Business Analysis Case Study: Apple's Competitive Strategy

This case study analyzes Apple's success factors, competitive landscape, and long-term sustainability. It examines the reasons behind Apple's success, including Tim Cook's leadership, supply chain management, and innovation. The analysis identifies Samsung as Apple's biggest competitor, highlighting Samsung's market share and its Android operating system. The study further discusses the sustainability of Apple's competitive position, emphasizing the importance of continuous innovation, global market expansion, and strategic pricing. The case study concludes by emphasizing the need for Apple to understand consumer desires and maintain its innovative edge to sustain its competitive advantage in the long run. The document also references the case study questions and includes a detailed analysis of the provided case study.

Running head: BUSINESS ANALYSIS CASE STUDY
BUSINESS ANALYSIS CASE STUDY
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Q1. Why has Apple been so successful overtime?
Apple, an American multinational technology company from USA, enjoyed the
restructuring power of Tim Cook, the present CEO of the organization and high-profile
manufacturing of the products as well as the efficient supply chain management of the
company worldwide. All these reasons helped the organization to increase the profitability of
this renowned brand. Innovation also helped the organization to stand out from the others in
the marketplace, which is full of competitors. The company actually identified the desires and
wants of the people and manufactured the product accordingly. The cutting edge which the
organization enjoyed over its competitors is the innovation of its products. Manufacturing the
innovation products and bringing them in the marketplace is the first and foremost thing
which no one has ever matched with Apple till date. According to the mastermind of this
organization, Steve Jobs believed that only innovation can distinguish between a leader and a
follower. The innovation in Apple helped to reshape the future industries and also helped the
customers to satisfy their needs and wants which are beyond their imagination. The
uniqueness of the brand along with its products helped the organization to succeed in this
years and also built the base to sustain in the competitive world which is full of competitors,
innovation and upgrading of the technologies, along with the ever-changing desires of the
people worldwide (Kane 2014).
Q2. In your opinion, which one of their competitors presents biggest threat to Apple and
why?
Till August 2012, the stock of the organization valued at $623 billion, which helped
Apple to become the most valuable public company globally of all time. But after that,
Samsung was posing threat to the organization. It had overtaken Apple in context of the
selling figures for the year 2012. Samsung Galaxy S3 was the major competitor of Apple

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iPhone 5. Though there were major other competitors in the market, like Microsoft, Nokia,
Google and others, according to me, Samsung posed the biggest threat to the organization of
Apple. Apart from having its own manufacturing as well as sales operations in the
marketplace, Samsung had emerged as the global smartphone market leader by the year of
2012, mainly for their Galaxy S device. It also run the Android operating system of Google,
which is run on almost 79% of all the smartphones, apart from the ones manufactured by
Samsung. The model Galaxy S possess the design as well as the technical features which can
be compared with that of Apple’s products. Samsung hold 28% of the smartphone market
share in 2012, and was also the leader worldwide, while Apple’s share was 20.5%. With the
help of software and user experience expertise of Google and manufacturing and hardware
expertise of Samsung, the Korean manufacturer of electronics devices provided a huge threat
to the business of Apple. Two-pronged pricing structure of the company also helped to
produce a big threat to the company of Apple. As the company manufactured its own
smartphones as well as the components, it provided a unique cost advantage over the
competitors of the organization like Apple. Being one of the major competitors of Samsung,
Apple also have to take help of the Korean firm to manufacture a part of its iPhone product
line (Sjöblom 2013).
Q3. Is Apple’s competitive position sustainable in the long run? Why or why not?
Continuous innovation was a daily routine of the company under the management of
Steve Jobs. He believed in the search of the next big thing despite knowing the amount of
success the prior products of the company have seen. The exceptional performances, brand
loyalty and the innovation abilities of the organization will help the organization to sustain in
the market and to gain a competitive edge over others. Emerging economies are also there in
the marketplaces like Brazil and China. Large population as well as more number of tech
savvy people in China will be a lucrative market for the organization of Apple. Low cost of

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income as well as increase in the disposable economy of the people will also help the
company to target this untapped market. The global brand name will also help the company
to increase the market share of Apple. The major thing requires is to properly strategize the
plans so that it can compete in the new as well as old marketplaces with the competitors like
Microsoft, Google, Nokia and others. Like Steve Jobs, he has to think the desires and wants
of the people before and manufacture the product, so that it will help the organization to
sustain the competitive advantage of this globally renowned brand. They also can diverse its
product range or innovate the iPhones, iPods, iPads, Apple Televisions or MacBook so that it
enjoys a good percentage of market share worldwide. The management also has to restructure
the pricing strategy according to the region where they are selling their products or want to
penetrate into the untapped market (Gershon 2013).

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References
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),
pp.41-61.
Heracleous, L., 2013. Quantum strategy at apple inc. Organizational Dynamics, 42(2), pp.92-
99.
Kane, Y.I., 2014. The Job After Steve Jobs: Tim Cook and Apple. The Wall Street Journal.
Khan, U.A., Alam, M.N. and Alam, S., 2015. A critical analysis of internal and external
environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and
Management, 3(6), pp.955-961.
Miller, J. and Laurie, M., 2018. Apple. Digital Printing Technology in University
Experiential Learning Classes. J Textile Sci & Fashion Tech, 1(3).
Sjöblom, P., 2013. Lumia by Nokia, iPhone by Apple: Global or local features in commercial
names. Names in the economy: Cultural prospects, pp.2-14.