basic requirements to perform functions as a computer. (Linzmayer, 1999) The early phase of the firm i.e. its first few decades were dominated by the manufacturing of the computers and Apple did not involved itself into the manufacturing of other consumer electronics items. With the change in the personal computer industry and the introduction of DOS and Windows operating systems by Microsoft, Apple started to lose its charm and lost market to Microsoft in operating systems business.

Since Microsoft’s operating system could be run on any personal computer therefore it was easy for the firms like IBM to manufacture PCs which could be run through Windows operating system. A closer look at the history of Apple would suggest that it has rolled out different models of its earlier version of Apple 1 and continued to produce new models. During 1977, Apple Computers was able to roll out its second version i.e. Apple 2 overcoming many of the previous technical weaknesses of the first model.

During 1980s, due to increasing competition mainly from IBM, Apple rolled out third model of its computer and improving on the previous models by further improving different technical aspects of its earlier computer models. (Coventry, 2006) Apple’s real success came with the introduction of its Apple Mac model during 1984 with extensive marketing efforts by Apple to make it a commercial success. It is also important to note that it was during 1980s that Steve Jobs was forced to leave the company due to its internal power struggle.

However, Jobs rejoined the firm as CEO during 1997 and thus Apple’s real stride towards success begun. (MARKOFF, 1997)