- Liquid fuel for future computers
- Global standard for street light products
- Panasonic capacitors handle high temperatures
- Plastic electrode stretches like rubber but carries electricity like wires
In 1997 Steve Jobs returned to Apple having resigned 12 years earlier due to differences between himself and the board. During his absence the company floundered and its share price hit an all-time low.
Almost 20 years later the company has been given a value of $178 billion by consultancy specialists Interbrand and is ranked by them as the number one brand in the world. This award belies what naysayers were predicting when Jobs passed away in October 2011 and the company would at best stagnate, or at worse, go into free fall.
Interestingly, the other major player who ranks brands, Forbes, also put Apple as the number one brand, albeit with a lesser value of just over $150 billion, well ahead of other tech branks like Google and Facebook.*
Why Apple has done well is that it keeps at its core business without trying to diversify too much. It iPhone, iPods, iPads and iMacs are unwaveringly popular amongst aficionados, and there are still queues forming when new iterations are released. Recent reports suggest that Apple’s plan to dip its toe into the hot-topic of self-driving cars with Project Titan has been shelved, which reinforces the notion that Apple knows what its good at, and why certain technologies are a no-go area. The reports suggest that the company will still be investing in software for these autonomous cars – again, something they know a lot about and with which they have expertise.
Other competitors looking for consumer electronic dollars have tried and failed in areas their expertise was lacking; Microsoft and its music player Zune; or rapper Jay-Z’s Tidal music service; and Hewlett-Packard’s attempt to take on Apple and Samsung in the tablet market with its TouchPad, when it should have stuck to desktops PCs.
Apple has had a few failures on the way (anybody remember the Pippin or MacIntosh TV?), but rarely has it let ego get in the way of deleting a product – even one that did the job but didn’t sell (remember the G4 Cube?).
Apple continues to provide get ROI for its shareholders, even though its revenue is shrinking – it produced an operating profit of 28.5 per cent for the 2015/2016 financial year according to data from Morningstar. It is these types of figures that make the company attractive to investors and why it has such a high valuation. Even in a struggling market, the King of Cool in consumer electronics still knows how to make a buck.
* Apples main competition in this space, Samsung, is valued at just under $52 billion and comes in at 11th place.
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