Apple Is Expanding Its Distribution Channels

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.

All companies need to be competitive in order to survive. Not only do they have to come up with a competitive plan that will attract new customers but also to keep current customers. Just like the movie You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks (Joe Fox) and Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly. They each have their own bookstore located near each other in New York.

Apple has benefitted significantly from globalization and from technology change. For example, the company started primarily as an American company, but globalization has allowed Apple to become a multinational operation. The company only derives around one-third of sales form the Americas according to the annual report, a figure that includes Canada and all of Latin America in addition to the United States. The company therefore can be said to sell globally. Sales in Asia-Pacific were growing especially fast, and the company has numerous flagship stores in the region.

This paper will discuss a company called Apple computers. It will further access the market forces and strategies used by apple.

Apple is a large multinational company and is the second largest information technology company. Apple has a revenue of $199.9 billion and a profit of $44.46 billion. Apple’s market capital, meaning the aggregate value of the company based on its current share price and the number of outstanding stocks is $741.8 billion. Apple is a public company meaning you can buy shares into the company, which are traded freely on a stock exchange and is now the largest publically listed company. It was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1,1976. Apple employs 92,600 people and has 437 stores located in fifteen different countries. An online store is also available in 39 countries to serve on

Apple inc.is an American technology multinational company that has grown to the global standards. The company has its headquarters in, Cupertino California. The consumer

Apple’s renowned for their brilliant abiltity to cope with changes in market demand. They strictly control every aspect of the supply chain to ensure that both the distribution and supply-and-demand relationship are near perfect. They use a Make-To-Stock method of Supply Chain Management that allows customers to walk into any Apple Store and make a purchase the same day, which is coupled with an extremely low inventory level that means the system has nearly Make-To-Order characteristics. Apple uses SAP (Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing), a German Enterprise Resource Planning software, to power the global supply chain and implement a strategy to “purchase raw material and reserve manufacturing capacity ahead of time “ [1] in order to make this possible.

Apple Inc. was founded in 1977. To date, this company has continually offered a wide range of products to meet the growing demands of customers all over the world. Apple not only produces and sells computer software and cellphones; they also distribute consumer electronic products around the globe. Increasing the value of shareholder and coming up with new inventive products is a constant process for Apple, and Apple continues to do so with their popularity around the world with about 301 store locations in 10 different countries. Aside from all of

Apple profits is not generated from physical goods but from royalties of intellectual property like patent. It is similar to other giant technology companies such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, and Hewlett-Packard. It allows them to move their profits very easy to their subsidiaries in the lower tax jurisdiction, since their products are downloadable and can be sold from anywhere around the world. They don’t need a physical store or

Apple Computers was in need of a new retailing strategy and a more widespread adoption of its products. The 2005 annual report mentions that “One of the goals of the retail initiative is to bring new customers to the Company and expand its installed base through sales to computer users who currently do not own a Macintosh computer and first time personal computer buyers.” As a result, Apple has undertaken store based retailing with heavy emphasis on making the customer test the products first hand before purchasing a product. A visit to the Apple Store shows that they have a combination of a free flow layout and a loop layout. According to the company “this helps to guide a consumer’s

The company started off as “Apple Computer,” best known for its Macintosh personal computers (PCs) in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Despite a strong brand, rapid growth, and high profits in the late 1980s, Apple almost went bankrupt in 1996 (Kim & Yoffie, 2010, p.1). This can be explained that Apple has become larger and more significant than other competitors put together in 1980. Because Apple failed to innovate in 1996, the company almost went bankruptcy but eventually Steve Jobs took Apple from bad situation to the company that can make billions of dollars through promoted itself as a hip alternative to other computer brands. Apple highlighted its computers as the world’s “greenest lineup of notebooks” that were energy efficient and used recyclable materials. The goal was to differentiate the Macintosh amid intense competition in the PC industry (Kim & Yoffie, p.4).

According to Wikipedia, Apple Incorporated formerly known as Apple Computer is very reputable in the United States and around the world, is a multinational corporation with its headquarters located in Cupertino, California. Besides the Americas segment which includes both North and South America, It also operates through the following geographical segments: Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The company was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wonzniak on April 1, 1976 and incorporated it on January 3, 1977. The company is one that focusses on the development, designing and the distribution of its on line services, computer software and electronics. The company also have a chain of retail Apple stores, and their core product lines are the iPhone smart phone, iPad tablet computer and iPod portable media players. Both men wanted to change the way people viewed computers, so they decided to make computers small where consumers can use them in their homes and offices.

Until now, Apple Inc. operates 408 retail stores in 14 countries, which are regarded as the most popular stores worldwide. Apple has more than 72 thousand staff and 30 thousand of them are engaged in retailing service. In May 2013, it is the first time that Apple Inc. is on the Fortune 500 list about top ten companies.

Apple retail stores are located in different CBDs of different states in Australia. Using specialty store concept Apple provides distinctive and brand value for the customers in their specialty stores.

Business executive, Tim Cook who was asked by Jobs to join the company in 1998, once mentioned “We never had an objective to sell a low-cost phone. Our primary objective is to sell a great phone and provide a great experience, and we figured out a way to do it at a lower cost.” Apple is seen as ‘pioneer’, above all else compared to other smart technology brands. Apple’s retail success blossoms through its retail stores by customer demand; in comparison to Best Buy, another leading electronics store, Kane and Sherr (2011) explain that Apple’s most valuable strategic objectives is ‘It sells a single brand, has far fewer products and has only a few hundred stores compared to Best Buy 's more than 4,000’