“With the total value of its publicly traded stock at $224 billion, up 107 percent from a year ago, Apple now has a market capitalization greater than all but two companies in the United States, Exxon Mobil and Microsoft,” Boudreau reports. “Last year, amid the worst recession in decades, the Cupertino company recorded a 39 percent increase in profit to $9.4 billion. That was the highest profit earned by any company in the SV150, according to the Mercury News’ annual report on Silicon Valley’s largest publicly traded companies.”
“Apple’s revenue surged 20 percent to $46.7 billion, returning the company to its standing as Silicon Valley’s second-largest by revenue, a ranking it hasn’t held for 23 years,” Boudreau reports. “Last year, one of every five dollars Apple took in was profit, giving it a profit margin three times that of Hewlett-Packard, the valley’s revenue leader… Last year, it leapfrogged Intel and Cisco Systems to become the second-biggest company in terms of revenue once again, driven in large part by the success of its iPhone, sales of which surged 81 percent.”
Boudreau reports, “The darkest chapter in Apple’s history began when Jobs was forced out in 1985. The company’s resurgence began with his return in 1997. At Macworld in 2001, Jobs introduced his vision of the Macintosh as the centerpiece of a digital lifestyle. And the Mac’s software became the basis for the iPod digital music player, the iPhone and now the company’s latest creation, the iPad tablet.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It must have absolutely killed Steve Jobs to be out of Apple, knowing what was possible, as various nincompoops floundered around. We wonder if he ever let himself even imagine a triumphant return and how he felt when it began to seem like it was possible and then actually happened! We’ll have to wait for the authorized biography to find out, we guess. That’ll be one book we’ll have the minute it’s released, that’s for sure!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]
Seems weird not to be rooting for the underdog for a change.
That is where I disagree with you, MDN. I like it that Steve Jobs could not be troubled to pen one himself (unlike Gates’ The Road Ahead) nor has he authorised/commissioned an official bio.
I appreciate that, like an artist, his biography is in his work, œuvre. If I, or anyone, need to know more about Steve, just turn on any Mac, swipe your fingers on a portable multi-touch device, walk into an Apple Store on a busy Monday, or iTunes, or even crack open the hoods and look under the circuit boards.
There’s plenty of story there for a lifetime or two.
I have sent an email to Steve Jobs on this, I’m sure he never received it. But please, if you ever come across this, don’t do a bio. That’s so for the others.
i hope that book will be available via the iBook store, even I would buy that book
The article is very good
krquet,
The “Related article” is your friend.
A few personal remarks from Mr. Jobs about leaving and returning to Apple can be found here:
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html .
@Journo
I was aware of this, which had prompted me to write to Mr. Jobs via email in the first place. 😮 )
I reiterate, I’d rather he left his bios up to the rest, tainted and tarnished even with odd quotes by Woz et al. taking pot shots. But I knew Steve Jobs, because I have used Mac OS 6 (I know he was ousted at the time) and NeXT.
I’m pretty sure that it’s no coincidence that the “lost” next gen iPhone was an intentional Attention grabber, so that all eyes are on Apple today, as they report another and probably more than usual amazingly great quarter. iCal it.
Freaking MS and their got lucky with idiot IBM execs, OS scheme keeps making billions and billions. No innovation, just riding on their automatic money generating POS OS and Suite.
@ MDN,
Will you read the authorized biography on a Mac, iPod touch, iPhone, iPad or dead tree?
What would he have done had Apple’s original Plan B been successful, and they had bought up Be instead of NeXT for their OS modernization plan following the failure of Copland? He had Pixar and WebObjects as well as NeXT, but could he have used those assets in a similar fashion to make the world a better place as he did with Apple? What was his Plan B, he must have had one. And he didn’t meet Ive until returning to Apple, so there’s another asset lost from his toolchest.
@NickBob
Ive didn’t make Jobs, Jobs made Ive. A lot of people place too much emphasis on Jonathan Ive. But often it takes a great catalyst of a mind to bring out the best in people around him/her. Same goes for Woz, folks at Pixar and NeXT. What Jobs bring to the table is to tell Ive when his designs are crap and when he is on to something. Trust me, analytical minds like that are not dime a dozen.
And for Jobs’ legacy, I think it was secure before he even left Apple, it would’ve just taken longer to identify the genius that is him.