Apple Swot Analysis Pest analysis market PDF

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Market Analysis of Apple ...

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2016003139-Varun Kapoor-Apple Inc.

SWOT ANALYSIS

APPLE Inc.

Contents SWOT ANALYSIS.....................................................................................................................................1 APPLE Inc...............................................................................................................................................1 Part-A.................................................................................................................................................3 SWOT.................................................................................................................................................3 Part-B.................................................................................................................................................8 MACRO ENVIRONMENT (PEST)..........................................................................................................8 PART-C................................................................................................................................................9 Part-D Market analysis.....................................................................................................................10 Part –E.............................................................................................................................................15 Opportunities..................................................................................................................................15 Part 2- Market segmentation..............................................................................................................16 Positioning.......................................................................................................................................19

Introduction APPLE was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on 1stApril 1976. In order to make own personal computer they lay the foundation of Apple computers. It is best known products are the Macintosh computers, nowadays known by imac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Apple is best known for its revolutionary technology And latest design which leaves competitors far behind.[ CITATION And11 \l 5129 ]

“Simple can be harder than complex. Youhave to work hard to get your thinking clean to make simple. But it’s worth it in the end, because once you get there, you can move mountains “-Steve jobs[CITATION Ken13 \p 223 \l 5129 ]

Part-A SWOT S- Strength 

Monopoly by own software and customized apps[ CITATION And10 \l 1033 ]:APPLE is producing their own hardware while providing software for them. Just to stay ahead from the competitor like dell, HP, Motorola, Samsung etc. since in the given example of competitors they provide the hardware only while using software of other company e.g. Samsung, Motorola is using android service which is being provided by Google, whereas dell is using windows as operating system which is being provided by Microsoft.

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Continue spending on R&D[ CITATION nei15 \l 5129 ]:Apple is famous not because their products but their new and fast technology, apple is keep launching their product within a time limit of one year while making them advanced, fast and user friendly enough to attract the users.

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Extra ordinary revenue worldwide[CITATION Mig10 \l 1033 ] :The yearly revenue generated by apple is far better from other competitors like Samsung, Microsoft etc. in terms of net profit; apple is way ahead from other companies.

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Revolutionary product and design:Product is the base of any strong brand, and apple is making best out of it, by spending lavishly to make their product centre of attraction for the consumers and their products with advanced technology help to make it one of the best technology company.

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Prominent customer service[ CITATION AppND \l 5129 ]:Customer service is vital part of brand like apple, apart from retails stores they have opened many customer care centres to resolve the product related issues and delivering it at their best. Moreover, it’s also giving a way to guide customer from their own website for customer support.

Strategic implications



It’s an extra edge that apple is using their hardware and software all together so it can easily eradicate issues like virus and crash of software. So the experience of consumer about the product will be at par and it can help to pull more shares in the market on the behalf of the product quality.

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Spending on continue research and development leads to new and advanced product over a short time period and it excites the consumers to have the latest technology so in a shorter time period it will be easy to give a tough competition in the market.

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Profit not only helps in the research & development of current products but should be used in the new markets; there are vast opportunities of other markets like vehicles, home technology- it will be helpful for a consumer if all of his product can be controlled by mobile or one device only.

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Prestigious customer service makes customer happy with products related concerns as well as company front end employees. This makes a familiar environment to the consumers and enhances brand loyalty which can further help to sell the new products.

W- WEAKNESS 

High product range[CITATION Ami15 \l 5129 ]:Apple’s product price is quite high as compare to other brands, simply android phones and getting too much market shares just for their price rage is pocket friendly, whereas it’s difficult to every consumer to get apple products because of their luxury technology.

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Labour practices[CITATION Coo13 \l 5129 ]:All the apple products made in china and without inspecting the situations apple has given the contract to Chinese manufacturer where employees made to work for long shifts for 1.12 GBP per hours. All of this action had been taken into notice by media. It simply spoiled brand image of apple.

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Decreasing sale of new product (Apple IWatch)Investopedia.(N.D) :Apple has recently launched its new product “iWatch “, which didn’t even meet with expected sales figure and continue decreasing in sales, it is direct affecting the brand image of apple.

Strategic implication 

Apple Inc. is having a great strategy on their product by keeping high pricing, But in order to get more market share, it can come up with a pocket friendly products also, this revolutionary technology at reasonable price can pull up the maximized shares in the market. More alike, there must be two ranges in the apple product, one must be in a pocket friendly favour and another should be luxury.



Whole Apple product manufacturing is depend upon china manufacturing units, but there are other resources where apple can get their product manufactured at the low cost labour i.e. India and it will be a relevant option to divide the business in two countries so that any political and environmental concern cannot influence Apple.



