Competitor Analysis: Apple’s competitors varies in terms of product and services. In the smartphone business, Samsung is one major competitor challenging Apple’s innovation and uniqueness. Samsung also makes smartphones with good specifications and features which can compete with iPhone features. Samsung is a South Korean technology giant with $45billion revenue as of 2015. Samsung is a major supplier for Apple and other technology companies. Its semi conductor business supply’s chips for Apple’s use. Samsung has the required experience and resources to compete with Apple and the company is making waves in the global markets and its sales records is higher than Apple’s in the global markets. Although it was noticed the Samsung had to lower its price to remain competitive in the smartphone global market. Other competitors in other product lines includes Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell, HP and others.
Samsung Strategy
Although it took Samsung some time before getting into the smartphone business, in 2011 the company came in with the introduction of its Android based Galaxy smartphones. The company was still able to catch up more than anyone else to match up with Apple. Instead of recreating Apple’s products the iPhone, Samsung used another dimension to position its product by differentiating with features, larger screens and aggressive marketing campaigns. Samsung was willing to spend more on research and development in order to be able to produce exactly what consumers
Samsung expanded their product base into four different industries; appliances, phones, home entertainment, and cameras, and within these product lines, there are hundreds of variations. This shows weakness in the company, as they are not able to focus on their competition in all production categories. In their cell phone line, Samsung has failed to create their own operating system and software, instead using the Android system like many of its competitors. Samsung is unable to control the quality of the software and loses out on a higher profit margin if they created their own OS and software.
There are many competing brands of smart phones and Samsung has reported a decline of profits in 2014. Information from GSM arena shows than Samsung released 54 new phone models in 2014 , compared with 24 by HTC , 11 Motorola and 2 by Apple, leading to increased production costs and lack focus on a specific customer segments thereby losing some of its competitive advantage (GSM Arena , 2015).The lack of popularity of its own OS (Tizen ) and dependence on Google’s Android platform makes it vulnerable on google to develop an “ecosystem”. There are component integration issues as well as loss revenue from potential App sales (Strategic Mangement insight , 2015). Negative publicity from litigation due to patents are likely to continue as technology patents are vague and Samsung with is large portfolio is likely to infringe on some of the patents (Tibken, 2014).
Moreover, analysis using Day & Wensley’s model identified that Samsung could achieve competitive advantages within the tablet sector through their superior skill in innovation and information technology. In addition, their superior resource in global strategy and strategic alliances also contribute to gain the advantages. These allow Samsung to provide the differentiated product, superior customer value and cost reduction. However, Samsung’s disadvantages of key industry success factors: relative weak brand preference compared to the market leader and inferior battery life. Samsung would benefit in building additional superior skills and resources that it could generate the sustainable and further competitive advantages.
• Various companies have realized the importance of advertising, therefore Samsung will be subject to a lot more competition as advertising creates and draws attention of consumers.
Apple is the largest company in the field of smart phones and Apple depends on a marketing mix suited to the wishes and ambition of all customers.The strategy is to set a high price for the new product to harvest the maximum returns of layer after layer of market segments that welcome a high price, and the company is achieving less sales but more profitable. Apple maintains its value in the case of resale for long periods even after the issuance of a new phone, a small proportion to suit the needs of the market after I reached the stage of saturation in a way that ensures the preservation of the external image of the company (in my country not to insult the product).Samsung is relying on a completely different policy, the Penetration strategy
In the modern world of technology, many different companies are attempting to secure their own ground in a particular market. Many companies work in many tech fields & some company focus on software, some on mobile phones, others on television but one of the most recognizable names in the technology field is that of Samsung.
With all the changes and devlopment in market and technologies, Samsung has a respected top position within them. Its products have not only from the finest products but the strategies practiced within its organization is a good example of a hard driven company with remarkable strategies and approaches. Samsung succeeded in concerning the technology market. Its styles in senior marketers affected the innovation by pushing its participations and involving its employees in the process of development of the
Samsung, the big name in the industry is battling out for victory against the smart elegance of Apple which only releases the most comprehensive products.
Android has grown exponentially from merely 4 percent of the market in 2009 to 66 percent of the market in 2012, according to Gartner. Samsung is Apple’s main competitor, but also Apple’s sole supplier of application processor that is required for the iPhone to function which gives Samsung the ability to charge a higher premium for their application processor. A key opportunity Apple can acquire is obtaining patents and merging into different markets to create their own application processor, as their contract with Samsung expires in 2014.
Critically analyze & discuss the Strategy adopted by Samsung to achieve Global Completive Advantage. (500 words)
The word Strategy is stand for “A plan to come out of difficulties”. Strategy in business is a careful plan for achieving a particular goal over a long period of time. This is also considered as skill of making out plans to achieve a goal. Strategies are concerned with the scope of a business, what and where they produce. Many people have defined and explained the strategy use different ways.
“Now they 're in consumers ' consideration set. After Sony, they have the potential to be the No. 2 brand globally.” -Jan Lindermann, Global Director for Brand valuation, Interbrand in 2001.
This report contains three sections. First part will analyze and evaluate the dynamics and trends in the smartphone industry and the strategic implications to Samsung
The Samsung Group is South Korea's largest company or chaebol and the world's second largest conglomerate by revenue, leading several industries in the world. It is composed of numerous international businesses, all united under the Samsung brand, including Samsung Electronics, the world's largest electronics company, Samsung Heavy Industries, one of the world's largest shipbuilders and Samsung Engineering & Construction, a major global construction company. These three multinationals form the core of Samsung Group and reflect its name - the meaning of the Korean word Samsung is "tristar" or "three
As per the data released by market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung’s latest smartphone Galaxy S III aced as the world’s top-selling smartphone model in the third quarter ended year 2012.Samsung, also announced that Galaxy S III sales reached the 30 million unit milestone and according to market research alone, 18M of those were shipped in Q3 2012. For the same period, Apple shipped around 16.2M iPhone 4S handsets. It’s was after this incident, Samsung made Apple slipping into the No.2 spot as the top smartphone vendor for the Q312 period.