Wada

Founded in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steven Jobs, Apple has enjoyed incredible success with its product lines. It was the first highly successful company to mass produce personal computers with the original introduction of its Apple I shortly after being founded. However, Apple's competitive position in the computer industry is relatively weak. Its introduction of the iPod into the digital music player industry in 2001 was met with overwhelming success resulting in their occupying a position of dominance. This success was augmented by Apple's introduction of iTunes which has allowed the company to maintain a position of strong market dominance. However, this position is being challenged by large capable competitors. In an effort to diversity its product line, Apple introduced the fi rst edition of its iPhone in 2007. The iPhone met with incredible success and sold one million units in seventy-four days. Its second generation 3G phone sold one million units in three days surpassing analysts' estimates.

However, Apple's success with its product lines has not always been stable. Steve Jobs was with the company from the beginning but had some key decision-making authority taken away after an unsuccessful coup. In 1985, Steve Jobs resigned as chairman of the company following his unsuccessful removal attempt of John Sculley (the board voted unanimously to retain him as president and CEO) and after the board stripped Jobs of all decision-making authority. However, after an extended period with little success and after several CEO changes, Steve Jobs was rehired in 1996. In 2000, Steve Jobs announced that he was the permanent CEO of Apple. The current leadership includes Steve Jobs (CEO), Peter Oppenheimer (responsible for supervision of the controller, treasury, investor relations, tax, information systems, internal audit, corporate development and human resources departments) and Timothy Cook (executive vice president