Competitor Analysis of Apple
III, Competitor analysis
It can not be denied that laptop market is globally a crowded competition in which there are a number of giant technology companies in the world. Apple obviously has to consider their firm competitors. Thus, the next step of this research is competitor analysis, which will identify direct and indirect competitors for Apple’s Macbook. Moreover, this analysis will select two direct competitors, which are Dell and HP, to assess their strengths and weakness relative to the marketing activities of Apple. Finally, it will explicitly demonstrate how these two competitors are potitioned in Australian laptop market.
First of all, it is necessary to find the indirect competitors of Apple’s Macbook. Before the boom of technological revolution, global customers might have known desktops and laptops, which were their most effective assistants in their working life. However, a number of substitute products have been invented and become the main parts of technological materials. For example, a tablet seem to be the major substitute for notebook or desktops, because it has sufficiently functions like a personal computer, such as wireless connecting to Internet, office suites, web browsers, games and a variety of applications. In deed, Apple itself has series of Ipad, which annually attract a number of technological customers and directly influence their Macbook sales.Secondly, the more important thing is identifying the direct competitors of Macbook, which are obviously the laptops of other brands, particularly Dell, HP, Sony, Samsung or IBM. In term of technological characteristic, a Macbook is different from other normal laptop because it does not use any common operating system like Microsoft’s or IBM’s, thus, it can make some difficulty for the customers to use. Otherwise, the other laptop companies have private strengths which may threaten the development of Macbook marketing. According to Magic Quadrant (Gartner, 2010), which “ is designed to
It can not be denied that laptop market is globally a crowded competition in which there are a number of giant technology companies in the world. Apple obviously has to consider their firm competitors. Thus, the next step of this research is competitor analysis, which will identify direct and indirect competitors for Apple’s Macbook. Moreover, this analysis will select two direct competitors, which are Dell and HP, to assess their strengths and weakness relative to the marketing activities of Apple. Finally, it will explicitly demonstrate how these two competitors are potitioned in Australian laptop market.
First of all, it is necessary to find the indirect competitors of Apple’s Macbook. Before the boom of technological revolution, global customers might have known desktops and laptops, which were their most effective assistants in their working life. However, a number of substitute products have been invented and become the main parts of technological materials. For example, a tablet seem to be the major substitute for notebook or desktops, because it has sufficiently functions like a personal computer, such as wireless connecting to Internet, office suites, web browsers, games and a variety of applications. In deed, Apple itself has series of Ipad, which annually attract a number of technological customers and directly influence their Macbook sales.Secondly, the more important thing is identifying the direct competitors of Macbook, which are obviously the laptops of other brands, particularly Dell, HP, Sony, Samsung or IBM. In term of technological characteristic, a Macbook is different from other normal laptop because it does not use any common operating system like Microsoft’s or IBM’s, thus, it can make some difficulty for the customers to use. Otherwise, the other laptop companies have private strengths which may threaten the development of Macbook marketing. According to Magic Quadrant (Gartner, 2010), which “ is designed to
References: Case study: HP solution future-proofs St Peter’s classroom technology. Available from: http://h20426.www2.hp.com/solutions/edu/au/en/casestudies.asp. Accessed on: 30/ 03/ 2011 Kleynhans, S. (2010). Magic quadrant for global enterprise desktops and notebooks. @Gartner, Inc, 2010 November 10. Kreamer, K. & Dedrick, J. (2010). Dell computer: Organization of a global production network. Center for research on information technology and organizations, University of California.