Apple: A Corporate Profile
By Stephen Hoshaw
Background/History
If one was to look at the war between the personal computer and Macintosh ten years ago, it would look completely different than the battle waged today.
Apple's early attempt at catering toward the business crowd.
The Apple Computer Incorporation was founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. After creating the Apple I in Jobs’ garage, the two entrepreneurs sold 200 units to hobbyists in the San Fransisco Bay area.
Sales from these early Apple computers prompted the creation of two more generations of the Apple concept computer as well as the Apple Lisa.
In 1984 Apple unveiled Macintosh. Jobs hoped for this technology to spread to in-home use, expanding on the market for the company.
The sale of the Macintosh proved to be successful, at least at its beginning. Apple’s Macintosh sales dropped sharply after a small period during the Macintosh’s birth forcing Apple to re-think its business plan.
Steve Jobs makes his return to CEO of Apple in 1998.
Steve Jobs was later forced out of the CEO position at Apple by former president of PepsiCo John Sculley.
After a period of rough sales, Apple’s board of directors voted John Sculley to be replaced with Michael Spindler as the CEO of Apple. However, Spindler over
saw some of Apples largest failures. These include the Macintosh Portable and the Aquarius.
These mistakes caused the board to appoint Gil Amelio to overtake Spindler as CEO in 1996. As Amelio oversaw many of Apple’s changes to its graphical user interface, he wanted to merge with Jobs’ new company NeXT.
This merger eventually led to the creation of the OS system Macintosh computers employ now, as well as Jobs’ return to the CEO position at Apple.
Jobs’ return brought new vitality to Apple, along with a new vision for the future of the company.
Financial Information/Board of Directors
Today, it is clear that Jobs’ vision has been realized.
How much is Apple worth?
Last month, CNET stated, “Apple on Tuesday reported revenue of $13.5 billion and profits of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 earnings per share. That’s a 49-percent increase from the $9.08 billion in revenue reported in the same quarter a year ago.”
The release of the iPad has only shown how much of a media powerhouse Apple truly is. They proved that they havn’t lost their kick-ass product launch ability by selling over one million units over the first month of the iPads launch.
As we have seen, Apple has had many changes in the history of its corporate leadership. However, the return of Steve Jobs seems to have brought the companies top executives together.
A Wall Street Journal article reports, “Investors have long urged Apple’s directors to be more independent of the company’s
Apple's diverse board of directors.
powerful CEO, even as Apple has continued posting strong financial results. An independent board represents the interests of shareholders and can challenge the CEO when necessary, said David Nadler, a corporate governance expert and senior partner at consultants Oliver Wyman Group.”
One can clearly see how Apple’s board of directors could want to follow a CEO with such a distinct plan as Jobs’.
With most of the corporate leadership changes in their past, Jobs and Apple seem to focus on the future of our culture’s grasp of the computer and of media as a whole.
Product Placement/Synergy
In doing this, Apple has created an unstoppable brand image in our media landscape. Today, the Apple logo is used in many shows and movies.
Jim just loves his Macbook Pro!
In this press release by TV by The Numbers states, “Apple and Pontiac each received over $250,000 in Media Value from the season premiere of 24. According to Front Row Analytics, Apple received $292,800 in exposure by 12 total sequences.”
Apple advertises through more than just its television product placements, if you’ve seen a movie recently, you have probably seen an Apple product.
In the top blockbusters of last year, Apple products appeared in nearly 41 percent of the 44 films. This list includes Drag Me To Hell, Orphan, Crank 2: High Voltage and even the Oscar winning best picture of last year Hurt Locker.
He's got every avenue of media consumption covered thanks to Apple!
Clearly, Apple is aiming for the top spot in the pop culture spotlight for a corporation based on technology.
Not only do they lock down this spot literally IN the media we consume, but also through our consumption of media.
Apple does this brilliantly by providing us with devices such as the iPod, iPad and even the Macintosh home computer. It is in the combination of these technologies that the synergy Apple creates for itself shines.
Perhaps the most obvious example of the synergy between their own products is given by iTunes.
An article from CNET reported that, in 2009, a song bought from the itunes store accounted for 25 percent of the overall music market.
Last month, Fortune stated that Apple had sold around ten million (estimation) iPod units in just the second quarter of this year.
When combining the uses of these two technologies, Apple not only profits from the unit you are listening to your music through, but also from the music that is piped in to the mp3 player.
On top of this, the iPad adds another market for Apple to harness.
The iPad creates a market for applications. These are managed through the App Store and provide Apple with additional revenue through no output on their behalf.
The creation of the iPad device gives Apple an opportunity to return to vertical integration. Through the use of the A4 chip (in place of the intel chips they have been using in all of their Macintosh units) Apple is able to create the processors its computers run.
In studying this corporation, it is clear that Apple has utilized the media landscape of today to generate profit. This commodification of information is clearly the leverage that Apple will continue to use and integrate into their business plan.
Sources:
A brief history of Apple Computer Inc.
The first Macintosh advertisement.
John Sculley on Macintosh issues.
Apple sells one million iPads.
Wall Street Journal reports on the board of directors at Apple.
Numbers for Apple on television.
Music Inc. 