Apple Inc in 2015

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HISTORY

Apple INC in 2015

• March 9, 2015 Tim Cook announced the apple watch.
• Final Quarter of 2014 apple recorded profits of $18 billion, largest profits in corporate history.
• Also followed by fall in the sales of iPod, iPad & PC.
• Apple only dependent on iPhone accounting for 69% of its revenue.
• On the announcement of Apple watch many questions aroused on Cook.

Apple’s History

• Steve jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple computer on 1st April 1976.
• Built a computer circuit board naming Apple I.
• Release of Apple II in April 1978.
• It drove the PC industry leading to annual sales of $1 billion, becoming the industry leader.
• Its competitive position changed when IBM entered the market.
• IBM PC made use of DOS operating system and a microprocessor from Intel.
• IBM gained the new market share.
• Apple responded by introducing MAC in 1984.

John Sculley

• Pushed MAC into new markets like education and desktop publishing.
• Desktop market driven by software’s like Aldus, PageMaker etc.
• In education also it grabbed half of the market
• When IBM dropped its prices MAC’s prices seemed overpriced.
• IBM was also attracting a large no of applications.
• Sculley also joined for an alliance with rival company IBM
• They worked on two joint ventures first to create a new PC OS and other was multimedia applications.
• Another cooperative project was Novell and Intel rework together on MAC OS to have faster speed.
• Despite of all apples margin dropped below the company’s 10 year average.
• He was replaced by Michael Spindler Company President.

Michael Spindler

• He killed the plan of putting MAC OS on intel chips
• Announcing that Apple would license handful companies to make MAC clones.
• He tried to slash costs on apples workforce and pushed for international growth.
•  In 1995 survey found out that no windows user would consider buying a Mac and more than half of apples consumers want to buy Intel based Pc.
• Apple and IBM parted ways on joint venture.
• Company appointed other new CEO Gilbert Ameilo a board member.
• He proclaimed for apples price differentiation strategy but Mac sales continued to decline.
• In Dec 1996 he announced the acquisition of NEXT software.
• Steve jobs also returned as a part time advisor.
• There was a time when insiders believed that company was under 90 days of bankruptcy.

  Steve Jobs and the Apple Turn Around

• Quickly moved to reshape the company.
• Company announced that Microsoft would invest 5 year commitment to develop MS Office for Mac.
• Apples 15 product lines slashed to just 4 categories.
• Apple launched a website to set up direct sales.
• Apple pared down its inventory and increased spending on R&D.
• He believed in practices of secrecy including a close door policy.
• This led to the launch of iMac in1998.
• IMac outpaced apples sale and the industry’s average for the first time in years.
• Apple posted $309 million profit in 1998
• It highlighted its computers as the greenest line of notebooks.
• Goal was to differentiate Mac amid intense competition in the PC industry.

The Personal Computer Industry

• Apple Computers started the movement into the personal computing arena in 1977 but through changes in management and differences of opinion together with missed opportunities it lost its competitive advantage to companies like Microsoft, Dell, and Gateway.
• PC buyers fell into five categories: home, small and medium-sized business (SMB), corporate, education, and government.
• In distribution, a significant shift occurred in the early 1990s when more knowledgeable PC customers moved away from full-service dealers that primarily sold established brands to business managers
• The three top PC vendors—Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, accounted for 51.1% of worldwide shipments in 2014
• Suppliers to the PC industry fell into two categories:

1. Those that made products (such as memory chips, disk drives, and keyboards) with many sources widely (available at highly competitive prices. )
2. Those that made products—notably microprocessors and operating systems—that had just a few sources ( supplied chiefly by two firms: Intel and Microsoft)

Key application software included word processing, presentation graphics, desktop publishing, and Internet browsing.

The Macintosh and Apple’s “Digital Hub” Strategy

Job believed that the Macintosh had a real advantage for consumers who were becoming entrenched in a digital lifestyle, using digital cameras, portable music players, and digital camcorders, not to mention mobile phones. The Mac could be the preferred “hub” to control, integrate, and add value to these devices.