Apple Computer Case Study

Apple Computers is perhaps the one computer company with the most interesting story line ever. Most people wouldn't associate a simple computer company with a long and dramatic tale filled with ups and downs however Apple's story is just that. The first major computer company to hit the personal computing market, one would think that Apple would be a more common and familiar name than Microsoft is today in the computing world. However, this is clearly not the case. Apple's story is filled with many advantages that, for one reason or another, failed to capture the hearts and minds of the populace. This left Apple as a second place contender, under IBM.

Apple was known for its revolutionary products as the company became known to more and more people and businesses. What started out literally in a garage in California became one of the leading producers of computers in the world.

English: Apple's headquarters at Infinite Loop in ...

Apple I at the Smithsonian Museum

A Macintosh 128k, the first Macintosh model, intro...

Apple enjoyed many competitive advantages throughout its existence, but it failed to capitalize to the fullest extent possible with most of them. One of Apple's first competitive advantages it enjoyed was GUI's - graphical user interfaces. Along with the GUI's, Apple also introduced a "mouse" for use with the GUI's, coining the term "point and click". At the time, it was a very foreign thing to everyone. People were so used to typing in archaic strings of alphanumeric characters in order to run programs and such. Yet the simplicity and genius of the GUI-mouse duo would soon prompt others to "borrow" this technology and use it for their own software. While Apple invented GUI's and the mouse, Microsoft made it famous with its operating system Windows 3.0. Apple also had a competitive advantage with research and development. The company tried to routinely come out with new products every...