Apple's Innovation in Business: Strategies, Performance & Industry

This report provides an overview of innovation management in business, focusing on Apple as a case study. It explores Apple's innovation history, from its founding to its current position as a leading technology company. The report discusses Apple's innovation strategies, capabilities, and performance, highlighting its successful products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It also examines the broader consumer electronics industry, noting key trends such as artificial intelligence, 5G, and mixed reality. The report concludes that innovation is crucial for organizational survival and growth, and Apple's continued focus on innovation positions it for future success. Desklib provides this report as a resource for students, offering access to solved assignments and past papers.

Managing Innovation in
Business

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Report discussed about managing the innovations in the business, as innovations is the important
of the business which can help the organisations in surviving and their growth. This report
discussed about Apple and how does it manage its innovation in their business. This report also
discussed about how innovation can be important for an organisation and how important is it to
make innovation in their product categories in order to gain competitive advantage. Report also
discussed about the innovation history of the organisation and the innovations made by the Apple
from its existence. Present report also discussed about the entire industry and innovations made
within the industry. The report included how innovation is playing a vital role for the
organisation's development and growth. If any organisation lacking behind in their innovation
strategy the survival and growth will bet impossible for the organisation in the future. Report
also discussed about how Apple is the world's most innovative company and how innovation
history has helped in making innovation continuous basis. Report also included Apple has got
high innovation capabilities for the future and how Apple can make innovations in the future in
order to meet the demands of its customers and is it able to do it. Report also discussed how
industry is growing due to innovations and the industry has witnessed major innovations 2018
and the innovations it will witness in the future.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Organisation and its innovation history......................................................................................1
Organisation's exiting innovation performance and capabilities................................................2
Industry in 2018..........................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Innovation can be defined as introduction of something new, in modern terminology
innovation means new idea, creative thoughts and new imaginations in the form of method or
device. In this report Apple is taken as an organisation, which is a multinational technology
company having its headquarter as California. Present report discusses about the overview of the
organisation and industrial overview. Present report includes the innovation history of the
organisation and the innovations made by the organisation from its existence. Present report also
discusses about the entire industry and innovations made within the industry.
MAIN BODY
Organisation and its innovation history
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company which has its headquarter
in Cupertino, California. Apple designs and develops and also sells computer software, consumer
electronics and online services. This company come under the big four of technology with
Google, Amazon and Facebook. Apple's hardware products includes iPad tablet computer,
iPhone, Mac personal computer, iPods portable media player, Apple TV a digital media play,
Apple smart watch and HomePod smart speakers. Thus, it proves that Apple is full of
innovations and has been keeping its products full of innovations (Winterhalter, Zeschky and
Gassmann, 2016.). Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak in
April 1976 with a purpose to develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computers. Over the
years Apple has expanded its business in number of retail locations and geographical average
(Why Apple Is The World’s Most Innovative Company, 2018). There are more than 506 store of
Apple across 25 countries across the world. In 1984 Apple launched Macintosh which was their
first personal computer which was sold without a programming language, which was its first
innovation made by Apple. In 1991 Apple introduce the power bank which replaced Luggable
Macintosh Portable with a design that changed shape of modern laptops (Van Lancker, Wauters
and Van Huylenbroeck, 2016). In same year Apple introduced System 7, which was the major
upgrade to the operating system and it added to the interface and introduced the new marketing
capabilities. There was also decline in the business of Apple from 1991 to 1997, Apple
experimented in the number of other successful consumer targeted products in the 1990's. It
included digital cameras, portable CD's video consoles, Tv appliances. But overall Apple has a
successful innovative business across it business career.
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Apple's innovation history can be summarised in its 9 innovation periods, Apple Inc. was
founded in 1 April 1976 by Steve Jobs in order to commercialise a computer which was built by
Wozniak which was the first computer with a keyboard and can be connected to a TV. In 1984
Apple launched the first computer with a graphical interface, aimed for small business and home
users. It was priced at $2,495 and the machine and software was successful to attract design
community (Geissdoerfer and Weerdmeester, 2019). In 1998 Apple launched iMac which proved
to be a watershed for Apple in two ways; one it was the major product for the Steve Job's second
stint at the company, from which Steve Jobs had been out set in 1985. In 1990 Apple started to
expand into several different product sectors of the organisation which included digital cameras,
handheld computers and CD players. Second, it shook up the design of boxy personal computers,
hitherto beige with lifelike colours and pleasing services which was able to attract the customers.