Although a new product “Apple iWatch” was introduced in the market but it couldn’t get goaled figures and decreasing day by day, it is a good try to replace traditional watch with advanced technology but its didn’t get enough appreciation[ CITATION Dai16 \l 5129 ]. In future before launching any product there must be done a strong market analysis, on the consumer preference and future consumer need.

O-Opportunities 

Expending Mobile market: Officially apple has introduced their products in 18 countries [ CITATION AppND1 \l 5129 ] so there are more opportunities to grab in other countries mostly in Middle East. Apple products is loved everywhere by consumer, so if their products are approaching unofficially, which makes the product more expressive as compared to company authorised store. So an officially presence can get more consumer at an authenticate price of product.

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Investment in other markets: Apple has proved his mettle in smart phone and computer market, and now it’s time to move in other markets which is automobile, there is a brand “Tesla Motors” which is the only automobile company which is providing electric vehicles with latest technology and generated wholesome revenue within small time span[ CITATION Yah16 \l 5129 ]. So it’s a good time for Apple Inc. to jump into this market and achieve great milestones, while providing products with exceptional technology.



Funds provided to spend on development of the new products:This is a great opportunity for Apple, because of invention of new technology; product can be sophisticated and more easy to use. Since Apple is spending lavishly on their R&D department. So there are many possible way to explore in new markets and great inventions. Furthermore, this will help to make products advanced in terms of technology, which can attract many consumers, also from competitors. Strategic implications

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There are more opportunities to expand their business, whereas Samsung (mass competitor) having their products in many countries [ CITATION samND \l 5129 ]. It simply clears that Samsung is the only brand which is ruling in other countries where Apple is absent, so getting indulge in countries like Africa, Middle east and expanding more in Europe will help to stretch more shares in the market.

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Apple has set up itself as a Luxury brand and treated like a social symbol. So this is the best time to introduce itself in new markets like Automobile, since the technology used by apple has gone far away, so it will be easy to use its technology into consumers need Like iCar, iHome etc. it will just help people to connect to all their devices with one technology and for consumer itself will have easy to manage all things with one technology (Phone). T-Threats

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Increasing Android market shares [ CITATION IDC15 \l 5129 ]:Android market still getting the maximum market shares, just because of their product rage and availability dominates other brands. IPhone market is increasing but still far away from the reach of android market.

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New competitors with reasonable product range :Reasonable range of the similar technology is a potential threat for the Brand like Apple. There are many new companies like MI, Micromaxetc.[ CITATION Jai15 \l 5129 ]. Eating up the market shares in few potential countries which can decrease the market shares of Apple.

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Changing technology and consumer demand. :Apple is only successful just because its agenda of “Think different “[ CITATION Ken13 \l 5129 ]. If still technology will be same so it will not more attraction for buyer, the demand and need of consumer is changing day by day and apple must change its product according to that or else it will be a big threat to a giant organization.

Strategic implication

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The large market of phone is coming thru budget friendly mobiles and apple can launch the product accordingly. Moreover there are still many areas in more likely in Middle East, china, India which are potential markets and apple must occupy it with good brand availability.

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The only way that can eradicate the threat of changing technology is continues spending on the research and development, conducting survey in different remote areas. So that the outcome from the survey and development can help to identify the consumer need and launch products accordingly.

Part-B

MACRO ENVIRONMENT (PEST)

“Macro environment consists of the larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment”.-Kotler, P. (1999).

P-POLITICAL FACTOR

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The production of Apple’s product is mainly depend upon china manufacturer, so if the government of china changes it can also impact the rules for the labor and import – export tax, which will further lead to increment of product price.

•

Since apple is contacting china for low labor cost which can raise a big political issue regarding jobs of American people.

•

The relations between United States and other countries like India, china, Pakistan become unhealthy so it can leads to decrease in share market of apple product which directly leads to cut off the business and became a reason off loss. E-ECONOMICAL FACTORS

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Increment of labor cost in china can leads to price hike in the product.

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Since the dollar rate is unstable but if it gets keep on growing, this can make product price higher in several markets like Europe and Asia.

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Apple is strongly associated with China and recently crashed its share market which also affected apples Overall revenue. It can potentially harm the company’s funds if it happens again. S-SOCIOLOGICAL FACTOR

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The purchasing power of common man has been increased in couple of years, so purchasing the luxury product have gone up and will elevating in future also

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Apple is successful making their product count in luxury products, so it’s more like a status symbol to have an Apple product.

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Apple’s established markets such as United States., Canada. Etc. made an emotional attachment with the younger people which help to drive a good sale thru.

T-TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS 

Apple is also investing in research and development to get the highest and latest rank in the market.

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Increasing in the mobile market directly decreases sale of Apple’s popular personal computer market.

