1) 1976 – Apple I – about 200 sales
1978 – Apple II – simple machine “for every man, woman and child”.
1981 – IBM entered the PC market. In comparison with IBM, Apple’s computers were less “open”. They were designed proprietary, so no one could clone them.
1985-1993 – Apple’s combination of superior software and hardware gave Apple unmatched capabilities in desktop publishing.
Apple typically designed their products from scratch, using unique chips, disk drives, and monitors.
So, in my opinion, Apple’s competitive advantages were: * Their design and style * Quality * Simplicity in use * Multimedia 2) In 2005 PC industry logged > 200 billion dollars sales of about 208 million units (16% more than last years).
By 2005 there were more than 900 million PC’s in use around the world. Average selling price for PC had declined from 1699 to 1999.
How computers in the end of 1990’s different from computers of 21 century: | End of 1990’s | 21 century | Manufacturing:OS:Microprocessors:Application software: | CPU, motherboard, memory storage, OS, microprocessor, peripherals5% sales spend on R&DIn 1980’s MS-DOS – $15 per PCIn 1990’s Windows 3.0 started to challenge with AppleFrom 1986 – 1991 Intel – the sole producer.1990 – market became more competitive From 1990 through next decade number of applications increase, while their price decrease. | Wide range of forms (laptops, notebooks, servers…)1% sales spend on R&D2005 – more than 90% of computers ran on Windows2005 – AMD made significant inroad into Intel’s market share | Buyers and distribution: | Buyers – business managersMajor criteria – service, support and compatibility.In 1990’s buyers became more knowledgeable about computers’ technologies. | Buyers – Home, education, business, government. Business – 46%; Home buyers – 38%; Government and education – 8% each. Major criteria