Strategic Appraisal of Apple Inc. Essay

This report will thoroughly go through the case of Apple, a company that is at the forefront of entertainment technology. Our team of expert analysts and consultants has carefully evaluated the situation of the company, determining what practices and innovations have led to its current position, developing a plan will continue to help the company further it’s position, and provide logical rationale and follow up to our plan. Before getting into the details of the company’s managerial and innovational practices, the report will provide a brief overview of the company. Apple is in a critical position with the loss of its former CEO, Steve Jobs, but with implementation of certain practices and policies, it

This report was done within Strategic Management course it consists on choosing a well known company that the public in general is familiar with and using the Hambrick/Fredrickson five element model describes how the strategy of a company can be seen. For this analysis I chose Apple Inc. because I think that it meets the requirements. Concluding the report, there is a summary where the soundness and successfulness of the company are evaluated.

This paper is a business situation analysis of Apple, Inc. Apple a market leader in the consumer computer industry with products including desktop, laptop, and handheld computers, as well phones, media streaming, and now watches. A multinational company, Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976. They specialize in designing, developing, and selling high-end computers, software, and other electronic devices. Because of Apple’s broad product portfolio they compete with many different companies in a range of markets. This analysis will be conducted using historical information, a SWOT analysis, and portions of Porter’s Five Forces Model to understand its business strategies, impact within markets, products and services offered, corporate leadership, and future.

Apple Inc, best known as Apple is an American based global company that designs and sells electronics, PCs and computer software. The company was established in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and was incorporated in 1977. Some of the Apple’s best-known products are the Macintosh range of personal computers, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. By 2012, Apple reported to have more than 300 retail stores located in more than 10 countries in the world and more than 60, 000 employees on permanent employment, and about 2,800 on temporal employment. Despite the success the company, Apple has faced hard competition from other electronics manufacturing companies. The objective of this paper is to develop a strategic plan that will enable Apple improve its position in the personal computer industry. The paper will use Michael Porter’s forces; key success factors, SWOT analysis and the competitive strength to point out specific, workable recommendations that will allow Apple stay afloat and improve its position in the personal computer industry (Gamble & Marino 2012).

Apple, Inc. (APPL) operates under a fiscal year accounting period. This period consists of the 52 (or 53) week period that ends on the last Saturday of September. September 25 was the specific date observed as the end of the annual reporting period for 2009 and 2010. Every six years Apple adds an additional week in its first fiscal quarter in an effort to realign its fiscal quarters with calendar quarter.

Values and Lifestyles: creative people, value innovation and design, education, forefront of new technology. Apple supports a very large amount of R&D

Since 1976 Apple’s innovation has helped the company become a market leader in computer and mobile electronics. Through this time the company has faced a number of challenges either it be an internal power struggles or criticism from the media for certain aspects of their business model. This report covers five different issues that the company is facing or may face in the future.

Nowadays, Apple has positioned itself to be an innovator in the personal computer industry and Apple has developed by offering modern products compared to its competitors. According to Apple’s mission statement last year, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” (Business Management,

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.

Motivation can also be in form of training. Beach House is in the IT sector, hence, faces a lot of competition as regards to coming up with advanced and trendy technology. Most IT companies subject their employees to continual training in order to improve their skills and make them innovative. Top IT companies like Apple Incorporated have an elaborate internal training program, called Apple University, which inculcates Apple employees into Apple business culture and educate the about the company’s history (Chen 2014). This is partly one of the reasons why Apple Inc. has been performing well in the last decade. Beach House needs to have a training program that indoctrinates its personnel into a culture of high performance. The company’s management can remind both teams of past achievement, and seek to make both groups want to attain such feats. Additionally, the company needs to realise that each individual prioritises needs differently, for instance, some employees aspire for ascribed achievement. This concept is explained by the McClelland’s acquired needs theory, which argues that some needs are acquired during an individual’s lifetime, people do not inherit them, but learn about them through life’s experiences (Daft 2014). It would generally be assumed that individuals working in Beach House want to achieve personal goals. The company can provide an enabling environment where people are guaranteed of forms of achievement such as awards.

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.

Apple Inc. is a multinational technology company that was found in America and the headquarters are located in Cupertino, California. It makes designs, cultivates, and retails consumer computer electronics, software for computers, and provides online services. Its hardware goods include the iPhone (smartphone), the iPad (tablet computer), the Mac (personal computer), the iPod (portable media player or MP3 player), the Apple Watch (smartwatch), and the Apple TV (digital media player). Apple 's software, available to consumers, encompasses the OS X and iOS (operating systems), iTunes (media player), Safari (web browser), and the iLife and iWork (creativity and productivity suites). It also has online services that includes the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, and iCloud.

Apple Inc. has launched its iPhone in January 2007 (telegraph) as a new product in the market with latest technology and it was the first multi touch smartphone adding the feature of iPod and received an overwhelmed response by selling 270000 units. It had created a new record for a new company like apple, iPhone had laid a stepping stone for the success of Apple and till this time iPhone is the best seller product of Apple Inc. during first quarter of 2016 apple has sold over 74 million iPhones worldwide. (statista, 2016).

An analysis was done on Corporate-Level Strategies adopted by Apple Computer Inc. (“Apple Computer”) that has brought tremendous success to the firm since it started.

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.