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Apple’s Operating system is limited and doesn’t support every application, which cannot let user play thousands games\applications. [ CITATION Ste10 \l 5129 ]



The apple products coming in the market are very few, like apple recently launched its iTv and have a limited market.

PART-C Opportunities:

China is a great market for company like apple, major population; it is called “China’s Super Consumers,”[ CITATION Sav14 \l 5129 ] the book looks at one billion new consumers in China, and especially the rising buying power of the rising middle class. An international company like apple there is much future growth will come from such markets that are barely tapped by Apple at this time.



Since the apple Inc. is completely dependent on china’s manufacturer for the product manufacturing, India has been the major destination for outsourcing mainly due to low wages, its large pool of English speaking people, government incentives and policies, IT/BPO markets development, large investments in the infrastructures (e.g. telecommunications) and the large supply of educated and talented people.[CITATION Har07 \l 5129 ].By set up manufacture unites in other country like India will be a great stepping stone in Apple history, there are many factors within china which can directly affect company economy power and production[ CITATION CNN15 \l 5129 ], and so it’s a good precaution to subdivide the production into two parts to avoid any production crisis in the company.

Key issues of concern:-

IPod culture is reducing as compared to past years, since Apple Inc. is giving a good service by improving and adding extra feature in iPhone but on the other hand iPod sale is going off trends[ CITATION WikND \l 5129 ][ CITATION StaND \l 5129 ] and the whole range of iPod is going to collapse if not taken any correct action.

Part-D Market analysis Market size :The worldwide Smartphone market grew 13.0% year over year in 2015 Q2, with 341.5 million shipments, according to data from the International Data Corporation ( IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Samsung has retained its #1 position by puling 21.4 % over all shares and apple acquired 13.9% share in Smartphone market worldwide.[ CITATION Inc15 \l 1033 ]

Period

Samsung

Apple

Huawei

Xiaomi

Lenovo*

Others

2015Q2

21.4%

13.9%

8.7%

5.6%

4.7%

45.7%

2014Q2

24.8%

11.6%

6.7%

4.6%

8.0%

44.3%

2013Q2

31.9%

12.9%

4.3%

1.7%

5.7%

43.6%

2012Q2

32.2%

16.6%

4.1%

1.0%

5.9%

40.2%

iMac share in the market :-

Nevertheless, market share of mac notebooks is low in previous years, but its showing significant improvement in current year while the total shipments declined by 8.3%.[ CITATION Mac16 \l 1033 ]

Market structure:Apple’s work on both oligopoly and monopolistic structures. In the Smartphone market apple has majorly Android, Windows phone as rivals, these three companies keep on changing and refining products for the consumers, whereas in the Computer/notebook market there are number of rivals i.e. Hp, Dell, Lenovo, Acer etc.

Market Trend:-It can be clearly seen from the static graph of the forecasting of smart phone that in coming years the market is going to by 20%-40%.

[CITATION sta15 \l 1033 ] Key Successfactors:-

Product: iPhone combines a mobile phone, an iPod, and an Internet communications device in a single handheld product. , iPhone features desktop-class email, web browsing, searching, and maps and is

compatible with both Mac and Windows-based computers. . In addition to the Company’s own iPhone accessories, third-party iPhone compatible accessories are available through the Company’s online and retail stores and from third parties.[CITATION AppND2 \l 5129 ] Moreover apple is also entering into the Automobile market with a great investment and which will open the doors for new market.[ CITATION Nat16 \l 5129 ] Price:Apple products are into a luxury technology pool and more likely considered as status symbol. [ CITATION Ami15 \l 5129 ]. While other brands working on cost cutting to get reasonable prices of the product on the other hand Apple sells its product at high price point, maintaining the quality, and generate a good revenue out of it. Place:Marketers develop distribution strategies to ensure that their products are available in the proper quantities at the right time and place. Apple has to concentrate on those places that even have low demand currently like Middle East, India but in near future it will be a great consumer market. [ CITATION Har07 \l 1033 ] Promotion:customer instruction, smart advertisement and user’s training are the basic apple tools to promote its product. Promotion on social media which is popular in amongst young people is a good way to drive sale Figures and Apple uses it effectively.[ CITATION www \l 1033 ] People:Customers are likely to be loyal to organizations that serve them well - from the way, in which a telephone query is handled, to direct face-to-face interactions. Call centre staff and customer interfacing personnel are the front line troops of any organization and therefore need to be thoroughly familiar with good customer relation's practice.[ CITATION App \l 5129 ]

Processes:-

The various and simplified processes in supply and market chain makes it easy to run the operation of the company, and on the behalf of strong process it’s easy to place product on right time and right position.[ CITATION wwwND \l 1033 ] associated with customer service are a number of processes involved in making marketing effective in an organization e.g. pr...