Questions:- 1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall competitive strate
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Question
Questions:-
1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fit together? Is the strategy evolving?
2. What are the key elements of Apple’s strategy in computers, personal media players, and smartphones? Have its strategies in its core businesses yielded success? Explain.
3. What does a competitive strength assessment reveal about Apple’s computer business, as compared to the leaders in the personal computer industry? Use the methodology in Table 4.2 to support your answer. Does it appear that the company’s competitive positions in personal media players and smartphones or stronger or weaker than its position in computers?
4. Does it make good strategic sense for Apple to be a competitor in the computer, personal media player, smartphone, and tablet computer industries? Are the value chain activities that Apple performs in computers, personal media players, tablet computers and smartphones very similar and “compatible” or are there very important differences from product to product? Which of the four products lines---computers, tablet computers, personal media players, or smartphones---do you think is most important to Apple’s future growth and profitability? Why?
5. What is your assessment of Apple Computer’s financial performance the past three years? (Use the financial ratios in Table 4.1 on pages 94-96 of the text as a guide in doing your financial analysis.)
6. What recommendations would you make to allow Apple to strengthen its position in its most important markets? What steps should it take to ensure that the iPad becomes a success in the marketplace and a major contributor to the company’s overall performance?
Explanation / Answer
1. The strongest element of apple's strategy is an innovation. Apple provides an excellent job in developing a strategy through increasing innovation which allow the company to improve the existing products and introduce new products in the market. This strategy is also known as differentiation strategy which helps to meet the needs of global market. Earlier Apple faces many problems externally and internally. This innovative strategy of Apple helps to keep them top in competition in all of their markets. Yes, this strategy is evolving in digital electronics and computer markets. Apple choose this strategy in designing and developing its own operating system and software technologies.
2. Apple brings a confidence in using both differentiation and innovation strategy in developing both hardware and software. It is done in all three markets i.e, computers, personal media player and smartphones.
Key elements of Apple’s strategy in computers are style, limited selection and proprietary capabilities. Style of Apple attracts the customers whereas it has limited number of product line in computers because of which people has limited choices.
Key elements of Apple’s strategy in personal media players are style, its online music store and its first to market innovation. It became fashion in the user's of apple's personal media player because Apple win the opportunity to convince people that it is much more than a music player.
Key elements of Apple’s strategy in smartphones are first to market innovation, style and music store support. It helps to keep the competition in the arms length of an apple company. These strategies of Apple yielded success in its core business when this brand became a fashionable and 'must have brand' for the people in the global market to prove their best standard of living.
3. We can see that Apple has used both tangible resources and intangible resources to get where they are today. Both classes of these assets have help to set apple's competitive strength in the computer business and the personal computer industry. Dell and HP are the strongest players in the computer industry. And acer is the industry's weakest rival. Apple's position in personal media player and smartphones is much stronger than that of the computers because the personal media player and smartphones is much more of a growth industry than computers. It is so because in computer industry of Apple people are looking for the cheaper product.
4. It makes a perfect strategic sense for Apple to be competitor in computer, personal media player and smartphones and tablet computer industries. There are similarities in Apple's value chain activities when comparing its computers', personal media player's, smartphone's and tablet computer's activities because all the devices of Apple run on same iOS system which make an ease of use for consumers.
Apple's involvement in personal media player's industry is very much important for the apple's future growth and success because Apple still have to make some improvements in the product lines of smartphones and computer industries.
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