Free Term Paper About Organizational History

The two heads of the most famous technology companies are Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak. The two were friends from high school, and they were both interested in electronics ever since. However, they dropped out of school after graduation and worked for Silicon Valley companies. Steven came up with a design that gave birth to the Apple computer in 1976. This was the Apple I and later as years went by, the Apple II and III were made (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012). Steve Jobs worked in coordination with Steven but in 1981; Wozniak was involved in a plane crash, and so Steve Jobs became chairman. He worked tirelessly and got various heads together and developed the company (Graham, 2008). However, he was fired in late 1990s but the company fell terribly and they called him back to head the company once again. He became head of the company until his demise.

Competitor Analysis

In dealing with the competitors, Apple has always had a strategy of taking the ordinary existing things and converting them into beautiful and performing devices. Apple’s competitors’ fans such as Windows were enjoying buying their part and developing their towers as well. The PC builders such as Microsoft were developing standard hardware for their standard applications (Heng et al., 2005). However, Apple did none of that. Not only has Apple been pioneering features of the standard computer and operating systems, but also renovating the design standards. This is the reason gorgeous products such as the iMac, MacBook Air, and iPhones are existent. Apple focuses on the entire equation of a product instead of a single equation of the product, and this kicks its competitors off the game.

Strengths

One of the main strengths that Apple as a company has is the ability to ignore those people and organizations that are always looking at the company’s weaknesses. In the making, Apple decides to stick to their script and focus on developing what they need to build, no matter what the cost of the product or service is (Schoemaker, 2012). The time that Steve Jobs launched the iPad was a time that Apple faced critics from all directions. They stood in line and threw every insult that they could afford. The critics continually said that the iPad was due to failure, a phenomenon that in fact turned the opposite. Each and every time that Apple tried to come up with an innovation, they were laughed at by numerous critics. However, they avoided the critics from mediocre minds and went ahead to carry on with their innovations.

Weakness

One of the weaknesses that Apple has is the pricing of its products. The company prices its products relatively higher than its competitors for the same line of products. Despite the fact that their prices are justified considering the kind of products that they make, some customers may not understand their reasons and hence brush off the thoughts of buying Apple products. However, Apple has tried much as they can in order to get the customers to understand their pricing (Shuler, Levine & Ree, 2012).

Opportunities and Threat Analysis

In order to grab the opportunity of garnering the customer loyalty and eliminate threats of being knocked out by the competitors, Apple came up with iterative customer involvement. In this process, Apple spends a lot of time in observing of the customers that use other companies’ and Apple’s technologies (Graham, 2008). They call this “participatory” design whereby the company integrates the customer experiences into the design and development processes so as to understand the potential opportunities. As a matter of fact, Steve Jobs himself was an important Apple customer but this did not deter him from actively participating in systematic customer participation throughout the entire process. In this manner, Apple can brainstorm the needs of the customers and hence identify the opportunities that they can grab and use it to better their products (Schoemaker, 2012). This strategy also assists Apple in dealing with threats that arise from competitors such as Microsoft.

Product

Apple had in making its products achieve standards that are unbeatable by the competitors’ technologies. The secret that Apple has used is the building of products that are unique and extraordinary from its competitors’. For instance, the iPhones have unique operating system that no other competitor has been able to make (Schoemaker, 2012). The IOS operating systems provide a platform for many applications such as iTunes and others. These applications find fan base from customers because of their esthetic values and performance. Similarly, Apple has incorporated the Macintosh operating systems for the computers (Schoemaker, 2012). Macintosh is a unique operating system that supports many software and workability. Because of this, many people have gone for the products not only because they are highly performing but also because of the name that comes to them.

Price

Apple has highly priced its products up to even two times what their competitors charge without even blinking. However, despite the fact that their products are highly priced, they never lack customers and as a matter of fact, their products get bought much more than their competitors’ (Graham, 2008). There are reasons as to why Apple can get away with such kinds of prices and retain their customers. First, the products that the company produces are very beautiful and appealing to customers. For instance, there is no any other computer that can beat the display of the 27” iMac. Secondly, there is possibly no other software that can beat or match what iTunes offer. Thirdly, the MacBook Air is the thinnest laptop ever. All these features justify the prices that Apple charge for their products (Graham, 2008). Because of the high quality of the products, customers cannot help but simply buy them even if they are highly priced thereby making more profits for Apple.

Promotion

In order to carry out effective product promotion for their products, Apple has come up with a number of strategies. First, Apple communicates in the language that their customers understand and can relate to. They do not use jargon such as megabyte, terabyte, gigabyte and so forth (Graham, 2008). Apple uses phrases such as “edge to edge glass” and “LED backlighting” instead of the screen resolution. These phrases are easy to understand, and the customers can easily get the sense in buying their products (Graham, 2008). Additionally, Apple uses the entertainment industry to promote its products. You will find people and offices using Apple products in most movies and celebrity music videos. This is an unbeatable strategy because customers identify with Apple products and recognize them as top-notch.

Place

Apple does not restrict the location of its products or rather where its products are sold to. They have established networks across the world. This includes places such as Asia, Africa, Middle East, America, Europe and other continents. The company has established its retail stores in these locations where they sell the products according to the economy of the countries so as to be reasonable and get clients (Schoemaker, 2012). As a matter of fact, Apple designs some of its products, and they get assemble elsewhere such as in China so as to increase the market base.
Conclusion

References

Graham, H. (2008). Marketing strategies and competitiveness positioning. Pearson Education India.
Heng, Z., Zhengyang, Z., Zhiqiang, W., & Huairui, S. (2005). Analysis of the development trends of the world apple’s industry [J]. Journal of Fruit Science, 1, 010.
Hitt, M., Ireland, D., & Hoskisson, R. (2012). Strategic management case: competitiveness and globalisation. Cengage Learning.
Schoemaker, P. J. (2012). How to link strategic visions to core capability. Sloan Management.
Shuler, C., Levine, Z., & Ree, J. (2012, January). iLearn II: An analysis of the education categories of Apple’s app stores. In New York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.