Apple Case Study - SWOT Analysis, Issues, and Recommendations

This report analyzes the performance of Apple Inc. and provides a SWOT analysis of the company. It identifies the issues faced by the company, such as the absence of effective leadership, highly competitive global market, and clash between the managers of the company. The report also provides effective solutions and strategic recommendations to improve its performance.

Running head: APPLE CASE STUDY
Apple Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to analyze the performance of Apple Inc. This report will provide a
SWOT analysis of the Company. The report will also provide an insight into the various issues
faced by the company on the basis of the details obtained from the SWOT analysis. In addition to
that the report will also provide effective solutions as well as strategical recommendations which
the company can utilize to improve its performance.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................3
Identification of the issues...........................................................................................................3
Analysis of the issues...................................................................................................................4
Possible solutions of the problems encountered..........................................................................7
Conclusion and recommendation:...................................................................................................7
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
Apple Inc. is a multinational company globally known for its high quality consumer
electronics, online services and computer software. Some of the most popular Apple hardware
products include the iPhone Smartphone, the Mac personal computer, the iPad tablet computer,
the Apple smart watch, the iPod portable media player, the HomePod Smart speaker and the
Apple TV digital media player. The performance of the mentioned company was found to be
outstanding even when the global economy was flat. The yearly revenue of the company is
enhancing due to crucial innovations and high level of performance. While in 9 sectors of the
company positive results have been noticed, negative results are noticed in three sectors. Apple
Inc. believes in continuous innovation and high quality consumer service in order to gain
competitive advantages.
Discussion:
Identification of the issues
In spite of the fact that Apple Inc is still enjoying competitive advantage in the global market,
some o the major issues that may adversely affect the company’s success in the long run are
stated bellow.
1. Apple Inc. is highly dependent on its CEO Steve Jobs, who was suffering from severe
illness. There is a potential risk that the company may decline in absence of the effective
leadership provided by him.
2. In this era of competition, Apple is comforted by aggressive competition in all areas of
business.

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3. The difference in opinons between Steve Jobs and John Sculley can be considered as
another issue of Apple Inc.
Analysis of the issues
1. Absence of leadership due to leave taken by Steve Jobs
Considering the fact that Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc. had been suffering from several
health issues for a prolonged period of time, he is unable to provide effective leadership to the
company. In 2010, he held a meeting with top managers of Apple Inc. and there he stated the
possibility of not returning to the management due to his health issues. In this meeting the impact
of the absence of Steve Jobs on the management of Apple Inc was also being discussed.
According to several executives, there exists a risk of not able to achieve success in future.
Before leaving Apple Inc, Steve Jobs had recruited Tim Cook as the CEO of the company.
Unfortunately, soon after Jobs leaved the company, Apple Inc. experienced a fall of 10 percent in
the stock market. Besides that, unlike Steve Jobs, Tim Cook is more inclined towards
acquisitions instead of innovation. Apart from this, Apple is facing problem for its products like
Apple TV and iWatch. While the company’s competitors are providing smart TV within a price
of 600 dollars, price of Apple’s TV is 2000 dollars (Govindan & Popiuc, 2014).
2. Difference in opinions of the managers
Another issue of Apple Inc was that the managers of the company were unable to extend the
company. While Steve Jobs, the then chairman of Apple Inc. wanted to continue innovations and
take the brand to new directions, John Sculley, being the CEO, insisted that the management of
Apple Inc. should stop innovative new products and pay more attention on the strategic moves.
The board of directors of the company supported Sculley and as a result Jobs resign from his

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post. Initially the strategy of Sculley worked as Apple Inc. was able to achieve a huge hike in
revenue by selling computers in the early 90s. However in the rapidly changing industry, the
company soon started losing ground to companies like Dell, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard since
they were providing the consumers with more affordable and user friendly computers. In
addition to that issue several executives of Apple Inc. resigned from their post since the company
refused to merge with other companies. Moreover, since Apple had refused to provide license of
using the Mac Operating system to other manufacturers, the market was solely captured by
Wintel personal computers. In order to cope up with the adverse situation, Apple Inc bought
Steve Jobs Company NeXT and recruited him as the CEO of Apple.
3. Huge competition faced by the company
Considering the fact that the market in which the company competes is highly competitive,
Apple is losing its field to its competitor companies. Due to rapid technological advancement,
several companies are able to offer computers and mobile phone to consumers with similar
features like apple gadgets within a comparatively low price range. The competitors of Apple
Inc. in mobile communication and media device industry are characterized by frequent product
introduction and aggressive pricing practices (Kumar, Teichman & Timpernagel, 2012). The
iPod and digital content services of the company is also facing severe competition. Earlier, the
management of Apple believed that the strategy to provide high quality products and services
will drag the consumers to the company. However, several competitors of Apple Inc are selling
high quality products at a considerably low price range at little or no profit or even at loss just to
gain more market share than Apple Inc.
SWOT Analysis of Apple Inc

