Apple Case Study: Globalization and Technology Change

Apple has several key advantages in how it manages its supply chain operations. First by buying key components from suppliers in advance they ensure the steady supply of key parts. This risk is also countered by signing exclusivity agreements with some suppliers. In addition, these exclusivity agreements give them an advantage over their competitors who sometimes had to wait for key components due to the large demand from Apple. Another key advantage is that Apple maintains a close relationship with suppliers by working with them to update manufacturing processes and technology.

Apple is expanding through globalization to every major market available. Apple decided to look at their customers, ecosystem, partners, and competitors to make the Apple industry a success in business. Apple's external use was to partner up with competitors to expand user-friendly features for his Mac computers according to (Burrows, 2007). Steve Jobs went externally to cultivate the business by creating the iPod, iPhone, and iPad in which everyone uses today. iTunes became a success for the business globally as well because of the ability for customers to upload any music they wanted to various devices. Apple Inc. has transformed from a small-tech company into a global technology giant. Once known for outlining the digital future but never fully benefiting from it, Apple has been transformed into one of technology's most powerful companies in the world (Burrows, 2007).

Apple products are designed in California USA and manufactured in different foreign countries such as China, Taiwan, Korea, Mongolia, and Europe which produce part of the devices, most of the raw material ‘Earth Minerals’ to produce these items can be found in China. Since technology has a lot of benefits in human’s life, the demand has been increase year by year which make business to expand and hiring more people in the company. From 2005 to 2015 the number of full-time employee’s has been increase more than 80 thousands.

Sales - Apple has a specific functional area based on sales. The sales department of a business handles how the products will be sold and helping customers find a suitable product for their needs. They organise sales promotions (or advertising), respond to customer enquiries about their products, and negotiate discounts for customers; which enhances customer satisfaction and keeping customer records up to date. E.g. Apple found that distributing their phones to sell at other shops would broaden their market and create a lot of word of mouth which would be essential to the growth of the business. The shops they distribute the phones to always try to find ways to discount their customers which always creates customer satisfaction.

One key element of Apple’s strategy in computers, personal media players, tablet computers, and smart phones is product innovation, diversification and development. Over the years Apple has been very successful in integrating software and hardware in new developing products. Despite the struggling economy in recent years, Apple has been able to grow their market share and stay ahead of the game.

I have to admit that I am a fan of Apple Inc. products especially the iPhone. In fact, as I am writing this Individual Reflective Journal, I am waiting for the latest iPhone 7 which the critics claimed that rumours spread around the 2016 iPhone release will be on 12th September 2016. This phenomenon had caused a chaos to the fans and also technology lovers around the world who consistently update themselves with the product. This has got me thinking on the Positive & Negative Effect of Globalization on Apple Inc. specifically the iPhone.

The industry that I chose to write about is Apple, I chose this company because I am most familiar with it being that I have an iPhone and we also brought an iPad for my son so you can pretty much say that we have been in the apple family since they have hit the market. Apple is continues to improve their products each year to be able to keep up with everything that is going on in the world and also to be able to compete with their competitors. Each year they upgrade new ideas to their products, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the many products that they have.

In the last decade Apple Inc. has yielded exponential growth. As a company, the imaginative and invocative approaches of technological product advancements have enable Apple, Inc. to achieve an elite status among technology companies throughout the world. Apple, Inc. serves as an inspiration to many companies through higher benchmark standards they created. Though their product margin is not as vast as most technological competitors, Apple, Inc. innovates and releases a new product to consumers. Apple, Inc. has proven to able to move and create new markets with one product that allows Apple, Inc. to rain as the elite player in technology.

Apple's entire supply chain has been rated as the top supply chain in the world by Gartner's (Wailgum, 2011). Apple was one of the top companies rated in the resilience category by overcoming such hurdles as the Japanese earthquake without any major disruptions. Other categories that the supply chains were critiqued under included speed, agility, efficiency, responsiveness, and innovation. Apple's entire production operation is outsourced to the Asian Pacific and the company manufactures their goods through strategic partners who are some of the best electronics manufactures in the world.

The world economy demands individuals drive innovation. Apple, has nearly 750,000 employees with only 43,000 of them being a part of the American workforce (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Apple discovered that employing skilled workers outside the United States to assemble product hardware would position the company to better meet product demand. Global expansion equips Apple with the ability to meet demand, guarantee its customers a quality and reliable product, which in return generates billions of dollars in revenues annually.

Apple Inc. is a technological corporation that offers personal communication devices and the solutions to the related software,. The products produced by Apple Inc. include; iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Television, iPod, software applications, the iOS and OSX operating systems, iCloud, and many different accessories and the support offerings. Apple Inc. is also a supplier of digital content and applications via the services and support offerings. The products sell across the globe through the retail stores, the online stores, and direct sales force and also through a third part cellular carriers, wholesalers and retailers. Moreover, Apple has also managed its business on the geographic basis of America, Europe and Japan. Every operating segment provides similar hardware and software, and services. The segment of America is made up of the North and the South America. The Europe region is made up of all the European nations and India. The Middle Asia region comprises of Australian nations, and the Asian countries. However, the rest of the organization operates in other regions across the globe. Over the past years, Apple has emerged among the successful corporations and its products have dominated the market attracting consumers from different parts of the works. The products of Apple are also among the most trusted products electronic devices across the world despite the prices of these products on the market. Like any other

Apple’s strategy has evolved as technology does. At the beginning, Apple focused on the computer industry

Nowadays, Apple has positioned itself to be an innovator in the personal computer industry and Apple has developed by offering modern products compared to its competitors. According to Apple’s mission statement last year, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” (Business Management,

With Apple being so far ahead of their competition, the only problem one can foresee in Apple’s future is how long they can sustain such innovation before they plateau. Apple does a phenomenal job at releasing their innovative products before their competition, but if their innovation cannot hold steady, this may lead to changes in demand for their products considerably. This can be seen with their release of the iPhone, the first successful touch screen cellular phone. Although people swarmed to the iPhone when it was first released because of its advanced technology, as the years have passed, other similar designs, including those with android and windows based operating systems, have drawn a considerable portion of the market. A clear representation of Apple’s attempt to regain some of this market can be seen when the iPhone was released to Verizon Wireless’ customers in

Apple has always been something of a trendsetter in the tech space. Its product history since Steve Jobs’s return in 1997 gives us a solid list of examples to choose from, from its very first iPod, to Apple’s PowerBook (and later MacBook) lines, to the iPhone and the iPad. Apple’s history is dominated by products that existed before Apple had a crack at them - but it was Apple who simplified them, made them appealing on a much wider scale, and ultimately made them objects of desire for the masses.