Apple

Case Study: Apple Inc. in 2010

Course: 6200 Strategic Decision Making

Name: Adam Yusuf

Date: Oct 8th, 2011

Professor: Ravi Sarathy

How has Apple performed in the PC industry? What is your evaluation of its performance in the PC business?

Apple performed in the PC industry quite well especially in the last decade since Steve Jobs had returned to the helm of the company. Apple is accredited investing the “personal computer” although that IBM has brought it to the mainstream in early 1980s. IBM has gained quickly more market share than Apple in the 80s, but Apple has responded by launching its Macintosh personal computer in 1984. When Apple’s board of directors forced out Steve Jobs in 1985 the company’s net income had fallen by more than 60% since 1981. Despite the early success and high growth in 1980s the company almost went bankrupt before Jobs returned the second time to save it from abysmal disaster.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, its product portfolio was reduced from 15 product lines to just four main categories “desktop and portable Macintoshes, for consumers and professionals” to streamline the product pipeline and make the company agile enough to respond to market needs. The company also had reduced its inventory and increased its R&D budget to unleash and reinvigorate innovation capability. In the early 2001, the new strategy of Apple was to brand the Macintosh as “digital hub” since more consumers needed device to integrate numerous digital devices (i.e. music player, mobile phones & camcorders...etc.). Soon after Apple’s renewed strategy and opening store outlet around the country, “Apple became the fourth largest PC vendor in the US market with an 8% share by the end of 2009”. Apple owned 91% of the market share for PC s priced above $1000 in the US market. Based on the data in “exhibit 1c”, Desktop and Macintosh unit sales tripled and quadrupled respectively from 2004 to 2009 time frame.

Figure 1: PC...