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Strengths  Till date, Apple Inc. is one of the
leading technology organizations across
the World when it comes to revenue.
 Being one of the leading organizations,
the brand equity of the company is high
(Govindan & Popiuc, 2014).
 One of the reasons behind its high
brand equity is the design of Apple
products and the technology used by
the company.
 The distribution of the products is well
maintained by Apple. Besides having
407 stores in 17 countries, Apple Inc
sells its products online, through
premium retail stores and trade
partners.
Weaknesses  Absence of effective leadership after
the death of Steve Jobs can be
considered as one of the major
weaknesses of the company.
 Incompatibility of Apple products with
third party accessories or software is
another crucial weakness of the

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company
 The yearly revenue of Apple Inc. is
completely dependent on seven to eight
Apple products.
Table 1: (SWOT Analysis of Apple Inc.)
Source (Created by the author)
For Opportunities and Threats, refer to the appendix
Possible solutions of the problems encountered
In order to gain sustainable competitive advantage even in the absence of Steve Jobs, the
present CEO of Apple Inc. should follow the path shown by Jobs. Considering the fact that
unlike its competitors, the company will not be able to lower the price of its products to gain
competitive advantages, Apple should concentrate on implementing market driving approach
that includes developing new and innovative products that will attract consumers.
Conclusion and recommendation:
From the above discussion it can be understood that being a globally celebrated company,
Apple Inc. posses several strengths which if effectively used, can help the organization to
overcome its weaknesses and enhance its market share. Some of the major issues faced by the
company are lack of leadership in absence of Steve Jobs, highly competitive global market and
clash between the managers of the company. The only way the company can overcome the above

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mentioned issues is by innovating new products and expanding its market to other markets.
Some of the suggested recommendations to the company are:
 The company should invest on highly developed technologies and ideas to incorporate
unique features in the brand new products manufactured by it.
 Apple can use its brand image to expand business in other markets. Apple Cars are
expected to be launched by 2020.
 The company should take steps to stop imitation which is one of the chief reasons behind
its decrement of market share (Amit & Zott, 2012).
 Instead of depending on 7 or 8 products, the company must invent new and innovative
products and diversify its business.

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Reference List
Amit, R., & Zott, C. (2012). Creating value through business model innovation. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 53(3), 41.
Gershon, R. A. (2013). Digital media innovation and the Apple iPad: Three perspectives on the
future of computer tablets and news delivery. Journal of Media Business Studies, 10(1),
41-61.
Govindan, K., & Popiuc, M. N. (2014). Reverse supply chain coordination by revenue sharing
contract: A case for the personal computers industry. European Journal of Operational
Research, 233(2), 326-336.
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2012). Strategic management cases:
competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning, 34-37
Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A critical analysis of internal and external
environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and
Management, 3(6), 955-961.
Kumar, S., Teichman, S., & Timpernagel, T. (2012). A green supply chain is a requirement for
profitability. International Journal of Production Research, 50(5), 1278-1296.

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Appendix 1
Opportunities  The company can expand its market by
introducing new and innovative
products like Apple Cars (Gershon,
2013).
 Apple can leverage technologies to
manufacture highly advanced iPhones,
Macbooks and iPods.
Threats  Android is a potential threat for the
company as currently it has 47.5
percent of the market share whereas
iPhone has 42 percent.
 Competitors like Dell and Sony are
giving tough competition to Macbook
by selling high quality laptops at a
much lesser price range.
Imitation of Apple products can be considered
as another potential threat to Apple Inc.
Table 1: (SWOT Analysis of Apple Inc.)
Source (Created by the author)

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Figure 1: iPhone versus Android phones
Source (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012)

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Figure 2: Year over year revenue of Apple Inc.
Source (Khan, Alam & Alam, 2015)