APPLE

Company History:
1. 1976-1981 Apple was established on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. The kits were hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips), which is less than what is today considered a complete personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66 ($2,690 in 2013 dollars, adjusted for inflation). Apple was incorporated January 3, 1977, without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multi-millionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple. The Apple II was introduced on April 16, 1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its major rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, due to its character cellbased color graphics and an open architecture. While early models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface, the Disk II. The Apple II was chosen to be the desktop platform for the first "killer app" of the business world, VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program. VisiCalc created a business market for the Apple II and gave home users compatibility with the office, an additional reason to buy an Apple II. Apple was a distant third place to Commodore and Tandy until VisiCalc came along. By the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line. The company introduced the Apple III in May 1980 in an attempt to compete with IBM and Microsoft in the business and corporate computing market. Jobs and several Apple employees, including Jef Raskin, visited Xerox PARC in December 1979 to see the Xerox Alto. Xerox granted Apple engineers three days of access to the PARC facilities in return for the option to buy 100,000 shares (800,000 split-adjusted shares) of Apple at the pre-IPO price of $10 a share. Jobs was immediately convinced that all future computers would use a graphical user interface (GUI), and development of a GUI began for the Apple Lisa.

On December 12, 1980, Apple went public at $22 per share, generating more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly creating more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history.

2. 1976-1981 Steve Jobs began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978, but in 1982, he was pushed from the Lisa team due to infighting. Jobs took over Jef Raskin's low-cost-computer project, the Macintosh. A race broke out between the Lisa team and the Macintosh team over which product would ship first. Lisa won the race in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public with a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag and limited software titles. In 1984, Apple next launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by the now famous $1.5 million television commercial "1984". It was directed by Ridley Scott and was aired during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. It is now hailed as a watershed event for Apple's success and a "masterpiece". The Macintosh initially sold well, but follow-up sales were not strong due to its high price and limited range of software titles. The Macintosh was the first personal computer to be sold without a programming language at all. The machine's fortunes changed with the introduction of the LaserWriter, the first PostScript laser printer to be sold at a reasonable price, and PageMaker, an early desktop publishing package. It has been suggested that the combination of these three products was responsible for the creation of the desktop publishing market. The Mac was particularly powerful in the desktop publishing market due to its advanced graphics capabilities, which had necessarily been built in to create the intuitive Macintosh GUI. In 1985 a power struggle developed between Jobs and CEO John Sculley, who had been hired two years earlier. The Apple board of directors instructed Sculley to "contain" Jobs and limit his ability to launch expensive forays into untested products. Rather than submit to Sculley's direction, Jobs attempted to oust him from his leadership role at Apple. Sculley found out that Jobs had been attempting to organize a coup and called a board meeting at which Apple's board of directors sided with Sculley and removed Jobs from his managerial duties. Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT Inc. the same year.

3. 1986-1997 The Macintosh Portable was introduced in 1989 and was designed to be just as powerful as a desktop Macintosh, but weighed a bulky 7.5 kilograms (17 lb) with a 12-hour battery life. After the Macintosh Portable, Apple introduced the PowerBook in 1991. The same year, Apple introduced System 7, a major upgrade to the operating system which added color to the interface and introduced new networking capabilities. It remained the architectural basis for Mac OS until 2001. The success of the PowerBook and other products brought increasing revenue. For some time, Apple was doing incredibly well, introducing fresh new products and generating increasing profits in the process. The magazine MacAddict named the period between 1989 and 1991 as the "first golden age" of the Macintosh. Following the success of the Macintosh LC, Apple introduced the Centris line, a lowend Quadra, and the ill-fated Performa line that was sold with an overwhelming number of configurations and software bundles to avoid competing with the various consumer outlets such as Sears, Price Club, and Wal-Mart (the primary dealers for these models). Consumers ended up confused and did not understand the difference between models. During this time Apple experimented with a number of other failed consumer targeted products including digital cameras, portable CD audio players, speakers, video consoles, and TV appliances. Enormous resources were also invested in the problem-plagued Newton division based on John Sculley's unrealistic market forecasts. Ultimately, none of these products helped, as Apple's market share and stock prices continued to slide. Apple saw the Apple II series as too expensive to produce, while taking away sales from the low end Macintosh. In 1990, Apple released the Macintosh LC with a single expansion slot for the Apple IIe Card to migrate Apple II users to the Macintosh platform. Apple stopped selling the Apple IIe in 1993. Microsoft continued to gain market share with Windows focusing on delivering software to cheap commodity personal computers while Apple was delivering a richly engineered, but expensive, experience. Apple relied on high profit margins and never developed a clear response. Instead, they sued Microsoft for using a graphical user interface similar to the Apple Lisa in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation. The lawsuit dragged on for years before it was finally dismissed. At the same time, a series of major product flops and missed deadlines sullied Apple's reputation, and Sculley was replaced as CEO by Michael Spindler.

