...eyes in very recent history, when the story broke, it graced the headlines of all major news outlets. It was considered a milestone that will forever be etched into the history books of the corporate world, now without further anticipation, it is: Apple’s record earnings of $74.6 billion during quarter that ended on Dec 27, 2014. After furthering my knowledge of accounting due to the class, my first thought when I went back to look at the article is the thought of Apple’s extremely high allowance for bad debt expense account. This is what my analysis will consists of. Before I dived into any research, I already imagined the estimates for uncollectible amount to be a heartbreakingly high number given that the company recorded an insane quarterly revenue. The roots of my suspicion stems from the expense matching principle, which states there must be an expense recorded in the same period in which the revenue is generated, and also given the intuition that most Apple products are extremely costly, which should lead to more people defaulting on their bills. Without delay, I went into Apple’s quarterly financial statement only to find, during the same quarter of the record sales, that the ending balance of accounts receivable was $16.709 billion, and that the allowance for uncollectible was only estimated to be $86 million. I was highly wrong, $86 million is an absolutely miniscule amount relative to Apple’s size. The second article is also related to the sales revenue of another giant...
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...Apple Computer: The iPod, the iMac, and the Business Lessons of Closed Systems Steve Jobs has had much to celebrate lately. But the Apple CEO was particularly happy in February 2006 when he announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold its billionth song, to a teenager in Michigan who had bought a copy of Coldplay's "Speed of Sound". That milestone is all the more impressive when you remember that Apple has numerous competitors in the digital music world. Yahoo music Unlimited and the legal incarnation of Napster are gunning iTunes customers. Sony and Samsung are trying to create iPod slayers. And the field is only getting more crowded. By the summer of 2006, Amazon may launch a digital music service with a branded MP3 player, possibly made by Samsung. It is already being referred to in the industry as the iPod. Amazon won’t discuss its plans, over 40 years old it refers to them as "the NPR crowd" who aren’t as likely to own iPods as MySpace users. The more impressive when you remember that Apple has numerous competitors in the digital music Yet Apple's challengers all face the same problem: Job’s company will no doubt dominate the digital music market for years to come. That's because Apple has learned its hard lesson about closed systems. In the microcomputer desktop market, Apple shrank from an industry leader to a Niche player because it designed closed systems with proprietary hardware and software that were often incompatible with thousands of application software...
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...| APPLE Background Established on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California, and incorporated January 3, 1977,the company was previously named Apple Computer, Inc., for its first 30 years, but removed the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007 to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers. So now Apple is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple software includes the Mac OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser. Recent Developments in APPLE Apple has built an Innovation Factory – one that harnesses creativity in its people, stimulating new ideas, and launching successful, profitable new innovations... Apple leverages its diverse culture, innovation processes, partners and networks to seize the new opportunities in the marketplace and grow its business...exponentially… In 2006, Apple switched the Mac to Intel chips, and combined with sleeker designs and continuous refinements, the Mac has gained market share ever since. In 2001, Apple launched the iPod, one of the most successful consumer electronics products in history. Setting the bar for portable music players, every competing product is measured against the iPod's ease of use and capabilities. In 2007...
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...they would need to restructure RIM in order to achieve this goal. Jim Balsillie, a 31-year-old Harvard MBA graduate was the man called upon to help RIM. Balsillie invested $125,000 to gain a 1/3rd ownership of the company. [Waddell, 2010] Balsillie’s purpose was to make sales and run all business aspects, while Lazaridis focused on running the engineering aspect of the company. In 1996 RIM produced the Bullfrog, a small device capable of wireless email. This product was too ahead of its time to catch on with the masses as people were just starting to come to terms with cell phones, and were not interested in mobile data technologies. The Blackberry was introduced in 1999, and had minimal success. On the business side of things 1999 was a milestone as its shares were listed on NASDAQ. [RIM, 2006] By 2003 RIM was part of the NASDAQ-100 and the sales of its blackberry smartphones were taking off. The product was very well received by the business community as it was capable of doing everything a businessperson needed while not in the office. They could access secure email servers, communicate with clients over the phone, and research things, all through a relatively small device, that went with them...
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...Q. 1 | Required | Marks | (a) | Students must delve practically to the progress and prosperity of Apple. Must dwell on the strategy of reliability and sustainability. Sustaining strategic change | 15 | (b) | Reveal the characteristics of a visionary leader – relate corporate strategies to corporate vision. Cite right-and wrong strategies and practically link to visionary leaders – mission and strategic direction. | 10 | (c) | The strategic notion of creativity, the birth of invention. Demonstrate comprehension of innovation and pioneering, the needed strategies for technological sustainability | 10 | Q. 1 | Required | Marks | (c) | Students must delve practically to the progress and prosperity of Apple. Must dwell on the strategy of reliability and sustainability. Sustaining strategic change | 15 | (d) | Reveal the characteristics of a visionary leader – relate corporate strategies to corporate vision. Cite right-and wrong strategies and practically link to visionary leaders – mission and strategic direction. | 10 | (c) | The strategic notion of creativity, the birth of invention. Demonstrate comprehension of innovation and pioneering, the needed strategies for technological sustainability | 10 | Case Study 1 APPLE COMPUTERS Apple was started in 1976 by a young entrepreneur, Steven Jobs, and his partner, computer nerd Stephen Wozniak. They began by making personal computers (PCs) in a garage. In 1983...
