The Evolution of Apple: A Company Incorporated by Steve Jobs

    Introduction

    Apple Inc. is one of the world’s largest consumer electronics and computer software manufacturing multinational companies that were set up in America. The company offers some premium-quality hardware products which include the Macintosh computers, the iPad, the iPods, and the iPhone. The apple software is being fuelled by the Mac OSX operating system, the iLife multimedia suite, and creative software, the iTunes media browser, the iWork productive software; the final cut studio, the ios operating system, and many more. Apple has more than 250 physical stores in about 9 countries and an online store from where all its software and hardware products are sold. 

    Apple was established on April 1, 1976, in the city of Cupertino located in California and it was incorporated on January 3, 1977, by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Back then it was called the name by Apple computer Inc. and in the first 30 years, it removed the word computer in the year 2007 to show that the company not only focuses on consumer electronics but also focus on personal computers. For its aesthetic designs and distinct advertisement, Apple has gained an immense reputation for its consumer electronic products. Apple was named the most admired company in the United States by Fortune magazine in the year 2008 and the whole world in the year 2009.

    History of Apple

     Apple is a computer company founded by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak in a business partnership on April 1, 1976. The first product of the company was Apple 1 which is a computer that was designed and built completely by Wozniak. The Apple 1 computer was sold separately as a motherboard with a CPU, RAM, and some basic textual video chips which was a base kit concept and not yet marked to be a complete PC. Apple was incorporated on January 3, 1977, by Jobs and Wozniak and during the first 5 years of operations, its revenues grew rapidly and doubling after every four months. Its yearly sales rose from $775000 to $118 million from September 1977 to September 1980 with an average yearly growth rate of 533%. The apple 2 was invented by Steve Wozniak and was introduced on April 16, 1977. Jobs understood that all the future computers will use a graphical user interface and so he developed a GUI named the Macintosh as he was pushed out of the Apple Lisa team due to some causes. In 1984 the first PC, Macintosh was launched by Apple and sold without any programming language. In 1991 the Powerbook was introduced by apple replacing the Macintosh portable with a modern laptop-like design and shape. On January 9, 2007 apple inc was announced in an event and there the iPhone and the Apple TV were also announced. Apple thereon achieved widespread success on its iPhone, iPods, and iPads which revolutionized the mobile phone world and portable music players and PCs. Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, marking an end to the apple era, and then began the leadership of Tim Cook.

    Evolution of Apple Products

    Apple introduced many products from the beginning till the present and this is where it saw its evolution on its products line. Apple-designed a wide variety of products in its product line from commercial to consumers and many more. The products diversification is as follows; 

    • Macintosh– Apple has a variety of Macs in production such as, the iMac which is an all-in-one consumer desktop introduced in 1998, the Mac Mini which is a sub desktop computer introduced in 2005, the MacBook Pro which is a professional notebook launched in 2006, the Mac Pro which is a workstation desktop launched on 2006, and the MacBook Air which is an ultra-thin and ultra-portable consumer notebook launched in 2008.
    • iPod– the iPod was introduced by Apple on October 23, 2001, which is a digital music player. Ipods have several models since their launch and have now become the market leader in the portable music players category. Later in July 2017, the previous models of iPods were discontinued leaving only the iPod touch to purchase by consumers. 
    • iPhone iPhone was introduced in January 2007 by Steve Jobs after long anticipation which is a combination of internet-enabled smartphones and the iPod. The first Gen. iPhone was launched on June 29, 2007, for $499 for the 4GB variant and $599 for the 8GB variant. The 16 GB variant was launched on Feb 5, 2008, which combined a 2.5g quad-band GSM and edge cellular features in a handset model. The iPhone 3G was launched on July 11, 2008, with a price of $199 for the 8GB variant and $299 for 16GB variant models. The iPhone 3GS which is an updated version of the earlier model was launched on June 8, 2009. Apple launched the iPhone 4 on June 7, 2010, with enhanced features to curb the segment. The iPhone 4S was launched on October 14, 2011, with an Apple A5 processor and Siri voice technology. Then on September 12, 2012, the iPhone 5 variant was launched with an upgraded A6 chipset and several other improvements. The iPhone 6 and 6 PLUS was launched on September 9, 2014, and on September 7, 2016, the iPhone 7 and 7 PLUS launched with exciting new features like water-resistant and new gaming graphics, and so on. This continued till the present where iPhone keeps on evolving to iPhone 12 12PRO and 12PRO Max which featured futuristic specifications and was launched on October 12, 2020.
    • iPad – the iPad was launched on January 27, 2010, by Apple which featured a 9.7-inch screen with multi-touch support and a #G and WiFi connectivity as well. The iPad 2 was launched on March 2, 2011, and then the third-gen iPad was also launched on March 7, 2012, and so on till the iPad 8th generation. The iPad mini category was introduced in between and also the iPad Air variants along with the iPad PRO versions too which was a spectacular success by Apple. 
    •   Apple Watch – the Apple smartwatch was introduced on September 9, 2014, by Tim Cook which was a product of health and fitness along with regular digital watch-like features. Like this Apple watches keep on evolving from Apple watch series 2 to Apple watch series 6 on present with more and more evolving features and upgrades. 

     SWOT Analysis of Apple 

     Strengths of Apple

    • Faithful customers  
    • Being a leading innovator in mobile device technology
    • Strong financial performance
    • Having a humongous brand reputation

    Weaknesses of Apple

    • High price
    • Reducing market share
    • The rapid change in management
    • The decline in long-term gross margin

    Opportunities of Apple

    • High demand of iPhone 5 and iPad mini
    • Launch of ITV
    • Growth of smartphone & tablet markets
    • Strong growth of advertising markets

    Threats of Apple

    • Rapid changing technology
    • Increase in the taxes
    • Rising pay levels for Foxconn workers
    • Strong dollar

     Conclusion and Recommendations 

    Apple focuses on differentiated lifestyle branding and it continues to build on this foundation while resisting its pressures of competition from Dell and HP. The continued expansion of the Apple stores marks a success and its source of revenue unmatched by other players in its field. It should continue to support the education and creative professional markets. Apple should put additional emphasis on its design development and lead the industry in the future of technology. Thus Apple the company incorporated by Steve Jobs is the pinnacle of technological revolutions from the 20th century till the 21st century and this will go on in the long future of electronic evolution.


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