Apple Case Study

Apple Inc Case Study Analysis

Apple Incorporated is a leading designer, integrator, and manufacturer of computer hardware and software. The company started in 1976 named Apple Computers Incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The Apple Company began making computing hardware and software out of Jobs’ garage in California. The company has not been without its struggles or corporate drama. In 1985, Steve Jobs was ousted from the company by the CEO, John Sculley, whom Jobs hired in 1983 to lead the company. Steve Jobs was reunited with Apple in 1997, when he was hired back as part of the corporate acquisition of NeXT, where Jobs was the CEO.

Apple created many of the cutting edge computers in the mid to late 1980’s with the Macintosh being released in 1984. The Macintosh initially was a huge success but due to its high price ($666) the follow-up sales were not good. From 1992 to 1997, Apple fielded 70 versions of the Macintosh. This rapid deployment proved to be a source of confusion which bogged down the computing giant.

Within a month of returning to Apple in 1997, Jobs was made the interim CEO. Immediately he began to restructure the company by closing divisions, stopping software licensing, and eliminating 70% of the new products (Thomke & Feinbert, 2010). During the years prior to Jobs return, Apple wallowed in the quagmire of being too diverse and losing focus on what made Apple successful in the beginning. Apple tried to make too many different models which caused an enormous complexity within the company and causing it to be sluggish in an agile high tech market. Jobs arrival changed all of that.

Apple has been very successful since the return of Steve Jobs to the top position of the company. His center of attention was to get Apple refocused on its core capabilities. Steve Jobs motive was to simplify complexity. The company immediately returned to its roots of computing to provide consumers...