APPLE COMPANY LTD.

APPLe 1
Apple incorporation, is a multinational corporation that creates consumer electronics, computer software, and commercial servers. Apple's core product lines are the iPad, iPhone, iPod music player, and Macintosh computer line-up. Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak effectively created Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, with the release of the Apple I, and incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California. For more than two decades, Apple Computer was predominantly a manufacturer of personal computers, including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Power Mac lines, but it faced rocky sales and low market share during the 1990s. Jobs, who had been ousted from the company in 1985, returned to become Apple's CEO in 1996 after his company NeXT was bought by Apple Inc., and he brought with him a new corporate philosophy of recognizable products and simple design. With the introduction of the successful iPod music player in 2001, Apple established itself as a leader in the consumer electronics industry, dropping "Computer" from its name. The latest era of phenomenal success for the company has been in The iOS range of products that began with the iPhone, iPod Touch and now iPad. As of 2011, Apple is the largest technology firm in the world, with annual revenues of more than $60 billion.

Apple 2: Wozniak had already moved on from the Apple I. Many of the design features of the I were due to the limited amount of money they had to construct the prototype, but with the income from the sales he was able to start construction of a greatly improved machine, the Apple II; it was presented to the public at the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 16 and April 17, 1977. On the first day of exhibition, Jobs introduced Apple II to a Japanese chemist named Toshio Mizushima who became the first authorized Apple dealer in Japan.

The main difference internally was a completely redesigned TV interface, which held the display in memory. Now not only useful for simple text display, the Apple II included graphics, and, eventually, color. Jobs meanwhile pressed for a much improved case and keyboard, with the idea that the machine should be complete and ready to run out of the box. This was almost the case for the Apple I machines sold to The Byte Shop, but one still needed to plug various parts together and type in the code to run BASIC.

With both cash and a new case design in hand thanks to designer Jerry Manock, the Apple II was released in 1977 and became the computer generally credited with creating the home computer market Millions were sold well into the 1980s. A number of different models of the Apple II series were built, including the Apple IIe and Apple IIGS, which could still be found in many schools as late as 2005

APPLE 3: By the early 1980s, Apple Computer faced increasing competition. While the Apple II was already established as a successful business-ready platform because of Visicalc, Apple was not content. The Apple III was designed to take on the IBM PC in the business environment. The Apple III was a relatively conservative design for computers of the era. However, Steve Jobs did not want the computer to have a fan; rather, he wanted the heat generated by the electronics to be dissipated through the chassis of the machine, forgoing the cooling fan. Unfortunately, the physical design of the case was not sufficient to cool the components inside it. By removing the fan from the design, the Apple III was prone to overheating. This caused the integrated circuit chips to disconnect from the motherboard. Customers who contacted Apple customer service were told to "drop the computer on the desk", which would cause the ICs to fall back in to place. Thousands of Apple III computers were recalled and, although a new model was introduced in 1983 to rectify the problems, the damage was already done.

1985: Jobs leaves Apple :

After an internal power struggle, the board of directors sided with Sculley and Jobs was asked to resign. In a show of defiance at being booted from Apple Computer, Jobs sold his 6.5 million shares in the company for $70 million. Jobs then acquired the visual effects house, Pixar for $5M. He also went on to found NeXT Inc, computer would introduce important concepts to the history of the personal

computer (including serving as the initial platform for Tim Berners-Lee as he was developing the World Wide Web.
Apple -II family of the 1980:

Apple now had two separate, incompatible platforms: the Apple II, an affordable, expandable home computer, and the Apple Macintosh, the closed platform for professionals. John Gruber, among others, has speculated that this platform incompatibility was the main reason the Macintosh did not share the initial commercial success which was experienced by the Apple II in the late 1970s. However, by the mid - 1980s, the Apple II was now competing with the IBM PC and its clones, and a new energy was focused upon marketing the Macintosh

