Introduction
Apple Inc. is an American international enterprise that develops, produces, and sells consumer electronics, personal computers, computer software, and some online services. The business is famous worldwide for its products, and some of its creations (such as the iPhone or iPad) have attained fame for their functionality and design. In this paper, the company of Apple will be examined.
After providing a sketch of the business’ background, we will discuss the similarities and differences between Apple and its rivals. Further, we will scrutinize the impact of the enterprise by discussing the innovations it offers, the charity activities it takes part in, and the sponsorship it provides.
Background
The history of the company started in 1977, when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne began to sell the Apple I kits, computers designed and hand-made by Steve Wozniak. Ronald Wayne soon quit the business, and Jobs and Wozniak were responsible for its further development (Luo par. 1-2). Subsequent models of this computer, Apple II and Apple III followed soon after. In 1981, the company was already among the biggest firms that produced microcomputers.
In 1983, the enterprise released its first Macintosh computer. In 1985, Jobs quit Apple (to return later, in 1997). The company sometimes formed alliances with its rivals (such as Microsoft, IBM, Motorola) in order to design new products. In 1994, the enterprise offered a new line of computers, the Power Macintosh. It also produced various consumer devices such as the Newton, a “personal digital assistant”. At the end of the 1990s – beginning of the 2000s, Apple offered a new line of devices, such as iMacs, Power Macs, and iBooks.
The iPod, introduced in 2001, was to become one among the most successful company’s products and yield immense financial profits. Another extremely successful product, the iPhone, was released in 2007. It was to become one of the most popular pieces of technology created by the company. The Apple iPad also became famous after being launched in 2010 (“Apple History Timeline” n. pag.; “Apple” n. pag.).
Nowadays, Apple is a major international company, well-known around the world. Despite being rather costly, the business’ products are popular among the customers and bring considerable profits. The company has an excellent reputation, and its goods are famous for their design, quality, and being user-friendly. The enterprise is also known as a major innovator. However, as it will be shown below, some of these claims might be doubted.
Apple and its Competitors
The company of Apple has a number of rivals; most of them compete with the enterprise in a few products. Among the most often named competitors of Apple are Samsung (competes over mobile computers and smartphones), HP and Acer (personal computers), Google (mobile computers, smartphones, entertainment media and applications) (“Who are Apple’s main competitors?” par. 2-6; “Who innovates more, Apple or HP?” par. 6).
One of the major company’s rivals is Samsung. There has been severe competition between the two enterprises over the last years (Jones n. pag.). Both companies produce laptops, mobile computers and smartphones. Some of them are similar in design and functions.
It was claimed that Samsung violated some of Apple’s patents, copying a number of technologies that Apple used while producing their smartphones; Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung in 2012 and was able to win $1 billion (Gobble 4). On the other hand, the companies were engaged in these legal proceedings because Samsung “copied” such features as “pinch and zoom” that are found in many today’s devices, not only Apple’s (“Copy That” par. 3). Apparently, Apple used various means to win against the rival.
Apple has a number of rivals in the personal computer market. Apple’s line of Macintosh computers is a very famous one, and it competes with computers produced by HP, Acer, Toshiba, and many others. Apparently, Apple has some advantage over PC manufacturers, for its Macs require different software, and, even though the products are interchangeable, Apple is still a monopolist to a certain extent, for it has a separate niche in the computer market.
To compare the products of Apple and its rivals, it should be noted that it is claimed that Apple’s Macs are “more sophisticated, easier to use, less prone to crashes,” etc., than the computers of its rivals (“Who Innovates More, Apple or HP?” par. 1).
On the other hand, it is important to point out that Apple’s Macs at are innovated less frequently than PCs produced by its rivals; for instance, it was found that over a 35-month period, Apple was the first to use a new CPU in its Macs seven times, whereas Toshiba did so twelve times, and HP did it fourteen times (“Who Innovates More, Apple or HP?” par. 6). Therefore, while Apple’s computers remain unique in a sense, they are quite often outmatched by their competitors.
Apple also competes with such companies as Google and Microsoft. Nowadays, Microsoft sells not only computer software but also phones and cloud offerings. All the three companies have incredibly valuable brands; it is stated that their brands were the most expensive ones in the world in 2014 (Badenhausen par. 2, 4, 6).
It is noted that Apple has mastered the art of moving their products and selling them at premium prices even when there are products of better quality available; the company’s brand name allows it to do so (Badenhausen par. 2). It should be noted that, even though Google is the company that revolutionized the Internet, it is less skillful at creating new technology trends than Apple (Lim and Tepper par. 31).
The Impact of the Company
Innovation
Apple is sometimes said to be one of the most innovative firms in the world. There are controversies about this issue, though; we already mentioned that HP and Toshiba used new CPUs for their PCs more often than Apple did for their Macs. Adams also points out that there were rankings that put Apple at the top of the list in innovations for a number of successive years (par. 1).
