Chapter 6 Case Study: Google, Apple, and Microsoft Battle for Your Internet Experience

Apple Inc manufactures both hardware and software uniquely with methods of their own. Apple’s computer operating system is highly secured and is not subject to viruses and hackers and the products are designed to be concerned about the consumers’ style life. Apple is successful with their marketing is this is because of Apple build strong name and image in the market. Apple’s products are different as mentioned and it has a lot of unique features. This is another method of Apple doing marketing.

Apple is using different business strategy that all employees and management work together in the creation of their products and services while Apples main on customer relationship management. Apple Inc. uses various types of internet business models like Business to Business e-commerce is used in the selling of computers which help operate proficiency in other businesses. Business to Consumer e-commerce model is the selling of iPods, computer, iTunes, iMac and other products to different individuals rather than businesses. Other Business to Government e-commerce model is the process of selling of any Apple products to government operated organizations, Apple (2012).

Google Inc. is one of the leading computer search engines in the world and is continuing to grow as the

Apple has prospered internally and it is necessary to consider both strengths and weaknesses. Apple has lots of strengths, the major of them being it’s impressive brand reputation, Apple managed to position the brand as “premium products” for “elite” people. Customers are loyal and tend to stay in Apple’s ecosystem. Apple’s self-reinforcing ecosystem, it has a diverse ecosystem which integrates various hardware and software products into one large interactive space. Status of top innovator, Apple is perceived as the leading innovator and its products are highly anticipated. Apple’s very strong financial performance, high profit margins and very high liquidity. It’s network of retail stores, high-quality customer service helps to create advanced user experience. A powerful marketing strategy, Apple’s team masterly uses various marketing techniques to create a hype for their products and to strengthen the brand.

Google, Apple, Facebook and each have different business models. Each company focuses on different things that makes them unique and stand out to their customers.

Google Inc. was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. By 2000 it had become the world 's largest search engine. This case study will examine the rise of the Google search engine, how it differs from its competitors, and possible threats it may face going forward.

Apple’s is quite the story. Most people don’t realize this, but Apple has been around for decades.

On the contrary, Google designed Android based on open source code, which Google makes it free to support manufactures to install on phones and tablets. Apple relies on sales of its devices to remain profitable. However, Google only needs to spread its advertising networks onto these devices to make a profit. Google envisions a future where mobile phones cost will be very cheap or even free, it requiring only the advertising revenue generated by these devices to turn a profit.

Our analysis of Apple Inc. will incorporate the general overview of the company and how it records it revenues. We will observe how they make an honest effort to be within compliance of all accounting standards according to the Financial Accounting Standards Board for recording and disclosure of its income. Apple’s leading competitor, Google Inc., will also be examined to see whether they are comparable to Apple and still within compliance of the Securities and Exchange Commission and FASB for revenue recognition. Apple takes on design, development and marketing of personal computers, portable digital music players, and media devices that exceed the reach of everyday needs. The company also

We chose to research Apple Incorporated, one of the most innovative companies of our generation. It is safe to say that nearly every one in the US and many foreign countries have used or at least heard of Apple products. We will be looking at the macroeconomic variables that impact Apple’s business as well as how the current developments in the industry have impacted Apple’s financials and we will also look at how Apple competes with other firms in the same industry.

Google is the most successful information technology and web search company in the world. It was founded in 1998 by two Stanford Ph.D. students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The company name, Google, is a play on the word “googol” which is a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose this name to reflect the large amount of information on the web. The two created this search engine so that people can find anything on the web all in one place. The company’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Now, the company is far more than a search engine website, it has grown to be a substantial collection of products and services that are

In 1998, Stanford University graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin combined their ingenuity and built a search engine called “BackRub” that evolved into what is now known as Google. Google, with over 150 domains, now functions as a search engine that offers many different products and services including web applications, advertising, sports scores, stock quotes, headlines, addresses, videos, etc. Google’s focus is “to provide useful and relevant information to the millions of people around the world as they rely on us (Google) to provide the answers they are seeking.”

Apple operates with fierce competition in the consumer electronics segment which comes in many different forms. There are a large number of competitors in the different market niches who offer many similar products. Furthermore, many of these competitors' products are priced much less than an Apple branded products. Just as soon as Apple releases a new product, major companies begin imitating it immediately. In the personal computer industry, market pressure is continuously being exerted from such companies such as IBM, Dell, HP, and Toshiba (Wildstrom, 2009). Furthermore, with its flagship product the IPhone, Apple competes with companies like HTC, Palm, Blackberry, and Motorola (Wortham, 2011). Apple has had significant success despite the competitive environment because Apple commands a brand loyalty and dedication to innovation that few companies have ever achieved.

One of the competitive strategies for Apple Inc. lies in its string Sales and Marketing positioning all across the world tough its exclusive Apple stores or in the form of franchise stores. Another competitive advantage of the company lies in its Research & Development capability. This strategy has long been a source of competitive advantage to beat the competitive rivals, both in the domestic market (like Microsoft Windows operating System and Apple’s Macintosh), Google Inc. (Android mobile operating system and Apple’s iOS) s well as in the international competitors like South Korean giant, Samsung and Finnish mobile maker, Nokia Inc. (University of Oregon Investment Group 2012).

Professionally, Google is known as a company based in California that is labeled as an internet company which is multi-national. It provides online searching, as well as cloud computing, software, and advertising. The company actually didn 't start off as a company, but rather as a research project back in 1996. The project was being conducted by Sergey Brin and Larry Page who at the time were studying at Standford University as PhD students. At the time, in internet-land, the search engines that existed operated where they ranked the results by counting the number of times keywords results were on a page. The two students came with a better idea (called PageRank at the time), that looked at relationship between websites. It would rank websites by determining it 's relevance, which was based on the importance of pages, and the number of pages, and how it linked back to the main website. After the idea 's creation, the two founders made the project into a business, and changed the name to "Google", which is a neat miss-spelling of the word "googol" which had significance because it stands for the number one followed by one hundred zeros, and it related to their goal because they wanted to create a search engine that offered a large quantity of information.