Apple Inc. Case Study
Apple Inc. history and important information we came up with from the case that allowed us to successfully determine the “3 C’s and 4 P’s” and potential improvements:
April fool’s Day of 1976 would mark the start date of the very powerful Apple Inc. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two college dropouts, began creating a computer circuit board in a garage. The main goal was to bring an easy-to-use computer to the market. By 1978, the product Apple II was released, and Apple Inc. became a powerful market leader. Unfortunately, as a response to the IBM PC, Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, which proved to be harmful to the company. Although it made a breakthrough in the technical design, ease-of-use, and technical elegance, it’s processing speed and lack of compatible software limited sales, lowering income by 62%, and eventually pushing Jobs out of Apple.
The new leader of Apple Inc. was Sculley, whom was recruited over from Pepsi-Cola for his great marketing skills. Sculley allowed Apple to recover and gain 8% of the market share, as well as becoming the most profitable in the industry. Sculley pushed Apple into many markets, and soon, they gained customer loyalty and were able to sell at premium prices. A less expensive Mac Classic was also produced for mass-market appeal. In 1993, Spindler replaced Sculley. Spindler’s plan was to seriously reduce company costs and grow internationally. Soon, Apple paired up with two new companies, but when Taligent and Kaleida decided they did not want to switch to a new technology, costs and losses occurred, and the company appointed another CEO, Amelio. Amelio’s term as CEO did nothing for Apple Inc. Apple would not turn around until 1997, when Steve Jobs was reintroduced to Apple as CEO.
Steve Jobs quickly allowed Apple Inc. to become successful again. Microsoft invested 150 million into Apple to get Microsoft applications to work on Apple Inc.’s computers. Apple limited itself to four categories:
April fool’s Day of 1976 would mark the start date of the very powerful Apple Inc. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, two college dropouts, began creating a computer circuit board in a garage. The main goal was to bring an easy-to-use computer to the market. By 1978, the product Apple II was released, and Apple Inc. became a powerful market leader. Unfortunately, as a response to the IBM PC, Apple introduced the Macintosh in 1984, which proved to be harmful to the company. Although it made a breakthrough in the technical design, ease-of-use, and technical elegance, it’s processing speed and lack of compatible software limited sales, lowering income by 62%, and eventually pushing Jobs out of Apple.
The new leader of Apple Inc. was Sculley, whom was recruited over from Pepsi-Cola for his great marketing skills. Sculley allowed Apple to recover and gain 8% of the market share, as well as becoming the most profitable in the industry. Sculley pushed Apple into many markets, and soon, they gained customer loyalty and were able to sell at premium prices. A less expensive Mac Classic was also produced for mass-market appeal. In 1993, Spindler replaced Sculley. Spindler’s plan was to seriously reduce company costs and grow internationally. Soon, Apple paired up with two new companies, but when Taligent and Kaleida decided they did not want to switch to a new technology, costs and losses occurred, and the company appointed another CEO, Amelio. Amelio’s term as CEO did nothing for Apple Inc. Apple would not turn around until 1997, when Steve Jobs was reintroduced to Apple as CEO.
Steve Jobs quickly allowed Apple Inc. to become successful again. Microsoft invested 150 million into Apple to get Microsoft applications to work on Apple Inc.’s computers. Apple limited itself to four categories: