STUDY ON APPLE INC

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ABOUT
INDUSTRY: Computer Hardware
Computer software
Consumer electronics
Digital distribution
FOUNDER’S: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald
Wayne
FOUNDED: 1976
COUNTRY: United States
CEO: Timothy cook
EMPLOYEES: 80,000 (2013)
SALES: US$ 170.910 billion
HQ: Cupertino, California

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Executive Summary
Apple Inc commonly known as Apple has effectively managed to be a
successful company in a very competitive consumer electronics industry by been
innovative and differentiating the company’s products with similar products in the
markets by offering high quality products and good customer service while the
actual manufacturing of the products is outsourced to trusted third party suppliers.
On a wider perspective, the company has set high standards that even the
company itself has to be on its level best to maintain the standards that it has set.
Over the last few years, the consumer electronics market has become heavily
commoditized which as a result has seen intense completion from competing firms in
the industry where price has become the main aspect of the competition. By making use
of the talented research and development team, Apple has been able to position its
products as the best in terms of innovativeness, performance and reliability while
compared to similar products in the market. However, Apple needs to continuously
review its strategies to make sure that the company maintains its position in the industry
for many years.
This strategic plan review Apple’s performance and environment from various
perspectives before strategic recommendations are made on the conclusion section.
Among others the Internal Factor Matrix, External Factor Matrix, SWOT strategies and
SPACE matrix have all been used in order to establish Apple’s current position in the
market. In order for Apple to retain its position, the report recommends that the company
increases its presence in markets where it is yet to have any presence, increase its
social corporate responsibility initiatives and spend a lot of money in research and
development so that new products with unique features can continue been developed.

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Overview of Apple
Apple Inc is a multinational company that is based in America and headquartered in
Apple California located in California, U.S. Apple was established in April 1976 by Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak and was incorporated in January 1977. The company designs and later sells
consumer electronics, personal computers and computer software. The Macintosh range of
personal computers, iPod, iphone and the iPad are among the Apple’s best known products.
Some of the software sold by the company includes Final cut studio that is a music and video
production suite, Aperture which is Proffessional photography software, iTunes media browser,
Mac Os X operating system and Logic studio which is a music production suite (Apple, 2012).
As of May 2012, Apple (2012) indicates that the company has over 300 stores
located in more than ten countries in additional to the online store. Banton (2011)
describes Apple as been among the largest technological companies in the world as far
as companies’ traded in the world by market capitalization are concerned. According to
Banton (2011), some analysts have even suggested that Apple has more cash than the
US government. Apple (2012) states that, the company has more than 60,000
employees employed on permanent basis and 2,800 temporally employees world wide.
Regardless of the success that the company has enjoyed, it has at times
received extensive criticism for the way it treats its contractors as well as the impacts
that the company’s operations have on the environment. Some of the heavy criticism
that the company has received recently has been that workers working for Apple
suppliers in China leave in unhealthy conditions where they are also paid meager
wages.

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History
1984 – Macintosh
The one that started it all — the original Macintosh — wasn’t just a computer. It
was a declaration that the power of the computer now belonged to everyone. At
the time, most people didn’t even know how to use one. But thanks to the
simple graphical interface of the Macintosh, they didn’t have to. It was
approachable and friendly, starting with the smiley face that greeted you. There
were folders that looked like file folders and a trash can for throwing things
away. And with the click of a mouse, you could suddenly do the unimaginable.
You could move things around on the screen, change the way they looked,
combine words with images and sounds, and create like never before. A new era
had begun.
1985 – Jon Appleton
Pioneering electronic music
Electro-acoustic composer Jon Appleton established one of the first
digital music studios in the world, and it was built completely around the
Macintosh. With his Appleton’s software, he developed a revolutionary
new way to teach the principles of composition to his students, inspiring
musicians for years to come

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1989 – John Knoll
Visualizing the impossible
John Knoll has spent his career creating visual effects for movies, but it
was his co-invention of Photoshop, with his brother Thomas, that helped
change design and photography forever. Before that, photos were
manipulated by hand in the darkroom. Originally developed on the Mac,
Photoshop gave photographers new, faster ways to manipulate images
and allowed them to push creative boundaries. It’s become so
embedded in culture that whenever someone alters a photo, the name of
the application is used to describe what they did.
1991 – John Maeda
Merging liberal arts andtechnologyA self-described “technologist who doesn’t like technology much,” John Maeda
saw the potential in the Macintosh from the very beginning. He introduced an
entirely new art form by combining software development with traditional design
principles, and laid the foundation for modern digital motion graphics. The
Macintosh allowed him to see his art in a new way and gave him the tools to bring
it to life.

