Analyzing Apple's Innovation: Report for Business 2

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MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Innovation management helps in ensuring a smooth flow of activities within the teams. It has a
direct impact on overall organizational performance. Apple Inc. manufactures, designs and
markets the media devices and mobile communication, personal computers, portable digital
music players and other devices and software. The company has also been listed as the most
admired organization globally by Fortune Magazine. Since incorporation, the organization is
focusing on integrating customer experience in the process of designing and development. The
company has been successful in launching several new and innovative products such as Apple I
computer, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, MacBook Air, iPad and Mac Pro. Apple has recently
announced the development of the Apple TV. The TV is manufactured using high-performance
hardware and has introduced a user interface, operated by using the Siri remote. The report
has also been successful in throwing light upon the trends within the information technology
industry in the year 2019. It stated that the global IT industry is expected to reach USD 5 trillion
dollars by the end of 2019. Also, there are numerous driving factors which are expected to drive
industry growth.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 4
ORGANIZATION AND ITS INNOVATION HISTORY...........................................................................5
ORGANIZATIONS EXISTING INNOVATION PERFORMANCE AND CAPABILITIES..............................7
INDUSTRY IN 2019....................................................................................................................... 10
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 12
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................13

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INTRODUCTION
Innovation is referred to as the generation of new ideas and also the implementation of those
ideas for the creation of new products and services. Innovation helps the company in gaining a
competitive advantage and ensuring a strong market position. When the innovations are being
managed efficiently by the businesses, they facilitate a smooth flow of activities and equal
distribution of work amongst the teams, thereby having a direct impact on the overall
performance of the organization. This report is therefore focused on determining the
innovations undertaken by the Apple Inc., since its inception and also in determining the trends
within the technology industry which might have an impact on the operations and the decisions
of Apple.

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ORGANIZATION AND ITS INNOVATION HISTORY
Apple Inc. was established in the year 1976 and is headquartered in the United States. The
company is engaged in the manufacturing, designing and the marketing of the media devices
and mobile communication along with personal computers and portable digital music players
among others. The company is also engaged in selling a wide variety of related software,
networking solutions, applications and the third-party digital content. Apple is a multinational
corporation which is engaged in the selling of products both by means of online stores and
retail stores.
Apple has been listed as the most admired country in the world under the list provided by
Fortune Magazine. It is one of the largest corporations which are publically traded in terms of
the market capitalization (Pisano, 2015). Apple is the largest technology company in terms of
both capital and revenues.
INNOVATION HISTORY
From the analysis of the history of Apple Inc., it is evident that the organization has been deeply
associated with the new product development, innovation and execution. This was also
supported by the strong influence of Steve Jobs- the co-founder of the company. It is also
evident from the operations of the company that Apple is stringent about its operations and
strategies, through which it is successful in adopting strong marketing strategies and fulfilling
the expectations of its customers (Johnson et al., 2012). The platform strategy of Apple is very
strong and focuses on adoption of the OSX operating system for the manufacturing of both
Apple's computers and iPhones.
Since the incorporation of Apple Inc., it is focusing on the integration of the customer
experience in the process of designing and development. The organization has focused on
designing beautiful products, which are simple and their sophistication has been ensured. As a
part of innovation, the company has also focused on experimenting with Apple Stores (Adner,

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2006). Apple also promotes constant learning and adoption for improvising on the current
products and processes.
Year Innovation
1976 released the Apple I computer
1988 iMac debuted
2001 iPod was introduced
2003 iTunes Store was introduced
2007 iPhone was released
2008 MacBook Air was released
2010 iPad was introduced
2013 Mac Pro was released
(Demirkan et al., 2016).
Apple has also experienced a drastic downfall in the overall sales in the year 2001. To efficiently
deal with this situation, Apple has taken into consideration numerous areas for expansion.
However, Apple chose the iPod and Music for expansion and for dealing with the situation of
loss of sales. Apple was focusing on the in-house development of all the components of iPod
namely the player, the music store and also the software (Galeso, 2017). In October 2001,
Apple has successfully launched the first iPod. Post this, in the year 2003; Apple has Launched
the iTunes music store. Furthermore, in the year 2010, Apple had successfully introduced the
iPad. Thus, it can be said that Apple has a strong innovation history from the launch of iPad to
iPhones (Gershon, 2013).

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ORGANIZATIONS EXISTING INNOVATION PERFORMANCE AND
CAPABILITIES
Apple Inc is constantly engaged in undertaking innovative practices, which are related to new
product developments. These innovations are helpful for the company for entering a new
product category and also gaining a competitive advantage within the market. In the recent
reports published by Apple Inc., it has been clearly stated by the senior management of the
company that the company is preparing for the launch of a new product which is a health-
focused smartwatch (Pisano, 2015). This watch would be capable of performing numerous
functions such as the measurement of the blood pressure and the heart rate.
Figure 1 Innovation Strategy of Apple
(Source: Galeso, 2017)
As an effective innovation strategy, Apple is also considering its expansion within the mobile
payments system. This innovation would be focused on the development of a new product
category. It has been stated that the mobile payments would be installed within the Apple
phones which would possess the potential of the Touch ID fingerprint scanner (Pontiskoski and
Asakawa, 2009). In addition to this, several reports have also highlighted that Apple is also
working towards the development of an enhanced set-top box, which would possess more
features as compared to the current television by Apple. The company is also focusing its
innovation activities towards the mobile operating systems and desktop.
RECENT INNOVATION – APPLE TV
Apple has recently announced the development of the Apple TV, which is being developed with
the objective of bringing a revolutionary experience for the people by providing them with