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...Business 200W – Business Research and Communication Individual Case Analysis Apple Inc. SWOT Analysis Company Overview Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation which focuses on designing and manufacturing technology products such as consumer electronics, personal computers and software. Apple Computer, Inc. was established in Cupertino, California on April 1, 1976 and incorporated on January 3, 1977 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The company used this name for the first 30 years until it removed the word “Computer” on January 9, 2007 to reflect its expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its original computer market. Apple designs, manufactures and markets personal computers, servers, network solutions, peripherals, mobile communication devices, portable digital music players, and related accessories, software and services. The company’s product portfolio comprises Mac computer systems, iPod portable digital music and video players, iPhone mobile phones, iPad portable multimedia, and Xsan and Mac OS servers. The company’s applications include Mac OS, iTunes, iLife, iWork, iClould, Safari, QuickTime, MobileMe and others. Apple mainly operates in the United State and manages its business primarily on geographic structure. It develops global market through five operating segments: the Americas, Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific and retails. The company sells its products through online...
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...include the Mac line of computers, the iPod music player, iPhone smartphone and the iPad tablet computer. They have also created the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media portal, Safari web browser, and the creativity and production suites iLife and iWork. With all of these solid, well-engineered ideas, Apple has established itself as the leader in the electronics world by creating simple, powerful, and high-quality technological solutions for consumers. On September 18, 2012, Apple stock broke through long-standing resistance levels of $680.0 and hit a new high of $702.33 per share. In order to reinforce Apple’s position as market leader in the consumer electronics industry, Steve Jobs and team designed the powerful iPhone 4S in 2011, causing the stock price’s upwards trend in anticipation for the iPhone 5, setting the stage for achieving the milestone. However, things started to take a turn for the worse last year, after the release of the iPhone 5, leaving consumers terribly disappointed by the quality and lack of innovation of the new model. Many blamed it on the death of Steve Jobs in October the year before, as he was the pedantic mastermind behind Apple, at times an almost obsessive micro-manager whose impact became clear as the iPhone 5 was released with countless imperfections – something that was unthinkable during Jobs’ reign. Since his passing, many Apple loyalists have lost faith in Apple coming out with a premium device to keep up with, much less surpass...
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...IS535 Milestone 3 In business people look for ways to do more work in a shorter amount of time. Experiences show that development information technologies improve company's efficiency and whole management policy. In turn, employees are free to work on other things while the technology can run their reports, creates queries, tracks projects and monitors financials. This is one of the main statements of this project to show management of Exclusive medical supply Inc how is possible to improve work process with new technology tools like tablets. Basis on researches, milestone 1 and 2 we can say that the major functions of tablet are managing work process, communication and collaboration. Communication function is essential to the business world, and Ipad can gives company the resources it needs to communicate quickly and effectively. Small business owner does not need to involve IT department to hook employees up with email, video conferencing equipment and internal chat rooms, but they still can always have an efficient way to conduct business and communicate. Ipad App like Skype, video chat can help connect with customers or workers. Management function. Most users of the iPad are heavy content consumers or presenters and use them in businesses that have significant retail and field service operations: executives, management team, health care-sales, ets. For management is important to organize...
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...Abstract: Innovation competencies are valuable in emergent and high-growth phases of the lifetime of a product or industry segment. For mature industries, researchers have emphasized strengths in operations and execution, with the implication that innovation-oriented companies must enter early in the product lifecycle or not at all. Here we examine the decision of Apple Inc. to enter the mobile handset business. We link the iPhone entry strategy to its historic competencies and the industry context of commodization and convergence. From this we offer conclusions about openness in mobile phones and prospects for a single dominant design for convergence devices. JEL - codes: O30, L16, L1 Entering a Mature Industry Through Innovation: Apple’s iPhone Strategy Submitted to DRUID Summer Conference 2007 February 28, 2007 Abstract Innovation competencies are valuable in emergent and high-growth phases of the lifetime of a given product or industry segment. For mature industries, researchers have emphasized strengths in operations and execution, with the implication that innovation-oriented companies must enter early in the product lifecycle or not at all. Here we examine the decision of Apple Inc. to enter the mobile handset business. We link the iPhone entry strategy to its historic competencies and the industry context of commodization and convergence. From this we offer conclusions about openness in mobile phones and prospects for a single dominant design for convergence devices...
