The Apple Case Analysis The start of the era of personal computers started a very long time ago. It started in 1971 by Dr. Ted Hoff has assembled all of the elements of a computer microprocessor on one silicon chip, which in size was approximately as big as one square inch. This microprocessor was called Intel 4004 this creation was the first microprocessor available commercially. (1) These chips were used in the production of calculators, which have opened the door to the production of the computers the way we know them today. The first commercially available computer, the Altair 880, was the first machine to be called a personal computer. It has 64 KB of memory and an open 100-line bus structure.
The approximate price for the Altair wonder was $400, the Altair 880 came in a kit to be assembled by the user. (4) In the year 1975 being just students Paul Allen and Bill Gates, create the BASIC language (the primary programming language) interpreter for the Altair 880. Upon this creation the Microsoft company was founded. Starting at the first step being just an ordinary small company Microsoft came all the way to now becoming a multibillion software company. The history of the Apple company started in the year 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, when they built the first computer named Apple I. This computer was much cheaper and much easier in use than the preceding computer the Altair.
The launch of this company was set on the April Fools day and the company turned out to be a big success. The differentiating idea of this computer was that the computer users could put the motherboard of the computer into any cover they wanted. This was a pioneering idea altogether, and perhaps this was the reason for the success. The year of 1977 was also a very productive year for the new Apple company. This year the production of the Apple II computer started. This computer already was quite different, it came assembled in a one case with the keyboard being mounted in, rather than needing your own to plug in.
The Term Paper on Hewlett Packard Products Computer Company
Hewlett Packard started in 1939 in a garage by two people, Bill Hewlett and David Packard with just $538 of working capital. After a string of failures, their companys first successful product, an audio oscillator better than anything on the market, earned a U. S. patent and an order from Disney Studios for eight units to help produce the animated film Fantasia. From 1940 to 1950 they moved from ...
This new creation needed to be plugged into the TVs monitors in order to operate. Fully assembled microcomputers hit the general market, with Radio Shack, Commodore, and Apple all selling models. Sales are slow because neither businesses nor the general public know exactly what to do with these new machines. (2) From the year of 1978 to the year of 1982 the growth of the computer industry as a whole, and the Apple company in particular was a very rapid one. Many creation which make our lives easier were created during this period. As a result of these productive 5 years in 1983 Apple brings a new product to the market.
It is the first commercial compute with a purely graphical operating system and a mouse. The industry is excited, but Lisa’s $10,000 price tag discourages buyers. (1) In 1984 Apple introduces another computer, which in return became a much greater success than the previous one, the user-friendly Macintosh computer. The slogan for the advertisement for this computer said: Why do you need a computer, which you cannot lift? This set of a launch of the era of computers, which actually became easier to move around. In 1987 the Macintosh II computer, aimed at the desktop publishing market, is introduced by Apple Computer. It features an SVGA monitor.
Apple Computer introduced HyperCard, a programming language for the Macintosh, which uses the metaphor of a stack of index cards to represent a programa kind of visual programming language. (3) The year of 1988 was a year of many tasks for the Apple company. Their primary achievement this year was the fact that they have been the first to launch one of the biggest lawsuits in the history of computer industry against the Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, claiming copyright infringement of its operating system and graphical user interface. (5) (In 1992 the lawsuit finished in favor of Microsoft an Hewlett-Packard) This year was also marked by the development of a completely novice storage device, it was has the storage space of 650 MB for data. 1993 Apple company launched the new computers, this was the PowerBook series of portable computers. In 1993 this invention was taken one step further Apple Computer expands its entire product line, adding the Macintosh Color Classic, Macintosh LC III, Macintosh Centris 610 and 650, Macintosh Quadra 800, and the Powerbooks 165c and 180c.
The Essay on Web Site Internet Computer Companies
The Internet opens up new worlds accessible to anyone with a computer and an Internet server. The Internet can provide the user with a new means of communication, entertainment, shopping and possibly even the answers to the most rhetorical questions on the planet. For instance, Delaware is a small state that relatively few people know much about. Currently there is a Internet site insisting that ...