The Macintosh

Introduced in January 1984 (along with a revised Lisa), this Macintosh didn't have a model number - it was simply the Macintosh. There was no name on the front. Early 128Ks simply said "Macintosh" on the back, while later ones were marked "Macintosh 128K" to distinguish them from the later Macintosh 512K. (See the first Macintosh on the cover of the February 1984 Byte.) Equipped with 128 KB RAM, 64 KB ROM, a 3.5" 400 KB floppy drive, a 1bit 512 x 342 pixel b&w monitor, a mouse, and a couple applications (MacWrite and Mac Paint), the Macintosh was destined to change the face of computing forever - it not only created the Mac look and feel, it also inspired forthcoming versions of Microsoft Windows and several other windowing interfaces. What didn't it have? A SCSI port, 5.25" floppies, backward compatibility with the Apple II, III, or Lisa. But it had twice as much memory as the popular Commodore 64, put 2.5 times as much data on a floppy disk as the IBM PC's single-sided 5.25" disk, included two serial ports (one which could be used for networking at the thenincredible speed of 230.4 kbps), and a totally graphical operating system, all packed into the cutest, friendliest package the computer industry had yet seen. Apple sold 70,000 during its first 100 days on the market.

The Macintosh was supplemented by the 512K in October.

Mac family (operating system ) : At the same time, the Mac was becoming a product family of its own. The original model evolved into the Mac Plus in 1986 and spawned the Mac SE and the Mac II in 1987 and the Mac Classic and Mac LC in 1990. Meanwhile, Apple attempted its first portable Macs: the failed Macintosh Portable in 1989 and then the more popular PowerBook in 1991, a landmark product that established the modern form and ergonomic layout of the laptop. Popular products and increasing revenues made this a good time for Apple. MacAddict magazine has called 1989 to 1991 the "first golden age" of the Macintosh. On February 19, 1987, Apple registered the "Apple.com" domain name, making it one of the first hundred companies to register a .com address on the nascent Internet.

1996: Return of Steve Jobs : In 1996, the struggling NeXT company beat out Be Inc.'s BeOS in its bid to sell its operating system to Apple. Apple purchased Steve Jobs' company, NeXT on December 10, 1996, and its NeXT step operating system. This would not only bring Steve Jobs back to Apple's management, but NeXT technology would become the foundation of the Mac OS X operating system. On November 10, 1997, Apple introduced the Apple Store, an online retail store based upon the WebObjects application server the company had acquired in its purchase of NeXT. The new direct sales outlet was also tied to a new build-to-order manufacturing strategy. And he became a CEO of the company

1998-2001: Apple's renaissance :

While discontinuing Apple's licensing of its operating system to third-party computer manufacturers, one of Jobs's first moves as new acting CEO was to develop the iMac, which bought Apple time to restructure. The original iMac integrated a CRT display and CPU into a streamlined, translucent plastic body. The line became a sales smash, moving about one million units each year. It also helped reintroduce Apple to the media and public, and announced the company's new emphasis on the design and aesthetics of its products. More recent products include the iBook, the Power Mac G4, and the AirPort product series, which helped popularize the use of Wireless LAN technology to connect computers to networks.

In 1999, Apple introduced the Power Mac G4, which utilized the Motorola-made PowerPC 7400 containing a 128-bit instruction unit known as AltiVec, its flagship processor line. Also that year, Apple unveiled the iBook, its first consumer-oriented laptop that was also the first Macintosh to support the use of Wireless LAN via the optional AirPort card that was based on the 802.11b standard.

iPod :
In October 2001, Apple introduced its first iPod portable digital audio player. The iPod started as a 5 gigabyte player capable of storing around 1000 songs. Since then it has evolved into an array of products including the Mini (now discontinued), the iPod Touch, the Shuffle, the iPod Classic, the Nano, and the iPhone. As of March 2011, the largest storage capacity for an iPod was 160 gigabytes.