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1993 – Robyn and Rand Miller
Reimagining the video game
Myst, created by brothers Robyn and Rand Miller, was a breakthrough
video game that combined graphics and storytelling like never before.
The Macintosh helped them bring to life a new type of first-person, role-
playing adventure where players saw everything from the character’s
point of view. With the Mac, the Millers could render 3D images to
capture more detail and texture and let players become completely
absorbed in a mysterious, fantastically original world.
1998 – Alex Townsend
Making the world smaller
The Isle of Man sits alone in the Irish Sea, nearly 50 miles off the coast
of England. In 1998, the island had little to no Internet access, and even
fewer computers in its classrooms. In a stroke of brilliance, Alex
Townsend, along with Graham Kinrade and John Thornley, decided to
outfit a bus with Mac computers and then drive it to different schools to
connect to the school’s network — providing kids with Internet access for
the first time.

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2000 – Nick Knight
Bringing fashion to life
Nick Knight is responsible for some of the most memorable fashion
images of the past 20 years. In 2000, he created SHOWstudio.com and
changed how people saw fashion. Literally. Using the Mac to bring
motion and interactivity to a traditionally 2D world, he took the idea of a
fashion show — typically seen by about 300 people — and broadcast it
live to more than 6 million viewers. The catwalk has never been
the same.
2002 – John Stanmeyer
Mobilizing the photo studio
Photographer John Stanmeyer had always appreciated the portability of
his PowerBook, and he carried it with him to all corners of the earth. In
2002, while documenting the war in Afghanistan, the Mac allowed him to
edit his photos from even the most remote locations and then quickly
send them to clients. Editing in the field was something that previously
required large equipment. This was when digital photography really took

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2004 – Noemi Trainor
Unleashing everystudent’s potential (I bookg4)
Dissatisfied with the one-size-fits-all approach to education, teacher
Noemi Trainor created her own school with a Mac-based curriculum as
its core. This unorthodox, personalized approach helped her students
achieve unprecedented test scores and opened the door for Trainor to
develop equally inspiring lesson plans for schools all over Latin America.
2006 – Radiolab
Redefining radio
By 2006, Radiolab, the live radio show/podcast and brainchild of Jad
Abumrad, had turned the banter of talk radio into performance art. Using
the Mac, Abumrad and cohost Robert Krulwich were able to construct
elaborately detailed shows that relied on multiple layers of voices, sound
effects, and atonal music. It gave their hour-long podcasts an original
sound that captured life in the 21st century.

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2007 – Nicholas Felton
Charting new territory
Representing data visually used to mean showing some graphs and pie
charts. That was before graphic designer Nicholas Felton started
documenting every detail of his life and organizing it into his now-famous
“Feltron Reports.” Working on the Mac, he turned mundane facts into
groundbreaking visualizations that went far beyond the expected.
Felton’s annual reports, along with his data visualizations for clients
like The New York Times, CNN, Facebook, and Esquire, have ignited a
global passion for information graphics.
2008 – Es Devlin
Designing on the world stage
An internationally acclaimed stage and costume designer, Es Devlin
turns to the Mac for every step of her design process. For the 2008 Mika
show at the Parc des Princes in Paris, Devlin created collages and
storyboards, then rendered them in Vectorworks. The one-night-only
show, seen by nearly 55,000 people, was a hugely successful mix of
carnival characters, oversized set pieces, and projected multimedia
running on the Mac.

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2011 – Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski
Teaching the world to code
After he dropped out of Columbia University, Zach Sims — along with
his former classmate Ryan Bubinski — started Codecademy, an online
platform that teaches aspiring engineers to write code. Inspired by how
the Mac allowed anyone to master technology, they used it to design a
friendly interface with simple, interactive lessons. An instant Internet
sensation, Codecademy would become the most popular way to learn
what some call the most valuable language of the 21st century.
2012 – Daito Manabe
Exploring frontiers of art
Growing up in Tokyo, the artist, computer programmer, and composer
Daito Manabe mastered many disciplines at a young age. As a creative
professional, he has done everything from controlling sound with his
facial expressions to developing holographic motion graphics for musical
performances on his MacBook Pro. Many would say Manabe’s art is
indefinable. Or maybe he’s just chosen to define it on his own terms.

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2013 – Moment Factory
Performing at the highest level
In 2013, the entertainment studio Moment Factory, comprising Éric
Fournier, Sakchin Bessette, and Dominic Audet, produced a stunning
new 3D light-and-sound show projected onto Boardwalk Hall in
Atlantic City. It invited visitors to navigate six magical worlds with an
exhilarating mix of video projections, live performers, and dramatic
music. The surreal vision was conceived and produced entirely on the
Mac using 2D animation and 3D mapping. Tourists and residents alike
were held spellbound by this new form of storytelling.

