Case Study

APPLE ASSIGNMENT

Name of Student

Name of Institution

Company Overview

The company under consideration Is Apple Inc. which is one of the leaders in the technology industry and is headquartered in California. A large number of technological devices are manufactured and sold by the company including the IPhone which is the most powerful product of the company. The computers have been the most dominating aspect of the company sales, however, the music related products are also gaining importance very fast. The major aspect that the company focuses to compete with the competitors is the technology and the quality of its products. The other strategy that the company is following pertains to the pricing. The last year highest price of any product of the company is generally kept as the lowest price of the next year. This almost drives the customers out of the competition. The company does not only raise the prices but also raises the quality and usage of the products by adding new features to the products. The company is exposed to certain threats on the political front. The reason is that the company has suppliers from all over the world and any political change in any part of the world will definitely affect the company. This situation is more evident in the regions or countries where the employees are not aware of the safety measures taken during production.

The External Environment

The economic front faced by the company is also posing serious threats to the company. One of the most serious impacts on the company was shown by the global economic recession. The large economies of the world like America, UK and Japan were badly affected by the recession CITATION Usm15 \l 1033 (Khan, 2015). The sales of the company is these areas was affected adversely. The unemployment rate in the largest economies of the world has also risen which means that the purchasing power of the people in the country has generally decreased. Another economic aspect is related to the bans on import of certain parts by the governments of the various countries. The company has to use certain imported parts in the manufacturing of IPhone which are not easily available if there are sanctions on the imports. The imposition of tariffs and import duties will also have a similar impact on the company.

On the Technological front the company has innovated successfully to take advantage of any changes in the customer needs. The company has played a part of the trend setter in the technological playground. This stance has allowed the company to remain the leader of the technology driven market. The problem is that the company cannot sit back and relax, it will have to research and analyze the environment to bring in new innovations.

On the social front, the company is following the approach presented by Carol. This approach needs that the business must consider all the stakeholders while making any decision. This will affect the business as it will have to assess the total costs and total benefits associated with any of the decisions taken. If any decision taken by the company initiates some negative comments from any of the stakeholder, the results can be disastrous for the company both in the short and the long run. In the short run, the costs of the company will be raised but there will be huge benefits in the long run for the company.

Answer 2

If the company strategy has to be defined in a single word, it will be suitable to use the word Empathy CITATION Abd16 \l 1033 (Aljafiri, 2016). The core strength of the company is to get the knowledge of the core needs of the customers when it comes to the technological products. The company should continue to follow the lead in the technological aspects of the products as well as the pricing policy. If both these aspects are successfully implemented by the company, the company will continue to lead the market especially with the IPhone. With the current strategy, the company has also minimized the threat of the new companies entering the market which will mean that the competition to the company will not increase in the short run or even in the long run.

Answer 3

If I was the CEO of the company, I would recommend that the company continues to apply the growth strategy. This will be easier for the company as it has been applying this strategy for a lo0ng time. The strategy will need a considerable amount of resources and I will make sure that the sale of the core products of the company does not go down. This will mean that the company will continue to generate the resources required to undertake the growth strategy. In my leadership, the company will have a continuous analysis of the environment to judge the opportunities available and risks associated to them. This will help us to take advantage of the most viable option available to undertake in the market.

Answer 4

The main competitor of the company is Samsung which provides almost the similar products as the company does. The major aspects of the strategy followed by Samsung Company is the pricing and ease of use for the customers. There is no serious threat for the Apple Company because it has different criterion to lead the market and to beat the competitors CITATION Qia18 \l 1033 (Zhang, 2018). The company technology leadership allows it to charge a higher price. The target markets of Apple and the competitors are different and the two companies are not directly competing with each other in any of the markets served.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Aljafiri, A., 2016. Apple inc. Industry analysis Business Policy and Startegy. International Journal of Science and Engineering Research, pp. 406-441.

Khan, U. A., 2015. A critical analysis of Internal and external environment of Apple inc.. International journal of Economics,Commerce and management, 3(6), pp. 955-967.

Zhang, Q., 2018. Research on Apple inc's current developing Conditions. Open Journal of Business and Management, pp. 39-46.