MRKT 5000 Online Course Willie Williams Consumers Take a Shine to Apple Inc. Case Summary: Apple Inc. was started by Steve Wozniacki and Steve Jobs on April 1, 1976. For the first two decades Apple concentrated on manufacturing and selling personal computers. The first personal computer was the Apple I and then the company produced the Apple II, Macintosh and now they produce MacBooks and iMacs. Apple really began to prosper in 2001 when the company began producing the extremely successful iPod music player. Along with the iTunes music stores the iPod revolutionized the way individuals would buy music.
Strong Marketing Efforts One of the greatest strength of Apple is its impactful marketing efforts which produced a potent concoction of a strong global brand and celebrated products. Brand Marketing Apple is one of the most established and reputable IT brands globally. Its popular multi-million dollar marketing campaigns included successful “Think Different” ads and catchy slogans such as “It just works”, which positioned the firm as a chic alternative to its competitors. Apple also promoted its computers as the “world’s greenest lineup of notebooks” that are recyclable and energy-efficient. In 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranked Apple’s notebooks as the “most environmentally friendly portable computers”.
Incremental innovation Incremental innovations can lead to a significant improvement in price or functionality. As companies primarily compete in price or quality or both, improving either or both of these characteristics can make late entrants very successful. Market leaders, who frequently introduce or adopt important incremental innovations, tend to maintain or even improve their market share. Apple’s first white DAP provide an illustration of incremental innovation concern. When Apple released its first DAP (also more commonly referred to as ‘MP3 player’) in 2001, such players had been present in the market for quite a while.
Now that apple has become one of the top notch sellers of the world they are starting to spread their business horizons. They’ve constructed a new deal with Verizon
Ques 1. How sustainable is Apple’s competitive position in MP3 players? Ans 1. Apple’s iPod was first introduced in 2001 and because of the innovative design strategy of Apple; iPod soon became one of the most successful products in terms of revenue and popularity. It is a also important to note that strategy of launching iPod and other subsequent new products were very much in synchronization with the ‘Digital Hub’ strategy.
Quality refers to how well designed and made a product is and the expectations that people have of a business will influence the way that the products are designed and created for customers. Apple is known as a top technology manufacturing company due to majority of people having mobile phones being iPhones. Apple customers have high standards for quality expectations for new products. Because of the advances in technology, Apple needs to upgrade and adjust current models of their products to satisfy the needs of customers’ expectations. Every year or so Apple will bring out new models of their iPhone, iPods and laptops that live up to the hype of the customers’ expectations.
Influence factors of innovation 13 4. Innovation Value Chain (IVC) model 14 INTRODUCTION Apple Inc is an American computer technology corporation; its head office is located in Silicon Valley in California which is known as the heaven of many big technology and electrics companies. Apple was established in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Job under the name of Apple Computer; and in early 2007, it was renamed as Apple Inc. Apple’s products are very extensive with personal computers (PCs), mobile phones, music devices, and many other related high-tech equipments. Since 1990s, Apple has been one of the biggest giant in technological sector in the world. According to Fortune 500, a list rating 500 best US companies, in 2012, Apple is at the seventeenth position in this list and is one of three most profitable companies (money.cnn.com).
Brief history: Apple computers Inc. was founded on 1976 by Steve jobs and Steve Wozniack. While Jobs was the genius behind the idea, Wosniack was the technical wizard behind the product. After building the first circuit board and selling 200 units, they were ready to strike the world with the first commercial product the Apple ][, under the pillars that will become part of the Apple brand; easy to use and a quality product. This is the begging of the PC era, which shaped the world to what we know it today. Apple inc. (formally Apple Computers Inc.) is a Manufacturer, Designer and Seller of various consumer electronics including personal computers, media devices (including the iPod, iPhone and many other devices), accessories and peripherals as well as the sales of media (including music, video and many other entertainment mediums) and software to support the previously listed items, including operating systems, music and video applications and various other resources.
This paper will try to shed some light on the matter thru past and recent articles from analysts and insiders that has attempt to decipher Apple’s recipe for success. Apple is a computer and software manufacturer that also sells digital content as: books, music, operating systems and software applications (Apple.com, 2013, p. 1). The 2013 Fortune 500 global company list ranks Apple as #17 (Money.cnn.com, 2013). According to Badenhausen from Forbes (2013), Apple is the most valuable brand in the world, “Apple is the most valuable brand in the world for a third straight time at $104.3 billion, up 20% over last year. It is worth nearly twice as much as any other brand on the planet by our count.” (para.
Organizational behavior Introduction of the organization’s background and nature of its business. Apple Inc., previously Apple Computer, Inc., is an American multinational company headquartered in California that designs, advances, and sells consumer electronics, computer software and individual computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod music player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. Its software contains the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork originality and production suites. The company was founded on April 1, 1976, and incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977.