Apple in 2005: Moving into the Mainstream?

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Operating from a garage, college dropouts Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak founded Apple Computer in 1976. Jobs functioned as the business manager and Wozniak as the technical expert. Their first product was Apple I, which differed from other PCs as it was sold without a keyboard or a monitor. Apple was able to generate sales of $174,000 in the first year. The following year, Apple provided a monitor, keyboard and eight peripheral device slots. Providing connectivity to external devices greatly improved the versatility of the Apple II. When Apple became the first PC manufacturer to offer a floppy disk drive, sales jumped. Apple quickly became the industry leader, selling more than 100,000 Apple IIs by 1980...

Perceived as a maverick since inception, Apple had always sought to make an impact on customers through attractive designs and by focusing on high end computing applications in the education, multimedia and entertainment industries. This strategy was shaped by Jobs who had always seen himself as a product architect rather than as a businessman. Right from its inception, Apple had been a company committed to building great products using the latest technologies...

Despite Apple's success with iPod and iTunes, many analysts doubted whether the company's competitive advantage was sustainable. Dell CEO Kevin Rollins described the iPod as a fad . Despite 10 million iPods sold and with over 90% of the hard-drive MP3 player market held by Apple, Rollins was not convinced that iPod could make a lasting impression...

Exhibit 1: Apple - Few Products
Exhibit 2: Apple - Financials
Exhibit 3: Apple's - Product Line (Partial List)

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