9-609-066
REV: MARCH 4, 2010

STEFAN THOMKE BARBARA FEINBERG

De esign Th hinking and I Innovation at Apple
Th hink different. — Apple Advertising Slogan, 1997 e 7–2002 By the beginnin of March 2010, weeks after the dramatic debut of its iPad, A y ng Apple’s share price remai ined in the US$ 200 range, where it had hovered for more than f six month U d for hs—signaling solid g financ strength and future gr cial a rowth prospec as world e cts economies, an businesses continued t reel nd s, to from the worst rec cession since the Great De epression. Wit a market c th capitalization of nearly US 200 S$ billion and annual sales appro n oaching $50 b billion, Apple was now w e worth more t than the indu ustrial giant General Elec ctric and exce eeded the val of Sony C lue Corporation b a factor of five, even th by hough both f firms had larg revenue b ger bases. All the more amazin ngly, a scant 12 years earlie when Steve Jobs er, e return to Apple, the company share pric had hovere around $5 and the futur was uncert ned , y’s ce ed re tain at best. J Jobs, after all had already been fired fr l, y rom the firm he co-founde almost a d ed decade earlier and r, he wa coming bac when the c as ck company was nearly writte off. Even s through th difficult pe s en so, hat eriod, the co commitme to produc design and development had stayed a ore ent ct t alive. Sin being fou nce unded in 197 Apple has been consid 76, s dered a leading designer and integrat of tor computer hardwa and softw are ware. By 2010, it had fu undamentally changed t y the music, m mobile teleph hone, and retail operation through it sleek prod ns ts ducts, innova ative stores, a and new bus siness mode Moreover the just intr els. r, roduced iPad tablet comp d puter might a accelerate the transformati of ion the pu ublishing bus siness. Apple stores had some of the h e highest revenu per squar foot in