Research Paper on:
iPod - Financial Contribution to Apples Results and SWOT Analysis

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Classic. The product is a portable media player which started out as an MP3 player but has benefited from progresses in technology that has improved functionality to play video as  well as audio media. The importance of the product to Apple can be appreciated by looking at the financial of the company to assess the proportion of sales it  accounts for and the potential contribution it makes to overheads and profit. Table 1 takes figures from the relevant annual reports in order to assess the proportion of sales  which demonstrates that this product is making up a decreasing proportion of sales. All figures are in US $millions. Table 1 iPod proportion of Apple Sales Year 2011 2010  2009 2008 2007 iPod sales 7,453 8,274 8,091 9,153 8,305 Total Apple sales 108,249 65,225 42,905 32,479 24,006 Percentage of Apple sales 6.89% 12.69% 18.86% 28.18% 34.60% The company  does not reveal any further information regarding the costs and products of the specific product lines. However, using the general figures for the cost of sales and gross profit margin  we may extrapolate some potential figures to assess the contribution made by the products to the overhead/profit. This assumes that the product has a cost of production that averages  the same as the organization as a whole. Table 2 Extrapolated iPod contribution to Apple Year 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 iPod sales revenue 7,453 8,274 8,091 9,153  8,305 Gross profit margin 40.50% 39.40% 40.10% 34.30% 34% Contribution 3,018.47 3,259.96 3,244.49 3,139.48 2,823.70 It is not possible to assess the investments needed to generate the sales; the  product is in a firm where there is a high level of diverse investment in many areas, so it is not viable to assume that the legal for the iPod