Accolade for Apple - Powerbooks, and ibooks power company to Readers' Choice award
This year it seems the entire world is taking a bite out of Apple, after the ubiquitous company returns to the number one spot, winning the 2004 Readers' Choice Awards for the brand with the most global impact.
This yearit seems the entire world is taking a bite out ofApple, after the ubiquitous computer company returns to the number onespot, winning the 2004 Readers' Choice Awards for the brand withthe most global impact. Despite releasing search engineinnovations such as Google maps, and Google Scholar, Google has nowslipped down a place, after holding first spot for the past twoyears.
Indeed, the Apple tree yielded a bountiful harvest, spawningsuccessful ad campaigns for the iMac, the iPod and iTunes. Apple reported anoverall net income growth of 300% for 2004, with a net profit ofUS$ 295 million in the last quarter, alone. This comes to us asno surprise, after noting that iMac sales tripled, and that iPodsold a staggering 4.5 million units last year, in essence,doubling sales since its launch. Apple estimates that there are 10 million pod-addicted people invarious parts of the world.
"So, what is at the core of Apple's tremendous success?" onemight ask. It's sleek Powerbookand ibookdesigns and innovative features have proven theiruser-friendliness to even the most technically inept.Furthermore, Appleretail outlets offer customer-friendly interactive pastimes andactivities.
It does seem that these high-tech gagets have shown to be asAmerican as Apple pie. However, Apple did not fare as well withinternational markets, dropping from a 2.19% market share to a1.87% share in one year.
Leading companies for world market share were Dell, coming infirst with a market share at 18%, followed by HewlettPackard at 16%, followed by IBM at 6%. As aresult, Apple is developing new initiatives to bring affordablecomputing solutions to a global market, hoping that it willresult in a bigger slice of the world market pie.