Intel transition :
In a keynote address on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs officially announced that Apple will begin producing Intel-based Macintosh computers beginning in 2006. Jobs confirmed rumors that the company had secretly been producing versions of its current operating system Mac OS X for both PowerPC and Intel processors over the past 5 years, and that the transition to Intel processor systems would last until the end of 2007. Rumors of cross-platform compatibility had been spurred by the fact that Mac OS X is based on OPENSTEP, an operating system that was available for many platforms.

iPod and iTunes store :

On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, a portable digital music player. Its signature features included an LED, easy to use interface, and a large capacity drive (initially 5 GB) which was enough to hold approximately 1,000 songs. It was quite large when compared to the 20-30 songs of Flash-based players of the time. Apple has since revised its iPod line several times, introducing a slimmer, more compact design, Windows compatibility (previous iPods only interacted with Macintosh computers), AAC compatibility, storage sizes of up to 160 GB, and easier connectivity with car or home stereo systems. On October 26, 2004, Apple released a color version of their award winning iPod which can not only play music but also show photos. In early 2005, Apple

unveiled a smaller iPod : the iPod Shuffle, which is about the size of a pack of gum. Speaking to software developers on June 6, 2005, Steve Jobs said the company's share of the entire portable music device market stood at 76%. Apple has revolutionized the computer and music industry by signing the five major record companies to join its new music download service, the successful iTunes Music Store, now known as iTunes Store. Unlike other fee-based music services, the iTunes Store charges a flat US$0.99 per song (or US$9.99 per album). Users have more flexibility than on previous on-line music services.

Mac Book:
In May 2006, the Mac Book replaced the iBook and PowerBook series of personal Notebooks as Apple transitioned from the use of IBM PowerPC microprocessors to the Intel chip line. Performance, power consumption and interoperability were key points in this decision. According to the sales-research organization NPD Group in October 2008, he low-end model of the Mac Book has been the single best-selling laptop of any brand in US retail stores for the preceding five months. The Mac Book line also includes high-end machines such as the performance-oriented Mac Book Pro and the ultraportable Mac Book Air. The success of the existing Mac Book lines has allowed Apple to grow in the notebook Market.

iPhone:
Released in June 2007, the iPhone marked Apple's entry into the rapidly growing Smartphone market. The original iPhone combined a 2.5G quad-band GSM and EDGE cellular phone with iPod-like MP3 Player functionality. It also featured a scaled-down version of Apple's Mac OS X Operating System, with a touch screen display. The iPhone is compatible with both Macs and Windows-based computers. GPS functionality and faster network connectivity were added to the iPhone 3G, the latest model in this series. The iPhone faces competition from smart phones being developed by its competitors, including the Samsung Instinct, BlackBerry, and other smart phones based on the Windows Mobile or Google Android platforms.

E- BOO K S :
In contrast to the traditional revenue model for books, the eBook model does not require retailers and wholesalers. As a result, more profits are shared by the authors and publishers. In December 2008, Apple began selling eBooks, ranging in price from $8.99 to $25.99, through its iTunes Store. As with songs and movie downloads from iTunes, Apple makes a small profit from each sale. A recent iPhone application allows customers to purchase and read eBooks directly from Amazon.

Risk factors which apple company is facing :

y Global markets for the Company s products and services are highly competitive and subject to rapid technological change. If the Company is unable to compete effectively in these markets, its financial condition and operating results could be materially adversely affected. To remain competitive and stimulate customer demand, the Company must successfully manage frequent product introductions and transitions. The Company faces substantial inventory and other asset risk in addition to purchase commitment cancellation risk. Future operating results depend upon the Company s ability to obtain key components including but not limited to microprocessors, NAND flash memory, DRAM and LCDs at favorable prices and in sufficient quantities. The Company depends on component and product manufacturing and logistical services provided by third parties, many of whom are located outside of the U.S. The Company relies on third-party digital content, which may not be available to the Company on commercially reasonable terms or at all. The Company relies on access to third-party patents and intellectual property, and the Company s future results could be materially adversely affected if it is alleged or found to have infringed intellectual property rights. The Company s future performance depends on support from third-party software developers. If third-party software applications and services cease to be developed and maintained for the Company s products, customers may choose not to buy the Company s products. The Company s future operating performance depends on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers. The Company s Retail business has required and will continue to require a substantial investment and commitment of resources and is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. Investment in new business strategies and initiatives could disrupt the Company s ongoing business and present risks not originally contemplated. The Company s products and services experience quality problems from time to time that can result in decreased sales and operating margin.