Etude de cas Apple

After the success of the Apple I and Apple II, the company began work on the Apple III, which turned out to be their very first project failure. The Apple III proved to be an early sign of disagreements-to-come between the president Michael Scott and Steve Jobs. In fact, Scott laid-off 40 employees after the Apple III's failure-without any consultation or approval from the Board of Directors. Because of his abrupt actions, Scott was demoted to vice chairman, while Jobs was promoted to chairman. Markkula, who had originally hired Scott, took over as Apple's new CEO.

Named after Jobs' oldest daughter, the Lisa (also, Local Integrated Software Architecture) was the first personal computer to implement a graphical user interface (GUI) technology-an idea which Jobs had adopted from a prior visit to the Xerox Corporation. Surprisingly, Xerox did not think the technology would serve a practical purpose for personal computing.11 The Lisa was the first personal computer to include such features as: a hierarchal file system, windows, folders, icons, multiple tasking, a mouse, a drop-down menu bar, and the ability to copy and paste.

With improvements in the GUI, the Macintosh became a "possibility box" for companies developing similar products.14 Enhancing some features from the Lisa, the Macintosh implemented a desktop, mouse, graphical file system, icons, bit-mapped graphics, menu bar navigation, applications running inside windows, and more. The Macintosh laid the foundation for the entire computer industry. The true look and feel of personal computers today can be attributed to the early design features of the Macintosh.

The Macintosh, however, did not dominate the consumer market as the company had hoped. Supported by Markkula and the other members of the board, president Sculley once again demoted Jobs (this time from vice-president and leader of the Macintosh division) in May 1985, leaving Jobs without any managerial power.