Essentials of Strategic Management Apple Inc

Apple Inc: A Leader in Innovation

Apple Inc is an American multinational firm headquartered in California that designs, develops, and sells consumer gadgets, computer software, and personal computers. One cornerstone of the 2015 competitive strategy is product differentiation to cover a big market and compete successfully with other manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard. Several distinct and extraordinary brands have emerged as a result of product innovation. This is intended to fulfill the needs of its global clients. Another factor contributing to its competitive advantage is the development of the iPad, which can hold thousands of songs, as well as other stylish goods such as tablet PCs (Gamble, Peteraf & Thompson, 2015). Development of Macintosh, which uses graphical user interface in addition to launching the iMac is a great move by the company. Introduction of new products in the market puts Apple ahead of its competitors increasing its profits. The innovation strategy has allowed the company to improve its existing products and come up with new ones to satisfy the customers' needs. For instance, the sleek gadgets such as smartphones, watches, and tablet computers are doing well making the company quite competitive as Gamble, Peteraf & Thompson (2015) argue. The strategy attracted the attention of several consumers and business users especially its launch of Apple watch for its consumers. The strategy is evolving since its competitors are also upgrading their products to win more customers in a diversified market. Apple also has to keep on innovating, branding, differentiating, and diversifying brands to compete with other companies.

Elements of Apple's Strategy

The elements of Apple's strategy in computers, personal media players, and smartphone, watches, and tablet computers industries include upgrade of the existing products. For instance, the innovation strategy has allowed improvement of existing products through creation of unique designs for the market. The business strategy of the company is designing and developing its own OS, software, and hardware applications and products, which will help the clients to use new products (Hennessy, Hennessy, Najjar & Najjar, 2017). It will also ensure innovative designs that are easy to use and flawless. The company also has a strategy of continuous improvement of existing brands and development of research to come up with new products that improves its performance in the industry. The company releases third party digital content and some application through their iTunes store, which is comprised, of Apps store and iBookstore. People can access other applications through iPhone, MAC, and iPod touch (Gamble, Peteraf & Thompson, 2015. The company strategy also involves expanding the distribution channels to help in enhancing the quality of services and reach as many customers as possible.

Remaining Competitive in the Market

It makes a good strategic sense for Apple to be a competitor in the computer, personal media player, watches, smartphone, and tablet computer industries. The other companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Samsung are offering similar products and the company must work hard to command a huge market. Offering a variety of products is the best way to retain customers especially the ones that love Apple's product (Hennessy, Hennessy, Najjar & Najjar, 2017). Consumers are going for the latest and advanced models in the market and Apple must be up-to-date with the latest technological innovations of various products to remain relevant in the industry. The most important product for Apple's future growth includes smartphones and tablet computers since their demand is very high worldwide. Consumers are going for gadgets that are portable and that provide unique features for communication, various projects, entertainment, and socialization among others. A smartphone serves several purposes and concentrating on its development can improve the performance of Apple in the market. Business executives and political leaders prefer tablet computers due to their portability and variety of features such as cameras. The company can discontinue reduction of watches since the market is small. Other gadgets such as computers, smartphones, media players, have several functions including giving time. In this case, people do not need to buy watches if they have phones or other gadgets.

References

Gamble, J., Peteraf, M. A., & Thompson, A. A. (2015). Essentials of Strategic Management. Fifth Edition. McGraw-Hill.

Hennessy, J., Hennessy, J., Najjar, A., & Najjar, A. (2017). Apple Computer, Inc.: Think Different, Think Online Music. Kellogg School of Management Cases, 1-24.