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applications which are built for utilization on the television. The applications provide the users
with the facility of choosing the content which they are willing to watch as per their time
convenience. The remote of the TV also features Siri, which facilitates the users in searching for
their favourite show by using their voice. The search can be undertaken from multiple content
providers simultaneously (Aron, 2011). The TV is built by using new generation high-
performance hardware and has successfully introduced a fun user based interface which can be
operated by using the Siri remote.
The Siri remote has been developed in such a manner that the users can easily scroll, select and
navigate their content and also brings in unique interactivity to the new TV by use of a glass
touch surface. The TV operates by using the new OS operating system, which is based
particularly on the IOS of Apple (Gershon, 2013). This enables a wide number of IOS developers
to bring innovation in developing applications and games which can be specifically used on the
Apple Television. The developers are also provided with the facility of delivering the
applications to the users directly by making substantial use of the Apple TV app store.
INNOVATION CAPABILITIES
The major capabilities possessed by apple which enable innovation are the management of
people, organizational culture, strategies adopted for innovation and also the innovation
competencies. Apple has its major focus on fostering an innovative culture at all the levels of
the management (Demirkan et al., 2016). The organization has also ensured that the operations
are open and smooth, which would facilitate the development of the models of change and
innovations within the systems.
The motto of Apple is "think different", which ensures that the employees of the organization
are being motivated to think differently. Apple has also made significant efforts in recognizing,
protecting and encouraging the innovators within the organization to indulge in innovative
activities. The innovators within the firm are rewarded on the basis of recognition or in
monetary terms (Aron, 2011). The organization has also undertaken several steps to promote
workplace diversity. This is done after recognizing the fact that the individuals from different

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cultural background have the capability of thinking differently, which further helps in ensuring
that the new ideas are being perceived within the organization.
In addition to this, Apple has also made concentrated efforts in ensuring that the process of
innovation is internalized amongst all the people working in Apple and it is being treated as the
duty of the employees to bring in innovation. Apple has also focused on following the double
loop learning. This means that the apple should regularly evaluate the on-going projects within
the organization and analyze any differences in the activities as compared to the projected
activities (Pontiskoski and Asakawa, 2009). This analysis would be beneficial in bringing in
innovations for ensuring that the tasks are being fulfilled accurately.
Apple also has a substantial amount of financial resources with itself which are useful in the
funding of the innovative projects by the company. Apple has also focused on acquiring the
best human capital with the required skills, which would be capable of fostering innovations
and coming up with more viable alternatives.

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INDUSTRY IN 2019
The global information technology industry is growing rapidly and is expected to reach a size of
USD 5 trillion dollars by the end of 2019. The personal lives of the individuals, jobs and the
economies at large are becoming more connected and digitalized, which is leading to increased
automation (Tech Trends, 2019). The waves of innovation are constantly building over time and
are also simultaneously powering the growth engine of technology, which is further driving the
information technology industry.
Apple Inc. is one of the major players of the United States IT industry. The United States is
considered as one of the largest technology markets all across the globe. This sector is also
contributing significantly to the growth of the economy (Rayome, 2019). The studies conducted
by many agencies have depicted that the impact of the technology sector which is being
measured as a percentage of the gross domestic product is exceeding a large number of
industries including the ones from the major sectors such as construction, retail and
transportation.
It has been projected that the global information technology industry is expected to grow at a
compounded annual growth rate of 4% in the year 2019 (IT industry Outlook, 2019). This
projected growth is majorly affected by several factors which have been analyzed as the
prevailing economic conditions, currency effects, pricing effects and the product mix adopted
by the company. Within the technology industry, in situations when the prices of the
commodities and services offered are falling, it leads to an increase in the total number of units
sold and therefore, ensures revenue growth. It has also been projected that in the future years,
the product mix would be the most important factor as the higher growth of the emerging
economies would be much more as compared to the offset of the slow growth rate within the
mature industries.

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(Source: IT industry Outlook, 2019)
The allocation of spending within the technology industry varies a lot across economies and is
dependent on numerous factors. The US market is well established and has a huge installed
base of services and software, robust platforms and infrastructure and the existence of
connected devices with bandwidth. Owing to this highly developed infrastructure, the economy
is expected to experience future investments in the services and software which are at the top
of the foundation (Ivanov et al., 2019). The next series of software which would be introduced
is owing to advances within the 5G, edge, cloud computing and other related technologies.
In addition to this, the technology market can be majorly categorized into the various
components comprising up of the hardware, software and services; telecom services and also
many other emerging technologies such as drones, IoT and also other automating technologies
(Dutta et al., 2015). Further, the major factors which are driving the growth of the information
technology industry are the ability of the organizations in reaching new capabilities, increased
amount of businesses from the existing business, improvements in the marketing efforts
undertaken by the company, enhanced efficiency in undertaking internal operations and other
similar factors.

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CONCLUSION
After the completion of this report, it can be said that for ensuring long term organizational
success, it is very important for the companies to manage its innovation processes efficiently. In
this studies, it is evident that Apple is constantly evolving as a result of the increased innovation
practices adopted by the organization. Since the incorporation, Apple Inc. has developed many
products ranging from the iPhones, iPads and iPods among others. The company is also making
concentrated efforts in the development of the new products which majorly comprises up of
Apple TV and the Siri enabled remote. The global information technology industry is also
growing rapidly and is adopting new means of innovation by the use of enhanced software and
systems such as the internet of things.