Apple Inc.pdf.pdf

9-708-480 REV: SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor David B. Yoffie and Research Associate Michael Slind prep ared this case. This case was developed from published sourc es. This case derives from earlier cases, including “puter 2002,” HBS No. 702-469, by Professor David B. Yoffie and Research Associa te Yusi Wang, and “puter, 2006,” HBS No. 706-496, by Professor David B. Yoffie. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for clas s discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of pr imary data, or illustrations of ef fective or ineffective manageme nt. Copyright ? 2008 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order co pies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1 -800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to .edu. No part of this publication m ay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, us ed in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechani cal, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. DAVID B. YOFFIE MICHAEL SLIND Apple Inc., 2008 In January 2007, three decades after its incorporat ion, puter shed the second word in its name and became Apple Inc. 1With that move, pany signaled a fundamental shift away from its historic status as a vendor of the Macint osh puter (PC) line. Mac sales remained vital to Apple’s future, but they now accounted for le ss than half of its total revenue. A year and a half later, in June 2008, pany posted results that ratified the ess of its leap beyond the PC business: In its third quarter, Apple earned profit of $ billio n on $ billion in revenue, for a 38% increase on year-ago quarterly sales. Annual results were also impressive. Sales in the 2007 fiscal year topped $24 billion, up 24% from the previous year. (See Exhibit 1a —Apple Inc.: Se