Comprehensive Business Analysis of Apple Inc.: A Strategic Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Apple Inc., examining its internal resources and capabilities through a SWOT analysis, highlighting strengths such as brand value and innovation, while also acknowledging weaknesses like premium pricing and external threats. The report further explores the impact of external environmental factors using a PESTEL analysis, considering political, economic, social, technological, and legal influences on the company's entrepreneurial activities. Additionally, it evaluates the competitive forces affecting Apple Inc. using Porter's Five Forces framework, assessing competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, the threat of substitution, and the threat of new entry. The analysis provides insights into Apple's strategic position and challenges within the technology industry.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Task A - INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................3
Task B..............................................................................................................................................3
Internal resources and capabilities of Apple Inc..........................................................................3
Task C..............................................................................................................................................5
External environmental factors....................................................................................................5
Task D..............................................................................................................................................6
Competitive force........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Task A - INTRODUCTION
Apple Inc. is an American multinational company based on technology whose headquarters
are located in Cupertino, California, US. It deals in designing, developing and selling the
computer software, consumer electronics and online services. It is the Biggest Tech Technology
among all other companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook (Levy, 2020). It is a
part of various industries like computer hardware, software, media, cloud computing, Artificial
Intelligence, Digital Distribution and many more. It is performing its operations in almost 510
retail stores across the world. It deals in wide range of products in many industries such as
iPhone smartphone, iPad, iPod etc.in hardware, macOS, iOS, watches etc. in software. Apple
also provides online services like iTunes Stores, iCloud etc. The main reason behind its rapid
success was selling of computers from January, 1977 (Apple Inc., 2020).
The report will mainly highlight the internal capabilities and resources through SWOT
analysis. Furthermore, it will also analyse the impact of external environmental factors on the
firm’s entrepreneurial activities by using a framework known as PESTEL analysis. This will be
followed by evaluating the impact of the competitive forces on the entrepreneurial activities of
the firm within the industry it works. Lastly, all the points will be summarized systematically.
Task B
Internal resources and capabilities of Apple Inc.
Apple Inc., being one of the most successful companies in the world has been providing
the robust technology software services and products. In order to examine its internal resources
and capabilities, the SWOT analysis of Apple Inc. is done as described below:
Strengths
Apple Inc. is considered as the most valuable brand as it is ranked on the first position
with a brand value of $234 billion. It was the first who introduced the most innovative products
like iPhones and IPads which were able to change the world which became Apple the most
demanded brand in the corporate offices. With full dedication and determination, it focuses on its
new product designs (Sathappan, 2017). Also the major product of Apple i.e., iPhone which
contributed the most towards the companies’ success, its most of the parts can be reused. The
company has been expanding its services like streaming services, AppleCare, stores of digital
content etc. as its services contributes greatly towards its revenue after the iPhone. Apple also
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specific business page which provides technology solutions of top quality for every need of
corporation. It is the most reliable company in terms of personalized advanced computers which
made millions of loyal customers satisfied with its products and services.
Weaknesses
The major weakness which decreases its customer base is the premium price of its
products that is the reason behind considering it a luxury. This does not make its products
affordable to the low-income consumers, only the middle and high-income people can afford its
products. The company is expanding itself into the areas of non-competency including the game
streaming, video content streaming etc. with the dominant players like Disney, Netflix etc.
Also, the weakness of Apple Inc. is that it is under investigation for various unfair practices of
business. Furthermore, the company also use tracking apps in the phones which reveals the
location of the users for which it is accused many times. Although it is reduced now but the trust
lost cannot be regained (Shtal and et.al., 2018). Also, the products of this company do not
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support the other technologies or software which makes it incompatible with other devices. In
order to use these products, the customers are forced to purchase the Apple apps or accessories.
Opportunities
Apple can be depended upon the internet’s power for the various upcoming opportunities
in order to gain the new customers to from new alliances as it is always dominating the
technology sector for many years. The researchers, product specialists and the developers of the
company are highly qualified professionals having years of many years in branding the products.
with this, the company can have many opportunities like expanding its distribution network
which is very limited now (Cho, 2017). Also, the company can launch the green technology
products which can help the company to participate in the sustainable or eco-friendly products.
The smart wearable technology is also a major opportunity through the implementation of which
it can double its sales by 2022.
Threats
Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the company has lost much of its sales as it was
highly dependent on China for its supply and manufacturing chain. The brand image of Apple is
also illegally utilized by the third world countries as the deals there sell the counterfeit products
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of Apple at the same value which leads to negative reviews and the bad publicity (Magwizi,
2020). The company also faces many threats from its competitors due to the advancement in
technology which is used by Google, Samsung and Dell. Also, there are higher tariffs imposed
on the company for importing the products from China which increases the overall costs of the
products which makes the premium products of Apple more expensive and decreases the target
customers.
Task C
External environmental factors
External environmental factors are those factors of the organizations which affect the
organization direct and indirect by external factors. They are those factors which affect the
organization from outside and the company have no control on it (Pan, Chen, and Zhan, 2019).
PESTEL analysis
Political: Political factors are those factors which are Having the governance legislation. These
are the factors which have a degree of governance intervenes in the economy. it includes the
policies of the government and the political stability in the market with foreign trade policies, tax
policies, labour laws and other environmental laws which can restrict the working of the
organization. Political impact on Apple is that the organization is heavily dependent on the lower
cost manufacturing in China which can include that Jenna can raise the manufacturing cost due
to political pressure and working.
Economic : Economic sectors are those sectors of the organization and the external
environmental factors which choose the economic stability and economic growth of the
organization and the country. Economy factors include stay , growth, interest rates, inflations,
exchange rates common income of the consumer and the businessman. It is very important to
have a good economy in the market so that the organizations can use the economy and increase
the profitability with better business the market.
