Case Analysis 1 - Apple Computer: Research How Apple Managed to Reinvent Itself over the Years Essay Example
Case Analysis 1 - Apple Computer: Research how Apple managed to reinvent itself over the years.
1. What were some of Apple's biggest successes and failures? Describe why.
To their credit, however, and with the aid of distressing financial figures resulting from such a misreading of the market, Apple realized that it had to change its approach to the market and to the technology. Given Apple’s widespread reputation for innovation and trendiness, its failure to anticipate the importance of music in the lives of personal computer users was completely uncharacteristic. Occasioned by a $195 million quarterly loss, however, Apple took motivation from their mistake and realized that they needed to completely rethink the way they went to market. Apple not only learned from their mistake, they used it to catapult a new innovation.
As a background in company’s historical facts, when Steve Jobs looked around Apple back in 2002, he saw a profusion of gadgets: cell phones, PDAs, and MP3 players (including Apple's blockbuster, the iPod). In a flash of brilliance, he asked himself a world-changing question: What if all those functions could be combined in just one device? The answer to that insightful question led to Apple's next hit: the Rokr cell phone. The Rokr was a commercial flop, and Apple's short-lived partnership to develop an MP3 cell phone with Motorola is now an embarrassing footnote. In no small part, the iPhone exists today because the Rokr threw the shortcomings of the mobile phone industry into sharp relief. Smelling the industry's stagnation, Jobs began planning the iPhone, even as the Rokr drew withering criticism.
Apple’s design process differs from that of most other companies. Traditional design research relies heavily on focus groups and customer feedback about existing products. Apple tends to place less emphasis on evidence than on intuition, under the theory that consumers can’t tell you they want a product or function if they can’t yet
1. What were some of Apple's biggest successes and failures? Describe why.
To their credit, however, and with the aid of distressing financial figures resulting from such a misreading of the market, Apple realized that it had to change its approach to the market and to the technology. Given Apple’s widespread reputation for innovation and trendiness, its failure to anticipate the importance of music in the lives of personal computer users was completely uncharacteristic. Occasioned by a $195 million quarterly loss, however, Apple took motivation from their mistake and realized that they needed to completely rethink the way they went to market. Apple not only learned from their mistake, they used it to catapult a new innovation.
As a background in company’s historical facts, when Steve Jobs looked around Apple back in 2002, he saw a profusion of gadgets: cell phones, PDAs, and MP3 players (including Apple's blockbuster, the iPod). In a flash of brilliance, he asked himself a world-changing question: What if all those functions could be combined in just one device? The answer to that insightful question led to Apple's next hit: the Rokr cell phone. The Rokr was a commercial flop, and Apple's short-lived partnership to develop an MP3 cell phone with Motorola is now an embarrassing footnote. In no small part, the iPhone exists today because the Rokr threw the shortcomings of the mobile phone industry into sharp relief. Smelling the industry's stagnation, Jobs began planning the iPhone, even as the Rokr drew withering criticism.
Apple’s design process differs from that of most other companies. Traditional design research relies heavily on focus groups and customer feedback about existing products. Apple tends to place less emphasis on evidence than on intuition, under the theory that consumers can’t tell you they want a product or function if they can’t yet