By the early 1990s, Apple was developing alternative platforms to the Macintosh, such as the A/UX. Apple had also begun to experiment in providing a Mac-only online portal which they called eWorld, developed in collaboration with America Online and designed as a Mac-friendly alternative to other online services such as CompuServe. The Macintosh platform was itself becoming outdated because it was not built for multitasking, and several important software routines were programmed directly into the hardware. In addition, Apple was facing competition from OS/2 and UNIX vendors such as Sun Microsystems. The Macintosh would need to be replaced by a new platform, or reworked to run on more powerful hardware. In 1994, Apple allied with IBM and Motorola in the AIM alliance. The goal was to create a new computing platform (the PowerPC Reference Platform), which would use IBM and Motorola hardware coupled with Apple's software. The AIM alliance hoped that PReP's performance and Apple's software would leave the PC far behind, thus countering Microsoft. The same year, Apple introduced the Power Macintosh, the first of many Apple computers to use Motorola's PowerPC processor. In 1996, Michael Spindler was replaced by Gil Amelio as CEO. Gil Amelio made many changes at Apple, including extensive layoffs. After numerous failed attempts to improve Mac OS, first with the Taligent project, then later with Copland and Gershwin, Amelio chose to purchase NeXT and its NeXTSTEP operating system, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple as an advisor. On July 9, 1997, Gil Amelio was ousted by the board of directors after overseeing a three-year record-low stock price and crippling financial losses. Jobs became the interim CEO and began restructuring the company's product line. At the 1997 Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would join Microsoft to release new versions of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, and that Microsoft made a $150 million investment in non-voting Apple stock. On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the Apple Online Store, tied to a new build-to-order manufacturing strategy.

4. 1998-2005 On August 15, 1998, Apple introduced a new all-in-one computer reminiscent of the Macintosh 128K: the iMac. The iMac design team was led by Jonathan Ive, who would later design the iPod and the iPhone. The iMac featured modern technology and a unique design, and sold almost 800,000 units in its first five months.

Through this period, Apple purchased several companies to create a portfolio of professional and consumer-oriented digital production software. In 1998, Apple announced the purchase of Macromedia's Final Cut software, signaling its expansion into the digital video editing market. The following year, Apple released two video editing products: iMovie for consumers and, for professionals, Final Cut Pro, which has gone on to be a significant video-editing program, with 800,000 registered users in early 2007. In 2002, Apple purchased Nothing Real for their advanced digital compositing application Shake, as well as Emagic for their music productivity application Logic, which led to the development of their consumerlevel GarageBand application. iPhoto's release the same year completed the iLife suite. Mac OS X, based on NeXT's OPENSTEP and BSD Unix was released on March 24, 2001, after several years of development. Aimed at consumers and professionals alike, Mac OS X aimed to combine the stability, reliability and security of Unix with the ease of use afforded by an overhauled user interface. To aid users in migrating from Mac OS 9, the new operating system allowed the use of OS 9 applications through Mac OS X's Classic environment. On May 19, 2001, Apple opened the first official Apple Retail Stores in Virginia and California. On July 9, they bought Spruce Technologies, a DVD authoring company. On October 23 of the same year, Apple announced the iPod portable digital audio player, and started selling it on November 10. The product was phenomenally successful over 100 million units were sold within six years. In 2003, Apple's iTunes Store was introduced, offering online music downloads for $0.99 a song and integration with the iPod. The service quickly became the market leader in online music services, with over 5 billion downloads by June 19, 2008. Since 2001, Apple's design team has progressively abandoned the use of translucent colored plastics first used in the iMac G3. This began with the titanium PowerBook and was followed by the white polycarbonate iBook and the flat-panel iMac.

5. 2005-2007 At the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would begin producing Intel-based Mac computers in 2006. On January 10, 2006, the new MacBook Pro and iMac became the first Apple computers to use Intel's Core Duo CPU. By August 7, 2006 Apple had transitioned the entire Mac product line to Intel chips, over one year sooner than announced. The Power Mac, iBook, and PowerBook brands were retired during the transition; the Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro became

their respective successors. On April 29, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was building its own team of engineers to design microchips. Apple introduced Boot Camp to help users install Windows XP or Windows Vista on their Intel Macs alongside Mac OS X. Apple's success during this period was evident in its stock price. Between early 2003 and 2006, the price of Apple's stock increased more than tenfold, from around $6 per share (split-adjusted) to over $80. In January 2006, Apple's market cap surpassed that of Dell. Nine years prior, Dell's CEO Michael Dell said that if he ran Apple he would "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." Although Apple's market share in computers had grown, it remained far behind competitors using Microsoft Windows, with only about 8% of desktops and laptops in the US.

