...Brendan Wiley MKT 6301 2-17-2015 Apple Case Study Challenges Apple reached the highest publically traded stock in Sept 2012 at $650B making Apple the most valuable publically traded company of all time. Apple did this by having differentiated products, brand loyalty, and seamless integrated devices. It is April 2013 and Apples total value has gone down to $370B. This is mainly due to constant pressures from competitors such as Samsung and others. Apple is challenged with responding correctly to competition with the right product to market, as well as how they are going to compete in new emerging markets. Apple is also challenged with coming up with not only short term solutions but creating new long term solutions to bring back the favorable growth they had received previously. Tim cook, CEO, will need to evaluate these challenges and make applicable changes to foster new sustainable growth at Apple. Solution #1 The first solution would be to beat Samsung in the smartphone race by creating the best spec’d phone of all time. Apple needs to stop following Samsung. As new Iphones have come out, Samsung has consistently put out a better technological option to follow Apple. Recently it has been so bad that you can go back two generations of Samsung S phones and that is comparable to the newest Iphone release. The key to Apples success will be to win the smart phone race and have the best product on the market at all times. Competitively, they would cut into Samsung’s market...
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...International Management Project - Apple - Summary In a context of “fast growing technological market", what could be the futures perspectives of Apple over the strategic issues in order to maintain its competitive advantage? Introduction I – A Sociology of Steve Jobs A) Steve jobs: the perfect illustration of a charismatic authority B) Steve Jobs: does he really is an inventor? C) From death to succession II – How does Apple react about the uprising competition on the consumer electronic market? A) Understanding the market B) External and Internal analyze through specific models C) Major changes on the market D) Apple’s strategic positioning: a specific target audience III – Recommendations and Justifications A) Drawing of frightening competitor B) Possible strategies C) What Apple is looking for and how to reach it? Conclusion Appendix Introduction In a period of financial turbulences, the consumer electronics market is facing several challenges where every company have to differentiate themselves and bring something more through innovation in to be able to maintain their competitive advantage and to grow their market share. In this case, Apple, great name, is probably the most innovative corporation established on this market by staying aware of the trends evolutions as well as of the electronics consumers’ needs to gain competitive advantages. Indeed, its orientation...
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...Critical Analysis about Competitive Advantage of Apple Inc. based on the Porter`s Five Force Model Northeastern University Strategic Leadership Xiaolong Cao Instructed by James Lux June 6th 2016 Abstract This article aims to detect two key areas in Apple`s competitive advantage through using Porter`s Five Force model. According to the knowledge learned from class, there is no forever lasting competitive advantage, so through analyzing the case of Steve Jobs competitive strategy it presents a clear and reasonable structure and explanation of their competitive advantage. After doing this analysis, this article helps to fine both the disadvantage and advantage of their competitive advantage, and each of them contains two aspects according to Porter`s Five Force Model, which provides a reliable and meaningful support to test and excavate the effect of competitive advantage and future developing orientation. Introduction In the modern time, there are numerous resources that identify the importance of the competitive strategy. The ever growing technological trends and volatility within business operations in today's society make it extremely difficult for organizations to stay complacent with their strategies. Adjustments and new ideas need to constantly be developed to be able to maintain a competitive edge. The most obvious examples happen in IT industry, high performance laptop was a competitive advantage 2 years ago, but...
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...Apple: Top of Their Class Executive Summary: This paper will examine the ever-popular company, Apple Inc. It will take a look at a case that examines their products and productivity. Apple uses many business activities that help them be at the top of their field. They concentrate so much on customer satisfaction and created their own competitive advantage. The numbers alone will blow anyone out of the water. And the way they do it, which is why they are at the top. Introduction: Apple Computer Inc. is one of the biggest and most lucrative companies in the world. They bring out every part of the word innovation. Apple is always looking at satisfying their customers and continues to dominate in the technology world. It is crazy to think that Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy not too long ago. Now, according to consumer reports, they are on top in regards to reliability and consumer satisfaction. Alan Marsden has said that Apple has cemented its place among the world’s leading companies. (2011, p.45) “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife , iWorks and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad, which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.” (2011, 45) Competitive Advantage: At the end of Chapter 1 in Business...
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...Apple: Leveraging IT to Gain a Competitive Advantage March 14, 2011 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Background 1 2.1 Products and Selling 1 2.2 Competition 1 3 Competitive Advantages 2 3.1 First-Movers 2 3.2 Marketing via the Internet 3 3.3 Think Different 4 4 Closing 5 5 References 6 Introduction From the newest consumer gadget to the explosion in communication capacities, technological innovations continue to enhance the lives we live and provide us with new tools to perform everyday tasks. The technology breakthroughs of the past thirty years are truly remarkable thanks to the technological innovations of many companies. Currently, technology companies are competing to bring consumers tomorrow’s technological breakthrough. This competition forces companies to strive to find their competitive edge over their competition. Apple Incorporated (Apple) is a prime example of a company that uses Information Technology (IT) to gain a competitive advantage. The company is best-known for their Macintosh computers, the iPod, the iPhone and as of recently, the iPad. Apple has become an icon of personal computing, a model to which competitors strive to become. Apple is well known for achieving a competitive advantage through their first movers’ advantage, marketing strategies and differentiation. Apple successfully utilizes these advantages in order to become the successful innovator and trend-setter it is today. Background * 2.1 Products and Selling ...