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...BlackBerry Limited: "Should Blackberry switch to Android?" Abstract With its introduction in 1999, Blackberry was a cutting-edge mobile company who changed the very industry that it struggles to stay afloat within today. Every so often we hear the question, should BlackBerry drop their current operating system and use Android as a replacement? Initially it may sound like a good idea, after all Android is the number one smartphone operating system globally. And with BlackBerry’s platform struggling, why not go with the leader? Well, that answer may simply boil down to security, yes security. BlackBerry has always offered a platform that is secure end-to-end. In a June 26, 2014 press release, it was announced that Google will adopt part of Samsung’s KNOX as a security platform for Android which is a business-oriented security solution that will keep work and personal data separate and secure on a single device. BlackBerry’s CEO Chen says that it is a step in the right direction for Android but Samsung KNOX he says “is a fort built upon an insecure foundation” and he also points out the fact that there are tens of millions of secure BlackBerrys and only a few million phones with KNOX. And though that may be true there will be many more soon. How much longer can BlackBerry stay afloat in an Apple, Android, and Windows dominated market? BlackBerry got touchscreens wrong, they got apps wrong, and now all they have left is security. It’s a nice feature, but is it enough? ...
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...5 4.3 Cash Cows 6 4.4 Dogs 7 5 Conclusion 8 6 Reference 9 Introduction In this paper I am going to describe and analysis the BCG matrix. The BCG Matrix may be a very helpful and widespread method of evaluating the portfolio of companies or product in a very business unit. The BCG matrix may be used to verify what priorities should provide to different products, and that method is also possible to use to given product or businesses. In this case I will apply the BCG matrix into the Apple Company in mobile industry in order to analysis the products which the Apple has already provided in the market. Organization Profile In 1976, Apple pc, Inc. was established and was incorporated in 1977 [Michael Dougherty, 2010]. Apple’s 1st product was the Apple I that began the non-public pc revolution. In 2007, Apple pc, Inc. modified...
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...mission of this company is “a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.” Microsoft's tactic was to be a software manufacturer and make its operating system available to computer manufacturers for use in their personal computer products, and then sell the owners of PCs software to run on that operating system. The history was begins in early 1980, where Microsoft creates DOS Operating System for IBM computer. The company used this inertial success with IBM to sell software to other manufacturer, quickly making Microsoft a major player in this industry. This is one of the changes for Microsoft to grown faster with the inertial advertising efforts focused on communicating the company range products from DOS to the launch of Excel and Windows. Later in 1986, Microsoft went to public with windows operating system and Microsoft office. The strategy contribute to launch this two application is a milestone for Microsoft to future successful. After that, Microsoft found an instant success where they launch the window 3.0 which is offered an improved set of windows icons and application like file manager and program manager where still being used today. Microsoft doing a magazine advertising and received endorsement from the top computer magazine in the industry is another key for successful. This strategy can increase the named of Microsoft and making Microsoft windows and Microsoft office the must have software in the world. This campaign has given...
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...Friday (9/11/2015) China Car Sales Driven Lower by Slowing Economy China’s new-car sales fell for the third straight month in August amid sluggish demand fed by economic slowdown andslumping stock prices. Passenger car sales slipped 3.4% to 1.42 million vehicles last month, following a 6.6% decline in July and a 3.4% fall in June. Combined sales of passenger and commercial vehicles fell 3% in August to about 1.66 million vehicles, the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Thursday. Apple Suppliers Hope to Tap Into New iPhones’ ‘3-D Touch’ If Apple Inc.’s new iPhones that feature a new touch technology are a hit with consumers, a handful of component suppliers across Asia and the U.S. stand to be significant beneficiaries. The Cupertino, Calif., company on Wednesday unveiled a pair of new iPhones with “3-D Touch” technology, which can distinguish between a light tap and a heavier press, allowing users to control a device differently depending on how hard they push on a surface. Apple is the first company to feature the technology, in its smartwatches and MacBook computers. Boeing, Lockheed Differ on Whether to Sell Rocket Joint Venture A $2 billion bid for the Pentagon’s primary rocket maker is running into complications, partly because Boeing Co. and Lockheed MartinCorp. differ on whether to sell their equal stakes in the joint venture, according to people familiar with the details. Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.’s bid for United Launch...
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...customers. With the undeniable popularity and rapid expansion of Instagram, Twitter and other social media sites, the benefits would be significantly worth Samsung using these platforms as a part of its social media strategy. The History of Samsung Samsung is a multi-million dollar technology company founded by Lee Byung-chul as a trading company in 1938 which sells everything from televisions to cell phones, to appliances and other commodity products. Samsung first made its way in the business selling black and white televisions in 1969. Yet, by 1970, “Samsung acquired a semiconductor business” which would be a milestone that initiated the future for Samsung Electronic Company (SEC). In 1980, SEC showed the market its ability to produce products in large quantities. Therefore, the company became a major supplier of commodity products such as televisions,...
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...S w W12774 APPLE A1 Tom Watson wrote this case under the supervision of Professor Mary Crossan solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmission without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208; fax (519) 661-3882; e-mail cases@ivey.uwo.ca. Copyright © 2012, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2012-03-05 APPLE INCORPORATED In the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple Inc. posted record results and overtook Hewlett-Packard as the world’s largest vendor of personal computers, thanks to booming demand for its tablet computer, which helped drive global industry sales to 120 million, up 16 per cent from the same period a year earlier.2 The Cupertino, California-based company’s sales of 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macintosh computers accounted for 17 per cent of total shipments. Apple, which also sold 37 million iPhones during...
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