6. 2007-2011 Apple achieved widespread success with its iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad products, which introduced innovations in mobile phones, portable music players and personal computers respectively. In addition, the implementation of a store for the purchase of software applications represented a new business model. Touch screens had been invented and seen in mobile devices before, but Apple was the first to achieve mass market adoption of such a user interface that included particular pre-programmed touch gestures. Delivering his keynote speech at the Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer, Inc. would from that point on be known as Apple Inc., because computers were no longer the main focus of the company, which had shifted its emphasis to mobile electronic devices. The event also saw the announcement of the iPhone and the Apple TV. The following day, Apple shares hit $97.80, an all-time high at that point. In May, Apple's share price passed the $100 mark. In an article posted on Apple's website on February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs wrote that Apple would be willing to sell music on the iTunes Store without digital rights management (DRM) (which would allow tracks to be played on third-party players), if record labels would agree to drop the technology. On April 2, 2007, Apple and EMI jointly announced the removal of DRM technology from EMI's catalog in the iTunes Store, effective in May. Other record labels followed later that year. In July of the following year, Apple launched the App Store to sell third-party applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Within a month, the store sold 60 million

applications and brought in $1 million daily on average, with Jobs speculating that the App Store could become a billion-dollar business for Apple. Three months later, it was announced that Apple had become the third-largest mobile handset supplier in the world due to the popularity of the iPhone. On December 16, 2008, Apple announced that after over 20 years of attending Macworld, 2009 would be the last year Apple would be attending the Macworld Expo, and that Phil Schiller would deliver the 2009 keynote in lieu of the expected Jobs. Almost exactly one month later, on January 14, 2009, an internal Apple memo from Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence, until the end of June 2009, to allow him to better focus on his health and to allow the company to better focus on its products without having the rampant media speculating about his health. Despite Jobs' absence, Apple recorded its best non-holiday quarter (Q1 FY 2009) during the recession with a revenue of $8.16 billion and a profit of $1.21 billion. After years of speculation and multiple rumored "leaks", Apple announced a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. The iPad runs the same touch based operating system that the iPhone uses and many of the same iPhone apps are compatible with the iPad. This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch even with very little development time before the release. Later that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than 300,000 units on that day, reaching 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May of the same year, Apple's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989. Apple released the fourth generation iPhone, which introduced video calling, multitasking, and a new uninsulated stainless steel design, which acts as the phone's antenna. Because of this antenna implementation, some iPhone 4 users reported a reduction in signal strength when the phone is held in specific ways. After a large amount of media coverage including mainstream news organizations, Apple held a press conference where they offered buyers a free rubber 'bumper' case, which had been proven to eliminate the signal reduction issue. Later that year Apple again refreshed its iPod line of MP3 players which introduced a multi-touch iPod Nano, iPod Touch with FaceTime, and iPod Shuffle with buttons which brought back the buttons of earlier generations. In October 2010, Apple shares hit an all-time high, eclipsing $300. Additionally, on October 20, Apple updated their MacBook Air laptop, iLife suite of applications, and unveiled Mac OS X Lion, the last version with the name Mac OS X. On January 6, 2011, the company opened their Mac App Store, a digital software distribution platform, similar to the

existing iOS App Store. Apple was featured in the documentary Something Ventured which premiered in 2011. 7. 2011-present On January 17, 2011, Jobs announced in an internal Apple memo that he would take another medical leave of absence, for an indefinite period, to allow him to focus on his health. Chief operating officer Tim Cook assumed Jobs' day-to-day operations at Apple, although Jobs would still remain "involved in major strategic decisions for the company. Apple became the most valuable consumer-facing brand in the world. In June 2011, Steve Jobs surprisingly took the stage and unveiled iCloud, an online storage and syncing service for music, photos, files and software which replaced MobileMe, Apple's previous attempt at content syncing. This would be the last product launch Jobs would attend before his death. It has been argued that Apple has achieved such efficiency in its supply chain that the company operates as a monopsony (one buyer, many sellers), in that it can dictate terms to its suppliers. In July 2011, due to the American debt-ceiling crisis, Apple's financial reserves were briefly larger than those of the US Government. On August 24, 2011, Jobs resigned his position as CEO of Apple. He was replaced by Tim Cook and Jobs became Apple's chairman. Prior to this, Apple did not have a chairman and instead had two co-lead directors, Andrea Jung and Arthur D. Levinson, who continued with those titles until Levinson became Chairman of the Board in November. On October 4, 2011, Apple announced the iPhone 4S, which included an improved camera with 1080p video recording, a dual core A5 chip capable of 7 times faster graphics than the A4, an "intelligent software assistant" named Siri, and cloud-sourced data with iCloud. The following day, on October 5, 2011, Apple announced that Jobs had died, marking the end of an era for Apple Inc. The iPhone 4S was officially released on October 14, 2011. On October 29, 2011, Apple purchased C3 Technologies, a mapping company, for $240 million, becoming the third mapping company Apple has purchased. On January 10, 2012, Apple paid $500 million to acquire Anobit, an Israeli hardware company that developed and supplies a proprietary memory signal processing technology that improves the performance of flash-memory used in iPhones and iPads. On January 19, 2012, Apple's Phil Schiller introduced iBooks Textbooks for iOS and iBook Author for Mac OS X in New York City. This was the first major announcement by Apple since the passing of Steve Jobs, who stated in his biography that he wanted to reinvent

