Steve Jobs Executive Summary

Apple Incorporation is one of the largest organizations dealing into Information Technology. Apple has a host of products ranging from Laptops, Desktops, Mobile Phones and Multimedia Devices. The company has been extremely innovative in the field of multimedia and it owes it success to one of the greatest innovators, Steve Jobs. The company has always believed in innovation and that is the major reason why it has been so successful in the mobile phone segment. In recent years Apple is second only to Samsung in the Global Mobile Phone industry. However the operations have been largely based in the United States and in times of recession any organization needs to focus on economies of scale and thus focus on growth

Since 1976 Apple’s innovation has helped the company become a market leader in computer and mobile electronics. Through this time the company has faced a number of challenges either it be an internal power struggles or criticism from the media for certain aspects of their business model. This report covers five different issues that the company is facing or may face in the future.

In May 2010, Apple's market cap closed the day at $222.12 billion putting it ahead of rival Microsoft Corp. Shares of Apple reached an all-time high of $330.26 during 2011's first regular trading session.

Apple Inc. has been dedicated to innovation ever since the company was first formed. Apple's recent breakthroughs were a result of a new technologies convergence upon the "digital hub" strategy (Mortensen, 2010). This strategy has served Apple well; especially during the last few years. The iPad, iPod, and iPhone were all born from this strategy. Furthermore, producing these innovative, user friendly, and design oriented products has earned them a considerable amount of customer loyalty.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the world leaders in the research, development, marketing, sales and service of personal digital music & video devices, in addition to personal computers globally. Its' innovative music and digital content delivery service, iTunes, has sold over 1 billion songs to date. As of the close of their latest fiscal year the company generated $156B in Sales and generated a Gross Profit of $68B earning a Net Income of $41B (Apple Investor Relations, 2013). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate Apple's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and provide an analysis of each. The cause, impact and recommendations for each specific strength, weakness, opportunity and threat are provided along with an action plan of how to maximize strengths and opportunities and mitigate the effects of weaknesses and threats. The Apple brand is among the most valuable in the world and its ability to innovate with successive product generations unmatched, yet this has led to a high dependence on its iPhone and iPad platforms, to the exclusion of entirely new businesses. The Apple iTunes platform and ecosystem delivers 30% of all profits and a significant portion of overall revenue, making this single business a stabilizing force in their strategic product and services roadmap (Apple Investor Relations, 2013). Despite these challenges however Apple continues to attain

We chose to research Apple Incorporated, one of the most innovative companies of our generation. It is safe to say that nearly every one in the US and many foreign countries have used or at least heard of Apple products. We will be looking at the macroeconomic variables that impact Apple’s business as well as how the current developments in the industry have impacted Apple’s financials and we will also look at how Apple competes with other firms in the same industry.

The shifted new strategy of Apple was initiated by the release of iPod in 2001, followed by the iPhone in 2007, then by iPad in 2012. It was the iPod that brought significant growth in Apple. Initially, the iPod was just another MP3 but soon became the icon of the digital age due to its sleek design and user friendly interface. Moreover, iPod could sync with Windows as well as a Mac and offered accessory markets. Soon enough all the competitor in MP3 market had to face the challenge of consumers comparing their model with iPod. However, the greatest challenge that the competitors had to face was the introduction of iTunes store.

Even though Apple has encountered many setbacks, it continues to bring new and improve products to the market. Apple’s competitive strategy has been innovation. They have made an extraordinary effort developing, implementing, and executing its very unique strategy through innovation which has resulted in new product, and the enrichment of the existing ones. More specifically, Apple attempts to meet and supply the needs of a global market, by offering eager and enthusiastic consumers with innovated and high-quality products and services. Apple has employed a differentiation strategy linked to innovation with its three core products (computers, personal media player, mobile phones, tablets and other accessories). A key piece of their strategy involves meeting the needs of the converging digital electronics and computer markets. Apple has elected to implement its strategy by designing and developing proprietary operating systems and software technologies, thus allowing for strict protection of its intellectual rights.

