SWOT
Strength:
1. Strong brand name and customer loyalty.
Weakness:
1. Limitation on customer segmentation because Apple has limitation on its price and product varieties.
Opportunity:
1. Chinese economy is still booming right even though the economy is kind of slow down right now, it still has a lot of room to grow. If Apple could catch the chance, for sure it has a lot of business opportunities.
2. Largest population in China so there is a lot of potential customers.
Threads:
1. Knockoff is a big problem in China and this will hurt the economy of China for sure.
Corporate-Level Strategy
Contrasting a decade ago and base on the SWOT analysis above, Apple now is a very powerful company with strong global brand name and loyal customers; we suggest Apple should use product development as its Corporate-Level Strategy.
Corporate-Level Strategic Objective
The vision of Apple is “Empower the World”. The mission is committed to diversity and creativity. Apple continues on its effort to provide the most innovative 3C products (computer, communication and consumer electronics) to empower the customers.
The short term vision of Apple will be increasing 30% of the net profit in 3 years.
Business-Level Strategy
There are two alternatives in the business-level strategy. One is cost leadership and another one is differentiation.
The advantage of cost leadership is Apple can create economy of scale on its product. The disadvantage will turn the brand name into not prestige anymore.
The advantages of differentiation are Apple can sell less and make higher net profit and it can create more prestigious brand name. The disadvantages are limitation on customer segmentation and market shares because products require selling in a higher retail price.
After the comparison of two alternatives, we suggest Apple should use differentiation as its business-level