Strategic Management Apple

Apple Inc., together with subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computing products, and portable digital music players worldwide. The also sell a variety of related software, services, peripherals, and networking solutions.

Every apple device is targeted specifically to different groups of consumers and business and features in the products are built around their needs. Apple has segmented products vertically, creating on product for one particular use. Apple also targets according to brand loyalty, considering that apple has quite a cut-like following just due to its image/brand name.

This figure shows the international sales of Samsung compared to apple, in the last few quarters Samsung is ahead. (FOSS Patents 2012)

Apple Company is one of the most successful companies in electronic industry and is one of the most important valuable companies in the world .its sales and makes value increased for the past ten years. Apple Company has used many different strategies to become successful in the market. “The Apple strategy is essential determinant of advantages towards with other companies such us, Samsung, LG, and BlackBerry. It used Porter’s model strategy and this strategy is the key to achieving this generic strategy and supporting Apple’s success. Apple general strategy focuses on key features which is differentiate the company and its products from competitors and which is essential .for example, it focus on elegant design and branding. The Apple

Although Apple Inc. has a variety of innovative products, the price of the products is a major weakness compared to other companies. Other rival companies develop products that began at low-end to high-end products compared to Apple Inc.

Due to the differentiation of Mac from other personal computer manufacturers, the company seeks customized designs and technology particular only top Apple, therefore leaving suppliers with high on bargaining power.

Apple is a global multinational corporation based out of Cupertino, California Apple designs, sells and develops personal computers, computer software and consumer electronics. Apple was founded by the late Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. A few of Apple’s most popular products are the I Pad, the I Phone, the I Pod music player and of course the line of MAC pc’s. In addition to the host of hardware electronics that Apple makes and manufactures,

Apple Inc is an International American Company that produces cell phones, personal computers , softwares & consumer electronic products. Apple is known for its products, some of its famous products include: Macintosh, iPod, iPhones, iWatch, iPad, Macbook. 486 Retail stores in 19 countries and an online stores available in 39 countries are operated by Apple Inc. The product of Apple comprises on the MAC OS X working framework, iWork suite for productivity, Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio a music generation device's suite, iOS; a iPhone operating system, the iTunes media program, the iLife suite of sight and sound and innovativeness software, AirPlay, Airprint, and so forth.

Apple and Samsung, actually, considered as pioneers in technological industry. Every company has chosen different business strategies and models within the marketplace. Apple releases few but highly anticipated high-end products while Samsung inundates the market with a wide variety of products. In the beginning, Apple was very careful about its mobile and tablet releases by originally allowing for long development cycles that grow anticipation and showcased new innovations with each new release under Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs, one of the original founders and innovation of Apple Inc, used non-cooperative strategy which means he did not want to share the company’s software with any other companies. He wanted total exclusion of Apple’s software and hardware products. In this way, he gave his companies a competitive advantage because the focus is to satisfy the customer need that no other competition can satisfy which allows the company to have higher prices for their products.

Apple manages its business on geographic locations having offices in Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. Apple’s sale is continuously growing. In the era of 2000, Apple opens 86 retail stores in USA and two international stores in Tokyo and Osaka which increases its sales. It introduces eMac line of cathode ray screen, but its most impressive and fastest growing market is of iPod line of digital music players and iTunes music store website. The three major competitors of Apple are Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM; however Apple also competes with Microsoft in software industry. Dell is the largest computer manufacturer with extremely low cost production strategy. Dell has entered the in the line of music against Apple by its Jukebox. Hewlett Packard is a big brand name and leading provider of technology. Apple combined with IBM enjoyed profit jointly but now Lenovo took over IBM and become a competitor of Apple. Apple’s new products like speech recognition program will help take industry into a new age of computers and is according to the company’s motto and it is hoped that it will double the profit margin in the near future. Overall, Apple is continuously growing and its

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology business headquartered in Cupertino, California, established by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, to sketch, fabricate, and sell consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Apple is the world 's second-largest information technology company after Samsung electronics, the world 's largest technology company by total assets. On November 25, 2014, Apple became the first U.S. Company to be treasured at over 700 billion dollars, besides being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization. Apple is a very successful producer of computer software and hardware, however it has demonstrated internal and external areas that need enhancement along with other areas that prove to be profitable.

Apple is a fierce competitor in several industries, ranging from personal computers to entertainment media to mobile payment systems.

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 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).