The History of Apple Inc - Assignment Example

The History of Apple Inc Apple Inc caught the attention of the public recently when they surpass Microsoft in market capitalization. Kim (2010) has mentioned that Apple Inc pushed Microsoft behind them and attained second spot in the list of most valuable companies in United States after Exxon Mobil, as far as market capitalization is concerned (Kim, 2010). Moreover, Apple is currently the most valued technological company in the world at present. The growth of Apple Company since its introduction in the market in 1976 was phenomenal. The company is currently operating internationally and has more than 200 retail stores in different countries. For many of the business pundits, the history of Apple Company remains a mystery. Many people believe that the growth of Apple Company is indebted to the abilities of its charismatic leader Steve Jobs. Apple Inc started their business with the introduction of Apple branded computers and soon they diversified into many other areas. They have developed an operating system Macintosh for the use with Apple computers and currently apart from personal computers, Apple sells portable media players, mobile phones, computer software, computer hardware and hardware accessories. Apple’s growth was gradual and they never tried to introduce too many things in too little time. They studied the market well before introducing a new product and even after the introduction of a product, Apple was able to make necessary corrections I their products based on the customer feedbacks. This paper briefly analyses the history of the company, Apple Inc. Growth pattern of Apple Inc since its introduction Apple was founded in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne (and later incorporated January 3, 1977 without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak) to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. They were hand-built by Steve Wozniak in the living room of Jobs' parents' home, and the Apple I was first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 (Apple Inc. History, 2008) When Apple introduced its first computer in the market, it was entirely different from what we call a personal computer now. The users forced to use many other types of equipment to make the Apple computer work perfectly. The Apple team introduced around 200 computers initially into the market. The incorporation process of the Apple Company was made in 1977. Till 2007, Apple Computer Inc was the official name of the company. But because of the huge expansion and diversification process undertaken in the consumer electronic industry in 2007, the company has dropped the word “Computer” from its name and currently it is known as Apple Inc instead of Apple Computer Inc. Apple introduced the Apple II microcomputer in March 1977, and Lisa, the first commercial personal computer to employ a graphical user interface (GUI) in 1983. In 1984, the operating system Macintosh was introduced (Apple Inc. History, 2008). Lisa was the first computer which entered the market with mouse option. Before the introduction of Lisa, personal computer users all over the world were using the keypads alone to feed the instructions to the computers. The mouse concept introduced by Apple has revolutionized the computer industry immensely. Today majority of the computers are using mouse irrespective of IBM computers or Apple computers. The history of Lisa is really interesting. Apple could have made even bigger steps in the market much earlier, if they would have taken bit more care while handling a law suit with Microsoft. “The very first graphical user interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s, but it was not until the 1980s when GUIs became widespread and popular” (Bellis, 2010a). Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates acquired the GUI technology from Xerox. But Apple bought Xerox Corporation in 1979 and sued against Microsoft for using the GUI technology in their Windows 1.0 operating system. But Bill Gates argued that both Apple and Microsoft bought this technology from Xerox Corporation and there is no point in arguing against the usage of GUI technology in Microsoft’s Windows 1.0. “The lawsuit ended when Gates finally agreed that Microsoft would not use MacIntosh technology in Windows 1.0, but the use of that technology in future versions of Windows was left open” (Bellis, 2010a). Apple lost some of the exclusive rights to certain key design elements because of the above agreement. The introduction of Macintosh operating system in 1979 was also surprised many of its competitors. The speed and increased capability of Mac system to handle graphic files of bigger size was hard to believe even for Microsoft. In fact the necessity of graphical interface was revealed to the world by the Mac operating system. Seventy-four days after the introduction of the "Macintosh", 50,000 units had been sold, not that strong a show. Apple refused to license the OS or the hardware, the 128k memory was not enough and a single floppy was difficult to use. The "Macintosh" had "Lisa's" user friendly GUI, but initially missed some of the more powerful features of the "Lisa" like multitasking and the 1 MB of memory. Jobs compensated by making sure developers created software for the new "Macintosh", Jobs figured that software was the way to win the consumer over (Bellis, 2010b) Portable computers or PowerBook were introduced by Apple in 1991. At the same time Apple faced stiff challenges from Microsoft in the 90’s. Microsoft introduced its famous Windows operating system and cheaper personal computers during this period. Previously Microsoft computers were working on disk operating system or DOS. Even though the Apple’s market share dropped considerably in the 90’s, the company succeeded in regaining its market control at the beginning of the 2000 itself. This was done with the help of product diversification strategies. The return of Steve had been ousted from the company in 1985. This was a costly affair for Apple Company. Immediately after Steve gone out of Apple, it started to face troubles. The charisma of Steve was huge and the company realized the need of a charismatic leader at the top rather late. On the opposite side, it was Bill Gates at the top of Microsoft and it was not easy for a normal CEO to counter the strategies of Bill gates. Because of the above awareness, Steve has been called back to the same post which he forced to give up once. “With the release of the iMac on August 15, 1998 Apple was able to put to rest some its past failures” (Dougherty, 2010). iMac was comparatively faster and lighter than the previous models of PowerBook. The earlier models failed in the market because of the bulky nature and some of the drawbacks of the earlier versions of Mac operating system. Mac OS X with increased capabilities was used in iMac and the customers from all over the world accepted it with both hands. In fact the iMac line of computers and the new Mac OS X operating system helped Apple to regain some of its lost markets and the company started to achieve profits in the early 2000 onwards. The “i” series products brought unbelievable returns to Apple company. Followed by iMac, iphone, ipod, ipad etc were entered the market. Steve Jobs realized that computers and operating system alone may not be enough to counter the threat Apple was receiving from Microsoft. ipods, ipads, iphone etc were introduced in the market by Apple in 2000 as part of their product diversification. The introduction of ipod music player in 2001 was a big step towards success. Followed by ipod, iphone and ipads entered the market which brought the lost customers back. Steve has realized that the name Apple Computer Inc is no longer suitable to Apple and changed it to Apple Inc. Today Apple is a 60 billion company and also the topmost technological company in the world. “Apple employs over 20,000 permanent and temporary workers worldwide as per the statistics available in 2007 (Apple Inc. History, 2008). Even amidst stiff competition from Microsoft, Apple was able to establish strongly in the market with the help of beautifully designed products and a diverse advertising campaigns. Today Apple Company is the most admired company in America. Conclusions Apple Company and its history are inspirational to any of the entrepreneurs who like to start their own business. Started only in the year 1976, Apple became the most valued and admired company in America today. Apple’s rivalry with Microsoft is famous and at present Apple is placed well ahead of Microsoft in market capitalization and technological advancements. Apple faced some challenges when its founder Steve left the company for a while; however, the return of Steve helped Apple to achieve the top spot again in the consumer electronics industry. References 1. Apple Inc. History. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.ipodtopctransfer.com/news/apple-inc.html 2. Bellis, M. (2010a). The History of the Graphical User Interface or GUI - The Apple Lisa. Retrieved from  http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa043099.htm 3. Bellis, M. (2010b). The Invention of the Apple Macintosh - Apple Computers - Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa051599.htm 4. Dougherty, M. (2010). The History of Apple, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/computing/mac-platform/articles/65346.aspx 5. 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 Read More