Finance

Analyzing the background and history of Apple Inc.

Background and history of Apple

Apple is one of the largest multinational corporations of American origin. The multinational is a technology company with headquarters in Cupertino, California United States. Apple is one of the technology giants involved in designing, developing, and selling computer software and hardware, consumer electronics such as Apple TV, and online services (Lazonick, Mazzucato, & Tulum, 2013). Being one of the largest technology companies globally, the firm is known for its iPhone smartphone series, the Mac computer, the iPad tablets, and the iPod portable music player. Also, other products in the brand include the Apple TV, the HomePod smart speaker, and the Apple Watch smartwatch.

The company is also known for its giant consumer software such as iOS operating system, the iOS App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, and iTunes. The history of Apple dates back to 1976 when three gentlemen, Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak came up with the idea of developing and selling personal computers (Lazonick, Mazzucato, & Tulum, 2013). A year later (in the beginning of the year), the three founders had the company incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. The company registered tremendous growth in terms of sales and revenue, which led to employment of computer designers a few years after it had been incepted.

After enjoying considerable amount of success, the company went public in 1980, and the financial success was instant. In the coming years, the technology giant would begin shipping new computers with innovative and attractive graphical user interfaces (Lazonick, Mazzucato, & Tulum, 2013). Despite the massive financial gain and success joined in its years of infancy, the high prices of its products and limited software began causing challenges. More significantly, the executives started struggling over power and authority. As a result of the power struggles, one of the founders; Steve Jobs decided to hand in his resignation letter and went ahead to create his own company.

After his exit, Apple started struggling because the market for personal computers went up significantly forcing the company’s sales to hit a snag. Their competitors fuelled these woes by offering the same products for lower prices (Prince, & Plank, 2012). In 1997, the present CEO of Apple, Gil Amelio decided to bring Steve Jobs back by buying his company, and a few months thereafter, Steve Jobs regained his chief executive position. He then started the process of rebuilding Apple through revamping the retail stores and making several acquisitions. The company even changed some of its hardware technology that had been used in designing the personal computers.

As a result of these changes introduced by Jobs, the technology company started enjoying massive financial success and market penetration. It began making huge profits. In the beginning of 2007, the CEO announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would regain its original name; Apple Inc. with a focus in making the iPhone smartphone series and consumer electronics (Prince, & Plank, 2012). Steve jobs resigned from Apple in 2011 because of cancer and was replaced by Tim Cook who has steered the firm to a lot of financial success and profitability over the years. Apple is the globe’s largest information technology corporation measured by revenue, and is the second largest manufacturer of mobile phones globally after Samsung.

Industry, elements and current events impacting Apple.

Generally, Apple is a technology company which means it operates within the information technology industry. Under the technology industry, the firm operates under the following sectors of the industry: computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, digital distribution, corporate venture capital, and fabless silicon design (Facts, & Dagen, 2016). The technology industry is ever changing, and new advancements are being made every day. Apple has to keep abreast with these changes and developments.

Apple is positively and negatively affected by key elements of the global economy. Some positive elements include rapid growth or developing countries and stable economies of developed countries. Besides the United States, the company has spread its wings in stable economies such as China, Japan, and some countries in Europe (Facts, & Dagen, 2016). The stable economies have provided a conducive environment for the business to conduct its operations and expand into untapped market potential. Also, the developing countries such Malaysia and Singapore are providing opportunities for growth and development for the operations of Apple.

However, there are other economic elements such as inflation, higher rates of interest, and unemployment which affect the business model of the company. The economy has experienced some upheavals in the past which has led to high rates of inflation, higher rates of inflation, and increased cost of living (Blenko, Waldron, Cornelius, Nespoli, & Lee, 2016). Currently, the volatility of the global market is a major challenge to Apple since the prices of goods and services, and especially the technology industry keep fluctuating. Additionally, the company is struggling with high competition from other industry players such as Samsung, Microsoft and Dell computers (Blenko, Waldron, Cornelius, Nespoli, & Lee, 2016). Google is a major competitor to Apple’s online services, especially the App Store.

New arrivals in the industry are imitating Apple’s designs and offering the same for lower prices which negatively impacts its revenues, volume of sales and consequently profitability. However, since the apps market is growing, technology is becoming largely integrated into different organizations, Apple has a massive growth opportunity going forward (Blenko, Waldron, Cornelius, Nespoli, & Lee, 2016). Cloud computing is another chance for growth. The company is publicly traded at NASDAQ. The company’s initial public offering of the stock was in December 12, 1980. When the company went public, more capital was generated than any IPO since Ford five decades ago and created around 300 millionaires instantly.

References.

Blenko, D., Waldron, K., Cornelius, J., Nespoli, G., & Lee, D. (2016). ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS: APPLE RETAIL STORES.

Facts, E., & Dagen, D. (2016). Steve Jobs-Top 13 Secrets To Success in Life & Business: The Power Of Think Different.

Lazonick, W., Mazzucato, M., & Tulum, Ö. (2013, December). Apple's changing business model: What should the world's richest company do with all those profits?. In Accounting Forum (Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 249-267). Elsevier.

Prince, M., & Plank, W. (2012). A Short History of Apple’s Manufacturing in the US. Wall Street Journal.