Week 6: IT and Competitive Advantage for Apple Inc. Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc.'s competitive advantage, focusing on its use of Information Systems (IS) and competitive business strategies. The report examines Apple's unique software, which gives it an edge over competitors, and analyzes its key competitors, Samsung and Huawei. The analysis includes a SWOT analysis and an application of Porter's Five Forces to assess the competitive landscape. The comparison section contrasts the three companies' revenue, platforms (iOS vs. Android), and marketing investments. The report concludes with a discussion of Apple's competitive posture, highlighting its leadership in the market and the impact of its marketing investments. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

Week 6 Assignment Template:
Company Competitive Advantage: Part 2
Prepared by: Replace this text with your name.
Date: Replace this text with the submission date.
Walden University

Part 2: IT and Competitive Advantage
Information Systems and Competitive Business Strategies
Apple Inc. have been using Information System in order to develop a proper built quality of the
manufactured products. Usage of Information System is generally performed in order to implement
innovation in the products that are being manufactured (Tansim 2018). With the help of Information
System, the communication process in the organization is developed and is bettered. This data
management performance in a proper manner ensures that decision making is performed in a better
manner.
The main competitive advantage that is present in the process is that the software that is used
in the products manufactured by Apple are unique in nature. This provides an edge to the other
competitors. It has a separate audience of its own. Hence the competition in its range is very low.
Analysis of Competitors: Part 1
The major competitors of Apple Inc. have been Samsung Electronics. It is a Korean multinational
organization that deals with manufacturing of electronic goods and hence wise earns revenue from the
same. It has a network established in over 80 countries. The total revenue earned till 2019, was
US$325.9 billion. The products that are manufactured by the organization are namely LED and LCD
panels, semiconductors, mobiles, television, digital cameras and computing devices.
Strength: The diversity of products have been one of the major aspect that is considered as the
competitive advantage over other brands. It have been seen that the reach of the organization have
been another advantage that is enjoyed.
Weakness: Samsung have not been able to match up with the marketing strategy of Apple and
hence have been second to Apple Inc. in the field of smart phones (Heracleous & Papachroni 2016).
Opportunities: There have been an increase in demand of smartphones and tablets. The
features that are provided in the smart phones as per their cost segment have been impressive. Hence
the numbers of products sold are impressive.
Threat: Apple Inc. have been the major threat that have been acting as a hindrance to the
Samsung Inc. brand. Acceptance of IOS have been increasing and this is the main reason that there have
been a decline in popularity of the Android platform (Kim et al., 2016). Entrance of several other brands
in the business of electronic devices have been of the threat that is being faced by Samsung.
Analysis of Competitors: Part 2
Huawei is another brand that act as a competitor of Apple Inc. in the field of Smartphones
(Liefner, Si & Schäfer 2019). Despite the fact that there was not much space for mid-range mobile
brands, Huawei have been able to create a space for itself in a market that is dominated by the likes of
Samsung and Apple Inc.
Strength: The major strength of Huawei is that the cost of the products have been low. Despite
the low cost the quality of the product have been maintained and hence wise this ensures that the
popularity if the product is always in an increasing state.
Weakness: The weakness of the brand is that the capital that is invested in the marketing of the
product have been very low. This is one section that have been preventing Huawei from market
capitalization. Other competitors like Apple Inc., Samsung and Xiaomi have been investing millions of
dollars for bettering the marketing strategy.
Opportunity: The cost segment of the products that are manufactured by Huawei have been the
main opportunity (Chakraborty 2018). It have been seen that the cost of the products have been worth
Page 2 of 4

the features that have been provided and hence acceptance of the products are higher. The Android
platform that it uses also provides a better innovation creation.
Threat: There a huge number of entrants in similar budget range. Hence competition have been
high.
Company Comparison
The tools that have been used in the performing comparison of the brands is SWOT analysis.
With the help of this tool proper understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and threats
of the organization.
It have been seen that Apple Inc. have been the leading brand among the three in terms of
revenue collection. The main reason of this revenue collection is that the platform it uses have been the
most unique one. This will lead to the fact that it has a separate audience of its own. After Apple Inc.
Samsung comes in the second place in terms of revenue collection process. After Samsung Huawei
comes in terms of revenue collection.
The platform that have been used by Apple is unique to both the competitors. Apple Inc. uses
IOS whereas Samsung and Huawei uses Android platform.
Capital invested in marketing has been higher in case of Apple Inc. than Samsung and Huawei.
Hence reach of Apple Inc. products have been much diverse in nature. This reach to a diverse audience
increases sales of the products.
Competitive Posture
Apple Inc. have been leading the charts of competition in between the other two competitors. It
have been seen that the data that have been generated have been highly distinctive from the other 2.
Apple Inc. have been defeating the other 2 in terms of marketing investments (Heracleous & Papachroni
2016). The investment that is made for marketing have been benefitting the Apple Inc. This have
increased the sales of the product and hence wise higher revenue is collected.
Page 3 of 4

References
Chakraborty, P. (2018). Book Review: Tian Tao, David De Cremer and Wu Chunbo, Huawei: Leadership,
Culture and Connectivity.
Heracleous, L., & Papachroni, A. (2016). Strategic Leadership and Innovation at Apple Inc. SAGE
Publications Ltd.
Jie, C. T., & Hasan, N. A. M. (2017). APPLE VERSUS SAMSUNG PATENT LAWSUIT: AN ISSUE AND CRISIS
MANAGEMENT APPROACH. International Journal, 2(5), 1-12.
Kim, S., Lee, H., Kwon, Y., Yu, M., & Jo, H. (2016, December). Our journey to becoming agile: experiences
with agile transformation in Samsung electronics. In 2016 23rd Asia-Pacific Software
Engineering Conference (APSEC) (pp. 377-380). IEEE.
Liefner, I., Si, Y. F., & Schäfer, K. (2019). A latecomer firm's R&D collaboration with advanced country
universities and research institutes: The case of Huawei in Germany. Technovation.
Tansim, M. (2018). An Organizational Analysis on Apple. European Journal of Business and
Management, 10(11).
Page 4 of 4