Paper Topic:

[Audit] Business risks and risk assessments in Apple,Inc.

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Business Risk and Risk Assessment : Apple Computers , Inc

The Company 's Core Business Processes and Strategic Objectives

The Company 's products can be divided into two main categories , personal computers and related products and portable digital music players and related products . Based on the annual report , the Company designs manufactures and markets (Annual Report 2005 1 ) many variations of the products mentioned above . The more popular products of the Company include the Macintosh line of desktop and notebook computers , the iPod digital music player

, the Xserve G5 server and Xserve RAID storage products , a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications , the Mac OS X operating system , the iTunes Music Store , a portfolio of peripherals that support and enhance the Macintosh and iPod product lines , and a variety of other service and support offerings (1

Design is mainly a concern of the Company 's research and development Because the Company is in the technology industry , research and development is a crucial component of its operations . It is the manner by which the Company keeps its competitive advantage . In its annual report , the Company admitted that the Company 's ability to compete successfully is heavily dependent upon its ability to ensure a continuing and timely flow of competitive products and technology to the marketplace (14

As a corollary issue to research and development , creation , protection and acquisition of intellectual property rights are also a major concern for the Company . The Company is in possession of several patents and copyrights . On one hand , the Company is concerned with the protection of its patent , copyrights , trademarks and service marks worldwide . In the other , it must protect itself from infringing on others intellectual property rights . The Company does not only rely on its ability to create intellectual property , it also relies on those owned by third parties which are acquired through licensing agreements

Because the Company is engaged in producing technology year after year the manufacture of the Company 's products may create complications . The Company manufactures personal computers and accessories , iPod digital music players and accessories and a variety of consumer and business software applications . The raw materials for these products are sourced elsewhere . There are certain key components that are sourced from one or limited outside source (Annual Report 2005 14 . In 2005 and 2004 , the Company experienced delays in relation to one of its products , the PowerPC G5 processors (14 . This led to the non-availability of certain Apple products from the market (14 . After this incident , the Company announced its intention to shift its Macintosh personal computers from PowerPC G5 and G4 processors to Intel Microprocessors (Apple to use Intel para . 1 . This transition is expected to be fully implemented in 2007

The Company 's development of new products requires custom made raw materials that are initially single-sourced until the Company determines the need to develop new sources (Annual Report 2005 14 . The manufacture of raw materials and the assembly of some of the Company 's products...

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