What, Historically, Have Been Apple’s Competitive Advantages?
APPLE INC.
1. What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantages?
Apple pursues a differentiation strategy since it started in 1976. Only one time they offered a computer aiming for the mass market, but soon came back to their differentiation strategy. This differentiation strategy was at one point supported by a strong promotion campaign, with the goal of to ‘differentiate the Macintosh amid intense competition in the PC industry. Apple has always been a very innovative PC manufacturer. Through excellent R&D, Apple always managed to launch PC innovations on the market. Although the products sometimes showed weaknesses, the innovative role still gave Apple a lot of attention. Apple designed its products typically from scratch, using unique chips, disk drives and monitors. This created a high value image of the Apple PCs and made the customers ‘love’ their Macs. These loyal customers allowed Apple to charge premium prices for their products.
2. Analyze the personal computer industry. Are the dynamics favorable or problematic for Apple?
Technology in Pc industry became cheaper and affordable over time. Company´s growth was driven by low prices but revenue growth did not match with the volume growth. This led to a decrease in R&D. Hence almost all PC suppliers used cost differentiations as their strategy and sell to volume. The consumers cared deeply about price, home consumers also valued design, mobility, and wireless connectivity, business consumers balanced price with service and support and at last education buyers depended on software availability.
It can be said, that the dynamics were problematic for Apple because of low prices of different supplier. But on the other hand it can be seen as favorable to Apple. The reason was Apple had control of both hardware and software. This was a unique strength which other computer industry did not possess. Furthermore, Apple revamped its product line which offered machines that could deliver a
1. What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantages?
Apple pursues a differentiation strategy since it started in 1976. Only one time they offered a computer aiming for the mass market, but soon came back to their differentiation strategy. This differentiation strategy was at one point supported by a strong promotion campaign, with the goal of to ‘differentiate the Macintosh amid intense competition in the PC industry. Apple has always been a very innovative PC manufacturer. Through excellent R&D, Apple always managed to launch PC innovations on the market. Although the products sometimes showed weaknesses, the innovative role still gave Apple a lot of attention. Apple designed its products typically from scratch, using unique chips, disk drives and monitors. This created a high value image of the Apple PCs and made the customers ‘love’ their Macs. These loyal customers allowed Apple to charge premium prices for their products.
2. Analyze the personal computer industry. Are the dynamics favorable or problematic for Apple?
Technology in Pc industry became cheaper and affordable over time. Company´s growth was driven by low prices but revenue growth did not match with the volume growth. This led to a decrease in R&D. Hence almost all PC suppliers used cost differentiations as their strategy and sell to volume. The consumers cared deeply about price, home consumers also valued design, mobility, and wireless connectivity, business consumers balanced price with service and support and at last education buyers depended on software availability.
It can be said, that the dynamics were problematic for Apple because of low prices of different supplier. But on the other hand it can be seen as favorable to Apple. The reason was Apple had control of both hardware and software. This was a unique strength which other computer industry did not possess. Furthermore, Apple revamped its product line which offered machines that could deliver a