the textbook and education. The 3rd generation iPad was announced on March 7, 2012. It includes a Retina display, a new CPU, a five megapixel camera, and 1080p video recording. On July 24, 2012, during a conference call with investors, Tim Cook said that he loved India, but that Apple was going to expect larger opportunities outside of India, citing the reason as the 30% sourcing requirement from India. On August 20, 2012, Apple's rising stock rose the company's value to a world-record $624 billion dollars. This beat the non-inflation-adjusted record for market capitalization set by Microsoft in 1999. On August 24, 2012, a US jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion (665m) in damages in an intellectual property lawsuit. Samsung said they will appeal the court ruling. On September 12, 2012, Apple unveiled the iPhone 5, featuring an enlarged screen, more powerful processors, and running iOS 6. The latter includes a new mapping application (replacing Google Maps) that has attracted some criticism. It was made available on September 21, 2012, and became Apple's biggest iPhone launch, with over 2 million preorders pushing back the delivery date to late October. On October 23, 2012, Apple unveiled the iPad Mini, which features a 7.9-inch screen in contrast to the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. Apple also released a third-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display; the iPad 4, featuring a faster processor and a Lightning dock connector; and new iMac and Mac Mini computers. After the launch of Apple's iPad mini and fourth generation iPad on November 3, 2012, Apple announced that they had sold 3 million iPads in three days of the launch, but it did not mention the sales figures of specific iPad models. On November 10, 2012, Apple confirmed a global settlement that would dismiss all lawsuits between Apple and HTC up to that date, in favor of a ten-year license agreement for current and future patents between the two companies. It is predicted that Apple will make $280 million a year from this deal with HTC. In December 2012, in a TV interview for NBC's Rock Center and also aired on the Today morning show, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that in 2013 the company will produce one of its existing lines of Mac computers in the United States. In January 2013, Cook stated that he expected China to overtake the US as Apple's biggest market. In March 2013, Apple announced a patent for an augmented reality (AR) system that can identify objects in a live video stream and present information corresponding to these objects through a computer-generated information layer overlaid on top of the real-world image.

At the Worldwide Developer's Conference on June 10, 2013, Apple announced the seventh iOS operating system alongside OS X Mavericks, the tenth version of Mac OS X, and a new Internet radio service called iTunes Radio. iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks are both expected to be released during fall 2013, while the iTunes Radio Service, which will be integrated with Apple's personal voice-assistant software program Siri, is scheduled for release sometime in the second half of 2013. The radio service features more than 200 stations according to company's statement.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) a new marketing trend in which organizations try to get to us as individuals in order to satisfy our wants and needs more accurately. Apple uses information we provide them to enhance their products and services and to enhance their marketing. A customer exchanges information with the company in many different ways including points of sale, the web, promotions and any form you fill up with your information. In their privacy policy Apple explain how they threat our information, how they collect it, disclose it to, and what they do with it. CRM is a form of relationship marketing that is powered by us, because we are the source of Apple's success. Apple collects our information in many different ways, for example when you create an Apple I.d, register your products, online surveys, register for workshops at any of their retail stores and when you apply for commercial credit. They collect information that ranges from your name, address, phone number, and contact references, to your social security number. They store this information in data bases that they use to research the market, analyse market segments, and target their advertising campaigns to the right target market. Apple also uses this information to inform us about new products, events, software updates, paperless receipts and also to deliver their products when we order them online. The main idea behind Apple getting our information is to develop new products that meet our needs on a deeper level. Apple uses cookies and other technologies such as pixel tags and web beacons to control the number and times we see an ad in our mobile devices. Well they use these technologies that track down what part of their internet page you saw so that they can improve their content or make it more efficient for you. They also track down your

preferences and show you ads that go according to them. This CRM process helps them to figure us out as individuals and provide advertising that suits our needs and wants which is the base for good marketing. When you enter a sweepstakes, or any other contest Apple also collects that information to better administer the programs again.

