apple computer

Assessing the Apple Computers as an Organization

One of the world 's business icons , Apple Computer Inc . is involved in the design , manufacture , and marketing of personal computers and related software , services , peripherals , and networking solutions . The company also designs , develops , and markets a line of portable digital music players along with related accessories and services including the online distribution of third-party music , audio books , music videos , short films , and television shows . The company sells its products worldwide through its online stores , its own retail stores , its direct sales force , and

third-party wholesalers and resellers . The company manages its business primarily on a geographic basis

Apple Computer Inc . operates through five operating segments : the Americas , Europe , Japan , retail and others . The Americas , Europe , and Japan reportable segments do not include activities related to the retail segment . The Americas segment includes both North and South America . The Europe segment includes European countries as well as the Middle East and Africa . Each reportable geographic operating segment provides similar hardware and software products and similar services The retail segment currently operates Apple-owned retail stores in the US , Canada , Japan , and the UK . The company has 116 retail stores in the US and eight international stores in Canada , Japan , and the UK . The 'others ' operating segment focuses on Asia-Pacific , which includes Australia and Asia except Japan and the company 's subsidiary Maker . Maker develops , publishes , and distributes desktop-based database management application software for Mac OS and Windows-based systems (Apple Website

Throughout its history , Apple Computer helped ignite the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II , and reinvented the device in the 1980s with the Macintosh . Over the decades , the Cupertino California-based company has successfully positioned itself as the ultimate alternative to the Windows personal computers . And it remains the only company in the PC industry that controls the design and development of the entire personal computer , from the hardware and operating system to the applications

Today , the company , headed by CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs , continues to innovate with its series of stylish desktop and notebook computers Mac OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications . Apple has also spearheaded the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store . The company 's success in this sector has boosted the company as whole . Profit margins have been growing year-on-year since 2003 and now exceed rival PC-maker Dell though they still trail Microsoft by a significant amount . The company 's stock price has also been climbing steadily over the last several years

This pattern of results was continued in 2006 , with a fourth quarter net income of US 546m for the three months ended September 30th , an increase of 27 as compared to the fourth quarter of 2005 , and ahead of expectations . For the full year Apple shipped 1 .6m Macintosh computers and 8 .7 million iPods during the quarter , representing 30 growth in Macs and 35 growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter . In the...