harvard case apple

Apple Computer uses focused differentiation to help sell its computers to a narrow target market of graphic designers and educators rather than the general population of computer users. Apple’s innovation on the ITunes store together with the widespread use of the IPod. The corporate strategy is focused on being a market disrupter, and in turn a market maker, by focusing relentlessly on the customer experience.

One key element of Apple’s strategy in computers, personal media players, tablet computers, and smart phones is product innovation, diversification and development. Over the years Apple has been very successful in integrating software and hardware in new developing products. Despite the struggling economy in recent years, Apple has been able to grow their market share and stay ahead of the game.

Apple Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, CA and was incorporated on January 3, 1977 (Apple, 2010). The company was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Jobs also asked his former colleague from Atari, Ronald Wayne to join them in their startup. Wayne designed the first Apple logo. In early 1976 Jobs approached a local company store, The Byte Shop, said they would be interested in the machine, but only if it came completely assembled (Foljanty, 2010). The shop ordered 50 Apple I computers which sold for $666.66. The three owners would assemble the Apple Is at night in their garage still managed to deliver the ordered Apple Is in ten days. In April of 1976 Ron Wayne resigned from Apple Computer because he felt the financial

and pricing strategies. Apple nested the concept of the “digital hub” where Mac could be the

The IPod was introduced to the public in 2001. At first, it was only compatible with Mac computers, but two years later, the iPod could be used with any type of computer. This caused sales to skyrocket! Steve Jobs worked with apple inc. to come up with the IPod. Although Apple was not the first to come up with the idea of an mp3 player, no other mp3 player has ever been as big of a hit.

Apple leads 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." (Investopedia,

IPod, developed by Apple was a huge success and had a greater competitive advantage. The business and technological strategy used by Apple to have a competitive advantage are:

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of

The differentiation that is brought by Apple is really commendable, considering the company was in the brink of bankruptcy to a most sought after organization in the world. Coming out with iTunes was arguably the best product in the market because it virtually boosted up the sales of iPod. The product, iTunes provide a complete music downloading solution with a minimum fee per download, making it the biggest legal downloading software with the affiliation of the 5 biggest record companies, BMG, EMI,SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, UNIVERSAL AND WARNER BROS as well as 200 independent labels (Hoskisson,2009). The strategy to monopolize the market and making it a legal business, in the event of piracy and legal issues of music and software downloading from rivals such as Kazaa and Napster pays of big time and structuring a deal with the record companies established its strong base. While competitors trying to play catch up on the innovative relationship between iTunes and iPod, Apple focus on bringing in new idea ranges such as iPhone, Apple TV and the newest addition which is the iPad and develop a synergy between all of them. They also reinvent their methods by milking the cash cows and concentrate on the existing innovative inventions by incremental improvements and cost reductions, which is basically aligning marketing and business strategy with product development, which leaves others out of their league.(Meyer, 2010).

Let’s give a round applause to Apple Inc! Apple always brings up the hottest wave in the world and obviously, 21th century is all about Apple’s product no matter their best-known hardware products such as iPhone, iPad, Mac Book and iPod or their awesome software, iTune is shocking the worldwide market. When people talk about technology, but Apple was a marketing company and it was the marketing company of the decade. When Apple introduced iPod, it became the market leader in portable music players. It has evolved to include various models targeting the wants of different users. The hard drive-based iPod Classic, the compact iPod Nano, the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle and the touch screen iPod Touch was evidences of

In 2005, Apple Computers experienced significant sales increases attributable to the earlier rollout of the iPod (Robbins & Judge, 2009). The positive publicity and brand perception associated with that project also spilled over to its entire line of Macintosh computers, further bolstering sales revenue and corporate profits that year. The sales volume of virtually all Apple products increased after the introduction of the iPod, hitting $320 million in June of 2005 (Robbins & Judge, 2009). In general, every successful Apple product has benefited brand recognition and perception and invigorated the sales of other product lines, even those not directly related to it. By the end of 2005, Apple had sold approximately 22 million iPod units and more than half a billion individual song downloads through its music store, iTunes (George & Jones, 2008).

Apple has placed itself into pop culture, from how ipods and subsequent trends like the pod casts are created. Apple has managed to market its mp3 players to become renowned around the world as the best selling, or at least the classiest and simplest of mp3 players. From the simplicity of the design, to the uniqueness of its operating system, ipods have made the people who

Apple’s move into new industry may have different effects on its core business. However, given the success of the iPod and iTunes as well as the further promotion on the iPhone, it is safe to say that Apple is doing well in both industries. This means that Apple has already shifted in a different direction (digital music) but so far it has had a lot of success.

Apple Inc. is known for their innovative products, combining user-friendly technology and elegant design, Apple’s bite of the consumer electronics market has been getting a little larger year by year. The Apple brand is fun, unique, and memorable because it is such a departure from brands that sound serious and corporate. Apple’s Macintosh computers has always stood out because it looks different from other personal computers and relies on software that even novices can learn. IPod backed by music-driven advertising, the player with the white ear buds immediately became the product of choice for many consumers. Newer models such as the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch have continued the

Apple Computer experienced many difficulties in the 1990’s. As five years passed, the company has had four different CEO’s. As each CEO took over, the company would go thru a different reformation. In July of 1997, Apple had submitted two-thirds of its market share. It was said that losses topped 1.6 billion dollars and shares were trading near all-time lows. Co-founder Steve Jobs had come to Apple’s rescue when the company was at its lowest point. He unleashed a series of dramatic moves like a stunning decision to sign a long-term cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft for $150 million dollars. Jobs then ended Spindler’s(former Ceo) cloning strategy and went on to kill the Newton, John Sculley’s(both former Ceo’s) pride and joy. Job’s