Essay on Apple Inc

Submitted By tgarland86
Words: 1274
Pages: 6

Apple Inc.
Tiffany Garland
MBA 6012
4/25/2015

Apple Inc., a company many of us knows all too well. Between having the best operating systems to the best watches, computers and cellular phones, Apple is the most successful company in the world right now. This is the company I have chosen to complete my project on. Apple is a global company and has markets all over the world. Under the direction of Steve Jobs in the early years before his death in 2011, Jobs branded this company and took the world by storm with the best technology yet behind this company. Apple’s early years were spent in competition with Microsoft, then Google and finally today with Samsung. I’m not sure of whom all agrees, but I would say that Apple has competed very well and has been successful in every competition with their competitors. Apple’s marketing strategy has not always been the greatest, but taking highly thought out risk and producing more products and better service has allowed the company to succeed to the ultimate high. “Given that Apple’s struggles with operating losses and a steep decline in market occurred in the early 2000’s” (Cusumano, M., 2010), it’s almost hard to believe this company was able to overcome and make it this far.
Founded by Steve Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak in 1976, Apple started out as a small-time computer business. Apple was a computer company and focused primarily on the Mac software and products. Then eventually Apple turned it up a notch with the iPod, iTunes, the iTunes App store and then the iPhone. Jobs had a huge impact on the company because he had a profound way of looking at things. Steve Jobs complex leadership and great innovative mind has helped him produce a company no one can seem to beat. “Apple Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication, media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. The company sells its products worldwide through its retail stores, online stores, and direct sales force, as well as through third-party cellular network carriers, wholesalers, retailers, and value-added resellers (United States Securities & Exchange Commission, 2011). He would go in stores and suddenly come up with ideas of new designs for products. As an example, Andy Hertzfeld, one of the engineers on the original Mac team stated “Jobs went in Macy’s one day and saw a Cuisinart that he thought looked incredibly great and he came back to the office and had the designers to design the Mac like it, another time he saw a Porsche and wanted to come up with a design to mimic it” (Manjoo, F. 2010). Steve Jobs was a powerful and hungry individual that took a leap of faith to make new products and designs in hopes of customer approval. His leadership style was complex and he continuously pushed the envelope to see how far he could go. “In terms of platform leadership, Apple has become more like archrival Microsoft, but Apple remains a far more innovative and pioneering product company as Steve Jobs and his team have successfully blended computers with consumer electronics and telephony. His way of thinking was he always wanted to be intrigued, so he assumed other consumers would enjoy the same thing. He wanted to create intuitive products that would wow anyone. His main questions to his employees for ideas were always, “What’s something you want that has never been invented? Or how can we make the next product better than the last?” That’s how Apple has overcome this industry and managed to supersede the rest.
“Apple is committed to bringing the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software, peripherals, and services” (United States Securities & Exchange Commission, 2011). Apple products are tested to ensure they are offering something that is useful, appealing to the eye and the ability to be used by all sorts of people, such as for business, school, recreational, and kid friendly. Let’s take the