APPLE Innovative Industry Products
Apple recently sold a record 5.2
million of its latest iPhone models in one quarter, establishing the company’s
appeal to both consumer and corporate cell phone users. Apple is noted for
introducing innovative products, starting with the Apple II, which was the
first mass- marketed personal computer, in 1977 and the Macintosh, which
featured a graphical user interface, in 1984. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
founded Apple in 1976 when they marketed the Apple I, a circuit board they had
developed in Jobs’s garage. Under Jobs’s direction as CEO, Apple developed the
OS X operating system; iLife for working with photos, music, videos, and Web
sites; and iWork, a collection of business programs. Apple also is leading the
digital media revolution with its iPod portable media players, iPad tablet
computer, and iTunes online store, which is the most popular Web site selling
music. More than 10 million downloads occur each day from Apple’s App Store,
for a total download count exceeding 7 billion.
AMAZON Retailer Focused on Consumers
Online shoppers can find
practically any product they desire on Amazon.com. Billing itself as the
“Earth’s most customer-centric company,” it offers books, movies, electronics,
clothing, toys, and many other items. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1995 knowing
that book lovers would gravitate toward a Web site offering the convenience of
browsing through millions of book titles in one sitting. He fulfilled orders
for customers in every U.S. state and 45 additional countries during the first
30 days of business, all shipped from his Seattle-area garage. The company has
grown to permit third parties to sell products on its Web site. Its Kindle
portable reader wirelessly downloads more than 450,000 books along with blogs,
magazines, and newspapers to a high-resolution electronic paper display.
Recently, it launched Kindle Singles, which are Kindle books with up to 30,000 words,
the equivalent of two chapters of a typical book.
