Case 20 Apple Inc., 1976–2013 Charles W.L
Case 20 Apple Inc., 1976–2013 Charles W.L. Hill the iPad in 2010. Throughout this period, Apple had con- INTRODUCTION tinued improve and refine its line of desktop and lap top Back in 1997 Apple Computer was in deep trouble. computers, producing stylish models that set the standard The company that had pioneered the personal computer for the industry in design elegance and ease of use. The market with its easy to use Apple II in 1978, and had MacBook Air, an ultra lightweight notebook computer in- introduced the first graphical user interface with the troduced in 2008, had become a benchmark against which Macintosh in 1984, was bleeding red ink. Apple’s world- all other notebooks were compared. Apple had also verti- wide market share, which had been fluctuating between cally integrated forward in to the retail business, opening 7 and 9% since 1984, had sunk to 4%. Sales were de- its first Apple store in 2001. By late 2012 the company had clining. Apple was on track to lose $378 million on rev- 390 Apple stores worldwide. The stores were themselves enues of $7 billion, and that on top of a $740 million loss a phenomenon. In the U.S., the average store generated in 1996. In July 1997, the cofounder of the company, sales per square foot of $6,050 in 2012, a retail industry Steve Jobs, who had left Apple back in 1985 after be- record and twice that of second place Tiffany and Co, 2 ing stripped of any operating responsibility, returned as which had sales per square foot of $3,017.
[Show full text]