Apple is a technology company focused on creating and producing consumer products. The company was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.
Apple is widely recognized for its Macintosh computers [Apple MacBook Air, Pro, iMac], iPod music players, and iPhone and iPad tablets. It has a significant brand presence internationally and is one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Apple’s product lineup has changed dramatically to include various digital devices and services. In addition to physical devices like iPhones and iPods, Apple offers internet services like iCloud, the iTunes Store, and the App Store. The company also created software platforms like iOS, macOS, and watchOS tvOS. Apple’s products are known for their simple design, reliability, and user-friendly interface.
Is Apple a good brand? To know this, we will present its brief success story, explain its products and services, and many more. In this Article, finally, we will present our considered opinion. So stay tuned till the end to gather valuable information in a single place.
Fortune magazine annually publishes a list of the top 500 companies. According to it, Apple is a global leader in technology. Apple is ahead of its time because it always tries to use the most modern technologies. For example, Apple M1, M2, and M3 Silicon Chips are used in their latest product lineups.
Because of its well-integrated devices, its customer-oriented approach offers an unparalleled experience. And immersive functionality of its products is nothing but a well-thought-out strategy to remain the best in the tech industry.
In this post, we will delve into the success story of Apple, starting with its history, net worth, market share, and some achievements.
So, Let’s begin...
- Success Story of Apple
- Introduction To Apple
- Stats and Achievements
- Net Worth and Market Share
- Products Offered by Apple
- Features and Families of iPods
- Features and Families of iPads
- Features and Families of iPhones
- Features and Families of Macintosh
- Services Offered by Apple
- Why is Apple the best brand?
- Final Words
Success Story of Apple
Steve Jobs is the main character in the success story of Apple. It’s unbelievable that two friends who opened their company in the garage became a 3 trillion dollar corporation within 46 years, and that story is also full of setbacks.
Steve Jobs, the founder of the company, was ousted by the board of directors. Eventually, the company was closed to bankruptcy, and our superhero, Steve Jobs, came again. He miraculously took back his company to million-dollar profits within a year. Until his death, the company touched new skies of unstoppable growth.
The golden era of Apple came to a partial end when legendary Steve Jobs died on 5th October 2011. Steve Jobs inspired me when I read about him to write this article. But this article is not only about his story; we need to look at some stats regarding the achievements of his company Apple too.
Introduction To Apple
Apple Inc. was co-founded by three visionaries, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, on 1st April of 1976 in California; U.S. Company deals with selling consumer electronics, online services, and software around the globe.
Its main headquarters is at 1 Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California, the U.S. Until 2022, it has 518 retail stores spread worldwide. Its popular product names are; iPad, iPhone, iPod, Macintosh, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.
Stats and Achievements
With annual revenue of $365.8 billion, it will be the world’s largest information technology giant in 2021. Also, it’s the world’s second most valuable company after Saudi Aramco till May 2022.
After Samsung, it was the second-biggest seller of mobile phones in 2021. And it was on the fourth rank in the PC vendors list compared to the index of unit sales shipments last year.
According to a Wikipedia source, Apple was honored to be the first US company that got a value above $1 trillion in August 2018. One year later, its value rose to $2 trillion. And in January 2022, it touched a mark of $3 trillion.
You would be amazed to know that by January 2021, people will be using 1.65 billion Apple products. Which shows how popular and adopted the Apple brand is.
Net Worth and Market Share
Jeff Bezos is among the world’s topmost rich personalities. His company Berkshire Hathaway owns 5.56% shares of Apple that had 154000 employees till 2021. And here are some figures about this multinational tech corporation. Apple is ranked fourth on the PC vendors list and has a market share of 7.6% for 2021.
- The annual revenue of Apple stood around US $356.83 Billion for the year 2021.
- The annual operating income of Apple reached around US $108.95 Billion for the year 2021.
- The annual Net income of Apple spread around US $94.68 Billion for the fiscal year 2021.
- Apple’s total assets were worth around US $351.02 Billion before closing in 2021.
- Finally, Apple’s total equity is around US $63.09 Billion for 2021.
The company’s 10% revenue comes from selling its main PC product Macintosh. More than half of the company’s revenue comes from selling its iPhone brands. Apple gets 9% revenue from selling its iPad tablets, 11% from selling its wearables and home accessories, and 19% from offering its digital services sector.
