Apple - The Cult in Technology
It took quite a long yet worthwhile journey for Apple, to earn the tag of being the Cult in Technology. It was not long ago when Apple overtakes Microsoft as biggest tech company, personifying Apple to be the biggest Technology Company of today.
The numbers for Apple in terms of its Market Value stood at $222 billion, compared with Microsoft’s $219 billion. Though the revenues of both corporates when compared show a different story with - Microsoft at $58.4 billion and Apple at $42.9 billion. However, speculations are that investors bet huge on Apple’s future prospects. The revenue sources are divided amongst the sale of Mac computers (which Apple still pursues selling), and their iDevices – iPhone, iPad and iPod. It is not an astounding detail that twice as much revenue of Apple’s comes from hand-held and music devices, when compared to Macbook sales. This is due to the fact that these are the gadgets that the Technology behemoth majors in.
The Numero Uno in technology is no longer the one which caters only to your Desktop computer and software needs – Microsoft, but it’s the one that makes iPods, iPads, iPhones, Macs, etc – Apple. Microsoft’s success quite often is due to its consistency in maintaining perfection and achieving a status quo, while Apple on the other hand survives and grows through its creativity in developing novel products.
Apple’s rivalry does not start and end with Microsoft alone. The spotlight now includes Google (with a market cap of $151.43 billion), which also poses a threat to Apple in the mobile phones segment with it’s Android operating system and mobile advertising. In addition to this, Google yearns to leap ahead of Apple and capture a new and potentially important area – Internet-connected televisions.
It was not long (just about a decade) ago, when Apple was almost on the realm of closing down following a succession of clueless leaders and with the absence of a coherent strategy. Steve Jobs was pushed out by 1985 and Michael S. Dell, founder of Dell Computers, had suggested the closure of Apple. Albeit with the return of Jobs and Apple’s top technical feats being introduced in the last eight to ten years has enabled it to rejuvenate and grow 10 times richer than computer maker Dell.
The credit for the resurrection of Apple goes to the introduction of the iPod music player which replaced Sony’s Walkmans in the music distribution industry. With this, Jobs found a knack of tapping into consumers’ latent needs and went further by launching iPhones and upstaged Nokia.
It is quite hard to unearth a company that has consistently transformed the way technology is perceived. Microsoft in the recent past has been slow in developing main products and in creating larger business areas such as game consoles, music players, phones and Internet search. Interesting to know it is, Apple is all about arrogant innovations, and may be that’s what reaps the moolah. Personally speaking, Apple is truly “The Cult in the Technological Industry”.