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...COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Introduction The aim of strategic management is to determine, create and maintain the competitive advantage of a firm. Competitive advantage is a firm’s ability to provide value to customers that exceed what its competitors can provide. Besides that, competitive advantage can be gained through maximal capitalization of the attributes and resources of the organization. Thus, competitive advantage is a strategy that organizations use to differentiate itself from its’ competitors. Superior value Superior value is a type of competitive advantage when value of products and services that are produced is superior to the competitor’s value. Superior value can be gained by differentiating the company products and service from its’ competitors. For example, FedEx was one of the first companies to introduce package-tracking capability. This tracking capability allows FedEx customer to track their package along its’ route of being delivered. Thus, FedEx gained superior value over its’ competitors by providing such a service. Although other courier services eventually provided such service, FedEx capitalized on its’ superior value and continuously upgrade it. Therefore, other courier services could not match up its package tracking services. Rarity When a company capitalizes on its product/service rarity, it gives the company a competitive advantage where no other firms have the capabilities needed to provide the quality and quantity of product and services...
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...UNIVERSITY OF AGDER | Term Paper - Apple | ORG 409-1, INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT | Ole Erik H. Larsen 25.09.2015 | Innhold 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE 2 3 PORTER´S STRATEGIC GROUPS 3 4 SWOT - ANALYSIS 5 5 CONCLUSION/REVIEWS 6 5.1 Future research 7 6 SOURCES 8 6.1 Guidebook 8 6.2 Internet 8 6.3 Pictures: 8 1 INTRODUCTION Apple is an American multinational technology company that constantly designs, develop and sells consumer electronics, online services, computer software and personal computers. Its best known products are the Mac line of computers, the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet computer, and the Apple Watch smartwatch. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976, to develop and sell personal computers. By revenue Apple is the second-largest information technology company in the world, after Samsung Electronics. On November 25, 2014 in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, Apple became the first U.S. company to be valued at over US$700 billion. As of March 2015, Apple employs 98.000 permanent full-time employees, maintains 453 retail stores in sixteen countries, and operates the online Apple store and iTunes Store. ITunes are otherwise the world’s largest music retailer. Apple has in recent years enjoyed an outstanding success in technology, and the company has grown to become one of the most valuable brands in the world...
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......................................................................................................................... 2 2.0. Company Profile ..................................................................................................................................... 3 3.0. Apple Distinctive Competencies ............................................................................................................ 4 3.1. The R-C Model.................................................................................................................................... 4 3.2. Building Blocks of Competitive Advantage ........................................................................................ 6 4.0. Nature of Competition in the PC industry ............................................................................................. 7 4.1. PC Industry Life Cycle ......................................................................................................................... 7 4.2. Porters 5 Forces ................................................................................................................................. 8 5.0. Apple Sustainable Competitive Advantage.......................................................................................... 10 5.1. Value Chain ...................................................................................................................................... 10 5.2. New McKinsey 7S Model ..........
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...What, historically, have been Apple's competitive advantages? Apple since its inception was driven by mission to bring easy-to-use computers to market. But during Sculley years (1985-1993), Apple targeted low cost computer and forge an alliance with IBM for OS development on Intel platform, both of which didn’t bear any results. Spindler‘s (‘93-‘96) strategy to expand to international market gave short-term results, but did not help Apple in long term. Amelio (‘96-’97) decided to go back to premium price differentiation strategy and invited Steve Jobs to take over as CEO in 1997. Steve jobs restructured company around the original strategy of Apple and turn that into a competitive advantage. Apple’s competitive advantages are its control of software and hardware, marketing, digital asset management, retail strategy, product differentiation and Steve Jobs’s strategical decisions. Decisions such as switching to Intel processor resulted not only reduced power use & design ease but also made Macs able to run windows on it. Apple retails concept implements direct selling, creates first hand experience to customers, customer education, after sales service etc. With these advantages Apple built a barrier to five forces that shapes industry competition [1]. Analyze the PC industry. Are the dynamics favorable or problematic for Apple? Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore predicted that the performance and capacity of an integrated circuit would double approximately every two years...
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...A report based on the case “Apple inc. in 2010” (David B.Yoffie and Renée Kim) January 28th, 2012 Introduction Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products are the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple’s software includes the Mac OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser; Aperture, a professional photography package; the Safari web browser; and iOS, a mobile operating system. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the world from 2008 to 2011. But Apple experienced its share of difficulties in the 80s and was nearly bankrupt when Steve Jobs returned to the company to reclaim his position as CEO in 1997, after a 12 year hiatus. Jobs’ return signaled Apple’s turnaround, and the company’s strategy was redefined as it evolved to focus on the mobile world and the digital lifestyle of home consumers. This report will review Apple’s core competencies and the competitive advantage that has contributed to its unprecedented market success and phenomenal profitability. Apple inc. Core Competencies Apple’s most significant core competency has without a doubt been its ability to continuously innovate. In the past 10 years, Apple has successfully launched five legitimately life-changing innovations: the ipod, itunes, the ipad, the iphone and the Apple Apps have each altered the way people...