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2014 – Mac Pro
Creating the future
The new Mac Pro isn’t just a big leap forward, it’s a huge change in
direction. It takes the most advanced technologies available today and
puts them together like no computer before it. With two workstation-class
graphics processors, incredibly fast flash storage, and unprecedented
expansion capabilities, it’s designed to create on an epic scale. And we
can’t wait to see what you’ll do with it.

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CATEGORIZED PRODUCTS OF APPLE
MAC
IPOD

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CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS OF APPLE PRODUCTS
Martin Scorsese
Samuel L. Jackson

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Zooey Deschanel
John Malkovich

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SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
Apple’s strengths includes a strong brand image that gives the company a
competitive advantage over its competitors, talented and innovative research and
development team that is behind Apple’s revolutionary products and strong
financial performance that gives investors confidence to invest in the company
implying that the company cannot lack capital for any new venture that the
organization wishes to pursue.
Weakness
The company has recently been involved in numerous case battles involving
intellectual rights that might affect the company’s performance. In addition, Apple
has recalled some products due to risks they pose to the customers something that
has created a negative image of the company.
Opportunities
There is huge potential in the smartphone and tablets market that can
increase the company’s revenues over the years. Moreover, there is a highly
potential mobile advertising market that can be exploited.
Threats
The increasing popularity of Google’s android platform will definitely affect Apple’s
sales revenues in terms of volumes of smartphones and tablets sold. In addition the
sales volume might be affected by the increased competition from other competitors
as well while the dependence on only few suppliers might pose as a challenge to the
company in the near future

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Though the case study doesn’t speak of it, as it was written in
2008, Steve Jobs has since passed away, leaving the
powerhouse company without its prominent leader. Many feared
that Apple would suffer immensely without the vision and
intelligence of Jobs.
However, Apple’s stock since Jobs’ death has skyrocketed, and
the company’s value has even grown so much that in March of
2012, Apple was actually worth more than the GDP of Poland,
Belgium, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan. Additionally, Apple
sources say that Jobs left at least four years worth of products in
order to safeguard the company’s future. Even so, I believe one
of the most important factors for Apple’s continued success will
be continuous investment in R&D in order to remain the
technology leader and continue to bring out innovative products,

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BUYING AND SELLING PROCESS
Apple also uses Point Of Purchase Promotion, displaying their products
on shelves. These devices are openly available to use by consumers
and customers to try out their IPad, IPhone, Mac computer among
others. You can try out the equipment’s features, check it’s properties
which promotes the devices more and make it even more wanted.
Apple provides trade allowance promotion for customers who would like
to recycle their old Mac computers, Iphones, Ipad and other devices if it
has a monetary value and provide you the customer with a Apple gift
card. If not, they can still recycle it. You can also bring in your old
phones and Ipod at a retail store and they’ll give you a 10% off a new
one. Click below to see the options Apple provide for trade allowance

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ADVANTAGES
OF
APPLE PRODUCT
EFFICIENCY
WELL BUILT QUALITY
UNI BODY DESIGN
USER FRIENDLY USER INTERFACE
DISADVANTAGES
OF
APPLE PRODUCTS
HIGHER PRICE
LIMITED AVAILIBLITY
FREQUENT NEW MODEL LAUNCH

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CONCLUSION
Over the past 30 years Apple has amplified from computer design to
developing consumer electronics. The company was started by Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in the 1970’s.tim cook is the
current CEO of Apple and is doing a very efficient job in running the
company. Apple uses a differentiation business strategy, which means
that all employees and departments work together in the creation of their
products. Since the employees work together our products tend to be
more productive. Apples main business initiative is customer relationship
management. When working with or purchasing from Apple you are
promised top notch customer service and assistance.
Apple uses many different types of internet business models. Business
to Business e-commerce is used in the selling of computers to help
operate everyday proficiency in other businesses. Business to
Consumer e-commerce is the selling of iPods, computer, and other
products to different individuals rather than businesses. Business to
Government e-commerce is the process of selling of any Apple products
to government operated organizations. As you can tell Apple works with
many different groups of customers. When purchasing from Apple you
are offered many different payment options. One payment option is
electronic bill presentment and payment, this system sends bills over the
internet and helps to provide an easy method for you to pay them. This
method is most convenient for customers so that they can purchase and
pay for their items without ever leaving their home.
In running their business Apple finds it very important to use database
warehouses. They feel this way because it is a huge collection of
business information that is collected from many different databases.
They also utilize data marts, which helps them to focus on certain
operations throughout the business rather than the overall summary of
the business. In the analytical processing databases and operational
databases which Apple uses the most consists of many different files.
Some of these files are Costumer files, order files, sales files, and
supplier files. In having these files it makes the entire business process
for Apple more convenient and more efficient.

STUDY ON APPLE INC

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