Analysis of Apple's New Product Development Process: A Case Study

This report provides a critical analysis of Apple's New Product Development (NPD) process. It examines how Apple integrates customer needs, technology, and management competencies to develop successful products. The report highlights the importance of frameworks and models in NPD, contras...Read More

Running head: NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF APPLE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
As stated by Fuller (2016), the business enterprises in order stay competitive within
the business markets of their operations needs to constantly upgrade the products or services
offered through the effective integration of the ever-changing needs or the demands of the
customers. Nunes, Pereira and Alves (2017) are of the viewpoint that the process of New
Product Development (NPD) helps the business enterprises to effectively integrate customer
needs, recent technologies, management competencies and others for the development of the
kinds of products or services which in turn would enable the concerned enterprise to attain its
strategic goals. In this paper, I would undertake a critical analysis of the process of NPD in
the particular context of the same process followed by the enterprise Apple for the
development of new products or services.
I am of the viewpoint that the business enterprises like Apple needs to take the help of
different kinds of frameworks or models for the effective development of new kinds of
products or services. For example, it is seen that the effective usage of different kinds of NPD
frameworks helps the enterprises to effectively synchronise their management competencies,
technological developments, results obtained from the market researches and others for the
development of the kind of goods or services which will help them to attain their strategic
objectives (Jha et al., 2016). However, in the majority of the cases it is seen that the
enterprises fail to use any frameworks and this in turn leads to the failure of the NPD process
followed by them or for that matter for the development of new products or services (Wowak
et al., 2016). As a matter of fact, I believe that the major focus of these enterprises is not on
the concept of innovation or the manner in which the products or services developed by them
would be appreciated by the customers rather on the process of the development of products
or services itself with complete disregard of the market trends, expectation of the customers
and other aspects.

2NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Figure 1: New Product Development framework followed by Apple
Source: (Created by the Author)
I would like to say that the NPD process used by the enterprise Apple is an exemplary
one and the other business enterprises can take the lead from the concerned enterprise for the
development of an NPD process. I personally believe the management competencies of the
enterprise Apple, the manner in which technology is being used at the concerned enterprise
for the development of new products, its strategic alliances with the other technology-based
enterprises and the extensive research and development (R & D) activities undertaken by it
had substantially improved the kind of NPD process used by it. For example, it is seen that
the concerned enterprise undertakes a detailed market research for gaining an effective
understanding of the requirements, demands or the expectations of the customers from the
products or services which are being offered by it. More importantly, it is seen that the results
which are being derived by the concerned enterprise from the market research is being
integrated within the blueprint of the products or services that are being developed by it
(Chuang, Morgan & Robson, 2015). Furthermore, the enterprise Apple is known to be one of
Apple
Technology
Strategic
Alliances
Research and
Development
Management
Competency

3NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
the most innovative enterprises of the entire world and this innovative approach of the
concerned enterprise not only manifests itself within the spectrum of its organisational or
workplace culture or the business model followed by it but also in the context of the products
or services offered by it as well. As a matter of fact, it is seen that different kinds of
technologies are being used by the enterprise under discussion for the development of the
kind of products or services which would satisfy the needs of its target market. In addition to
these, it is seen that the management team of the concerned enterprise also has adequate
competencies to support the innovative products or services offered by it and also the
different strategic alliances that the enterprise has supports the same. The resultant effect of
this is the fact that the concerned enterprise through the active conglomeration of all these
aspects have been able to develop the kind of products or services which had helped it to
attain strategic objectives.
There are various critical success factors which affect the success of the new products
or services like product related factors and market related factors. For example, it is seen that
the enterprise Apple takes the help of the process of standardisation to create the kind of
products or services which are as per the standard quality and that too at the lowest possible
price. In addition to this, it is seen that although there are numbers buyers and also the size of
market is really large yet because of the high quality of products and services offered by
Apple, it had been able to gain monopoly in the market. I would say that the new product or
service development process used by Apple is almost similar to the ones used by the other
enterprises like Microsoft and others. Furthermore, it had been seen that the contemporary
enterprises are trying to improve the NPD process through the effective integration of the
needs of the customers, use of new technological developments and others.
To conclude, I learned that the process of NPD had become an integral one for the
different modern-day business enterprises since it enables them to develop the kind of new

4NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
products or services which in turn would help them to attain their strategic goals. However,
for the formulation of an effective NPD or for that matter to develop new products or
services, the enterprises need to take into account their management competencies,
technological environment, strategic alliances, market researches and other aspects to ensure
the success of the new products or services. These aspects of the process of NPD become
apparent from the above discussion.

5NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
References
Chuang, F. M., Morgan, R. E., & Robson, M. J. (2015). Customer and competitor insights,
new product development competence, and new product creativity: differential,
integrative, and substitution effects. Journal of product innovation
management, 32(2), 175-182.
Fuller, G. W. (2016). New food product development: from concept to marketplace. CRC
Press.
Jha, S. K., Parulkar, I., Krishnan, R. T., & Dhanaraj, C. (2016). Developing new products in
emerging markets. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(3), 55.
Nunes, M. L., Pereira, A. C., & Alves, A. C. (2017). Smart products development approaches
for Industry 4.0. Procedia Manufacturing, 13, 1215-1222.
Wowak, K. D., Craighead, C. W., Ketchen Jr, D. J., & Hult, G. T. M. (2016). Toward a
“theoretical toolbox” for the supplier‐enabled fuzzy front end of the new product
development process. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 52(1), 66-81.