Apple has hundreds of stores across the world but it only sold its products through other retailers
before 2001 (Carayannis, Sindakis and Walter, 2015). After this Steve Jobs wanted to take
control over how products were sold and presented as retailers presented and promoted cheap
computer to customers. In 2001 Apple launched iPod with this is started Apple rock and roll
through music industry as company came up with digital music players in the markets. Apple
also launched mobile phones called iPhone which was successful to increase the market share
and iPhone solidified the reputation of Apple brand across the world. Apple also launched its
own app store which is known as Apple App Store which made the users to experience various
apps and it also shook gaming and publishing industries. Over 100 billion downloads were made
from the App Store from its launching date, this was the one of the greatest innovation of Apple.
Apple also launched Ipad, at the time of launching of iPad, craze for the tablets decline but when
Apple came up with the innovation of iPad in 2010 it was accepted by the customers with wide
arms. Although Microsoft had already released the tablet back in 2002 but Apple added the
innovation in iPad with the “Magic touch” to the product which already existed in the market. In
2015 Apple launched Apple Watch which had many innovative feature which boomed in the
market and was like by the customers due to its innovative features. So this was the innovation
history of Apple from the date of its existence till date and there are many innovations in the
future to come.
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Organisation's exiting innovation performance and capabilities
Apple Inc. is considered as one of the world's most innovative company and renowned
for its innovations that it makes in its product categories. It has been successful in making the
innovation and has been successful in implementing innovative strategies within the
organisation. So this is the reason Apple is considered as the most innovative company of the
world (Ferreira and et,al., 2015). Its innovation strategies includes the terrific new products has
innovative business models. Apple has been successful in delivering the consumers with a
succession of presents like great software and the hardware is beautiful which comes in a
beautiful packaging. Apple has created and introduced a game changing innovation like iPhone,
iPad, iTunes, Apple Watch, Apple Air pods. Competitors of Apple are finding themselves that
they are lagging far behind the innovations made by Apple Inc. Apple have secured the top spot
on the “delivering the future today” in 2017. Apple watch Series 3, ARKit, Airpods, iPhone X
were recognised the worlds best products. But customers were disappointed with up grades and
customers demanded more and more innovations from the company but situation changed in
2017 and this year proved to be hit for the organisation. Apple came up with wirelss AirPods
which became popular across the world which one of the best innovation for the headphones
(Brem, Tidd and Daim, 2018). Then it launched Apple Watch Series 3 which was the best seller
for the company as customers can manage their phone function through a watch. This innovation
also became popular across the world selling there watches generated huge revenue for the
organisation. Apple also added the feature in its new phone iPhone X which is called the
Augmented Reality and this AR framework and skeptics has blown the mind away of the users.
Apple was also praised for Artificial Intelligence, Apple has established the major inrods in the
artificial intelligence so that the area where the competition faced by the Apple from the
companies like Google can be minimised. The main reason of Apple becoming the innovative
company is that it does not only focus on building beautiful and innovative products but also
focuses on building the innovative business model too. Apple's innovation process is cultural and
its is not process driven due to Apple has been successful in making innovations and launching
most successful products in the market (Cooperrider, 2017).
As per the past history of Apple innovations performance it has huge capabilities in
making the innovations for the future. Innovation can come from anywhere this is the principle
which has adopted by Apple and the company believed that ideas can come from it effective
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team of an organisation which would be able to make innovations in the future. Apple believes in
its employees which increases the capabilities of the organisation in innovations. Apple has been
able to focus on the market needs and its users which increases it capabilities of innovative
performance in the future. Company has got well structure innovative organisational structure
and has got the best technical insights which can lead the organisation in major innovations in
the future which can help in dominating the markets and can achieve the competitive advantage
in the future (Aalbers and Dolfsma, 2015). Apple is also focusing on Artificial Intelligence
techniques in order to make their products more and more advanced which will also increase the
value proposition for the Apple products. Apple is wiling to take risks and make innovations for
the future products which it wants to develop and has the capability to do it.
