Apple Inc. 2010

APPLE Inc. 2010

Discussion

Questions

1. What were Apple's major competitive advantages?

Apple's Hardware design. Apple's designs are, well, elegant. Apple has the best-designed hardware from an aesthetics point of view of any vendor. Another advantage is their marketing The company seems to understand what will get people excited about its products, and then it executes on that vision. The company talks about how their products will make a person's life better. They run lots of campaigns and put their logo on devices where it stands out. They are seen in lots of shows, and movies. Steve Jobs himself is a competitive advantage when it comes to marketing. With Jobs' backing, Apple outspends almost every other hardware vendor in the space on marketing personal technology. the current incarnations of

Macs offer attractive design, ease of use, good security, and bundled software that all contributes to an "Everything-ready" system that is very easy to use

2. Analyze the structure of the PC industry. Are these dynamics favorable or problematic for Apple?

The PC industry is a fast-growing, consumer-based oligopoly. From the first PC to present, the industry has gradually entered the mature stage PC is becoming a commodity product, which makes the condition not favorable for Apple Suppliers and substitutes comprise the unfavorable condition. The substitute such as smartphone and notebook is the challenge to the traditional PC product. For the hardware, The supplier of PC Microprocessor is monopoly, and Mac's demand is increasing but still takes a small proportion in total supply, which can provide limit negotiation power Good for transition from pcs to smartphones (iPhone) Good for transition from PCs to laptops (Mac) a portable PCs expected to reach 70% of worldwide PC shipments The most important segment (home) values design and mobility as top factors in the buying process, which is a very favorable aspect for Apple

3. Has Steve Jobs finally solved Apple's long-standing problems with respect to the Macintosh business?

The PC market is extremely fast-changing, as it is currently penetrating into other aspects of peoples' lives, such as multimedia. Until 2000, there was a 15% annual increase in number of PCs. However, recently the market has slowed down, particularly the domestic market, as the annual growth rate is only 3%. This is in great contrast to the international PC market, as the annual PC growth rate has increased, with emerging markets such as Asia dominating. When Apple first started making PCs, the profit margins were extremely high. However, recently these profit margins have decreased dramatically, recently being less than 5% in 2007. Thus, this industry is highly competitive,

containing other well known PC manufacturers such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Lenovo. These