Apple Inc. is a US multinational company that has its headquarters in California and designs, manufactures, and sells electronics, online services, and software. It was founded in early 1976 by Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Jobs and mainly dealt with the development and sale of personal computers (Kane, 2015). The company became incorporated in 1977 when it changed its name to Apple Computer, Inc., a process that gave it considerable momentum and increased profitability. Some of its hardware products are personal computers, smartphones, tablet computers, and media players (Kanagal, 2015). The corporation’s software includes iTunes media player, iOS and macOS operating systems, and the Safari web browser, while its online services encompass iCloud and App Store. Nevertheless, the high cost of its products coupled with the struggle for power between executive directors caused problems for the corporation. Because of the arising challenges, Steve jobs decided to resign and start his company referred to as NeXT.
With the expansion of the computer market, Apple experienced decreased sales attributable to low-priced products from its competitors, especially Microsoft. Job shuffles followed to the point that its CEO in 1997 chose to buy NeXT as a way of bringing back Steve Jobs to the corporation (Kao, 2018). After regaining the CEO position, Steve Jobs began the process of rebuilding Apple’s reputation, which he succeeded in realizing until 2011 when he resigned as the Chief Executive Officer because of health problems. Apple is currently the largest information technology corporation across the globe with respect to revenue and the second-biggest cellphone manufacturer after Samsung. In 2015, Apple was the first American company to be valued at more than 700 billion US dollars. It employs over 120,000 full-time workers and runs about 500 retail stores in about 22 nations.
References
Kanagal, N. B. (2015). Innovation and product innovation in marketing strategy. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 18, 1-25.
Kane, Y. I. (2015). Haunted empire: Apple after Steve Jobs. New York City, NY: Harper Business.
Kao, R. (2018). Disruptive leadership: Apple and the technology of caring deeply–Nine keys to organizational excellence and global impact. New York City, NY: Productivity Press.