An Overview Of The Apple Company Marketing Essay
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Apple Created a computer revolution in the early 1970's with the Apple II and the personal computer in the 1980's. It is dedicated to bringing the best of personal computing to students, educators, professionals, and also the consumers by providing innocative hardware, software, and also the various internet applications offered online.
A Brief History:-
Apple is responsible for the enormous growth of the PC industry in the 20th century.
The introduction of the Macintosh PC in 1984 established the company as a industry innovator whose products became know for their ease of use. Jobs wanted to create a large company and consulted Mike Markulla. Mike bought one third of the company for $250,000 and helped Jobs with the business plan. He hired Mike Scott as the president 1977. Jobs recruited Regis Mckenna, owner of a successful advertising firm, to devise a advertising strategy for the company. Kenna desiged the apple logo and placed it on the Apple II PC and started selling it through retails outlets.
By june 1977, annual sales reached $1 million. Between 1977 and 1980 Apple came up with a number of upgrades for its Apple II computers suck as the Apple II disk and silentype, the company's first printer and also Visicalc, the first spread sheet for computers. By the end of 1978 Apple was one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. By the end of 1979 the sales were up 400 percent.
In December 1980, Apple went public. Its first offering of 4.6 million shares for $22 each sold out in 22 minutes. Its second offering in May 1981 of 2.6 million shares quickly sold out. However all was not well in 1984, Apple II did not sell well and apple was forced to lay off employees in February 1981. A move with which Job disagreed. As a result Steve Jobs became chairman, Mike Markkula became president. Scott was made Vise-chairman. Despite its problems, the company forged ahead. By January 1982, the company sold 650,000 computer worldwide. In December 1982, the company became the first company to reach an annual revenue of $1 billion.
Apple continued to make progress until it was hit by mismanagement in the 1990's. This was due to the fact that they sold expensive computers in the past. Scully and his team had to make drastic changes. They noticed that the competitors were using GUI ( Graphic User Interface ) more and more on their PC's. This change in the product and the recognition that the product had to be smaller and lighter put the Apple company on the forefront of the market again.
Apple continued to make innovative products and services through out the 1990's and creating new demand for products like the iPad.
By September 26 2009 the company had 34,300 full time employees and additionally 2500 full time equivalent temporary employees and contractors. It has, by the end of the fiscal year 2009 opened 273 stores, this is including the 217 stores in the US and 56 stores internationally.
Business Description
Apple Inc designs, manufactures and markets personal computers, mobile communication devices, portable music players and its peripherals. It also sells a wide variety of software, services and peripherals and networking solutions. The company also sells third party products that are compatible to its products including software, headphones, printers and various other accessories and peripherals. It does this through its online stores, retail stores and also through other digital
software like the iTunes.
Below are some of the well known products made by Apple.
MacBook Pro:-
The Notebook was designed keeping in mind professionals and customers who require high end configurations. In June 2009 the company added the 13", 15" and 17" models to the MacBook Pro product line.
MacBook: -
This notebook was designed for the general customer and educational users. The company upgraded the features by introducing a new polycarbonate design and LED backlit display and a glass multi touch track pad.
MacBook Air:-
Apple created this product keeping business travellers in mind and also those who wanted to have a lighter notebook to carry around. This ultra slim notebook measures 0.16 inches at its thinnest point and 0.76 inches when closed.
MacPro: -
This product was creasted to target the business and professional customers whose need for performance, networking and flexibility to upgrade is the most demanding. For example, professionals who make use of resource intensive software like Photoshop or AutoCAD.
IMac:-
The Desktop Computer is targeted for the general customer who have the basic needs and also for education and business customers with the general configurations of a desktop computer. In October 2009 the company introduced the 21.5 inches and the 27 inch LED backlit display with glass and aluminium closure.
iPhone:-
iPhone combines the mobile phone, the internet, and the power of a desktop computing. It allows the user to web browse, e-mail, search, and also has features such as google maps. The phone is the most successful product to be launched by the company. It also enables the user to access contents on the iTunes be it music or application approved by Apple. The company took this one step further by launching the app store on July 2008 to enable the user to use 3rd party applications for both Windows and Mac platforms. And all this can be done wirelessly. In June 2009 the company announced the iPhone 3GS, which has a 3 megapixel camera, and hands free voice control. The company signed multi year agreement with different cellular providers thereby providing the network services and iPhone seervices vis the network providers. These services aare not exclusive except US, Germany, Spain, Ireland, U.A.E., and certain other countries.
Music products and services
The company offers a wide range of products in its music category. Some of the models are as below. The company also provides third party music, audio books, movies, podcast from its iTunes software. Apple also allows the third party companies to sell accessories and peripherals through retails and also it sells its own product online or through retail.
iPod Shuffel
The shuffle is a flash memory iPod with half the size and also is the first music player to have the voice over feature. This feature speaks out song title, playlist and artist names. The iPod Shuffel is available in 2 and 4GB configuration with a variety of colours in a aluminium casing.
iPod Nano
The Nano includes a video camera, microphone and speaker and built in FM radio. It also allows u to mix songs from your iTunes. It has a 24 hours playback for audio songs and a 5 hours playback time video songs. It is available in 8 and 16GB configuration in a variety of colours.
iPod Classic
In September 2009, the company introduced an updated version of the iPod classic. It has a storage space of 160GB and is capable of holding up to 40000 songs, 200 hours of video, or 25000 photos. The iPod provides up to 36 hours of audio playback and up to six hours of video playback.
There are many more products that have made a significant inmact in the market. They are as follows
iPod touch
iTunes 9
APPLE TV
Software products and computer technologies
Application software
iLife
iWork
Final Cut Studio
Logic tudio
FileMaker Pro
Internet software and services
Safari
Quicktime
MobileMe
Company Performance: -
The company has improved its gross profits over the past 3 years. Apple has significantly increased its revenues by approximately $13000 between 2007 and 2008. However, the revenue increase only $5414 during the period of 2008 to 2009. I believe the current recession which started in 2007 and continued on till date is to be blamed. But the cost of revenue significantl reduced between the years 2008 to 2009 and the company was able to post profits at the end of the fiscal ending at 2009.
The increase in the cost of revenue is significantly reduced due to cost cutting measure that the company has undertaken and probable due to the reduced demand of the products such as the iPhone 3GS in 2009. Below are the table and the graph explain the performance for the 3 years.
Years
2009
2008
2007
Total Revenue
42,905.00
37,491.00
24,578.00
Cost of Revenue, Total
25,683.00
24,294.00
16,426.00
Gross Profit
17,222.00
13,197.00
8,152.00
2)
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