The Relation Between Competition and Success of Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. has been one of the high-end brands in the market for years, as some

The Apple Company is one of the most successful firms in the cellular phone market. Although the company has not always been on the top, they found a way to surpass other competitors through the quality and pricing of their products. Today, we can walk through most superstores and find Apple’s products.

The success factors of Apple are obtained through meeting the appeal of the corresponding aspects of consumer behaviour that are Perception, Learning and Memory, Motivation an Values, The Self, Personality and Lifestyles, Attitudes, Attitude Change and Interactive Communications, Individual Decision Marketing, Buying and Disposing, Group Influence and Opinion Leadership, Income Social Class and Family Structure, Subcultures, Cultural Influences on Consumer Behaviour, and Creation and Diffusion of Culture. During the course of the 41 years of existence for the company, as the history background detailed above states most of these aspects were surely addressed in one way or another in order to maintain the on-going and everlasting success of the brand along with being able to recognize the failures and later turn them into successes as well. Apple has established its brand to meet the consumers’ perception by setting a standard that involves selection, organization, an interpretation of it sensations. This is made possible through the eye grabbing aesthetics’ characteristics of most its products and the logo that were designed to be visually appealing to create and immediate response of sensory receptors such as basic stimuli like light and colour. Through the aspect of Learning and Memory the use of repetition from associative learning to the brand name Apple is easier to be familiarized with. As it constantly being repeated, the term increases learning and generates more

Apple came back from near extinction to become one of the most revered technology companies in recent memory. They achieved this status by developing innovative design products and pushing the limits of their marketing prowess. Apple is known for their ability to listen to consumers and revolutionize market segments by providing modern design laden and feature rich alternatives to the target markets. They employ strategies that might contradict normal convention by keeping their prices high to build a brand image of prestige and promote their products through word of mouth. The impact on marketing is hugely noticeable by other companies following suit with store models

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.

A smart phone is a mobile cellular device which offers advanced technologies with functionality similar as a personal computer. While offering a regiment platform for application developers a smart phone performs as complete operating system software. Secondly, there are also very advanced features in smart phones such as internet, instant messenger and e-mail and also built-in keyboard are very typical. Because of these reasons, a smartphone is a miniature computer with the similarities of a simple phone.

According to Turban, McLean and Wetherbe (2001:92-104), Competitive strategy may be defined as “a broad-based formula for how a business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what plans and policies will be required to carry out those goals”. Organisations including that of Apple Inc. seek to gain competitive advantage in the industry using competitive strategy which is a key factor to the organisations success or failure (Turban et al. 2001:92-104). The use of a Strategic Information system can help an organisation gain competitive advantage by its ability to increase performance and productivity (Turban et al. 2001:92-104).

In September 2014 Samsung Electronics presented their new products, which are going to increase their chances in a global technological market against small and large firms, especially against Apple Inc. Samsung presented their new smartphone – Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Samsung Note Edge and new watches – Samsung Gear S. They are planning to get ahead the competition with Apple Inc.

Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis demonstrates that Apple, as a company, has few forces against it. The few risks to the company are essentially negligible, and only offer medium risk. There is no real competitive rivalry to speak of as Apple is exclusive in it’s products, and cannot be re-created at this time. There are substitute goods available, but they do not match all of the specifications of a singular Apple product. Apple has also avoided price-based competition by staying out of low end markets where price is the main differentiator. Additionally, Apple products never go on sale. This is due to Apple generating a superior product to Android, rival tablets and eReaders. This has allowed Apple to compete primarily on quality, service, and maintain a unique ecosystem.

Market segmentation strategy involves dividing the market into groups, where individuals have similar needs and wants for services and products. It could also be a segmentation of people on the basis of behavior, culture and economic status. To get a clearer picture of what is market segmentation, one can always look into the definition provided by business dictionary.com, market segmentation is defined as, "Process of defining and sub-dividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics" (Meadows, 2008).

I think at the end of 2014 and in 2015 the competition between Samsung and Apple will be in the high period. After this I don’t think that any other small and large firms can get ahead competition against these two technology firms.

For years Apple trailed Microsoft, it is on top now only because it changed its focus in the last decade from the pc market to the consumer electronics market, and now Microsoft is struggling to keep up with them in this industry. Inevitably there will be another great shift in technology and a real threat to Apple is that they are likely to lose out on it if they shelter themselves too much from other companies in the technology sector.

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.

Apple’s iPod is the market leader in digital music1.In United States (US); it holds about 76% of the market and 70% globally. In 2006, it was the first digital music player to be integrated into an American automobile2.This increased the sales of iPod and profits of Apple in general. The launch of its newer generation has immensely increased the profits of Apple.

Apple Company from this analysis has a competitive advantage in the e- commerce market of possessing the hardware product and software service lines. The closest resemblance to apple market strategy when dealing with products comes from the Amazon Company, because their scale of operating activities and sales force is similar to that for Apple Inc. Fortunately the product or service that is best positioned in the market is that from Company of Apple, who are present on both physical and online e-commerce marketing. The company holds the largest market share and has the best year on year growth. Customers have commented that the durability of products and services are much more improved when compared to others in the all industry, and the issue raised both Apple Company and Competitive companies both have a much concern on presence and e-loyalty of the customer base.