Apple introduces the Newton MessagePad at the Macworld convention, selling 50,000 units in the first ten weeks. Continuing in 1994 with the introduction of the Power Macintosh line of microcomputers based on the PowerPC chip. This line introduces RISC to the desktop market. RISC was previously available only on high-end workstations (6) The years 1998 and 1999 are marked by the creation on the new computer, the iMac. This new computer by many qualities is better than any computers of the other companies on the market, although this creation also has its flaws and inconveniences. Nowadays the company is producing more and more sophistications for the iMac and thus still is occupying a big portion of the market. Upon conducting the research of the history of Apple company we have to take a look at the environment in which this company had to function.
The strategic management as an applied science evolved in the 1930s and became a discipline by itself. Although, the external environment is one of the main concepts of strategic planning, but there still does not exist one sole interpretation of its meaning. The external environment is a sum of all the external factors which can or do influence on the organizational aspects: such as the aim, structure, size, plans, processes, expenses, results, human interaction. The external environment in which the Apple Company had to function caused many contradictions. In the period of the initial development the Apple Company was on very leading terms, it was the first computer company to produce the commercially used computers. Nowadays the Apple company is functioning in a very tough environment, with many competitors and developing new technologies, but despite these circumstances the company still has leading position on the market. The SWOT analysis of the company is the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company.
The Essay on Apple Computers
Apple Computers was founded on April Fools Day in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They were two college dropouts who started selling computers through Jobs family garage. Between the two Wozniak was the technical man and Jobs had the vision, so together they created their first computer named Apple I. Jobs mission for Apple was to provide an easy-to-use computer to almost everyone. Two years ...
The strengths of the Apple company can be regarded the following aspects: the reason that the Apple I computer was popular in the 1976, for the ease of use in comparison to the other computers on the market, this still remains true. That is why the ease of use of this computer is one of the biggest strengths of the company. As a strength it can also be regarded that the Apple company is the oldest hardware developer this factor greatly contributes to the positive image of the Apple company, thus leading to have many loyal users. It can also be noted as a strength that the Apple company was the first to produce personal computers. Another big strength of the Apple computers is that this company is a sole manufacturer and developer of both the computers (the metal and hardware) and the operating systems, the software. Thus this company is a sole company that produces a product which is very integrated, which leads to a fewer disagreements between the hardware and the software of the computer. As a strength we could also note impressive research base takes care of business cycle changes and product life cycle limitations as well as strategic tie-ups and Business Process Outsourcing both to utilize technocrats all over the world and to optimize costs.
(7) The Apples big strength is that the company develops new products relatively fast, thus enabling a better covering of the market thus being able to stand up to the competitors. In order to succeed the company cant only rely on the developments, it needs the human resources to be able to produce all the innovations. This leads to the point that Apple company has an excellent Human Resource policies, with great compensation policy, thus motivating the workers to achieve more for themselves and the company. Some more strengths of the Apple company have been adopted from www.nmsdcus.org: Revenues and profits rising at 30% a year; top rating from Fortune for best company to work at and most admired company; participation in socially relevant philanthropic work in various countries has been a significant value addition in terms of corporate PR. As for the weaknesses of the company they also do exist. As a primary weakness we can put down the fact that the complete ease of the use of the Macintosh products, gives it an image of more of a toy than a functional and productive machine thus the target group of the company kind of excludes the business auditory, thus leaving aside the people who can pay higher fares. Another visible weakness is the fact that the Apple company cannot always produce enough computers to satisfy the demand. Apple computers have a constantly growing popularity, thus the company has to regard seriously the perspective of increasing the sales. It can be considered a weakness that the Apple computers are not IBM compatible (3).
The Business plan on The Key Strategic Challenges Facing Apple Computer
Apple Computer is currently facing many strategic challenges, the first challenge is competition from new and existing companies. Apple’s iTunes, an online music store, faces competition from companies that seek to begin offering online music and video downloading services whether legally or illegally, and from existing companies that plan to modify its current strategies to become better aligned ...
All the recent Apple computers have only USB ports, have no slots for the floppy disks, and the data cannot be transferred from the Apple to other computers, thus causing problems for people who work on different types of computers. A very major weakness of the Apple computers is that this company does not take into ….