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...multinational approach to get a competitive advantage over others in the global environment. Competitive analysis is an important component in environmental scanning. In this paper, the internal and external environments of three popular companies will be studied and contrast the ways in which companies analyze their internal as well as external environment and the strategies formed accordingly to get a competitive edge over others. Three popular companies selected in this paper are Coca Cola, Proctor, and Gamble (P&G), and Apple Inc. All three organizations are related to different industries and carry out different businesses. The competitive strategies and their measurement guidelines will evaluate their internal and external environmental perspective. Determine what competitive advantages each company has and what strategies each company is using. Coca Cola Company is known in the beverage industry, P&D is known in the consumer product industry and Apple Inc. is known for their technology. All three organizations are one of the top market giants in their respective industries and have competitive advantage over other firms in their relevant industries. Coca Cola strongest competitive rival in beverage industry is Pepsi. Both have competing efficiently in the market; however, Coca Cola has many competitive edges over others. Because of a competitive environment, Coca Cola has invested a large amount of effective competitive strategies in the market and...
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...Apple Case Team Assignment 1. What historically have been the sources of Apple’s competitive advantage? (15pt) Apple, since its conception, has been focused on making a superior personal computer. Apple was, at first, ahead of their competition due to their improvements upon the personal computer. Apple was adamant on creating an easy to use personal computer with exceptional design and style; creating a premium product. Apple was focused on being different, rebellious and cutting-edge. Steve Jobs coined the motto, “It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy,” which exemplifies the rebellious and unique nature of Apple’s culture. Innovation and aesthetics were, in Steve Jobs’ eyes, the competitive advantage of Apple. When Apple shifted away from this vision, it took major hits to their profits and lost much of its market share to its competitors. This is because Apple tried to implement the advantage that IBM and other competitors had, which was low-cost mass market appeal products. Apple even started creating desktop peripherals and other products not true to the identity of the brand. This marred the image of Apple and confused its identity; ultimately making Apple lose their competitive advantage. Apple went from a unique, rebellious, and innovative company to just another mass-producing computer company with inferior technology. Once Steve Jobs returned, after all of the chaos, they went back to their roots of being an innovative company focused on creating...
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...The Apple Corporation Bus431: Marketing Strategy CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course. Student Signature: Cynthia M. Cantu Table of Contents Organizations Background…….……………………….……………………………………...4 Business Strategy………………………………………………………………………………4-5 Mission………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Vision…………………………………………………………………………………………...6 Competition…………………………………………………………………………………… 6-7 Apple’s Strengths……………………………………………………………………………... 7 Weaknesses Apple Faces……………………………………………………………………… 7-8 Opportunities for Apple………………………………………………………………………...8-9 Threats Apple Faces…………………………………………………………………………...9-10 Demand & Competitive Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .10 Labor & Staffing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...Event “Competitive Advantage” 15 September 2013 The term competitive advantage is the ability gained through attributes and resources to perform at a higher level than others in the same industry or market (Chacarbaghi and Lynch 1999, p. 45). There has been quite a bit of study and research interest due to existing issues regarding superior performance levels of businesses in the present competitive market conditions. "A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy, not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential player" (Barney 1991 cited by Clulow et al.2003, p. 221). Firms that have a competitive edge over their rivals thrive in the marketplace and can exist for a very long time. Public companies in this category can have substantial returns for investors because they are able to capitalize on their competitive advantage. If one or more competitors can copy their ideas or make better products, then the company that had the competitive edge loses that advantage quickly. A prime example is Apple iPhones, in the cell phone manufacturing industry, U.S.-based Apple Inc. was on top of the world last year due to the astounding popularity of its iPhones and other products. Investors couldn't get enough of Apple's stock, pushing it well over $700 per share late last year. Investors were absorbed by the media and Wall Street’s glamorization that they seemed to fail to realize that Apple’s competitive advantage would...
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...The Discipline of Market Leaders Customer Value Model (Porter’s generic strategies with particular reference to Apple Inc) Table of contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………. Porter’s three Generic Competitive Strategies…………………………………………………………. Cost Leadership…………………………………………………………………………………………… Differentiation………………………………………………………………………………………………. Focus or Niche strategy…………………………………………………………………………………... Apple Inc……………………………………………………………………………………………………. Identification and Critical Evaluation of the Company’s Existing Strategies………………………… Apple Inc Cost leadership Strategy……………………………………………………………………… Apple Inc Differentiation Strategy………………………………………………………………………... Apple Inc Focus or Niche Strategy………………………………………………………………………. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………….. References…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1.0 Introduction A firm's relative position within its industry determines whether a firm's profitability is above or below the industry average. The fundamental basis of above average profitability in the long run is sustainable competitive advantage. There are two basic types of competitive advantage a firm can possess: low cost or differentiation. The two basic types of competitive advantage combined with the scope of activities for which a firm seeks to achieve them, lead to three generic strategies for achieving above average performance in an industry: cost...
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