Apple has been awarded the TRUSTe seal because they show "transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information." Apple treats information as personal and non-personal, they only disclose non-personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. Non personal information is information that doesn't have your name or any other way to associate you with it for example "occupation, language, zip code, area code, unique device identifier, location, and the time zone where an Apple product is used." This disclose this type of information to any of their associates at any time for the purpose of improving their products and marketing. Personal information is guaranteed to be stored and protected in data warehouses where it can only be accessed by authorized personnel. Apple's brand reputation backs their name and gives you a peace of mind when you share your personal information with them. Apple's main goal is to keep you updated and informed with the company, they tell you how they use your information on their privacy policy so it'll be wise for you to read it. CRM is good for us as customers because we get products that fit our needs a little better just by giving them a little bit of information. Apple has been successful at using our information, that's why they are one of the leading companies in the world. If you want to update any of your personal information you have with Apple just go

to www.apple.com/contact/myinfo. There you can access your Apple I.d and update your personal information just or just make sure is accurate to let them know you are an Apple consumer and that you are the reason for their success.

How They Maintaining Customer

Apple Stores are the best example of what makes it different from its peers and are illustrative of the company's approach. The retail stores are one of the most important ways people interact with Apple. Not just for those who are already customers but potential customers--sometimes more than 50

million customers tromp through Apple's doors every three months, and half of them who make purchases are first-timers, according to Apple. Employees are encouraged to empathise with the customer as much as possible, but without apologising for the business itself by using terms such as "i can appreciate how you feel". They are also encouraged to comment on each others progres in a process known as "Fearless Feedback.". As well as having customer friendly environments, intensive training for employees, and of course, great products, a key element of their success is the culture that they have created, and crucially that they keep reinforcing that helps deliver consistently great customer experiences. For example, employees are told (and trained) not to sell, but rather to help customers solve problems. Your job is to understand all of your customers needssome of which they may not even realize they have, one training manual says. Interestingly, employees receive no sales commissions and have no sales targets. This is just one of the key elements highlighted in a great article in the Wall Street Journal that gets to the core of Apples great customer service, and gives some great insights. This involves turning criticisms into positive remarks. Employees are given a range of scenarios where their colleagues have various issues. Apparently Apple gives its people clear guidelines on what to do, and how to do it, when it comes to dealing with customers For example, its steps of service are spelled out in the acronym APPLE:

Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome. Probe politely to understand all the customers needs. Present a solution for the customer to take home today. Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns. End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

Its simple stuff, but it certainly seems to work. Apple are a great example of a business that creates and reinforces an UBER culture that means

Everyone Understands whats expected of them and behaves accordingly and consistently as a result.

Systems and processes are Built to create consistently great customer experiences and reinforce that culture.

People are Engaged, Empowered and Encouraged to deliver them. People are Rewarded and Recognised for doing it.

There are 300 Apple stores worldwide right now, mostly in the U.S., but growing in major world capitals, like London, Paris, and Shanghai. Everything about the store is

intended to represent what it is like to own and use an Apple product: Apple controls the whole experience, from the limited range of products on the shelves, to the training of the young, intentionally geeky/hip employees, to the manner in which some stores are designed with architectural flourishes normally reserved for museums, to the tech support received at the Genius Bar, to the educational classes offered in stores for using Apple products. PC companies have dabbled in retail with varying results. Microsoft's current experiment in retail--which borrows from Apple's retail look and feel--is still small: four stores right now, with a few more planned. Dell's foray was brief, and Gateway did well for a number of years until calling it quits before eventually being sold to Acer. Retail stores are expensive to maintain, but it can define a company's brand and dictate how customers interact with a company. Apple takes that task on itself, in addition to selling its products online and through some third-party retailers. PC makers either rely on the direct approach on the Web or trust a salesperson to properly present their product at Best Buy, Fry's, MicroCenter and others, or just leave it up to the consumer wandering the aisles at Wal-Mart or Costco. The other major difference between Apple and the rest of the field is that no other company is as subject to a singular vision. At Apple, the only person whose opinion really matters in the end is Steve Jobs, and that goes for product decisions as well as how the company is run. That doesn't work for everyone. At most large companies, there are competing agendas and fiefdoms that compete for resources and weigh in with differing visions on products. Jobs' leadership style cuts that out.

Apple Leadership (Tim Cook)

Tim Cook--unlike his predecessor, Steve Jobs--famously doesn't crave the spotlight. So his most recent interview with Businessweek, which appears as a the magazine's cover story, offered a rare glimpse into Cook's life as CEO of Apple. Here are a few takeaways from Cook's leadership style: 1. Diversity of leadership is massively important. Diversity isn't just an HR buzzword (or an old wooden ship, either). In fact, a plurality of backgrounds among your employees can actually help the revenue of your company. The idea behind this philosophy is that people bring lots of different experiences to the table, and companies that can harness the most amount of creative experiences will be more innovative

