Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) designs, manufactures, and markets smart personal devices and high end personal computers addressing both the consumer electronics space and industry through its online stores, its retail stores, its direct sales force, and third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. The company's products include the Macintosh (Mac) family of personal computers, the iconic iPod portable music player, the iPhone, and, the iPad. Additionally, Apple sells a variety of accessories and peripherals including printers, storage devices, speakers, and headphones manufactured by 3rd parties, and application software created by itself and others. An entire ecology has grown up around its products^[1]. Under the leadership of Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder who returned to head the company in 1996, Apple has demonstrated considerable acumen in implementing high-technology in product design and marketing, generating sustained enthusiasm and substantial growth as it continues to redefine and re-invent whole new markets.

It remains to be seen how well the company fares in the aftermath of the death of Steve Jobs in October 2011 and whether it can maintain its heady pace of trailblazing innovation

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