apple case study
5. What are Apple’s current competitive advantages? Use Barney’s framework.
Apple thrives in its industry as a result of its competitive advantage over the other companies in the PC, smart phone, and tablet industries. When looking at apples competitive advantages, it is best to consider Barney’s VRIO framework. Barney states that the key components of competitive advantage are value, rareness, imitability, and organization. Apple has mastered capitalizing on these four components of competitive advantage. Apple creates value to its customers by seamlessly integrating all of its products. Apple’s I-cloud allows consumers to store all of their media in one place on the internet where all of their apple devices can wirelessly connect through the cloud and share store and transfer media content such as pictures, videos, apps, and music to all of their devices. This is where rareness and imitability come into play, as no other company has been able to do what apple has done with the I-cloud. Other companies have their own cloud versions, some of which use drop box to store content, but nobody else has been able to create a cloud that works as easily and efficiently throughout its entire product line quite like apple has. So the I-cloud feature may not be rare, as other companies have similar services, but the I-cloud absolutely has not been able to be imitated by anyone else. Another huge competitive advantage apple currently has over its competitor is its organization of both its work staff and its supply chain management. Steve Jobs was able to accomplish an unparalleled supply chain system before he passed. Apple’s supply chain is nearly flawless as they use their vertical integration by owning suppliers that makes everything operate smoothly. No other company has been able to imitate this process as effectively as apple. The last major competitive advantage apple possesses is its organization cohesiveness. Many companies have separate R and D
Apple thrives in its industry as a result of its competitive advantage over the other companies in the PC, smart phone, and tablet industries. When looking at apples competitive advantages, it is best to consider Barney’s VRIO framework. Barney states that the key components of competitive advantage are value, rareness, imitability, and organization. Apple has mastered capitalizing on these four components of competitive advantage. Apple creates value to its customers by seamlessly integrating all of its products. Apple’s I-cloud allows consumers to store all of their media in one place on the internet where all of their apple devices can wirelessly connect through the cloud and share store and transfer media content such as pictures, videos, apps, and music to all of their devices. This is where rareness and imitability come into play, as no other company has been able to do what apple has done with the I-cloud. Other companies have their own cloud versions, some of which use drop box to store content, but nobody else has been able to create a cloud that works as easily and efficiently throughout its entire product line quite like apple has. So the I-cloud feature may not be rare, as other companies have similar services, but the I-cloud absolutely has not been able to be imitated by anyone else. Another huge competitive advantage apple currently has over its competitor is its organization of both its work staff and its supply chain management. Steve Jobs was able to accomplish an unparalleled supply chain system before he passed. Apple’s supply chain is nearly flawless as they use their vertical integration by owning suppliers that makes everything operate smoothly. No other company has been able to imitate this process as effectively as apple. The last major competitive advantage apple possesses is its organization cohesiveness. Many companies have separate R and D