Apple Inc - Branches, Employees and Sales - Essay Example

? \ Apple – History, Braches and Budget Apple – An Introduction Apple Inc. is a US based multinational company that operates in the industry of consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers (Jeffrey, 1988, p32). It is involved in the designing, production and marketing of the wide range of products software and hardware products including iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac, iLife, iTunes, Apple TV, Mac OS X, iOS and iWork etc. It provides different services to the customer through its Apple Store online, App Store, iTunes Store, iBook and MobileMe. Apple has maintained unique reputation in the industry of consumer electronic manufacturing with the help of its aesthetic designs and distinctive advertising campaigns. It has also gained the award of most admired company in the United States by the Fortune Magazine however, its labour practice, environmental and business policies are often criticized of being biased and unfair (Hertzfeld, 2004, p98). Branches, Employees and Sales The company operates across the globe through its 317 retail stores established in ten countries of the world. It also runs an online store to sale its hardware and software products to the consumers all over the world. It has surpassed Microsoft and has become the world’s largest and most valuable technology company. The company employs 46,600 people as full time employees whereas 2,800 people work as temporary fulltime for the company in different countries of the world. The annual sales of the company reached the level of $65.23 billion in the financial year 2010 whereas its assets are calculated US$ 75.18 billion. History Apple Inc. was established in 1976 in California by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Steve Job and Steve Wozniak have 45percent of the company’s share each whereas the 10% remaining shares are owned by Ronald Wayne. They created the company with the intention of providing inexpensive and simple to use computers to the consumers. Initially the name of the company was Apple Computer, Inc. It operated with this name for thirty years and in 2007 that word computer was excluded from its name in order to reflect the broad variety of consumer electronic products and services being produced by the company other than the computers. Apple introduced its first system in 1976 with the name Apple I that was sold for $666.66 at the local electronics stores followed by Apple II and Mac (Kunkel, 2006, p186). The history of Apple is marked with several important developments and decisions that contributed towards the success of the company at international level however, it has been widely regarded that the success of the company was geared up in 1984 with the production and release of its 1984 commercial directed by Ridley Scott. It was aired during the Super Bowl XVIII. It Big Brother that tell the people what to think and chose giving them no freedom of choice whereas Apple stands as the heroine giving freedom and choice of thinking to the customers. The commercial was interpreted differently however, it played vital role in bringing notoriety to the Macintosh line of computers (Jeffrey, 1988, p32). Apple II was released in 1977 that contained several enhanced features like the BASIC programming language, 16-bit processing using the MOS Technology 6502 1 MHz microprocessor. After the first release they continued working to improve the capabilities and functions of their products and several subsequent models of Apple II were released having improved speed and better designed as compared with the original model of Apple II. The company also released the first ever external 5.25” floppy disk controller, read-only memory (ROM)-based Microsoft-based BASIC language program called AppleSoft and first thermal printer, the SilenType. In 1983, Apple released Apple IIe that became the most popular and best-selling of Apple II model. Some of the initial products of Apple Inc. failed to gain the popularity and success among the masses like the first Apple portable and Newton. However, the release of iMac in 1998 contributed towards its success in the market. After conducting several years of research and development work Apple released Mac OS X in 2001 that was an operating system meant for both the general consumers and the professional users. It was redesigned from Mac OS 9 possessing the power of UNIX and offers simplified GUI (Graphical User Interface) to the users. These products successfully worked towards the success and profitability of Apple. The release of iPod portable digital audio player in 2002 also supported the reputation and position of the company in the consumer electronics industry. After that several other successful products were released by Apple like Apple iPhone, MacBook and Apple iPad (Hertzfeld, 2004, p98). The company continued with the production and released of different models and throughout 1980s and 90s the Apple II computers remained the de-facto computing standards for the elementary schools across the United States as well as in other countries of the world. During these years, almost 2 million of Apple II computers were sold for household, business and classroom uses. In 1990s Apple Inc. also released several modifies models of Mac like Mac IIx, Mac IIxi, Mac IIcx, Mac IIci, Mac II SE, and Mac IIfx. At present, there are wide varieties of Apple products available in the market that have successfully captured the industry and have worked to improve the popularity and position of the company in the industry. The continuous developments and releases made by the Apple affirm the image of the company as “Digital Lifestyle” company. The history of the company indicate that it remained involved in the production of different products to meet the increasing demands of the customers in the technology drive marketplace and due to this continuous focus upon research and development work it has become possible for Apple to survive in the highly competitive marketplace and maintain its position and image as an updated and popular manufacturing and designing company of computers, software, hardware and several other consumer electronic products (Hertzfeld,2004, p98). Criticism upon Apple Though the company enjoys good reputation and market position but it is also a fact that there are several criticisms also received by the company on the charges of using sweatshop labour, environmental destruction and unethical business practice. Moreover, the business practice of Apple has also been criticized on the grounds that through the products iOS-based (i.e. iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), or other non-iOS-based (i.e. iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle), Apple always tries to create iTunes store monopoly. On these charges the CEO of the company Steve Job was also ordered to attend the court. The company is also surrounded by the issues of licensing, post launch price reduction, corporate secrecy and unjust labour practice. Comparison of Apple Inc. with its competitors The following table compared Apple Inc. with its major competitors with respect to the market capital, revenue, employees and other major statistical data. Direct Competitor Comparison   AAPL GOOG HPQ RIMM Industry Market Cap: 310.00B 168.87B 77.86B 22.68B 314.91B Employees: 46,600 26,316 324,600 17,500 100.30K Qtrly Rev Growth (yoy): 82.70% 26.60% 3.60% 36.20% 24.30% Revenue (ttm): 87.45B 31.12B 127.16B 19.91B 87.45B Gross Margin (ttm): 39.07% 64.97% 24.14% 44.33% 39.07% EBITDA (ttm): 26.73B 12.16B 18.25B 5.57B 26.73B Operating Margin (ttm): 29.02% 34.35% 10.49% 23.30% 31.92% Net Income (ttm): 19.55B 8.35B 9.12B 3.41B N/A EPS (ttm): 20.99 25.75 3.92 6.34 20.99 P/E (ttm): 15.97 20.35 9.18 6.86 16.22 PEG (5 yr expected): 0.66 0.88 0.76 0.50 1.89 P/S (ttm): 3.60 5.50 0.61 1.16 3.60 (Source: Yahoo Finance, 2011) GOOG = Google Inc. HPQ = Hewlett-Packard Company RIMM = Research In Motion Limited Industry = Personal Computers References Hertzfeld, A. (2004). Revolution in the Valley, New York: O'Reilly Books. Jeffrey S. Y. (1988). Steve Jobs, The Journey is the Reward, New York: Lynx Books Kunkel, P. (2006). Apple Design: The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group. NY: Watson-Guptill Publications Yahoo Finance (2011). APPL Competitors – Apple Inc. Stock, Retrieved online from: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=AAPL+Competitors POSTER PRESENTATION Read More