Apple Inc. Kayla Baumann

Background Apple Inc. is an American corporation that designs and manufactures computer hardware, software, and other computer electronics. Apple was established on April 1 st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Steve Jobs was said to own 45% of the company, Steve Wozniak with 45% and Wayne with the remaining 10%.

Background Cont… Number of Employees – 60, 400 Apple Inc. has been in business for thirty-four years. Apple’s opening stock price was just $22.oo. Apple’s Headquarters take up 32 acres and is located in Cupertino, CA.

History Timeline In 1976, the company was founded – The Apple logo was designed by Rob Janoff – Apple goes public with 4.6 million shares – Mac is introduced – Windows 1.01 is released – iBook tops notebook sales – iTunes music store opens.

History Timeline Cont… 2005 – iTunes downloads top 500 million – March Madness is offered on iTunes Added new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air – Original iPad released – iPad 2 is released.

Income - iPod The Apple iPod was the main source of income in However, that has drastically changed since then. iPod sales as a percentage of total revenue: ▫ % ▫ % ▫ % ▫ % ▫End of %

iPhone In 2011, 250 million i0s devices were activated.

iPhone Distribution

Stocks and Dividends The recent high stock price is $ The opening stock price was $ Apple paid dividends from June 15, 1987 to December 15, Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012

Profit Margin

Current Stock Price $ DIVIDEND:A distribution of a portion of a company's earnings, decided by the board of directors, to a class of its shareholders. The dividend is most often quoted in terms of the dollar amount each share receives (dividends per share). It can also be quoted in terms of a percent of the current market price, referred to as dividend yield.

Strengths Apple is a very successful company. iPod gives the company access to a whole new series of segments that buy into other parts of the Apple brand. Sales of its notebooks products is also very strong, and represents a huge contribution to income for Apple. Apple is one of the most established and healthy IT brands in the World, and has a very loyal set of enthusiastic customers that advocate the brand.

Weaknesses It is reported that the Apple iPod Nano may have a faulty screen. There is pressure on Apple to increase the price of its music download file, from the music industry itself. Early in 2005 Apple announced that it was to end its long-standing relationship with IBM as a chip supplier, and that it was about to switch to Intel. Some industry specialists commented that the swap could confuse Apple's consumers.

Opportunities Apple has the opportunity to develop its iTunes and music player technology into a mobile phone format. A version of Apple's iTunes music store has been developed for the phone so users can manage the tracks they store on it. New technologies and strategic alliances offer opportunities for Apple. The listener can subscribe to Podcasts for free, and ultimately revenue could be generated from paid for subscription or through revenue generated from sales of other downloads.

Threats The biggest threat to IT companies such as Apple is the very high level of competition in the technology markets. The popularity of iPod and Apple Mac are subject to demand, and will be affected if economies begin to falter and demand falls for their products. There is also a high product substitution effect in the innovative and fast moving IT consumables market. Tomorrow's technology might be completely different.

Citations HISTORY- platform/articles/65346.aspx TIMELINE- EMPLOYEES- the_numbers.html INCOME- _the_end_of_apples_ipod_era.html SWOT- swot.html