Apple prides itself on offering innovative technology to a society that has become dependent on it. In markets inundated with companies offering similar products and services, Apple has had to rise above and distinguish itself from the masses. While their products have a cultivated a devoted-customer following (our family is one of them), their organization and the values it espouses are what will help them to remain a relevant and successful company in the tech world.

Nowadays, Apple has positioned itself to be an innovator in the personal computer industry and Apple has developed by offering modern products compared to its competitors. According to Apple’s mission statement last year, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” (Business Management,

This paper aims to highlight and discuss the major challenges and opportunities which Apple Inc. faces while bringing innovation in the four primary areas of its business operations; including product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, and organizational innovation. The major focus of the paper is towards discussing the combination of all these processes which this organization follows and the major challenges which it faces in the course of its innovation or change strategies. The paper concludes by summarizing the importance of innovation for Apple Inc. in the light of the whole discussion.

iTunes was a disadvantage for the competitors.After iPod, other companies, such asSamsung, SanDisk and Creative came with their products, but they had market of 10% and below. The iPod is not just an MP3 player, it encompasses many good ideas as it got benefited of its Mac computers. Besides, the design of iPod was very stylish. -Power of Suppliers-High: The main suppliers in this industry are the song writers, singers and players who are the threat. One of the other threats is the possibility of downloading free songs from different websites. Although this encourages the MP3 Player market, it is a real threat for iTunes. -Power of Buyers-Low: The number of buyers is increasing, however, they look for innovative and updated products, their needs have changed, as they are more knowledgeable to use different software. iPod has its loyal customers and they pay the price for their favorable products to look stylish. Thus, the threat is low. -Substitute products-Not so high: The substitutes for iPods are the mobile phones, CD players, radio, etc. iTunes music store and other online music stores make the downloading easier. Moreover, most of the people use iPhone which is a real substitute for iPod and decreases the sale of iPods. Analyzes of Smartphones by Porter’s 5 forces: -Rivalry-High: There are large numbers of competitors in the market for iPhone, such as Samsung, LG, Nokia, etc. But, it is remarkable that iPhone is in the third position of all the

APPLE COMPUTER INC.: - CORPORATE-LEVEL STRATEGY REVIEW - A review on the strategy adopted by Apple Inc. at corporate level to ensure that the company remains at the forefront of the electronic media industry either in terms of innovation and range of products

Over the past decades technology has rapidly evolved. Society has gone from the analog era to the digital era. In the analog era we saw thing such as CD’s and Cassettes. In the day of the digital age CD‘s are almost fully obsolete. Modern day society has become more reliant on mobile phones. In the past if you needed a phone number you had it stored in your memory. Today, when looking for a phone number it is stored in your mobile phone. The biggest companies of the modern era all strive to push innovation in technology. Microsoft revolutionized computers and gaming with the release of their windows operating system and the Xbox gaming system. Apple is largely regarded as a pioneer of innovation the modern era. In 1997 apple launched the ground breaking IPhone. To date apple has sold over 500 million iPhones, single handedly revolutionizing the technology era. The war has now increased between Samsung and apple to see who can make the next ground breaking innovation. The digital age boosts the consumer desire to have a smart phone. In previous times an individual user would have a cellular phone and also have a MP3 player or anther device suck at a Walkman to play CD’s or Tapes. With the development of technology apple pioneered have an iPod and fusing it with a phone, resulting in the IPhone. A featured focus of technology today is the focus making things smaller and more efficient. Reducing the size of a specific aspect on

Afterwards, Apple announced a large screen, tablet-like media device known as the iPad on January 27, 2010. The iPad runs the same touch based operating system that the iPhone uses and many of the same iPhone apps are compatible with the iPad. This gave the iPad a large app catalog on launch even with very little development time before the release. Later that year on April 3, 2010, the iPad was launched in the US and sold more than 300,000 units on that day and reaching 500,000 by the end of the first week. In May 2010, Apple 's market cap exceeded that of competitor Microsoft for the first time since 1989.4