However, she also highlights that “Forbes” put Apple near the bottom of the innovative list (though the company still was on that list), which was due to differences in methodology; the journal assessed the expected innovative changes by the investments that other businesses had put into a company (Adams par. 2-3, 5).
The other list, on the contrary, was compiled by summing up the answers of approximately 1,500 senior executives from various companies; the executives had been simply asked which companies, in their opinion, had been the most innovative (Adams par. 2). Therefore, it might be stated that Apple is perceived as the most innovative company by a number of people, but, in fact, even though it provides quite many new products, it is still not the most innovative business.
And still, it should be noted that the enterprise has introduced many new devices that are popular now or were popular in the past times. Bedigian also stresses that the company’s success is, to a large extent, a result of its well-known brand and exceptionally good public image (par. 16-19).
In any case, it is important that the enterprise has offered numerous innovative products during the time of its existence. Not only the company produced Macintosh computers but it is also responsible for introducing such technologies as iBooks, iPods, iPhones, as well as special software for these systems such as iOS. Clearly, the company’s products have had a great impact on the American and world markets.
Charity and Scholarships
The company of Apple is reputed to be not a very charitable one. It is stated that Steve Jobs, the company’s CEO in the past, was not a known philanthropist – in fact, he was notorious for his views regarding charity; it appears that he believed that the company could do more by introducing new products instead of donating money (Daily Mail Reporter par. 4).
Apparently, the company changed its policies towards charity when Tim Cook took over the position of the enterprise’s CEO. However, even though the amount of money given to charity increased very soon, in 2011 the company still donated much less than many companies whose capital was estimated to be to be less than Apple’s (Daily Mail Reporter par. 13).
On the contrary, it is interesting to note that there were a number of major scandals related to the use of child labor in China in the enterprise’s supply chain. It is stated that the kids from the “cost-effective nation” were forced to work for 66 hours per week; they had six 11-hours working days, received the amount of money for their work that was significantly below the basic living wage in the region, and were repeatedly harassed by the management (Armitage par. 7, 13).
And yet, the company attempts to build the image of a charitable enterprise (Daily Mail Reporter par. 2). It is known to offer scholarships to talented students; for instance, Apple invites the teenagers to visit conferences hold by the company (the so-called Apple Worldwide Developers Conference) (WWDC par. 1).
It is noted that the company offers special training programs to the participants of their conference, ensuring that the business has a number of young fans who might come to work for the enterprise as developers in the future (Bort par. 4).
Sponsorship
The company of Apple also does not have the image of a major sponsoring organization; it is stated that it sponsored only a few important occasions (Grothaus par. 2).
In 2012, Apple considered sponsoring a prestigious literary award labeled “The Women’s Prize for Fiction”; it was speculated that Apple was considering the idea due to the fact that they planned “to drum up more interest in reading ebooks from its iBookstore”, and also because the festival might have changed its unofficial name from “The Orange Prize for Fiction” to “The Apple Prize for Fiction” (Grothaus par. 2). However, in the end, Apple decided not to become a sponsor of the event (Chapman par. 5). (Note that “The Women’s Prize for Fiction” event was held in the UK.)
Currently, the company is planning to become a sponsor for the Met Gala in 2016. It is an event which annually takes place in New York. The event is aimed at helping the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute. The topic of the 2016 Met Gala is going be “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology”, so Apple should be interested in sponsoring the event (Miller par. 1, 5). Otherwise, the company does not often attempt to be a sponsor, neither in the United States nor in other countries of the world.
Conclusion
To sum up, it should be reminded that the company of Apple was established in 1977, and already was a successful business in 1981. The enterprise grew and developed rapidly, offering products such as Macintosh computers, personal digital assistants, later – iPods, iBooks, iPhones, etc. Apple competes with a number of other enterprises over different products. For instance, HP and Acer are some of the company’s rivals in the computer market; Samsung competes with it mainly in the mobile phones market.
The company has a special type of monopoly on computers, as its Macs are different from usual PCs produced by other businesses; still, these products are interchangeable. Importantly, Apple is able to sell its products expensively even despite being less innovative than its rivals; apparently, the brand’s name helps to do this with such success. The company’s innovativeness is widely known among people, but it appears to be exaggerated. Still, the popularity allows Apple to set new trends easily.
The enterprise is known as one that does not donate much to charity; on the contrary, even though some steps to counter this were taken recently, there were scandals about the company taking advantage of Chinese minors working for its supply chain. Apple also does not often act as a sponsor; we were able to find only a few events that Apple had been planning to sponsor, one of which found a different sponsor eventually, while the other has not taken place yet.
Works Cited
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