Apple Inc. case study

Case: Apple Inc. (Textbook). Based on the case and your research using the Mergent Online database (available at CSUEB Library at http://www.mergentonline.com.proxylib.csueastbay.edu/companydetail.php?compnumber=12161&pagetype=synopsis) answer the following questions:

1. Is Apple a successful company? Justify your answer (compare Apple’s financial performance with its main competitors). 

2. What are the main sources of its success? 

Value chain, resources? 

Valuable/rare/difficult to imitate/difficult to substitute? 

Tangible/intangible?

For the assignment based on Mergent Online database, please bring a hard copy of a 1-page report in which you include relevant data from database for you response on Blackboard. You may combine data from several reports/statements. For example, if you argue that Apple Inc is a successful company because it has high profitability and large cash reserves, you may want to include in your 1-page report data on Apple's profitability and cash reserves form their Balance Sheet and Income statement.