Social: Social factors are those factors which reflect the latest trends and the belief of the attitude
of the population stored the organization and it is one of the major factors which shows the
impact under organization performance. social factors includes the population growth, age
distributions and preferences, career attitudes, health conciseness etc. social factors represent the
trend and the preferences of the population and the audience of the country in which the
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organization is working and for that Apple had made different approaches and add one of the
trendsetters in the market which helping them in becoming one of the most loved brand who are
providing the latest trends and customers are preference Apple products.
Technology: Technology refers to the factors which shows the innovation and technologies and
the impact of technologies on the organizations working and processing. It is very important for
the organizations to utilize the latest technologies to increase the work efficiency and
productivity in the market. technologies includes new ways of producing the goods and the
services and the new ways of distributing goods and services with latest technologies to ease the
work of the organization(Schomaker and Sitter, 2020).
Task D
Competitive force
Competitive force refer to the market condition and the competition in the market which is very
important for the organisations to understand when working in the market. it is very important
for the organization to find the competition in the market and understand the criticality of the
market by understanding the working and making strategies to overcome and utilize the market
in influencing the profitability of the organization.
Porter’s 5 force
Porters 5 four’s method is one of the most powerful tool to understand the competitiveness of
the business environment. it is one of the most used tool to understand the competitiveness of the
market. there are five factors in the porters 5 force which explained the competitiveness of the
market Apple is working in
1. Competitive rivalry:
Competition end the rivalry in the market choose the number of competitions in the market
which also provide the organisations to understand the strength of the market and the business
strength. it is very important to understand the competitiveness now the market and the market
competition is high as there are a lot of brands who are affecting the business of Apple. Samsung
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is one of the biggest competitors of Apple in today's market and it is very important for the
Apple to understand the competition in a serious note (Lewis, 2017).
2. Supplier Power:
supplier power is high because Apple is one of the biggest brands in electronics and they are the
most innovative producer and provide unique products and services to their customers which
help them in having different suppliers and A lot of suppliers in the market. High suppliers refers
that the organization is having a lot of suppliers who are ready to provide the raw materials and
other materials to make the product and services. The potential suppliers of Apple our high’s
organization is producing a lot of unique product and services which they are offering to their
customer and they have a different kind of product with different software’s which include
different suppliers which no one use and it gives a benefit for Apple.
3. Buyer power:
Buyers power is low as Apple is providing different and unique product and services to their
customers and is the only brand who provides iOS to the customers and it is one of the best
technologies in the market which making the organization stand apart from the crowd. It also
provides a power to the organization and decrease the power of buyers as all those buyers who
wants to have a different product and services and want to use the iOS needs to go for the Apple
brand. this help the organizations to stand apart and increasing the profitability of the business.
4. Threat of substitution:
threat of substitute is medium is the competition in the market is very high and it is easy to get
substitute. the biggest factor of substitute is the change of choice and preference of the audience
and the populations, for that it is very important for the Apple to understand the market test and
preferences and need to make all the product and services in such a way that every person can
buy the product and can use the product. that is very important for the organisations to
understand the criticality of substitution because the competition is very high and it is easy to get
replaced.
5. Threat of new entry:
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Threat of new entry in the market of technologies is medium because it is very hard and take a
lot of financial stability for the organizations to stand and become a new entry in such a huge
competitive market where the chances of getting profit is very low (Mugo, 2020).
CONCLUSION
The report was based on the company Apple Inc. which is facing a rapid success due to its
innovation and expansion. It was initiated by analysing the internal resources and capabilities of
the firm which was done by doing the SWOT analysis in which Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and threats were highlighted. It was followed by highlighting the impacts of the
macro-environmental factors on the entrepreneurial activities of the company. This was done by
doing the PESTEL analysis in which the impact of Political, Economic, Social, Technological,
Environmental and Legal factors was elaborated. Furthermore, the impact of the competitive
forces on the overall operations and profitability of the company was also evaluated. This was
done by using the Porter’s five force model in which five factors were highlighted which were
the competitive rivalry, Threat of new entrants, buyer power, supplier power and the threat of
substitute products. This helps the company in gaining the competitive advantage and also to
lead all its competitors in all the aspects which will help the company to increase its overall
profitability and the customer base. After evaluating all these points, the company will strive
hard to minimize all the factors which hinders its progress and tries to maximize the factors
which fosters its growth and progress.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cho, H.K., 2017. A Study on Process from Total Brand Identity to Color Strategy Method-Food
Corporation'happy apple'Case Study. The Journal of the Convergence on Culture
example of the Apple Computer, Inc (Master's thesis, Тернопільський національний
Lewis, R., 2017. Porter's Five Forces of competitive advantage.
Magwizi, C.N., 2020. An investigation of operational management in the organization, on the
Mugo, P., 2020. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES INFLUENCE ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
IN TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY IN KENYA. European Journal
of Business and Strategic Management, 5(2), pp.30-49.
Pan, W., Chen, L. and Zhan, W., 2019. PESTEL analysis of construction productivity
enhancement strategies: A case study of three economies. Journal of
Management in Engineering, 35(1), p.05018013.
Sathappan, S., 2017. Strategic Management Analysis–Apple Watch.
Schomaker, R.M. and Sitter, A., 2020. Die PESTEL-Analyse–Status quo und innovative
Anpassungen. Der Betriebswirt, 61(1), pp.3-21.
Shtal, T. and et.al., 2018. Methods of analysis of the external environment of business activities.
Technology. 3(4). pp.77-82.
технічний університет імені Івана Пулюя).
Online
Apple Inc., 2020. [ONLINE] Available through :< https://www.apple.com/in/>
Levy, S., 2020. Apple Inc. [ONLINE] Available through :<
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apple-Inc>
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