Competitive Advantage Case Study: Intel Corporation Essay

Intel operates in an industry, which is comprised of products involving high research and development costs, continuous product improvement and new innovations. The companies in the industry are having high economies of scale and are knowledge based. It helps both the service and manufacturing sectors in the growth process. Intel is positioned as a leading company with its ability to adapt to technological changes and its strong relations with other businesses who are major buyers of integrated circuits. The industry in which it operates is very competitive and comes with high risks as

Led the PC microprocessor market and ousted competition through sole licensor decision: Post losing a contract to supply microprocessors to Apple, in early 1980s, Intel won a contract to provide the same to IBM for its PCs. IBM PCs were a huge success and catapulted Intel to gain market leadership. IBM initially forced Intel to license its product to other players to secure adequate supplies reducing Intel’s potential

One key element of Apple’s strategy in computers, personal media players, tablet computers, and smart phones is product innovation, diversification and development. Over the years Apple has been very successful in integrating software and hardware in new developing products. Despite the struggling economy in recent years, Apple has been able to grow their market share and stay ahead of the game.

Another way of achieving the profit of the added value is investment in software development to leverage the advantage of the high performance processors. And that was achieved by development of complementors, although Intel had a relationship with Microsoft, but it was enough, since it required Microsoft years to develop the software, were Intel is moving faster, by adopting the strategy of complementors, Intel build its capital. Intel strategy was to invest in companies that fit strategically into Intel’s business strategy as well as offered a financial return.

This is especially important for an IT company such as Intel as it can be the key for the companies to survive or the reason which made the failure of some IT companies. There are more and more consumers in the wireless industry, nobody can argue that the PDA and cell phones have become so popular; they are the new digital trends of this era. Intel cannot ignore this profitable industry. So it has researched and announced the new chip “Atom” for mobile devices which is believed to “unleash new innovation across the industry." said Intel executive VP and chief sales and marketing officer Sean Maloney (Geoff, 2008).

This case traces the strategic decisions of Intel Corporation which defined its evolution from being a start-up developer of semiconductor memory chips in 1968 to being the industry leader of microprocessors in 1997 when it ranked amongst the top five American companies and had stock market valuation of USD 113 billion.

This report discusses the case study ‘Intel Research: Exploring the Future [1], published in 2005 by the Harvard Business School. The discussion is divided into three different sections: overview, analysis and conclusion.

In the 1990s, one of the largest and most successful companies in the world was Intel. For PC business, Intel was a significant and beneficial hardware provider.

For years, AMD held the place of a distant follower of the large microprocessor market leader, Intel. Up to there, the competitor Intel led the market (with a “push” strategy) by creating consumer needs thanks to technological innovations. Those were linked with strong marketing campaign in order to facilitate a quicker adoption process of their new product line. However, in 2003, AMD change its traditional strategy to use a widely different one by switching into a blue ocean strategy. Indeed, AMD has changed course to become a “starter” firm. AMD has decided to launch at first its own brand server microprocessor range, called “Opteron” before one of Intel. At this moment, the firm made the decision to initiate the moves of server segment and therefore take heavier risks in term of investments, sales, pushing partners

The multi billion-dollar corporation, Apple Inc., designs and manufactures some of today’s highest technological gizmos and gadgets. Among their best known products are the Apple and Macintosh computers, iPods, iTunes, iPhones and iPads. Apple is one of the most powerful and influential high tech companies in the world. The success of Apple Inc. stems from the innovation and visions of co-founder and entrepreneur, Steve Jobs, the excellence of the stylish, user-friendly products, and the ability to create innovative products that consumer’s desire.

With Intel have very few substitutes in the microprocessor industry, it is it is most certain that current customers will not want to switch and use another company’s products. High switching cost presents low bargaining power to the customers mainly because it would be very expensive to switch to a competitor, and since Intel is the leader in the market, switching

In order to truly understand how Apple operates and what products they offer to consumers in the personal electronics in comparison to other companies in the market. There are many players in the personal electronics industry and Apple is 3rd place for market share capturing 11.1% of the US PC market share. HP is the leading player in the US market accounting for 26.1% share of the market, Dell accounts for 22.3%, Toshiba falls behind Apple with 9.3% of the market share.

First, Apple introduced a new OS in 2001. Second, Apple shifted to Intel chips and by the following year all Macintosh line ran on Intel making laptops run faster for less power. The third strategy was the development of proprietary set of applications. The fourth strategy in becoming the “digital hub” was to come up with a new distribution strategy: the Apple retail store, where customers can have a direct use and experience of Apple’s product and software.

The team shall lead a class discussion for Intel Corporation 2010, with an analysis of Intel’s profitability. In addition to the presentation, a written report will be submitted onto Blackboard by May 2, 2011. The report shall contain the answers to the questions in the project handout.

This report will explain how Intel has developed a mechanism to align its branding and marketing strategy with those of clients in the home and office market computing sector. Intel’s use of an integrated co-branding