in their approach to business. Cook very explicitly recognizes that fact, and has made diversity a cornerstone of his management philosophy. "We want diversity of thought," he says. "We want diversity of style. We want people to be themselves. It's this great thing about Apple. You don't have to be somebody else. You don't have to put on a face when you go to work and be something different. But the thing that ties us all is we're brought together by values. We want to do the right thing. We want to be honest and straightforward. We admit when we're wrong and have the courage to change." 2. Transparency is key. Cook knew transparency would be key. With harsh criticism about the standards of Apple's global employees (especially through their manufacturing partners at Foxconn), Cook opened the doors and invited the world to see how Apple's operations really worked. By doing this, he not only created goodwill around the company, but set industry standards for other manufacturers. "Our transparency in supplier responsibility is an example of recognizing that the more transparent we are, the bigger difference we would make," Cook says. "We want to be as innovative with supply responsibility as we are with our products. That's a high bar. The more transparent we are, the more it's in the public space." 3. Read customer emails. (If anything, it humbles you.) You think you understand your customers...but do you? Even Tim Cook, head of the world's most valuable company, carves out time to walk around company stores and read customer e-mails. "I'll walk around our stores," he says. "You can learn a tremendous amount in a store. I get a lot of e-mails and so forth, but its a different dimension when you're in a store and talking to customers face to face. You get the vibe of the place...Not allowing yourself to become insular is very importantmaybe the most important thing, I think, as a CEO."

4.

You "can only do a few things great." Considering the size of Apple, it's pretty remarkable to think about how few products

the company actually creates. "I mean, if you really look at it, we have four iPods. We have two main iPhones. We have two iPads, and we have a few Macs. That's it," he says. The point is: focus on what you do best, and do it the best you can. "We argue and debate like crazy about what we're going to do, because we know that we can only do a few

things great," he says. "At the right time, well keep disrupting and keep discovering new things that people didnt know they wanted."

5.

Admit you're wrong. Ultimately, Cook's advice for entrepreneurs and CEOs is advice that's pretty helpful for

anyone, really. "So many people, particularly, I think, CEOs and top executives, they get so planted in their old ideas, and they refuse or don't have the courage to admit that they're now wrong," he says. "Maybe the most underappreciated thing about Steve was that he had the courage to change his mind. And you knowit's a talent. It's a talent."

Positioning Apple
Apple is currently occupying the "white hot center" of converged personal computing & entertainment market, and that's a tough position to beat for any competition. So the best solution in such a case is to lure customers into a different market place - i.e, enterprise market place. e. g Apple, by nature & by business strategy, has never positioned itself in the enterprise space & that opens an opportunity for competitors like HP, Blackberry & others.

What is White Hot Center? White hot center is a market position where all the customer's attention is on. Its essentially the prime spot of customer attention, and everyone is watching every step the seller makes. To illustrate this, imagine a market or a Mall with a large central space where seller is selling his wares, and is surrounded by people in all direction, people are hustling to get in front and buy his products, and the crowd is making a huge commotion about it. This commotion and noise will attract other people who have come to the market and they too are watching the action at the center of the market/mall. Now, seller is at the white hot center of the market.

Today, Apple is at the white hot center selling its iPhones, iPads, Mac computer, Apple TV, iTunes, etc., and people are surrounding Apple store in millions, and making all the big noise, and then put yourself in another store at a corner of the market, trying to attract customers for your products. And that's where Apple's competitors are today. Every market has one white hot center: Starbucks in coffee, BMW in cars, HP in printers, iPhone in Mobile phones, iPad in Tablets, Nike in sport shoes, Tiffany's in Jewelry, Marriot in Hotels, etc.

How did Apple get to the white hot center? Apple did not get to the white hot center by accident, it was culmination of a decade's hard work and mistakes of its competitors. To understand this journey, imagine a mall of PC sellers. Certainly Apple was one of the early stores in the mall and other joined: IBM, Companq, Dell, HP, Digital, Gateway, Acer, Sony, Toshiba etc. Over a period of time the position of white hot center moved from Apple, to IBM, to Compaq to Dell to HP and back to Apple. During the last 30 years, several things changed in the PC industry. IBM was the early rock star of the PC world - but with time, Compaq was able to win that crown, and then came Dell, but as Dell stumbled & fell on quality issues, HP picked up the crown - and for a brief period of time, there was no one occupying the white hot center. While the rest of PC manufactures stumbled and made mistakes, Apple has been executing flawlessly. Its not that Apple did not have its share of problems: Apple has faced several manufacturing problems - Imperfections in its transparent iMacs, Failure of toaster like design for PC, Scratches on iPod, dropped call in iPhone 3G, debris in 27" LCD monitors etc. But Apple has been successful in avoiding controversies, and has been very successful in cultivating customer satisfaction, Apple has been open and transparent of its problems and has taken all the necessary steps to fix those issues. While the competition was entrenched with operational issues that they failed to produce competitive products. The fact that the competition had failed to respond forcefully to Apple's new product introductions - had enabled Apple to gain the white hot center.