These figures are taken from Wikipedia and refer to 2021 fiscal year records. Now, after playing with numbers, we need to look at which incredible products Apple offers, how many families they have, and their important specs.
Products Offered by Apple
Apple has manufactured many products, but it has four main products; iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Macintosh. iPods are MP3-type devices that have impressive features.
The iPad was initially launched in 2010, and it is a well-known tablet product with massive sales in the starting days. iPhones are smartphones. Yeah, the revolutionary smartphones that are still ruling the market. MacBooks are laptop lineups introduced by Apple.
iPod’s demand is zero, and Apple is earning almost nothing. So they should ditch it and invest resources in other sectors.
iPad’s demand is dying, but Apple still earns a lot from these products. So they should invest profit money in other sectors as they are just like golden cows. Fetch as much milk as you can, as it will die soon.
Macintosh lies in the personal computers category, and their demand is still high and will likely grow shortly, But Apple is not the leading player here. It lies in the 6th or 7th rank in this particular category. So they should revisit their strategy to boost their sales. And yeah, they invest resources here, which they earn from iPods and iPads.
In the iPhone category, Apple has only one competitor: Samsung. So Apple should invest its resources into this department to remain the smartphone leader.
Features and Families of iPods
iPods can save hundreds or thousands of songs. Customers can listen to music, watch videos, run a few apps, and easily store pics. iPods can be connected to computers, and you can manage music libraries or playlists via iTunes.
iPod has 4 families; iPod Touch, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, and iPod Classic. And their specific features are in these points.
iPod Touch
It was released in 2007. You have 64GB of storage space for all your movies and songs. Its touch screen gives you full control over your apps, pics, and videos. Plus, you have a video call facility named FaceTime in this iPod Touch.
iPod Shuffle
iPod Shuffle was launched in January 2005. With 2GB storage space, this lighter iPod Shuffle was just a click-and-go option. And it has no screen.
iPod Nano
It was introduced to customers in September 2005. This pocket-sized MP3 player has sufficient storage space of 16GB with touch-screen controls.
iPad Classic
It was the first among other families of iPods and was released in 2001. iPad Classic can store media files on up to 160 GB of hard drives. It has the popular click-wheel control feature.
Features and Families of iPads
Apple has released almost 30 models of iPads. But we distribute them into 4 families. They are the iPad which is also considered as 9th generation; iPad Pro, which lies in the 5th generation; the iPad mini which lies in the 6th generation; and the iPad Air, which also comes in the 5th generation.
The first iPad was released in April 2010. Since then, technology has been evolving, but some basic features remain the same in all families of iPads, and these are as under.
Multi-Touch Display
Usually, we use a 2-point touch facility to zoom in and out of the screens. But many modern devices now come with a 10-touchpoint display feature, which is extraordinary for gaming if needed. And Apple released iPads that also come with this Multi-Touch Display feature.
Front And Rear Cameras
Today video calling facilities will be available on 1080p HD quality cameras. You will feel good to know that Apple released iPads with a FaceTime Video Conferencing feature, which can be used through the front and rear cameras. And iPads have front and rear cameras from 5 to 8 Megapixels.
Up to 128 GB Flash Storage
iPads come with memories that can be increased up to 128GB of Flash Storage. Flash storage means you don’t need hard drives, and your device will be lighter and thinner.
Bluetooth 5.0
The latest iPads are coming with Bluetooth 5.0 technology. That gives them fast speed and connectivity to wireless keyboards, speakers, and other peripherals.
Other Features
We can’t make this article beyond predefined limits. That’s why we just place names of other features iPads offer their customers. These other features include retina display, motion coprocessor, latest wi-fi version, 4G LTE connectivity, dual microphones, etc.
Features and Families of iPhones
The first iPhone model was inaugurated by then çeo of Apple, Steve jobs, on 9 January 2007. Since then, the company has launched 33 iPhone models. And we distribute them to 5 iPhone families: iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone SE third generation.
Their basic features are defined here in bullet points.
- All these iPhone Families use the company’s original iOS operating system, which was taken from the Macintosh operating system. And worth noting is the point that it’s the only operating system that runs on smartphones, and the second is the Android operating system.
