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
The PC industry has started to develop fast in the 80 's when IBM launched its first PC series and later on when numerous small companies entered the market. PC is a new product and companies had to create the demand to it from the scratch.
Microsoft’s approach of creating competition also increases both the variety and the availability of their PCs. PCs can be found almost anywhere that sells other electronics. Each PC manufacturer produces their own configurations. Each retailer sells at least a few exclusive PCs. The end result is many different PC options for the consumer.
The PCs became a commodity. Microsoft grew to be the leader in the operating system market continuing to develop their Windows GUI line. With Windows, software standards have been established allowing software developers to certify their products to meet Windows requirements and deliver controlled performance. In addition, the PCs allowed numerous hardware manufacturers to
Apple is a global company represented in many parts of the world, but born in the United States by computer wizards by the names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who founded the company back in 1976 (Capon, 2008). The organization deals with the design and sale of computer hardware, software and offers tech support to its customers. Examples of the hardware the company manufactures and sells include mobile phones, personal computers, iPads, tablets and iTunes with associated brands, like the MacBook and iPhones that represent Apple’s driving force towards its success. It is recognized as a brand leader in consumer electronics by the world in terms of quality and customer satisfaction and despite the wide product range, Apple manages each product in a distinct way that is a single business unit (Mittan, 2010).
True to nearly any commoditized product, pricing and availability became the only two significant differentiators quickly as Intel increased
The first strength of the Apple Inc. company is the financial position. The Apple Inc. developed to number one company in the globe and conquered the capital market. Yoffie and Penelop, 2012, states that Apple Inc. holds a solid financial located with a total assets of $162.90 billion. He also claimed that the Apple Inc. is the company that holds biggest trade out hand up to $116 billion. The Apple Inc. are financially strong enough to invest more in research and development to retain their outstanding position and their net revenue of 46%. The second strength of the Apple Inc. company is the separated products. The Apple Inc.’s personal computer operating structure is well secured. It were built free from viruses and hackers which tend to attack the Windows programming of Microsoft. Besides that, the Apple Inc.’s products are structured to address the interest about consumer’s ways of life which make the realistic framework and create of Apple’s products better than their competitor’s products in a similar market sector. Meanwhile, the Apple Inc. company holds the upper class sophisticated software products which is diverse from the other competitors. Each Apple Inc.’s products are produced from high quality products, such as aluminum, which consolidated with unique designs. These elements in their unlimited cluster of products make customers to sense that they have an expensive and glamourous product when they carry any Apple Inc. product. Weaknesses The first weakness
The large capital requirements to enter the computer industry combined with established brand identities of the current incumbents make barriers to entry high, not to mention the economies of scale and distribution channels that incumbents enjoy which make entry barriers even higher. The current PC incumbents enjoy demand-side benefit of scale in the business sector where PC buyers prefer to buy products from large trusted companies, raising the level of entry barriers.
Apple is a multinational organization borne in America and was mainly started by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the year 1976. It deals in the designing and selling of computer software, a collection of hand-held devices like mobile phones, tablets, iPads, iTunes and also deals with personal computers. The major brands associated with Apple include MacBook, Macintosh hardware products, iPads and iPhones and this has been the driving force behind Apple’s success. This organization has come to be seen as one of the iconic consumer electronics designer in today’s world and despite Apple having a wide product range, the organization handles each line of the product in a unique manner. Every Apple product is handled as a lone individual business unit.
Before 1981, all firms use their own platform and not a single firm at that time controlled the interface standards, the hardware architecture and also the operating system. Most firms started using the IBM “compatible” PC which creates product standardization. This again contributes to economies of scale and the drop in cost and price. There are few contributors to the increase in sales and the further drop in prices in the PC industry, by the introduction of the following technological advancement:
Hewlett-Packard faces intense competition in all its business segments in terms of price, quality, brand, technology, reputation, distribution, range of products etc. The company faces stiff competition in the PC market. The company has become the market leader in the PC segment in the third and fourth quarter of 2006, relegating Dell to the second position. With Michael Dell returning as Chief Executive Officer, Dell is likely to come back strongly and make a fierce bid for market leadership. Other significant competitors in the PC market include Acer, Apple Computer, Gateway, Lenovo Group and Toshiba Corporation. Moreover, Acer’s acquisition of Gateways has made it the third largest PCs supplier in the world. In some regions, the company faces competition from local companies and from generically-branded or white box manufacturers. The company’s competitors in enterprise servers and storage include broad solutions providers such as IBM, focused competitors such as EMC Corporation in storage, Dell in industry standard servers and Sun Microsystems in UNIX-based servers. The imaging and printing group’s key competitors include Canon USA, Lexmark International, Xerox Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Samsung Electronics and Dell. Hewlett-Packard’s inkjet market share expanded as Lexmark and Epson discontinued their unprofitable printer bundling arrangements with personal computer and retail partners, under which printers were given free with PC
Apple has been on the cutting edge of technology for many year. However, their leading competitor Samsung has begun to close the gap. Apple has several major and minor issues that should be addressed in order to corner the market and pull ahead of their competitors. In the past, Apple has been able to generate a buzz with their revolutionary products and top of the line technologies. However, in the past few years , their lack of product innovation has caused a drop in the companies popularity. Apple needs to reinvigorate their imagine in the eye of the public and improve their business strategy. Outlined below are several of the major and minor issues facing the Apple corporation, as well as recommendations to help the corporation regain its share of the market.
In short, at the time of the Matching Dell case study the PC industry was essentially in a boom, and particularly in the United States. Steady growth and expansion continued from the first waves created in the mid-1970s by firms like Apple, and exploded in the 1980s with IBM’s first PC offering. Companies likely envisioned a huge potential for growth due to the fact that PC had become attainable as a household commodity, and was almost certainly on the path to become a household necessity in relatively short order. In the early to mid 1980’s, I would argue that the industry was at its attractiveness peak to new start-ups and existing firms that already had a foothold. By the time 1998
electronics industry. This report will analyze Apple’s history, its business strategy, and the way it
It is beyond all doubt that Apple Inc is one of the most successful and well-known companied all over the world nowadays. What’s more, the company is considered to be the leader of the industry The Apple products are of high quality and in high demand on all the markets. Apple services and stores are the gold standards for all the followers and niche players of the industry. Moreover, the majority of Apple customers are extremely loyal to the brands. Once they started using its high-technical products they keep doing it. At the same time the market share of the company is increasing constantly. Probably all the competitors are questioning what is the key to Apple Company’s success. It is important to note that the whole strategy determines the success of the business and the strategic analysis of the company can help to identify the main criteria. Thus, the object of the research paper is to develop a strategic analysis of Apple Inc, including its internal and external environment.
Based on these numbers one can assume that consumer demand was initially exceeded by Windows 95. However, Microsoft headed by Bill Gates was not satisfied and they had experienced success and they wanted a lot more of it. One man, also in the computer industry, had some say in this pursuit of ultimate success. This man, Steve Jobs, was the mastermind of the computer giant Apple. Both had no intention of giving in and losing the industry race. Many people picked their side of the battle by choosing what computer they enjoyed more and were unbelievably loyal to that side throughout the generations. Loyalty ran so deep people started to trash talk about the other side like Vic Sussman, an American newspaper and radio journalist. She