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Apple Inc Introduction Apple Inc is an American multinational organization located in 1 infinite loop, Cupertino, California 95014, in the middle of the Silicon Valley. It is focused on designing and developing the personal computers, other related software products, and the electronic products such as MPH players and 'Pods. Apple Inch's main products are mimic, pod, phone, and its latest advanced product is pad, which is on the verge of creating another revolution after phone.

Apple Inc was founded in 1976 and since then Apple Inc has been leading the way in innovating new products, forever it has encountered numerous ups and downs since then. Apple Inc produced the first ever extremely successful personal computer. It has been always on the forefront of innovating new products; however it has often struggled to maintain the hold on the market share in the product line. Lately, Apple Inc has transformed its image from an inventive computer manufacturer to a fully fledged consumer's electronic company.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded The Apple Computer Company in 1976. The company went public in 1980 but Steve Jobs was forced out of the company in 1984. He returned to the company as a part-time advisor when Apple acquired Job’s NEXT Software Company to refresh its operating system. When Apple’s CEO at the. Apple Inc.’s SWOT Analysis Recommendations Based on this SWOT analysis, it is evident that Apple Inc. Has major strengths that can effectively influence the company to address its weaknesses. Can use its strengths to efficiently exploit the opportunities that it has such as expanding its distribution network.

• SWOT Analysis of Apple Inc. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack in 1976. The company was incorporated in 1977. It is a leading personal computing and smartphone brand with a global presence and market-leading position.
• SWOT Analysis Depali Sharma & Shrishti Kumar Weaknesses Opportunities Ethical Dilemma 1 An issue has recently been brought to the medias attention. Apple has been outsourcing. They are treating their workers unfairly; they are giving them extensive shifts, not enough.

Some facts of its success can be calculated from its sales of $13. 95 billion in the year 2005. In year 2005, Apple Inc had controlled 4. 2% of the US market in PC's. Also, Apple pods models had controlled 70% of the hard drive MPH player market. Apple Inc enjoys the leading share in the handset market, generating over 71% of the industry profit with 6. 5% of the international handset market. Apple unveiled its first phone on 9th January, 2007. The most recent phone, is phone AS, and it was announced on Roth October, 2011 and was released 10 days later (Papers. Com 2012).

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External Analysis External environment determines the present situation of Apple Inc, and also helps find out the possible influences of the political, economical, and social and the genealogical factors on the organization. Political Factors Apple Inc has reportedly obtained 52% of its business from outside US in 2007. Due to the bad international relations, wars and terrorism might influence Apple Inc in a huge way, and also the organization has no control over these factors. Apple Inc manufactures a number of its parts and products from outside the US, like Czech Republic, Ireland, China, Korea and Cork.

The bad political relations between US and the other world have bad outcomes for the Apple Inc (Sentences 2012). Economic Factors The global economic crisis had huge impact on Apple Inc. The inflation rate went high and so did the unemployment rate in the country, and since Apple Inc products were viewed as luxury products, the customers started pending less on them. US dollar value keeps fluctuating, and thus again which have a bad impact on Apple Inc products, however the company has purchased itself foreign currencies and thus, the economic effects on the company are minimized.

Thus, Apple Inc revenue has increased in the global market (Apple Inc 2012). Social Factors Throughout the history of Apple Inc, two factors have been on the forefront of Apple Inc products, the quality and the design of the product. Thus, globalization plays a very important role in Apple's products. As the world cannot be imagined without the SOOT Analysis: Apple Inc. By Danny market. Also, as the purchasing power of the common has risen in various markets across the world the purchasing of luxury products have gone up, for e. G. The phone, pods and the latest technology pad.

Possessing these items are considered as status symbols in many societies which have also increased the sales of Apple Inc products. Another big social influence to Apple Inc products is the rapid growth of he music industry, which have increased markets over the cyber space as well. The main virtual music store is the tunes. Thus, in all Apple products have benefited from the social factors as it has began defining a modern individual lifestyle. Technological Factors Apple Inc has invested largely in its product research and development field and thus, Apple products are at the top of the new innovative products ranking.

The technology has been fast changing in the world and the market for it has become gigantic, which has added to more and more competition and thus, as soon as genealogical change are concerned the product life cycle has been shortened drastically, which the Apple Inc takes the advantage of by introducing newer products in the market, which ultimately lead the market. Legal Factors Monika has filed various lawsuits against Apple Inc, claiming the violation of 13 additional patents by phone, pad and pod touch, this apart from US complains covering 24 Monika patents.

