Search our sites

Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

Apple Inc.

ABA10 WinnerCompany: Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA
Nomination Category: Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Computer Hardware

Nomination Title: Steve Jobs, CEO

1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Accomplishments in 2009:
Steve Jobs and Apple reached another great milestone in April 2009 with over one
billion applications downloaded from their App Store. Apple’s App Store is
already the largest store for applications ever created with over 35,000, all of
which can be found in 77 countries. These applications can be downloaded for the
innovative iPhone and iPod touch, which Steve Jobs recently helped to develop.
The iPhone and iPod touch have been so successful in the past year, with tens of
millions of users, that the demand for more applications has continued to grow.
Apple continues to set itself apart from all others in the industry with their
innovative thinking and user friendly applications.

Apple and Steve Jobs further separated themselves from the competition in the
smartphone market with the release of the iPhone 3GS. This latest iPhone has
many more features, which includes a camera and video recording, not to mention
better performance and a faster speed than the older models. This 3GS model
offers multiple sizes ranging from 8 GB for $99 to 32 GB for $299. The price
range is a special achievement for Apple because it allowed more people to buy
an iPhone than ever before. In fact by the third day after its release in June,
Apple had already sold over 1 million new iPhone 3GS models. Also within five
days more than 6 million iPhone customers had downloaded the iPhone 3.0
software, which shows great excitement about the future of the iPhone.

In September, Steve Jobs announced the release of Apple’s iTunes 9, the latest
installment of the highly popular and successful media application. iTunes 9
includes the newest innovation for music albums called iTunes LP, which is a
great new feature that gives artists the ability to share more with their fans.
In addition, it also includes iTunes Extras, which provides more features for
movies such as documentaries which can be viewed through iTunes. Steve Jobs
noted that iTunes 9 features make iTunes “better than ever and iTunes content
richer than ever.”

Steve Jobs led Apple to an extremely successful year in 2009. Even in a
struggling economy Apple realized net income growth of 18% to $5.7 billion.
Earnings per basic common share rose by nearly a dollar to $6.39. In the fourth
quarter Apple sold more than 3 million Mac computers and 7.4 million iPhones,
which were both records for a single quarter.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/04/24appstore.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/06/08iphone.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/06/22iphone.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/09/09itunes.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/10/19results.html

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976. Apple is leading
the consumer technology world with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, its
family of iPod media players and iTunes media store, and its Mac computers and
iLife and iWork application suites. Apple recently introduced the iPad, a
breakthrough Internet and digital media device, plus the iBookstore, alongside
iTunes and the App Store.

Steve also co-founded and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which created
some of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time including Toy
Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and
Ratatouille. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now
serves on Disney's board of directors.

Steve grew up in the apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon
Valley, and still lives there with his family.

Copyright © 2010 Infogroup