Apple Strategic Analysis

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Starting off as Apple Computers, Apple Inc. became the top designer for consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. Their flagship devices 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 innovative devices such as Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones. It seems that Apple has begun to steer away from its core goals and no