Truly the Apple of everyone’s eye!
The much-loved tech giant, Apple recently witnessed a meteoric rise in its market value to reach the staggering $1 trillion mark.
Surpassing arch rivals Amazon and Google, Apple has become the first U.S. public company to touch the milestone under the stewardship of its CEO Tim Cook.
The magic number wasn’t hard to accomplish as soon as the stock price valued at $207.04 per share.
The share prices rallied in the first week of August following the release of the third-quarter report which showed amplified earnings and increased revenue generated from the services, sale of iPhone and software businesses.
The news received a lot of love from the Wall Street with the shares jumping by 9% to cross the threshold of $1 trillion, which is no mean feat.
Apple went public with a share price of $22 in 1980 and saw many ups and downs until it gained momentum in the last ten years.
From facing the danger of insolvency in the 1990s to taking the world by storm through its mind-blowing innovations, the world-famous brand has come a long way in every sense.
The Rise of the Tech Giant
The conglomerate had a humble beginning with Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne starting the company in 1976 from a garage.
With the help of Wozniak’s genius and technical knowledge, they developed the prototypes of personal computers called Apple I and Apple II, which did not pique the interest of investors.
However, in 1977 with the help of an investor, they officially launched the Apple Computer Inc. It revolutionised the world as personal computers became household items in the next decade.
In just seven years, Apple joined the esteemed group of Fortune 500 companies and started growing at breakneck speed.
Although the original Macintosh was launched in 1984 and became an instant hit in the market, Steve Jobs could not salvage his position in the company and was ousted in 1985.
Facing stiff competition from IBM, Motorola and Microsoft’s Operating System Windows, the growth curve seemed to dip a bit. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs started another venture by the name of NeXT which scaled great heights through its range of high-end computers being sold at affordable prices.
The NeXTstep OS proved to be a step ahead of the competitors in the dynamic digital industry which was expanding at an unprecedented rate with the onslaught of innovations and technological advancements.
In its bid to stay at par with the market trends, Apple decided to licence Mac OS to Motorola and IBM in 1996 and introduced the third generation of PowerPC processors.
The next step was to acquire NeXT to stop Microsoft from becoming the market leader. In 1997, things started looking up for Apple when Jobs got back as the CEO, and Mac OS became a roaring success.
Also this was the time when Google came into existence and became the flag bearer of the future of Search Engine Optimization dictating its terms till date and transforming the way online businesses function. However, the two never had any tiffs and walked their separate paths of success.
Recovering from the Setback
The turning point in the history of the brand was the agreement with Microsoft wherein they confirmed to develop Mac OS and set up a separate unit for Apple. The late 1990s saw the iMac take over the market with a bang and iBooks and PowerBook G4s followed suit.
Then it was time for the music revolution which came in the form of iTunes and iPod which appealed to the masses because of its gigantic memory.
In the early 2000s, Apple retail and music stores became all the rage. With the introduction of Intel chips in Apple Computers, the story took a new turn as the machines were now supporting Windows.
In 2007, the highly sought-after iPhone was released which had unmatched hardware and software in the industry.
Next came the iPad in 2010, and the brand continued to rise beyond the expectations of one and all.
After the demise of Jobs in 2011, Cook took over as the new CEO and added another $600 billion to its market value in the coming seven years.
The Winning Streak and Minor Glitches
Though Cook had a tough act to follow, he managed to come out with flying colours.
The future hasn’t ever looked better with double-digit growth in its past four quarters and the third quarter of 2018 showing a 17% surge in revenue.
The substantial sales of iPhone 8 and iPhone X coupled with the widespread popularity of wearables like the Apple Watch and Apple TV have ignited the market once again.
The revenue of the company has surged from $8 billion in 2004 to approximately 229 billion in 2017, making it one of the most valued brands in the world.
The sales of the iPhone have acted as a catalyst in making it the second largest Smartphone vendor in the world. The company sold a whopping 216.76 million iPhones in 2017 and 41.3 million in the third quarter of 2018.
Despite being surrounded by pomp and show, Apple hasn’t remained untouched by controversy. It has many a time been accused of using common but distasteful unethical business practices such as the mistreatment of workers in their overseas factories in China and retail stores in America.
To deal with the hue and cry among the masses, Apple conducted an audit of its supply-chain and reported the violations as well as the resolution of such workplace harassment.
Unhampered by these upheavals, the company has been progressing faster than expected. It will continue to do so as its widely successful products are being used across the world by millions of loyal customers who would not trade them for any cheaper product.
Spending a significant amount on research and development and buying back shares catapulted Apple to its current stature. In this regard, its voice search application Siri has been paving the way for more original and ground-breaking voice recognition products.
With Artificial Intelligence becoming a reality, the day is not far when a new pioneering prototype will be heralded by the tech magnate and the whole world would be watching in awe.
Conclusion
Staying true to its tagline ‘Think Different’, the company has been put on a special pedestal as it has never succumbed to plagiarising the design, hardware or software from others. Instead, it has always come up with a unique concept every time and won the loyalty of its far-reaching customer base.
About The Author
Manish Khanna is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and genuine Australian success story. He is currently the Managing Director of more than 10 individual companies. These include the flagship Business2Sell which operates internationally in 6 countries. The others include CommercialProperty2Sell, Million Dollar Mansions, Netvision, BCIC Pty Ltd and Better Franchise Group, to name a few.
