How does apple succeed

You probably know at least a handful of people with an iPhone, right? If you're in public, you're probably surrounded by Apple products.

You might even be using one right now to read this post! There are over 1. Between phones, tablets, watches, and computers, they have a solid foothold in the popular tech market. How did Apple reach this point? Why is Apple so successful?

If you want to know a brief history that leads to the success of Apple as a company, keep reading! Steve Jobs is the face of Apple. While once briefly ousted from the company, he was invited back with open arms when the brand needed a renewed image, and he provided it. Steve Jobs is the mind behind the "i" in everything. While tech companies all around were making computers, phones, and some were even making music players, that branded "i" was a sticky enough icon to put Apple on the map.

Jobs was a Buddhist and a vegan, things that may not seem obvious in the ethos of Apple products, but come through in the minimalist and user-friendly nature of the design. Apple's success is due in large part to its obsessive focus on the user experience.

Apple is a designer-centric company that likes to build all parts of a product — hardware, software, and online services — itself. That approach has allowed Apple to build some of the most elegant and user-friendly products ever created. The Apple II was the first personal computer to achieve significant commercial success. It was designed in by Steve Wozniak, a brilliant year-old engineer with a knack for packing a lot of functionality into a small and affordable package.

Allie Caulfield. At the time, it was conventional for PCs to be sold as kits, with the user acquiring components such as the keyboard and power supply separately. That's how Apple's first product, the Apple I, had been sold. But Jobs realized that this drastically limited the potential market.

So Apple sold the Apple II pre-assembled in an attractive plastic case with a built-in keyboard. An Apple II. National Museum of American History. Still, the Apple II wasn't very useful. Many seasoned computer professionals — accustomed to more powerful computers from companies like IBM and DEC — dismissed it as an underpowered toy.

There was virtually no software available for it. The Apple II also became popular in the education market. Apple sold hundreds of thousands of computers to schools that wanted to give their students a chance to learn how to program. Apple continued selling Apple II computers until , when they were discontinued in favor of Macintosh computers. In total, around 5 million Apple II computers were sold.

The Macintosh, or Mac, is a line of personal computers Apple has sold since The original Macintosh was the first commercially successful computer to use a graphical user interface GUI based on a mouse. The basic ideas of the Macintosh interface — windows, menus, icons, and the like — were developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the s.

But Xerox never made a serious effort to turn the technology into a commercial product. Steve Jobs secured a demo of Xerox's technology for his engineers, who began working on their own implementation.

The original Macintosh had significant limits. It had a tiny black-and-white display, no hard drive, and barely enough computing power to run its complex graphical software. But subsequent models were more powerful. Apple brought color to the Macintosh with the Macintosh II in The Mac's innovative graphical interface quickly attracted imitators. The most significant was Microsoft, which introduced the first version of Windows in Windows borrowed heavily from the ideas the Macintosh pioneered, and Apple sued Microsoft for stealing its ideas.

Microsoft largely prevailed in a ruling. The modern iMac Rafael Fernandez. The Mac's powerful graphics capabilities, along with an affordable laser printer Apple introduced in , sparked the desktop publishing revolution.

Software like Aldus Pagemaker and Adobe Illustrator allowed designers to design documents entirely digitally for the first time. Many graphic designers became loyal Mac users. Today, Apple sells Macs in laptop and desktop formats. Apple sold almost 20 million Macs in In January , Apple was ready to introduce the Macintosh, and the company celebrated with one of the most famous ads in advertising history:.

Apple took a different approach to its first iPhone in by adding a multi-touch screen. The simple, yet innovative design revamped the style of smartphones and propelled Apple as a leader in mobile technology. Blackberry, once a mobile giant, was unable to compete. The company's smartphones have since fallen by the wayside. Anthony advises leaders to always look for new technology and says you shouldn't be afraid of throwing away old business models. Like this story?

See also:. Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein both attributed their extraordinary success to this personality trait. Securities and Exchange Commission. Smithsonian Magazine. The Washington Post. The New York Times. The Los Angeles Times. Top Stocks. Tech Stocks. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile.

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Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Business Company Profiles. Table of Contents Expand. From Apple I to Steve Jobs 2. The iEcosystem.

The Post-Jobs Era. Apple in the 20s. The Bottom Line. Apple went public in , but Jobs eventually left—only to triumphantly return several years later. Apple's success lies in a strategic vision that transcended simple desktop computing to include mobile devices and wearables.

Both performance and design are key drivers of the Apple brand and its ongoing success.