Apple Case Study

I. Industry

During the last fifty years or so, computers have become the complex electronic machines that we know today. Many people use these every day, and most don’t realize how much they affect their daily life. During the early 20th century, before World War II, a need for calculating machines arose from the military. These first machines were usually designed to do one task each, so they were not designed for general use, but for specific use.

The punched-card machine was more popular than digital computers during this time period. Punched-card machines processed data from paper cards with holes punched in them. The main supplier of these machines and cards was the IBM Company. As late as 1960 IBM was still primarily a punched-card machine supplier. It was not until 1962 that computer sales equaled those of its traditional punched-card products.

The history of computers changed dramatically with the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958. Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce were the developers of the integrated circuit. Also known as chips, integrated circuits allowed computers to be many times smaller. They took large, complex circuits and compacted them into a single component. Integrated circuits are still used today, and can contain up to several millions of components in each chip.

Early consumer computers included the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Intel 8080, the Commodore PET, and the Apple II. All of these computers were first introduced in 1977. Although it was more expensive than the TRS-80 or the PET, the Apple II sold better. It did not take long for people to write imaginative software for it. By this time, companies were offering 8 inch floppy drives to go with their machines. They were very expensive but much better than cassette tape. In 1977, Apple developed a 5 ј inch floppy drive. Apple’s 5 ј inch floppy drive could hold 113 Kbytes of data and sold for $495, which included operating system software and a controller that plugged into one of the Apple II’s internal slots.

In 1981, the Microsoft Corporation developed the MS-DOS operating system. MS-DOS stands for Microsoft disk operating system. This is still used today, but it is now called the Windows XP Command Line. It uses keyed in commands to operate the computer. The first Windows operating system debuted in 1985. The Macintosh was also used during this time. These were the first GUIs, or Graphical User Interface. A GUI is basically a pretty face on top of what is actually happening. A GUI typically contains icons for programs, instead of using commands. This type of operating system is more user-friendly.

Windows soon became the predominant operating system. Windows 95 was the first operating system designed for use with the internet. Windows 98 was an update of Windows 95. In 2000, Windows ME, or millennium edition, replaced the older versions. Another version of Windows that came out that year was Windows 2000 Professional. This was designed to be used more in offices and workplaces, while Windows ME was designed for home use. The current version of Windows is Windows XP. There is an XP Home Edition and XP Professional, which are both updates of ME and 2000 Professional.

Over the years, computers have changed very dramatically. They have become more powerful, faster, can store more data, and perform tasks that were unheard of several years ago. Computers continue to change and are becoming more and more useful in our everyday life. The computer industry is dominated by a few large companies with consumers buying products below Apple’s price points. Computer sales are predicted to grow 12.9 percent this year.

New entrants to the MP3 player and PC markets must all face the entry barriers to manufacture highly specialized technological products. Microsoft and Sony are only two players that want their share of the portable entertainment market. Currently the iPod finds itself in the growth stage of its product life cycle. It has shown a steady growth rate as demonstrated in the sales reported by Apple Computers for the past fifteen quarters. The most recent quarters have shown a significant increase in the sales volume of iPods, a good indicator that the iPod market is expanding. It appears as though there is now definitely a public awareness of the Apple iPod worldwide.

Competition is also quickly increasing as new players are being incorporated into the market. Some of the main competitors include Creative Technologies, Dell and Sony. All of which create similar players that incorporate design and functionality. Although some of these are household names none has been able to dethrone the iPod from being the icon for digital jukeboxes. The first casualty that fell to the iPod was the iRiver Rio that could not compete with the customer loyalty base that people have for Apple.

The growth potential in