Since the spectacular turn around in Apple's fortunes investors look on to see the next big thing. "Xerox Corporation, one of the biggest brand names in the world, have got it right in their market and the rest are playing catch up" say OnlineConnect.co.uk. In many ways the companies share similar fortunes. Apple (founded by Steve Jobs, Stephen Wozniak, Ronald Wayne) produced the first successful personal computer with a graphical operating system. Xerox (founded by Chester Carlson, Joseph C Wilson) were the inventors of Xerography (later called the photocopier).
Both companies any way seemed to lose their way in the eighties. In 1983 Apple recruited John Sculley, the marketing genius behind Pepsi Cola, to work as Ceo alongside Steve Jobs. It should have been the dream team. But as Apple announced the arrival of the Mackintosh, with a Ridley Scott market entitled 1984, an internal power struggle was happening behind the scenes which at last saw Jobs forced out of the firm he was one of the founders of.
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Xerox, seeing there core product under competition in the seventies, started investing heavily in the computer industry. Building a team of innovative programmers and inventors they industrialized graphical operating systems,the computer mouse and what could have been the first market personal computer (except Xerox failed to realise the market value and didn't market it). Xerox foresaw the improvement of the document and its transition from paper to electronic data. However, while they were investing in the future of documents, they had failed to protect their core firm and by the mid eighties Xerox were in rapid decline with other manufacturers having caught up with their technology in the photocopier market.
In 1979 Xerox threw opened there doors to the press and collective showcasing there unique products, amongst those attending was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. "They just had no idea what they had" Jobs was later quoted as saying. Xerox internally had linked private sites together using what they referred to as 'Inter Network Routing' later abbreviated to 'Internet'.
John Scully carried huge weight with Apple's board, having been behind the Cola wars marketing battle that had seen Pepsi catch up the worlds biggest brand name Coke. But some of Apple's marketing alienated customers, such as the infamous Mackintosh Lemmings advert. The Apple Mac, industrialized by Jeff Raskin and Steve Jobs (before he left), became a success and the market leader in desktop publishing and the media industry. Meanwhile the Apple Lisa which John Scully had removed Steve Jobs from sank without trace.
By the mid eighties Xerox and Apple had opposite strengths and weaknesses. Whilst John Scully at Apple was a proven marketing guru, Apple by the end of 1985 had lost both co-founders Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Xerox meanwhile had one of the best improvement teams in the world at that time in the computer industry. They foresaw the rise of digital documents and transportation straight through the internet and were speculating about a digital market where citizen advertised on search. But whilst Xerox had the ideas they lacked the marketing expertise and suffered in trying to make the transition from Xerox Machines to It in the eyes of the firm user.
Ultimately both Apple and Xerox hit a brick wall in the eighties when they tried to tackle the firm market leader Ibm. Whilst many opinion the battle for the firm user would be about hardware one small software firm were concentrating on the operating system. Bill Gates Microsoft had none of the overheads of manufacturers and was licensing its own version of unix and later Dos to computer vendors. In 1981 Microsoft were contracted by Ibm to furnish the operating law for the Ibm Personal Computer.As Ibm Pc clones came to the market Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer successfully marketed Ms-Dos to other manufacturers. In 1985 Microsoft released a graphical version of its Ms-Dos operating law called Microsoft Windows for retail. The product was a massive success and became the most widely used operating law in the world. Microsoft went on to become the dominant operating law in business, networking and Pc in successive versions of Windows and Microsoft Office. Free from the costly costs of build Bill Gates's Microsoft saw the possible of licencing the operating law itself.
Apple and Xerox prolonged down different paths in the 80's and early 90's. seeing there core product sales falling Xerox began to reinvest in photocopiers and printers and digital multifunction copiers that combined scanners and printers. In response to Canon's Clc technology Xerox invested heavily in developing Color Copiers. Apple improvement was lead by marketing and too many products, too high manufacturing costs and the lack of technical leadership saw Apple release a series of unsuccessful products. Steve Jobs went on to create Pixar and NeXt. It was the buy of NeXt primarily for its operating law that brought Steve Jobs back to Apple in late 1996. By July 1997 Jobs was running Apple again ousting Gil Amelio. Gil Amelio went on to form some companies with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. In 1997 Apple started retailing direct on the internet and introduced a new build to order law following in Dells success. Michael Dell commented at the time when asked what would he do with Apple "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders". Nine Years later when Apple value rose above 72 billion outstripping Dells share price Steve Jobs had the last laugh circulating an email that read "it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future".
In 1997 Steve Jobs announced a collaboration with Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for Apple Mac and Microsoft purchased 150 million in non voting stock of Apple. Microsoft dominance of the operating law market now being so strong that possibly it was in their interest to keep a competitor afloat, especially with antitrust charges surrounding Microsoft at the time. 1998 saw Apple focus on a return to profitability and the launch of the hugely successful iMac. Apple's comeback prolonged under Jobs with sell outlets opening and has seen the brand branch out with huge success into iPhones and iPods. In an unbelievable comeback Apple brought in some of the best citizen in Silicon Valley to their board of directors along with Eric Schmidt of Google.
Xerox had to wait until 2001 for there "Jobs" in the form of Anne Mulcahy who had been with the firm for many years. Dubbed the accidental ceo it was Mulcahy who stuck by Xerox R & D whilst at the same time returning the firm to profitability. Recognising the huge value in their brand Mulcahy stemmed the flow of buyer leakage by improvements in buyer service and later improvements in technology. Reinventing the Xerox logo in the process to petition to a modern internet audience, Anne Mulcahy focused the firm on innovation and buyer interaction. Xerox with its compel in R & D now fully supported started to join their computer expertise with their hardware digital technology. The vision they showed so many years ago in the computer business is ultimately combining with their core products following "the document" in all formats, be that electronic, internet, email or print. Today Xerox, now headed by Ursula Burns, are one of the important Document management providers in the world and with perfect hardware and important technology such as solid ink printing Xerox seem uniquely positioned to become market leader again.
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