Apple Inc

Participant SIS ID: 1004324
Programme Name: Advance Diploma in Business Administration
Subject name: ERCBA 201 Creativity and Innovation
Subject Facilitator: Mr. Jude
Title of Paper: Apple Inc.
Number of Pages: 10
Total Word Count: 1645

Table Of Contents

Cover…………………………………………………………..1 Table Of Contents…………………………………………….2
Executive Summary…………………………………………..3
Introduction………………………………………………….....4
Competitive Advantage.…………………………………….5-6
Key Issues & Challenges.…...……………………………..6-7
Solutions …...………………………………………………..7-8
Conclusion…………………………………………………….9
References…………………………………………….…….10

Executive Summary

Apple is really a great company and one of the biggest companies in technology field. They are the pioneer in laptop, music field, smartphone and even tablets. They have made many remarkable innovations to make our life simpler through their products. Steve Jobs is the one who made this company become who they are now. When he left this world last year, it gave so much impact in growth of this company. Apple could not make any awesome innovation in this mean time. They have been experiencing degradation since Jobs left this world. They are facing some issues like Intellectual property, Patents, Privacy and even psychological issue like confidence. Slowly but sure, they have been trying to rise up by giving the best as they could. Everyone believes that Apple will survive even they need so much time to adjust without Steve Jobs.

Introduction

Apple Inc. was established on 1976. Steve Jobs as the Apple Co Chief Executive has made a remarkable change in this organization. In this era, this company becomes the most successful worldwide company in technology sector. At the beginning, everyone has underestimated him while he got an ordered for fully assembled computer machine. In fact, that was his stepping-stone to reach the great success. Steve Jobs named it “Apple” because he had good memories in working at Oregon apple farm. Steve Jobs is not the only one pioneer to this Company, Steve Wozniak also plays a big part in raising this company. First time, Apple I is just a machine that has a TV as the display system, it was so simple, no keyboard, sound and graphics. As time goes by, jobs could develop it with bootstrap code on ROM, Wozniak also help him to design a cassette interface. It makes him called master designer by peoples at that time. Apple II was made with more features on it rather than Apple I. It has better TV interface, graphics and colors. Jerry Manock is the designer for Apple II. This product was launched on 1977. This company always makes some development, on 2001 they went through the boundaries with the iPod and it becomes the market leader in music player. Afterwards, they contribute in phone industry on 2007 with iPhone. Apple Co is very unique because it has a strong brand identity. This organization also has a good Adaptability. They can change the design continuous; even they have changed their logo for several times as well. They have expanded their brand worldwide. Until now they have encompassed at least in 2 huge markets, Americas and Europe. Under the leadership of Tim Cook as the Co. Exec, Asian becomes one of their target markets too.

Competitive Advantage Competitive advantage can be interpreted as any factor that make your business superior than the other competitors. It means that your business attract more customers rather than your competitors. (Frazier, 2011) In business world, this thing is very important, competitive advantage is affected by the costs, quality, and innovation. Who get the customers’ trust; they will get the competitive advantage. In Apple case, they really got the competitive advantage among their competitors because they are the first one who found the great innovation concerning gadgets and application. The features in Apple’s gadget is different from the others, theirs are really brilliant because every single products has the capability to complete each other. Their application products surely win the competitive advantage because they can integrate their multiple products as one. Even, there is no other company can catch their market share in this mean time. They have been the software and hardware with an integrating operating system, thus their customers have one app that run on their Apple gadget as they run on the other Apple products as well. (Magee, 2011) Mac OS also becomes one of their competitive advantages, Microsoft tried to beat Apple but they did not make it. Many people feel that Apple’s OS is more sophisticated, moreover their laptop MacBook Pro and MacBook Air also got the heart of their consumers in terms of technology and even the design. Their designs are so simple and elegant. Besides integrating each of their products, they also keep improving and updating their products so the customers always wait for their enhancement. Apple is a really great company; they can make their customers always depend on them. Once somebody use Apple’s product, they will keep on trying the other products. It feels like they already become an Apple’s customer brand equity. IPhone apps, iPod apps and Apple iTunes are exactly Apple’s products that win competitive advantage among their competitors. Even, Samsung become their follower by made Google play for their application. Samsung is absolutely a strong competitor towards Apple, they even allow the customers to use their application freely. iPad also the pioneer in tablet gadget, it has better quality and better design compare to Samsung Galaxy Tab. Although the customers need to pay some of Apple’s application before using its, they still choose to buy Apple rather than Samsung.

Key Issues Intellectual property is one of the issues that Apple has been facing. They had many lawsuits with another firm. Secret of intellectual property is very important in this field because ideas in technology are very expensive. One of the significant issues was against Microsoft. It involved of Apple’s Macintosh graphic interface system (GUI). Microsoft system resembled Apple’s Macintosh GUI. In 2007, Apple got trademark lawsuit from Cisco system. It is about the use of “IPhone” name. (Daniels, 2010) Recently, patents become a serious issue for Apple. This company filed a lawsuit toward Samsung because of the design of iPhone and iPad. In one side, Apple had win the competitive advantage toward Samsung because they were the first to launch the product, but on the other side a big amount of customers also chose Samsung because their price is cheaper. They can get the same advantage as Apple gives. Nowadays, many hackers become smarter, they can let the users download everything for free. It can affect Apple’s market share as well. Privacy becomes a major concern of Apple Inc. too. The customers feel that Apple can know their privacy easily. Some of their application can collect the consumers’ data like the location, their history, and even their personal data such as documents. They feel like this a serious infringement because they can collect it without the users permission. Even though Apple struggle that they were not doing the infringement because they say that the consumers can deny it, yet still the consumers feel anxious about it.
The confident of Apple’s consumers become lesser these days, and it becomes a real problem to Apple Company. Since Steve Jobs left this world because of serious illness, Apple is in a verge of degradation. The users feel like Steve Jobs is everything, he was the one who made the product based on customers’ wants. He was the great innovator for Apple. Tim Cook has been handling his position since back then. The consumers assume that he could not do the same thing as Jobs did. That is why it affected their revenue. The users start to think, that they are not worth to buy Apple products anymore because the quality is different. Yesteryear, Apple launched iPhone 5 and the result was not so good. In fact, they did not do a great innovation instead of a slight of upgrading. It makes the users feel disappointed. (Rash, 2013) They need to have a great strategy, even they are in a rush to get the competitive advantage. Apple gags feel that Tim cook is the best in management but not a great innovator. His old position as the Chief Operating Officer of Apple Inc. is more suitable for him.

