Study objectives
This study focuses on the strategic management of Apple Inc. This involves the analysis of apples strategies; the corporation operates in portable personal computer industry as well as mobile phones and software. The company sells its products internationally through a mix of direct sales, online and retail stores as well as wholesale and retail sales. The company pursues a differentiation strategy that is broad. This study will evaluate its strategies that have lead to its success in market leadership.
Company and industry …show more content…
Apple exploited this by resisting market pressures to reduce costs, tightly integrating product packages, and forming strategic alliances (i.e. securing the backing of all major music distributors in the support of iTunes).
• Brand loyalty – The only way that Apple could maintain the financial vitality described above is via a fanatical, almost cult-like, affair with its customer base. Such brand loyalty is extremely costly and time-consuming to imitate.
• Steve Jobs – Jobs proved to be a vital component to Apple’s success. During his absence (1985-1996), Apple experienced the most turbulent (financial and innovative) timeline in its history. Immediately upon his return, he replaced most of the Board of Directors, pruned and focused the new product ideas, and delivered seven consecutive quarters of positive earnings to shareholders. (Farrell, 2009) As such, Jobs is certainly a valuable, rare, and hard to imitate resource that Apple fully