Dramatic growth isn't a new or unexpected phenomenon for Apple. Were it any other year for the company, these numbers might not be big news at all -- with its wild popularity both in the private and enterprise markets, at this point it's almost a given that Apple will break its own records year-after-year.
But 2011 was no ordinary year for Apple.
The big surprise in last year's release of IndustryWeek's 50 Best U.S. Manufacturers wasn't that Western Digital Corp. (IW 500/109) took top honors -- the hard-disk manufacturer clearly did everything right in 2010 to vault its way to the top.
No, the real story last year was that the ever-dominating Apple (IW 500/9) somehow didn't.
Under Steve Jobs' deft, and notoriously unorthodox, leadership, he steered the company on a path of pure invention and pure innovation during his second reign, helping the company fundamentally reinvent and define new markets with every release -- something most leaders hope to do once in their careers. With that kind of momentum, second place seemed an anomaly in an otherwise unstoppable success story.
See Also: Manufacturing Industry Technology News & Trends
After 2011's staggering growth and unprecedented sales, however, Apple definitively resolved that smudge on its record and took the crown as this year's best U.S. manufacturer.
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