Abstract
2011 had been a crucial year for smartphone manufacturers. With Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passing away, the smartphone giants were bound to go head-to head, fighting tooth and nail for market share. Apple Computer, co-founded by Jobs, with its at that time pioneering personal computer, Macintosh, once had been Microsoft’s biggest rival. Today, the company is leading the electronics market with a brilliant product line-up while the company itself holds even more cash than the U.S. treasury. But it was the I-phone, their defining product which became the ground-breaking hit in the market. Another hit, which is Apple’s variation of the tablet pc, the I-Pad, won over the customers with the same streamlined, less-is-more design. The captain at the helm of this multibillion dollar company was Steve Jobs, the one who had been forced out of Apple by its board of directors in 1985, only to return in 1996 to lead the company to new heights. His passing away was bound to bring new turbulence to an already competitive market. The smartphone market is the rising star of the electronic device market. The smartphone is a product that was once designed with business professionals in mind, but gradually became an item which ownership can be found across the entire demographic spectrum, including workers, students, children, housewives, and even senior citizens. The market has grown to an unpredicted and unimaginable size, while the product itself is playing a vital role in the daily life of modern men and women. Hence, this thesis will scrutinize the major competitors in the smartphone market, and what their positions in the market share race are. In addition, the high-profiled company, Apple Computer, will be used as a case study. This thesis will analyze the future of Apple following the loss of their innovator, Steve Jobs, in order to explore the upcoming trends in the smartphone market.