Industry in 2018
Consumer electronic industry has been trendy with the coming of artificial intelligence,
5G, smart cities, sports innovations, mixed reality, companion robots and other areas played a
big role in the global economy. There has been a growth from 671 million units in 2016 and has
grown up to 3.9% in 2018. The top trend of the year was the arrival of 4G networks with a multi
gigabit speed for the broad band data. Also the artificial intelligence has been trending in 2018
like popularity of the smart speakers like Amazon Echo with the Alexo Voice recognition service
(Lager, 2016). Artificial intelligence is also making the way in many other industries like
automobile industry with self driving cars and other applications. Robotics was another area
which has grown in 2018 such as Blue Frog Robotics and Mayfield Robotics was launched in
2018. Another innovations which was made in 2018 was the face recognition which was
introduced by Apple in its mobile phone iPhone X which became the most popular innovation
around the world. Biometric technologies also grew in 2018 and there has been a leading
improvements in the smartphone technologies and the security associated with it for example
iPhone X gives better security cameras and it does not give off false alarms. There has also been
software development trends in 2018 as many organisations are considering the digital
transformations which are considered as the core part of their business strategies in order to
make them to have better position in the markets. Business leaders cited that AI is the key driver
of the digital transformation. Another innovation which came in 2018 was progressive Web
Apps, the web pages and websites which looked and acted same as native mobile app which are
known as progressive apps. Another innovation was the Blockchain Technology which became
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the hot technology trend due to Bitcoin and this technology has the applications which are
beyond the bit coin and other cryptocurrencies. Blockchain development is quickly and is rapidly
growing across the industries and companies which have adopted it or are planning to adopt it in
the future (Saebi and Foss, 2015). There has also been an advancement in the cybersecurity as
most of the companies and customers demand cybersecurity for themselves. Protecting of the
data was the one of the major concerns in 2018 as there has been breach in confidentiality up to
53%. so this determines that people and businesses are concerned about the cybersecurity and
many of the companies are increasing looking for software developing countries which will help
in improving cybersecurity. These were the innovations which were made in the year 2018 but
there are also certain developments which are to be made in the future which can be achieved
easily in future with the growth of the industry.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that innovation is plays a vital role for the
organisation's development and growth. If any organisation lacks behind in the innovations,
survival and growth will be almost impossible for it in the future. It can also be concluded that
Apple is the world's most innovative company and has a great innovation history as it has been
keeping making innovation continuously. It can also be concluded that Apple has got high
innovation capabilities which Apple can make in the future in order to meet the demands of the
customers and has the ability to do it. Present report also concludes that the industry is growing
and this industry has witnessed major innovations 2018 and is will also witness major
innovations in 2019.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aalbers, R. and Dolfsma, W., 2015. Innovation networks: Managing the networked
organization. Routledge.
Brem, A., Tidd, J. and Daim, T., 2018. Managing innovation: internationalization of innovation.
Carayannis, E.G., Sindakis, S. and Walter, C., 2015. Business model innovation as lever of
organizational sustainability. The Journal of Technology Transfer. 40(1). pp.85-104.
Chu, Z and etal., 2017. Managing interdependence: Using Guanxi to cope with supply chain
dependency. Journal of Business Research.
Cooperrider, D., 2017. Managing-as-Designing in an Era of Massive Innovation: A Call for
Design-Inspired Corporate Citizenship 1. In Globalization and Corporate Citizenship:
The Alternative Gaze. (pp. 53-66). Routledge.
Ferreira, J. J and et,al., 2015. Drivers of innovation strategies: testing the Tidd and Bessant
(2009) model. Journal of Business Research. 68(7). pp.1395-1403.
Geissdoerfer, M. and Weerdmeester, R., 2019. Managing business model innovation for
relocalization in the process and manufacturing industry.
Lager, T., 2016. Managing Innovation & Technology in the Process Industries: Current practices
and future perspectives. Procedia Engineering. 138. pp.459-471.
Saebi, T. and Foss, N. J., 2015. Business models for open innovation: Matching heterogeneous
open innovation strategies with business model dimensions. European Management
Journal. 33(3). pp.201-213.
Van Lancker, J., Wauters, E. and Van Huylenbroeck, G., 2016. Managing innovation in the
bioeconomy: An open innovation perspective. Biomass and Bioenergy. 90. pp.60-69.
Winterhalter, S., Zeschky, M. B. and Gassmann, O., 2016. Managing dual business models in
emerging markets: An ambidexterity perspective. R&D Management,. 46(3). pp.464-
479.
Online
Why Apple Is The World’s Most Innovative Company. 2018. [Online]. Available Though:
<https://www.fastcompany.com/40525409/why-apple-is-the-worlds-most-innovative-
company>
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