Apple 's Price Positioning Will Impact Competitiveness

For the fiscal year (FY) 2013 fourth quarter (Q4) Apple posted revenue of 37.5 billion and quarterly profits of 7.52 billion. Figure 1 shows financial data for three consecutive years from 2011-2013. See Appendix Figure 1 for financial details. Net sales for FY 2013 were $170,910 million an increase of $14,402 million from FY 2012 (Apple reports, 2013). Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones, 14.1 million iPads, and 4.9 million Macs during 2013 Q4. Apples App Stores’ sales exceeded $10 billion for FY 2013. App Store customers downloaded almost three billion apps in December 2013 making it the most successful month in App Store history (App store sales, 2013).

Further, in 2012 net income increased to $41,733,000,000. This shows that while the industry was declining, Apple was able to stay strong and profitable.

2. Analyze the structure of the personal computer industry over the last 10 years. How have the dynamics of the PC industry changed?

Even though Apple has encountered many setbacks, it continues to bring new and improve products to the market. Apple’s competitive strategy has been innovation. They have made an extraordinary effort developing, implementing, and executing its very unique strategy through innovation which has resulted in new product, and the enrichment of the existing ones. More specifically, Apple attempts to meet and supply the needs of a global market, by offering eager and enthusiastic consumers with innovated and high-quality products and services. Apple has employed a differentiation strategy linked to innovation with its three core products (computers, personal media player, mobile phones, tablets and other accessories). A key piece of their strategy involves meeting the needs of the converging digital electronics and computer markets. Apple has elected to implement its strategy by designing and developing proprietary operating systems and software technologies, thus allowing for strict protection of its intellectual rights.

Apple Inc. can pay its current and long-term debt obligations or liabilities, has tremendous tangible and intangible assets worth billions of dollars, and has a vast reservoir of investors, lenders, and shareholders providing all the finances for running the corporation 's operations. Like every business organization, Apple Inc. sells more in some products than others. To illustrate, Apple Inc. sells more on phones than Ipads. I do not have any doubt that Apple Inc. will make more sales in revenue and profits in the next five years ahead. Base on the fact that Apple Inc. is consistently researching and upgrading their products to meet the business and personal needs of their growing clientele.

In the last quarter the Revenue (in billion) of three of Apple products (Ipod, Mac and iPhone) is of 28.23 and the cost of Revenue is 16.89. The gross profit is 11.38, which leave us between the selling, administration and expenses, also the department of research and development a total operating expense 19.56. so after taxes the income available Is 6.62 with this information investor can identify how Apple has been growing despite the death of their executive chief.

The Apple Corporations is very secretive regarding their future plans and innovations, which makes it hard to determine the new company vision and future of their products. Over the last several months Apple has started to

Shares of Apple have been stagnant over the past two years despite successful profits, a fast-growing dividend, and over $130 billion worth of share repurchases. The staple product, the Apple iPhone, accounts for the bulk of Apple 's revenue and profits and has suffered from slumping sales for consecutive quarters. The launch of the iPhone 7 was unable to reverse that trend. The 2016 Q4 numbers show $46.9 billion quarterly revenue and quarterly net income

Apple’s investment in research and development, brand image which is well recognized globally, stable financial performance and growth rate, own variety loyal customers and finally large economic scale. On the other side, Apple products such as Apple TV, Apple watch and other products are too expensive with lower quality compare to the competitors. Their industry is centralized and dependent on IPhone. The promotions of Apple are one of another weakness compare to other competitors. However, Apple has variety of opportunities to cover those weaknesses. Their strong brand image can attract customer’s attention and target market in China which is the fastest growing market. Apple need to be careful about emerging imitation products with cheaper price since their products are expensive. The number of competitors has been increased globally and it is intensive that other competitors bring out with new

This paper will provide both an internal and external analysis of Apple Inc. and the industry it operates in, as well as its general competitive strategy from the case ‘Apple Inc. in 2012.’

The multinational technology company Apple Inc. is number three on the current Fortune 500 list and a Dow Jones Industrials Company with a revenue of $215.6 million. Also, an S&P Global 100 company, Apple is a leader in the industry in profit, revenue, market capitalization and consumer prestige. By creating alliances with IBM and Cisco Systems Apple has increased its penetration of the enterprise market. Notably, around 60% of the revenue comes from outside the Americas. Apple operates in the Americas, Europe, Greater China, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific (Apple Inc. Company Information, 2017).

Apple Inc. plans, produces, and markets versatile correspondence and media gadgets, PCs, watches, and convenient advanced music players around the world. The organization likewise offers related programming, administrations, frill, organizing arrangements, and outsider advanced substance and applications. It offers iPhone, a line of cell phones that involve a telephone, music player, and Internet gadget; iPad, a line of multi-reason tablets; Mac, a line of desktop and convenient PCs; iPod, a line of versatile advanced music and media players, for example, iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod mix; and Apple Watches, individual electronic gadgets that join watch innovation with an iOS-based client interface.

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.

Now below I will analyze Apple Inc. strategy and plans for the competition. And also I will show some facts: As we know, Apple Corporation is one of the most famous large-firms in the world, which has a strategy based on innovative and ingenious technology. This distinguishes Apple as one of the most innovative companies of the last ten years in the technology competition market. The main power of Apple is that, this firm can influence millions of people into standing in a queue for hours just to buy a phone,

This paper presents a case study of Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is a technology based corporation with emphasis on computer software and hardware (MAC and Apps), tablets (IPad), smart phones (IPhone), and mp3 plays, (ITouch). Apple Inc. has grown tremendously over the years and ever since 2001 has expanded its brand and retail stores to over 375 stores/outlets globally. The business has seventy two thousand eight hundred employees in thirty eight countries. Apple Inc. has truly become one of the most efficacious corporations within its field behind or competing with Microsoft and Google Inc.