Apple

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak produced the first computer, Apple I; and developed the Apple Computer. The mission of the company was to bring an easy-to-use computer to the market. Within three years, the annual sales of the company access USD1 billion. The strategy of the company was “close” system that it did not allow other manufacturers clone the design of the personal computer and launched a successful IPO by December 1980.

In 1981, IBM entered the personal computer market taking the “open” system, which allowed other manufacturers cloned the design and produced the personal computer. Due to the potential profit, a large number of manufacturers rushed to produce the personal computer. This make the IBM personal computer gained more market share, and also emerged as the new standard for the personal computer industry. That caused the competitive position of Apple changed dramatically in 1981. The next twenty years, Apple wanted to compete with IBM personal computer with differentiation strategy of ease of use, industrial design, and technical elegance. But Apple personal computer is very slow and lacked of application programs due to the proprietary design. Fortunately, Apple was able to dominate the education sector due to the outstanding desktop publishing functionalities. Besides, Apple was able to control both hardware and software, and develop the peripherals that incur the advantage of “plug and play” system. Sculley also tried to compete head-to-head with low-priced IBM clones. Consequently, the company was almost bankruptcy in 1997.

In 1997, Steve Jobs returned back to Apple and quickly reshape Apple and he also pared down the inventory and increased the R&D funding. Apple carried on producing personal computer until 2001. In 2001, Apple launched a new portable digital music player iPod that helped Apple on its explosive growth path. Next five years, Apple continued launching different iPod model with innovative design. By 2010, Apple...