Also, in China Apple Inc has been fighting the battle for its right to the pad trademark. Internal Environment BRIO framework The BRIO framework can be stated as the value, rarity, immutability, and organization as whole. BRIO framework is extremely important for the internal analysis of Apple Inc organization. Resources and Competencies I Value I Rarity I Immutability I Organization I Competitive Advantage I Brand Name I Yes I Yes I Yes I Yes I Sustained I Simplicity I Yes I No I No I Yes I Parity I Hardware I Yes I No I Yes I Yes I Temporary I Software I Yes I No I No I No I Parity I The above figure shows the BRIO framework for Apple Inc.

For gaining competitive lead over its competitors Apple Inc should explore its internal as well as the external advantages, its internal advantages that Apple Inc paid attention to on developing Phone, are its brand name, advanced technology, and effortlessness of using the user interface (Pleasantest 2009).. Value The value of phone is that there are a number of advantages, like the highest technology, the fast and the easy usage, that the user can carry, all in one device when he/she purchases the phone.

Rarity The technology that has been used in making of the phone is rare and unique, which is why it has a unique design, quality, easy to use and is also a status symbol among the youngsters however, it has been experiencing slow internet connection and call roping problems, which can make Apple Inc lose some customers, which was found to be a problem in the chip that handled the call operations, meanwhile the publicity and status of owning an phone will keep the customers intact.

Immutability The phone is nearly not imitable, however there are some phones available in the companies which have seen the flaws in the phone development can refrain from committing it and thus can come up with better designs, which can be a threat to Apple Inc. For e. G. Google has released its phone T-Mobile GIG, which can be a intention to phone in the future (Pleasantest 2009)..

Organization Apple has tried its best to maintain its brand name and has been successful in doing so and thus is its biggest competitive advantage, however its flawless designs and quality are still replicable in the future and thus Apple should take advantage of applications market, however as with tunes which were the best and easiest music application, same approach would not work with phone. Thus, Apple holds a huge and stable market however it constantly needs to update on its methods and technologies to grow further. SOOT Analysis

SOOT analysis stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat for a particular organization, which can help in formulating a strategy for its business and can also help in analyzing its internal environment (Strengths ; Weakness) and external environment (Opportunities ; Threats). Strengths The first and foremost strength of Apple Inc is its technological edge over its competitors. Phone have turned out to be a great success and has been associated with status in many of the countries. Tunes has turned out to be a wonderful revenue generating source and since it also sells with its own tool I. The pod, thus, revenue has multiplied for Apple Inc. Another strength for the organization is that for every software that Apple Inc produces, it introduces its hardware with it too, which leads to its expertise in both the industries. Apple Inc products are classified as luxury items, thus its products provide enough room for it, so that the competitor products are no longer a competition. The another strikingly advantage over competitor's products, is the design of the Apple products, and which are also simple to use.

The brand loyalty of its product and its super dedicated research and placement department are also its major strengths (Wharton 2012). Weaknesses Weaknesses are the disadvantages that are hindrance in obtaining the business goals for the organization. The poor relationship with the market than Microsoft is surely a disadvantage to Apple Inc. Another point could be that the products introduced by Apple Inc have very short life cycle, which concludes that the research and development department has to be constantly maintained, which requires huge capital.

Apple Inc has very low presence in the advertisements, and also it has very mall market occupation as compared to its main rival Microsoft. Thus, all this leads to the fact that Apple Inc gets very less business from its home country US, and major of its business is from outside the US. Opportunities Opportunities can affect both the present as well as the future condition of an organization. Apple Inc opportunities are the introduction of more and more PC viruses, on which Apple Inc can capitalize on.

The second opportunity is the population of the world is growing at a rapid pace and thus, this opens the front for many new markets, also the purchasing power of a common man has increased rustically, who can be pursued or impressed to buy the luxury Apple products. The online sales of the organization are increasing and also, the bonds and the partnership with the other organizations have been on the rise in the past few years. Which can be targeted in the future I. E. The young population who have a craze for any new technology gadget (Neurotransmitter. Com 2012).

Threats In the past few years, many competitors have come up for Apple Inc, especially in the field of laptops, like Dell, Sony, HP, and Toshiba. Another threat could be that many of he customers have started downloading the music for free instead of purchasing at tunes. The product expensiveness is itself a threat to the product, as substitutes at a lower price are always available. Long lasting recession could also be a threat to its products. Windows 7 software is gaining more market place after vista flopped and last but not the least, the technological advances that have been taking place every single day, is a big threat to Apple Inc.

Porter Five Force Model Porters Five force Model is a very powerful tool to understand the core of the power in a business or in a company. The Porter Five Force Model for Apple Inc is as shown in the figure: (source: Slide Share 2010) The existing rivalry is the MPH players of rivals like Sony, Samsung, other online, free music stores like tunes, Alternate sources of laptops like Dell, Leno, HP etc, competition to the Mac operating system, and windows Operating system for playing videos and music.

