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TECHNOLOGY A23
Saturday 2 April 2016
Apple still strong at 40, but are best years behind it?
BRANDON BAILEY In this April 24, 1984, file photo, Steve Jobs, left, chairman of Apple Computers, John Sculley, to work on Apple’s health
AP Technology Writer center, president and CEO, and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, unveil the new Apple IIc projects. Always secretive
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — computer in San Francisco. about specific plans, Apple
Apple turned 40 on Friday, declined to provide Nag’s
and it’s a very different Associated Press job title. Her resume shows
company from the auda- a track record of helping
cious startup that Steve This file photo combination of six images shows a series of Apple Inc. products released during win FDA approval for new
Jobs and Steve Wozniak Steve Job’s tenure as CEO of the company. From the upper left to right are: a January 1984 photo medical inventions.
launched in a Silicon Val- of Jobs’s presentation of the first Macintosh in Cupertino, Calif.; the iMac DV in a 1999 image Apple’s growth hasn’t
ley garage in 1976. provided by Apple; the original iPod in October 2001 in Cupertino, Calif. From lower left are: the been smooth. Jobs was
Today, the maker of MacBook Pro being being presented in San Francisco in 2009; the first version of the iPhone in Los forced out in the 1990s,
iPhones and Mac com- Angeles in June 2007, and in an image provided by Apple in January 2010, the first version of the leading to a revolving door
puters is the world’s most iPad. for chief executives until
valuable public corpora- he returned in 1997, as the
tion, with 100,000 employ- Associated Press company he co-founded
ees and a new, multi-bil- was on the brink of col-
lion dollar headquarters it used to be, but every- latest iPhone is a downsized tracking and medical-re- lapse. “There was a time
in Cupertino, California, one else has gotten better version of earlier models. search apps for the iPhone when you were worried
set to open next year. But than they used to be,” said Longtime staffers said Ap- and Watch. about keeping engineers
despite its astounding fi- James McQuivey, a tech ple still has the zeal to cre- Apple is widely believed here,” said Cheryl Thomas,
nancials — Apple reported analyst with Forrester Re- ate revolutionary products. to be exploring new busi- a vice president for soft-
$53 billion in profit on $233 search. “We’ve done this more nesses, from electric cars to ware engineering who
billion in sales last year — He cited longtime rival Mi- times than anybody else,” virtual reality, but analysts joined Apple in 1989.
some critics have suggest- crosoft, once viewed as an said Greg Joswiak, a 30- say developing products And in 2000, when the
ed Apple’s best years are industry laggard, but now year employee and vice in those categories could dot-com bubble burst, Jo-
behind it, as it has strug- credited with pioneering president for product mar- take years. swiak said Jobs refused to
gled to come up with new tablet computers with de- keting. He listed the iPod, “We want to go into new cut spending when com-
products and match the tachable keyboards — a iPhone, iPad, iTunes and industries ... and really petitors were tightening
phenomenal success it has category even Apple is the company’s online challenge the status quo,” their belts. Joswiak said
had in recent years. embracing with the busi- App Store, the new Apple said Divya Nag, a former Jobs pledged to “invest in
Not surprisingly, longtime ness-oriented iPad Pro. By Watch and recent initia- medical researcher and ourselves more than ever
employees like software contrast, he noted, Apple’s tives to create new health- entrepreneur hired in 2014 before. We then suffered
vice president Guy “Bud” through 11 straight quar-
Tribble disagree. ters” of dismal financial re-
“We still think we’re going turns.
to change the world,” said Jobs’ death from cancer
Tribble, one of a half-doz- in 2011 led to the elevation
en Apple staffers selected of current CEO Tim Cook,
by the company to briefly who’s intense but softer
reminisce with reporters this spoken. Tribble credits
week. Tribble started with Cook with maintaining
Apple in 1980 and worked Apple’s focus on quality
on the original Macintosh products, even as Cook
team. He added: “We had has taken his own path in
no idea back then that Ap- running the company.
ple would grow to the size Far more than Jobs, Cook
that it is.” The company uses his prominence to
now boasts that more than speak out on social issues,
1 billion Apple devices — from global warming to
iPods, iPhones, iPads, Macs civil rights and individual
and Apple Watches — are privacy. He recently chal-
in regular use around the lenged the U.S. govern-
world. Those products are ment in a high-stakes legal
widely admired and imi- dispute over an encrypted
tated. But Apple depends iPhone used by an extrem-
on the iPhone for two-thirds ist killer. While that drew
of its revenue. And after criticism from top Justice
selling a record number of Department officials and
iPhones last year, analysts GOP presidential contend-
say sales are leveling off er Donald Trump, Joswiak
and may even decline this said he was proud of Ap-
year. ple for taking what he con-
As it enters middle age, siders a principled stand.
Apple may find it difficult Apple remains one of the
to maintain its leadership most sought-after brands.
in the industry. Some ex- BAV Consulting, a firm that
perts say it’s getting harder tracks brand reputation,
to come up with new ad- said that after reaching a
vances to distinguish Ap- low in 2001, just before the
ple’s products from those iPod came out, Apple is
of its competitors. now in the top 1 percent of
“Apple is still as good as American brands.
