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Essay about Apple Inc. a 30 Year Business Strategy

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Apple Inc. A 30 year business strategy A response to Harvard Business School Case Study 9-708-480 Apple Inc., 2008 Abstract Apple’s fundamental business model has not changed since it first began business in the late 1980’s. While being a leader in innovation, Apple has consistently produced proprietary hardware and software, eventually leading to a loss of market share in any particular market they have ventured into. Even though it has learned from some mistakes, Apple’s actions in the past few years have not shown a change from the core reasons for its failures and unless new actions are taken its current market lead will eventually dwindle. This analysis will look at the various stages of the Life Cycle of Apple, what type …show more content…

The result being that the Average Selling Price of a PC dropped from $1699 in 1999 to $1034 in 2005 (Yoffie, pg 7). The initial years of the PC were marketed at business, which explains the continued success of IBM in this market during that period. There was little competition since the business buyer wanted support from established channels and there was little threat of new entrants. Once the PC became targeted at smaller businesses and home consumers, this opened the door such that the main driver became initial cost and new entrants could easily become a competitive force. Components for PCs became increasingly standardized. As is common with commodities, R&D decreased and a focus on innovations in manufacturing and distribution became a key to success. Dell’s model of supplier driven manufacturing and HP’s model of distribution channels show the success of these ideas. Since the 90s, the PC has been driven by the bargaining power of buyers and their widely varied desires. Taiwan based Acer is an example of a PC manufacturer which modeled its business after current trends. Since 2007 it has shifted focus from desktops to laptops. In addition, because of the large number of potential suppliers to PC distributors, intense competition was created for almost all components of the PC. The

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