The threats of new entrants are new entrants with the new technology, for e. G. Google with its new phone, on demand online services, and streaming audio and video with v-cast. Bargaining powers of suppliers are suppliers f the processors like MM, Intel etc, supplier of TV and various movies, other sources of music like Sony, Universal etc, and strategic alliance of the Mac of the Microsoft.

Swot Analysis Of Apple Inc 2018

The bargaining power of the customers are customers may reduce purchasing laptops in fear of economic downturn, retailers may star pressing for lower prices, customers may download and share music with friends without paying for it, and the threat from the substitutes are satellite radio for the music, other entertainment media like OXBOW, ASS etc, alternate source found by customers for audio and video lies (Management Pocketbooks 2012). Analysis of Strategic Factors Thus, Apple Inc is known for its price strategy according to its quality and design.

The strategies Apple adopted was to lessen the size of the notebook, so as to increase the profits by 20% and also the growth was increased by 30%. Also, another strategy adopted by Apple Inc was that during the holiday time it reduced its Mac books by up to 1 5%, compared to their competitors and still they managed to make profits. Thus, it can be said that Apple adopts the strategy to compete with their competitors on fermentation rather than on cost.

This way it may take little longer to conquer the market but it helps getting stable customers and helps establish a brand name (Strategic Analysis n. D. ). Strategic Alternatives, Recommended Business Strategy and Implementation The strategic alternatives that Apple Inc can adopt are lowering the costs of the existing products in the market or else if a new product is launched, the price should be fixed a little less initially, while maintaining the same quality standards, also the design of the product should e unique in order to capitalize on ewe markets and customers.

New pacts should be signed with the other organizations, and new Joint ventures should be entertained, this helps in better marketing of the existing products and if a new product is launched, it helps in better for Apple Inc, as it is very low on the advertising. Third Strategic alternative could be introducing the concept of knowledge management in the organization.

Also, as customers mostly tend to buy Apple Inc products from its store only, the number of retail stores should be increased around the world which helps the product and the customer better reach each other and thus sales could be increased. Also, last but certainly not the least, even more investment should be made in the research and development area of the company, so as to create more and more innovative products.

Conclusion Thus it can be concluded that Apple Inc, continue to launch its innovative products in the market, and has been a luxury brand for its existing customers, and its best competitive advantage is its brand image, the quality of the product and the design, however with various analysis, like Porter five force model, BRIO framework, SOOT analysis and PESTLE analysis, helps us in analyzing the work environment of the company and what strategies can be adopted like lowering down the price of its products a bit, increasing the number of retail stores, advertising more can all be adopted to increase the sales even more in the future.

Phone has been a major revolution in the case of smart phones; however company has developed pad, which is another revolutionize technological breakthrough. Thus, a lot many strategies could be adopted to make even more and better products in the future (Bright Hand 2010).

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Business Essays, Term Papers & Research Papers

SWOT analysis is a vital strategic planning tool that can be used by Apple Inc. managers to do a situational analysis of the firm . It is a useful technique to analyze the present Strengths (S), Weakness (W), Opportunities (O) & Threats (T) Apple Inc. is facing in its current business environment.

The Apple Inc. is one of the leading firms in its industry. Apple Inc. maintains its prominent position in market by carefully analyzing and reviewing the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis a highly interactive process and requires effective coordination among various departments within the organization such as – marketing, finance, operations, management information systems and strategic planning.
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The SWOT Analysis framework facilitates an organization to identify the internal strategic factors such as -strengths and weaknesses, & external strategic factors such as - opportunities and threats. It leads to a 2X2 matrix – also called SWOT Matrix.
The Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Analysis / Matrix helps the managers of the Apple Inc. to develop four types of strategies:

• SO (strengths-opportunities) Strategies
• WO (weaknesses-opportunities) Strategies
• ST (strengths-threats) Strategies
• WT (weaknesses-threats) Strategies

SWOT Matrix Strategies Objective

The core purpose of SWOT matrix is to identify the strategies that a firm can utilize to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, and build on & protect Apple Inc. strengths, and eradicate its weaknesses.

Step by Step Guide to Apple Inc. SWOT Analysis

Strengths of Apple Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

As one of the leading organizations in its industry, Apple Inc. has numerous strengths that help it to thrive in the market place. These strengths not only help it to protect the market share in existing markets but also help in penetrating new markets. Based on Fern Fort University extensive research – some of the strengths of Apple Inc. are –

Read - Apple Inc. Porter 5 Forces Analysis & Industry Analysis
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Swot Analysis Case Study Of Apple Inc

• Successful track record of developing new products – product innovation.
• Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Apple Inc. products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
• Strong dealer community – It has built a culture among distributor & dealers where the dealers not only promote company’s products but also invest in training the sales team to explain to the customer how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the products.
• Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
• Highly successful at Go To Market strategies for its products.
• Strong Free Cash Flow – Apple Inc. has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
• Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Apple Inc. has invested in building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Apple Inc. just underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the organization wants to expand into new product categories.
• Strong distribution network – Over the years Apple Inc. has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.