- Their revolutionary or game-changer feature when they were launched initially was their multi-touch screen functions.
- iPhone Families have the credit to enrich the ecosystem of smartphone apps and popularize smart form factors of smartphones.
Features and Families of Macintosh
Macintosh, famously known as Mac, is the personal computer category of Apple productions. They use the macOS operating system, which is well integrated with them because it is the company’s original operating system.
Six Mac families with their features are described briefly in the coming section.
- iMac: It was initially launched in 1998. It mostly worked as a consumer in one computer.
- Mac Mini: It was developed in 2005. It served as a sub-desktop computer for the average customer.
- MacBook Pro: It was launched in 2006. It was the company’s first ideal laptop product. You can call it a professional notebook.
- Mac Pro: Similarly, it was also unveiled in 2006. It was thinner and more advanced in features than the MacBook Pro. It is a professional workstation.
- MacBook Air: It dates back to 2008. It was radically ultra-thin and ultra-portable. It is the right choice for consumers who love to carry minimalistic devices.
- Mac Studio: it is the new lineup of Apple, which was introduced recently in 2022. Its users consider it a super professional workstation with an ultra-small form factor.
Services Offered by Apple
Apple is not only in the market for selling its high-tech products, but it offers some essential services too. These services include; advertising on Apple Store or Apple News app and providing cloud-based storage services on iCloud. Apple also offers its renowned payment services with the help of the Apple Card credit system.
Why is Apple the best brand?
Apple is the best brand because of its quality product and service reputation. The company’s products are often praised for their design, performance, and reliability. Additionally, Apple employees are known for their customer service skills.
It would be better to analyze some unique features of Apple to know how good this brand is. And for that purpose, we will look into these unique features of Apple; innovation, pricing, support, and warranties.
Innovation
Apple is known as a masterclass in continuous innovation. Their purpose of innovation is to enhance people’s lives through their products. And they have achieved their purpose to some extent.
When they launched the iPhone in 2007, no one could predict that 1.5 billion people would use it. These smartphones are not just phones but revolutionized people’s lives by opening more opportunities for utilizing smart electronic devices, drones, wearables, smart watches, etc.
Apple has a certain set of rules which drive them to innovate. On top of them is a consumer-centric approach. Then they need to hire smart people to order them what to do. Indeed they hire smart people and give them courage and flexibility to tell them what to do.
Not every Apple product is the first of its kind, but it’s the most modern. They have unique patience and take time to notice public opinions about their products and innovate accordingly.
Support and Warranties
Apple offers its customers three types of support: Live chat, X (Twitter), and the Apple Support app. They don’t offer any support on Facebook. Apple’s phone support is free for 90 days of a product purchase, and you can have up to three years of telephone support and hardware service by paying an extra $99 through AppleCare+. And for an extra $299, you can purchase coverage for major blows of your products.
Apple’s phone support is also sometimes equipped with the feature of shared-screen remote assistance. Article writer for Laptopmag Kimberly Gedeon praised Apple’s phone support as it was a painless and pleasant experience because of its energetic phone call agents.
I also read some Quora reviews about the support features of Apple. I saw some comments from the top that were positive. So overall, Apple is also good at this feature.
Pricing
Apple has never had a strategy to see low-cost products boost its sales. Indeed their policy about pricing is straightforward in these points; Make higher-end products in small numbers, prefer profits on market shares, charge premiums through innovative advertising, and create hype around launching new products.
And it is because of its effective product differentiation policy and ever-growing brand loyalty that Apple has raised its product demand. And thus, they have the power to outclass their competitors by setting high prices for their premium products.
Final Words
So we produced all the presentations of different Apple products, their families, features, and histories with facts and figures. And you also read about the unique features of Apple as a whole.
And it’s enough information to know whether Apple is a good brand.
This article can also give you the answer to the question: how is Apple a good brand? Now, this is all we can do. If you enjoyed reading our deep research work, do comment in the section below.
It’s no surprise that standing out in an era of constant innovation and change is challenging. Apple, on the other hand, has always excelled at brand building.
Apple has always been a company you can trust, from its designed products to its unrivaled customer service. Do you agree, or do you believe that other brands are equally as good? Please let us know in the comments!
Thanks for reading.