Solutions In intellectual property problem, Apple Co. can overcome it with several solutions. They can put their focus in specific needs, so they just need a short time from innovation to marketing. In other words, they do not let their competitors take their idea because they do not give a chance to them. Another solutions can be an end-to-end management of their assets. (Reuters, 2012) It means, minimize their middle layers as much as they can so they can work more efficient. The one that does not have any importance to the processes better let them stay away regarding intellectual assets. Apple Inc. must apply this management from the first sector R&D until the product has launched. Thus, a fewer people know about it, the probability to this problem will minimize automatically. Concerning download illegally, Steve ever said that Apple would offer you better experience that only cost a dollar. (Goodell, 2003) Concern the privacy rules, Apple did responded about this issues. They changed the App store rules. Explicit approval is made, thus whenever Apple wants to collect some personal data, they need the permission from the users first. (Catherine, 2012) Moreover, their third parties also must follow the privacy guidelines, Apple promises that they will not give any users’ personal data to them for marketing purposes. This guidelines state that Apple apps cannot send any information without getting the user’s permission. To make it clear, when the consumers finished downloaded any app from App store, it means that everything happen is between the users’ and the app.
Apple can get the confident of their customers back by encouraging them with continuous efforts. Apple has a strong corporate culture, and they should preserve it because that is the real strength of Apple. All of their employees must believe in each other. Thus they can make their users believe in them too. From the beginning, they emphasize in evangelism. They are the one who are very loyal to Apple; they have willingness to spread about Apple products. With the lost of a great Co chef, they felt like they loss some power. Indeed, they need to strict up on what they have held on until now. They need to belief each other, their employees’ inputs and consumers’ feedbacks are very important. Work together as one is a key to get their success back. Apple just needs a while to adjust their condition without Steve Jobs.

Conclusion

The future of Apple is quite bright. When Steve Jobs died, it was really a big matter for Apple Inc. As time goes by, when they can really adapt without Jobs, they will start to climb up to get their success back like Microsoft did without Bill Gates. There must be degradation without Steve Jobs, but when they believe in each other and continue to uphold their corporate culture, everyone believes that Apple will survive. Apple also needs new fresh markets, a new product and a new territory. Tim cook has been starting to reach Asian markets, especially China. China is a very potential market because they have a huge population. Apple can take the advantage from the cheaper labor as well. In another side, they need to be careful because it can be their growing process or their reduction level. Their consumers can assume that Apple’s reputation goes down, that is why they start to reach lower level targets to help them rise up. As long as they believe in each other and have a willingness to survive and develop, Apple will have a long-term success for sure.

References:

Amanda Frazier (2011), How do they do it? Facebook and Apple’s competitive advantage. Available at: http://plantostart.com/facebook-and-apple-competitive-advantage/ (Accessed: 19 January 2013)
David Magee (2011), Apple’s competitive advantage: Multiple products that integrate as one. Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/apples-competitive-advantage-multiple-products-integrate-one-300605 (Accessed: 21 January 2013)
Daniels (2010) “Apple Inc.’s Ethical Success and Challenges” Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative University of New Mexico,5(1), p.8.
Wayne Rash (2013) Apple Must Innovate Its Way Out Of Market Slump. Available at: http://www.eweek.com/mobile/apple-must-innovate-its-way-out-of-market-slump-2/ (Accessed: 26 January 2013)
Jeff Goodell (2003) Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview. (Personal Communication)
Thomson Reuters (2012) Revitalize Your IP Management With Improved IP and Collaboration. Available at: https://thomsonipmanagement.com/products-and-services/thomson-ip-manager (Accessed: 27 January 2013)
Catherine, A,N. (2012) Consumer Privacy Disclosure. (Personal Communication-Letter)

References: Amanda Frazier (2011), How do they do it? Facebook and Apple’s competitive advantage. Available at: http://plantostart.com/facebook-and-apple-competitive-advantage/ (Accessed: 19 January 2013) David Magee (2011), Apple’s competitive advantage: Multiple products that integrate as one. Available at: http://www.ibtimes.com/apples-competitive-advantage-multiple-products-integrate-one-300605 (Accessed: 21 January 2013) Daniels (2010) “Apple Inc.’s Ethical Success and Challenges” Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative University of New Mexico,5(1), p.8. Wayne Rash (2013) Apple Must Innovate Its Way Out Of Market Slump. Available at: http://www.eweek.com/mobile/apple-must-innovate-its-way-out-of-market-slump-2/ (Accessed: 26 January 2013) Jeff Goodell (2003) Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview. (Personal Communication) Thomson Reuters (2012) Revitalize Your IP Management With Improved IP and Collaboration. Available at: https://thomsonipmanagement.com/products-and-services/thomson-ip-manager (Accessed: 27 January 2013) Catherine, A,N. (2012) Consumer Privacy Disclosure. (Personal Communication-Letter)