This is how Apple achieved the white hot center position in the market: Step-1. iMac: Simple & easy to use PC, designed for style and personal resonance with the customer. At a time when all the PC manufactures was selling white box PC, and Black colored laptops, Apple took a fresh view of things and introduced stylish iMac. It was a bold

design with an integrated monitor/CPU & without floppy drive. The boldness in design & style was unmatched till date.

Step-2. iPod: Personal MP3 player - with legitimate MP3 download music site - iTunes. Coming into sthe market when RIAA was suing Napster out of business, Apple created iTunes where customers could legitimately download music and enjoy it in iPods. The competition till date has not provided a competition to iTunes. Both Sony & Dell introduced MP3 players, but failed to create anything like iTunes

Step-3: OS-X & Intel processors. Apple moved smartly to dump PowerPC processors in favor of Intel, and created OS-X, Apple's version of Linux kernel. With this bold move, Apple was able to throw away tons of legacy code and create a small, nibble & efficient OS for all its MAC computers. Till date, Microsoft has not been able to create a product like OSX, Windows Vista failed in market as it was loaded with several tons of legacy code, which Microsoft could not throw away.

Step-4: Mac Air Book: Apple reinvented laptops with Air Mac Books. The ultra thin laptops was revolutionary in design and size. Even after 3 years of its introduction, competition has still not produced anything like an Airbook in terms of design. Only recently, Lenovo announced a competitive product & that's 3 years too late.

Step-5: iPhone: Revolution of Touch Screen Phones. Apple redesigned the cell phones with a completely new user experience, and with that Apple created a niche for itself. With a strong position in high end cell phones, Apple changed the business environment for the incumbents - Nokia, Sony-Erricson, Motorola. Apple created a whole new platform for its iPhone, and refused to reuse its OS-X for iPhones thus avoiding Windows CE like blunder.

Step-6. IPad: New paradigm of computing. Apple was not the first to introduce the tablet computer. HP, Nokia, Sony had experimented with that before. But Apple changed the computing paradigm with its multi-touch interface in iPhone & expanded that concept in iPad. Its been about 2 years since the original iPad debuted, but the competition is yet to introduce an strong contender in this space. Nokia is no where near with its Tablet, nor is Dell or Sony. HP & Motorola had a decent product but its not a substitution for iPad.

Market Position To understand market position of Apple, one needs to look at the basics: Price, Product, Place, Promotion. a.k.a - Fundamentals of marketing.

Price: Apple in general is positioned as a premium product. Apple products are generally priced higher than competition. This position has helped Apple a lot as it avoids getting into price war. Instead of competing on price, Apple can now compete on innovation and unique value propositions. This is a key element to be in the white hot center. This position of a premium priced superior product was once occupied by IBM and later by Sony. Premium pricing strategy helps to make big profits without hurting the brand. Apple brand is the most valuable asset, bigger than all the technologies it controls. Having volumes at this premium pricing helps Apple make bold design decisions and force its supply partners to comply with its design decision.

To strengthen its premium pricing, Apple does not do any discounting on its products.

Product: Apple simply wants to sell the best product in the class. No compromises in quality or performance. Here Apple had its share of manufacturing mistakes: Antennagate, iPod scratches, etc. But every time such problem was identified, Apple moved swiftly to solve it completely. Apple has taken bold decisions when it comes to product quality: Delay shipments to get quality products out, rather than compromise on quality and get more products out to customers. Apple's positioning on quality has helped build trust & confidence of the market. As long as Apple maintains its product quality, Apple can continue demanding premium prices and people will line up to buy Apple products. Another good point of Apple's product positioning is that there are very few variants in each class of products: iPad is available in Black or White, 3G + Wifi or WiFi only in 3 memory sizes: 16GB, 32GB & 64GB, and 3G is available on Verizon or AT&T network. This limits the number of choices the customer has to choose from and it makes it easy for customer to decide and buy. Similarly in its Mac Pro line as well, there is a spartan range of models to choose from. (see Product Management - Paradox of Choice).

No Substitute Positioning. Apple products are unique and does not have a similar substitute. A Mac can be technically replaced by a PC, but the user will never accept the substitute PC because of the user experience on a PC is totally different than on a Mac. So a replacement for a Mac is another Mac, replacement for an iPad is another iPad, iPhone with an iPhone. Recently, I swapped a Dell for a Compaq without missing a beat, the user experience was the same on both laptops, but I tried Galaxy Tab - only to get back to iPad.

Place: In the era of Internet sales, Apple moved boldly in the opposite direction and set up exclusive retail outlets, when its competitors closed retail outlets and moved to Internet based sales. Apple has been very selective in choosing the retail partners, has made big demands on how Apple products must be placed and displayed in stores and in case of company owned retail outlets Apple has gone the whole length to design the store as a boutique store aimed at giving the best customer experience. Apple stores are often located in prime retail places and that augurs well with its premium image.

