Management

Apple Inc. taking a bite out of competition

Apple computer was founded in Mountain View, California on April 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs was the visionary and marketer and Wozniak was the technical genius. The team also included Ronald Wayne, who was the business man of the trio (Time 2013). In the beginning Apple quickly became the first computer company to successfully integrate the graphical user interface (GUI). This was the use of the mouse along with the on screen interface. Another innovation & and the one that Apple is most famous for is that in 1977 the Apple II was created as the first personal computer in the market; In which anyone could use right out of the box(Dess, Eisner & Lumpkin, 2012).).

The main strategic issue in my opinion is how Apple Inc. competes with its competitors. Some of its main competitors include but not limited to Dell, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and others. Apple has diversified over the years to include several different markets such as smart phones, portable music/media players and downloads, handheld games, software, and not to forget its computers. How does one company with many different markets available is able to compete in all of them and still manage to be a top performer in all of them?

The main issue provides a unique situation in how the company is governed. As we all know, for the past several years, Steve Jobs, one of its co-founders has been in charge of the company. Many people even say that he is the reason why the company has done so well, but it has not always been so since there was a time when he left the company to start a separate company called “Next Computers” between 1985 to 1997 when he returned to the company(Dess, Eisner & Lumpkin, 2012).). Jobs has been the inspiration for many of the company’s new products and innovations but he has also been responsible for moving most if not all of its productions overseas. An example of this would be that Apple employs only...