New Product Development Process: A Case Study of Apple

Running head: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF APPLE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS1
As stated by Fuller (2016), the business enterprises in order stay competitive within
the business markets of their operations needs to constantly upgrade the products or services
offered through the effective integration of the ever-changing needs or the demands of the
customers. Nunes, Pereira and Alves (2017) are of the viewpoint that the process of New
Product Development (NPD) helps the business enterprises to effectively integrate customer
needs, recent technologies, management competencies and others for the development of the
kinds of products or services which in turn would enable the concerned enterprise to attain its
strategic goals. In this paper, I would undertake a critical analysis of the process of NPD in
the particular context of the same process followed by the enterprise Apple for the
development of new products or services.
I am of the viewpoint that the business enterprises like Apple needs to take the help of
different kinds of frameworks or models for the effective development of new kinds of
products or services. For example, it is seen that the effective usage of different kinds of NPD
frameworks helps the enterprises to effectively synchronise their management competencies,
technological developments, results obtained from the market researches and others for the
development of the kind of goods or services which will help them to attain their strategic
objectives (Jha et al., 2016). However, in the majority of the cases it is seen that the
enterprises fail to use any frameworks and this in turn leads to the failure of the NPD process
followed by them or for that matter for the development of new products or services (Wowak
et al., 2016). As a matter of fact, I believe that the major focus of these enterprises is not on
the concept of innovation or the manner in which the products or services developed by them
would be appreciated by the customers rather on the process of the development of products
or services itself with complete disregard of the market trends, expectation of the customers
and other aspects.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS2
Figure 1: New Product Development framework followed by Apple
Source: (Created by the Author)
I would like to say that the NPD process used by the enterprise Apple is an exemplary
one and the other business enterprises can take the lead from the concerned enterprise for the
development of an NPD process. I personally believe the management competencies of the
enterprise Apple, the manner in which technology is being used at the concerned enterprise
for the development of new products, its strategic alliances with the other technology-based
enterprises and the extensive research and development (R & D) activities undertaken by it
had substantially improved the kind of NPD process used by it. For example, it is seen that
the concerned enterprise undertakes a detailed market research for gaining an effective
understanding of the requirements, demands or the expectations of the customers from the
products or services which are being offered by it. More importantly, it is seen that the results
which are being derived by the concerned enterprise from the market research is being
integrated within the blueprint of the products or services that are being developed by it
(Chuang, Morgan & Robson, 2015). Furthermore, the enterprise Apple is known to be one of
Appl
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Technology
Strategic
Alliances
Research and
Development
Management
Competency