Promotion: Apple has been a though leader when to came to advertising, be it the 1984 super bowl advertisement or today's iconic iPhone 4 advertisements, Apple's advertisements have always stood apart from the competition. Apple has been very careful not to give discounts to promote its product, instead it uses scarcity as a promotion technique, saying only 100 pieces are available & that makes people eagerly wait to get their hands on Apple's products. So when the product becomes available, people are readily exchanging their Dollars to get their iMac/iPad/iPhone.

The judicious mix of 4Ps has led Apple to create the right branding, & market positioning.

Branding Apple has been building up a very big reputation and a very strong brand, I suppose that Apple is within the most expensive brands on earth. Everybody associates automatically Apple with innovation, design, quality, being different, etc. Apple cannot deliver products

that are not innovative, well designed or top-notch quality, they would only destroy their own brand and reduce sales figures dramatically. Innovation and quality are related with high price, the high price guarantees the customer that he is buying an excellent product, this is psychologically as well as from the business side, a typical business model. The human psychology says that the higher the price, the better the product and otherwise. Cheap Apple products would mean low quality which would hurt the Apple brand in good times and maybe in a long term, be more dangerous than just trying to survive the hard times. Take the case of Dell. Which had serious quality issues and that effectively destroyed the brand, and Dell lost the market leader position.

Positioning Apple has positioned itself to be a lifestyle product for wealthy people, innovators and people with good jobs. Apple has become a desired product but not easily affordable. This premium positioning helps Apple in the long term. With inflation in wages, affordability, more people can afford Apple products in future, thus increasing sales by reaching out to a larger audience with time, and when people can afford to buy Apple products they do not haggle about price, price would be secondary and the image of having an Apple product is more important. Four years ago, very few people could afford a smart iPhone in India, but today the situation has changed, iPhone is becoming part of mainstream market as affordability has increased.

Business Environment Not all things at Apple was deliberately planned and executed by Apple. Few things happened in the business environment that really helped Apple along the way. Failures of Microsoft Vista, limitations of Symbian OS, Fragmentation of Andriod systems and importantly security threats on Windows - all this helped Apple. Apple was able to pull other developers to develop applications on its iPhone/iOS platform, which led to creating a sustainable ecosystem for its business. With millions of users, third party developers are happy to develop Apple specific products.

In the back end, Apple worked hard with music label companies to create iTunes. Now Apple is building iCloud as well to create a right environment for the future.

Staying in the White Hot Center Apple is in White hot zone, that it cannot afford to make mistakes. Customers are willing to forgive one rare mistake, but not too many of them. Apple has been able to execute extremely well all through the last decade, and has corrected several glitches, come out openly and admit the mistake and fix them. Apple products are never positioned to be a low market products, its only in the premium segment mind share. Do not respond to competition in obvious ways, instead make the competition respond to your moves. Apple works doubly hard to find out what customers want and then delivers on the key requirement. Once in execution, it must be a flawless execution.

How to stay in the white hot center: 1. 2. Move with the customer. Influence the customer to move in that direction. (Best way to be a leader is to find a group of people walking in one direction, and then walking in front of them). 3. 4. 5. Make no mistakes, when you make one, correct it ASAP. Throw yourself at the audience as a thought leader in that field. Always be seen with the winning horse. Always be associated with success and never get associated with controversies or losing propositions. 6. Never take customers for granted - get the pulse of the market and move ahead swiftly & flawlessly.

Marketers manage product positioning by focusing their marketing activities on a positioning strategy. This essay will discuss the multiple factors that are crucial to optimal market positioning. The factors that impact the chosen organisation, Apple, and the chosen product, laptop computers, include market segmentation, market positioning, and the marketing mix, which comprises price, promotion, place and product. Established in the United States of America in April 1976, Apple Inc is a multinational corporation that designs and manufactures consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include Mac computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. As at January 2010 the company operates 284 retail stores in ten countries, and an online store (www.apple.com/investors). Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry. This includes a customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand, particularly in the United States.

Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world in 2008, 2009, and 2010 (http://money.cnn.com). Before discussing how Apple positions its laptop computers in the market, it is important to understand how markets are segmented. Market segmentation is the segmentation of markets into homogenous groups of customers, each of them reacting differently to promotion, communication, pricing and other variables in the marketing mix (themanager.org) and is essential when trying to understand customers and what will influence their values and perceptions. A challenge that any marketing plan faces is whether or not to broadly class buyers and segment the market accordingly by using segments such as age, sex, income levels or whether to try and target the smaller buyers and their specific needs and wants. Through segmentation of an aggregated population, Apple can determine what appeals to specific groups.