Weakness of Apple Inc. – Internal Strategic Factors

Weakness are the areas where Apple Inc. can improve upon. Strategy is about making choices and weakness are the areas where a firm can improve using SWOT analysis and build on its competitive advantage and strategic positioning.

Apple Inc Swot Analysis 2010

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• Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though Apple Inc. is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
• There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.
• Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the industry. Even though Apple Inc. is spending above the industry average on Research and Development, it has not been able to compete with the leading players in the industry in terms of innovation. It has come across as a mature firm looking forward to bring out products based on tested features in the market.
• Days inventory is high compare to the competitors – making the company raise more capital to invest in the channel. This can impact the long term growth of Apple Inc.
• Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing at present.
• The profitability ratio and Net Contribution % of Apple Inc. are below the industry average.
• The marketing of the products left a lot to be desired. Even though the product is a success in terms of sale but its positioning and unique selling proposition is not clearly defined which can lead to the attacks in this segment from the competitors.

Opportunities for Apple Inc. – External Strategic Factors

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• New environmental policies – The new opportunities will create a level playing field for all the players in the industry. It represent a great opportunity for Apple Inc. to drive home its advantage in new technology and gain market share in the new product category.
• Opening up of new markets because of government agreement – the adoption of new technology standard and government free trade agreement has provided Apple Inc. an opportunity to enter a new emerging market.
• New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the Apple Inc. . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
• Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of Apple Inc..
• The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as Apple Inc. to increase its profitability.
• The market development will lead to dilution of competitor’s advantage and enable Apple Inc. to increase its competitiveness compare to the other competitors.
• Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of Apple Inc.’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company - either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
• The new technology provides an opportunity to Apple Inc. to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.

Threats Apple Inc. Facing - External Strategic Factors

• New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
• The demand of the highly profitable products is seasonal in nature and any unlikely event during the peak season may impact the profitability of the company in short to medium term.
• As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world.
• Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in the China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Apple Inc.
• Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
• Changing consumer buying behavior from online channel could be a threat to the existing physical infrastructure driven supply chain model.
• New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
• Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.

Limitations of SWOT Analysis for Apple Inc.

Although the SWOT analysis is widely used as a strategic planning tool, the analysis does have its share of limitations.

• Certain capabilities or factors of an organization can be both a strength and weakness at the same time. This is one of the major limitations of SWOT analysis . For example changing environmental regulations can be both a threat to company it can also be an opportunity in a sense that it will enable the company to be on a level playing field or at advantage to competitors if it able to develop the products faster than the competitors.
• SWOT does not show how to achieve a competitive advantage, so it must not be an end in itself.
• The matrix is only a starting point for a discussion on how proposed strategies could be implemented. It provided an evaluation window but not an implementation plan based on strategic competitiveness of Apple Inc.
• SWOT is a static assessment - analysis of status quo with few prospective changes. As circumstances, capabilities, threats, and strategies change, the dynamics of a competitive environment may not be revealed in a single matrix.
• SWOT analysis may lead the firm to overemphasize a single internal or external factor in formulating strategies. There are interrelationships among the key internal and external factors that SWOT does not reveal that may be important in devising strategies.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Apple Inc.

In light of the above mentioned limitations of the SWOT analysis / matrix, corporate managers decided to provide weightage to each internal strength and weakness of the firm. Organizations also assess the likelihood of events taking place in the coming future and how strong their impact could be on company's performance.
This method is called Weighted SWOT analysis. It is better than doing simplistic SWOT analysis because with Weighted SWOT Analysis Apple Inc. managers can focus on the most critical factors and discount the non-important one. It also solves the long list problem where organizations ends up making a long list but none of the factors deemed too critical.

Limitation of Weighted SWOT analysis of Apple Inc.

This approach also suffers from one major drawback - it focus on individual importance of factor rather than how they are collectively important and impact the business holistically.

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Example of Weighted SWOT Analysis

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SWOT Worksheet & Template

If you like to do your own SWOT analysis or want to make your own Weighted SWOT SWOT matrix then feel free to download Fern Fort University SWOT Analysis Template.

References / Citations & Bibliography

• M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy(New York: Free Press, 1980)
• A. D. Chandler, Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1962)
• O. E. Williamson, Markets and Hierarchies(New York: Free Press, 1975);
• L. Wrigley, Divisional Autonomy and Diversification (PhD, Harvard Business School, 1970)
• R. E. White, Generic Business Strategies, Organizational Context and Performance: An Empirical Investigation, Strategic Management Journal7 (1986)