Introduction of Apple Inc PDF

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An increasing number of smartphone user every day since a decades and it would not stop! Given that mobile phones are now more affordable and come with many of applications, they have become an important device in people’s daily lives. The most popular and favorites smartphone that choose by consumer are from Apple iPhone. In this case, my group will introduce the Apple Inc. Company. As you may know, Apple Inc. founder by Steve Jobs is an America multinational corporation that designs and manufactures consumer electronics and computer software products. The company best known hardware products include Macintosh computers, the iPod and the iPhone. Apple software includes the Max OS X operating system, the iTunes media browser, the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software, the iWork suite of productivity software, Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and films-industry software products and Logic studio, a suite of audio tools. The company operates more than 250 retail stores in nine countries and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. Established in California on 1 st April 1976 and incorporated 3rd January 1977. The company was called Apple Computer Inc. for its first 30 years but dropped the word “Computer” on 9 th January 2007 to reflect the company ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers. Apple has about more than 35,000 employees worldwide and had worldwide annual sales of billion in USD in its fiscal year ending 29 th September 2008. For reasons as various as its philosophy of comprehensive aesthetics design to its distinctive advertising campaigns, Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry. This includes a customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand, particularly in United States.

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Mission of Apple Inc. According to the Economist, Steve Jobs mission statement for Apple in 1980 was: “To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind”

Vision of Apple Inc. “Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and internets offerings.”

Value statements of Apple Inc. “Think Different”

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Organizational Structures Apple organizational structure can be described as hierarchical. Such a structure has been developed by its founder and former CEO late Steve Jobs in order to ensure focused realization of his innovative ideas and clear vision for the business. Apple organizational structure has been subjected to certain modifications since the leadership role was assumed by Tim Cook on August 2011. Specifically, Mr. Cook embraced the decentralization of decision making to a certain extent in order to encourage innovation and creativity at various levels. Nevertheless the structure remains to be largely hierarchical.

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Apple Products Time to time, Apple has released a variety of devices to be the market leader with new technologies. This strategies will be the stepping stone to the company to achieve long term goals. The products are: 1) Macintoshes – iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, MacBook Air and many more with upgraded hardware since 1998 to 2019. 2) iPod – Is digital music player such as iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, iPod Touch and so on. 3) iPhone – this device is the most favorites smartphone in the world and many generation has been introduce year by year. From Apple iPhone 3G till the latest by this day iPhone 11 Pro. 4) iPad – Apple introduced their much anticipated media tablet with offers multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats including newspaper, e-book, photo, videos, music, word processing documents, video games and most existing iPhones apps. 5) Apple watch – Smartwatch with many features can apply such as health and fitness tracking, water resistance, faster processor, connect with the cellular many more.

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Financial Achievement and Business Strategy Apple is committed to bringing the best user experience to its customers through its innovative hardware, software and services. The Company’s business strategy leverages its unique ability to design and develop its own operating systems, hardware, application software and services to provide its customers products and solutions with innovative design, superior ease-of-use and seamless integration. As part of its strategy, the Company continues to expand its platform for the discovery and delivery of digital content and applications through its Internet Services, which allows customers to discover and download digital content. Selling premium products at a premium price should come with a high-quality buying experience. Therefore, the Company’s strategy also includes building and expanding its own retail and online stores and its third-party distribution network to effectively reach more customers and provide them with a high-quality sales and post-sales support experience. In the end of October 2019, Apple Inc has announced financial results for its fiscal 2019 fourth quarter ended September 28, 2019. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $64 billion, an increase of 2 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.03, up 4 percent. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.77 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 14, 2019 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2019.

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Company Analysis Strength Apple designs, manufactures and markets the world’s single most popular smartphone, the iPhone. Even though Apple has only about 15 percent of the global market share in smartphone. Apple always listen to their customer feedback either positive or negative, if it bad Apple will make sure to make an improvement to their company. Apple have 5 different country that assemble the product which is from Germany who supply accelerometer, China who supply battery, Japan who supply camera, compass, and LCD Screen, Switzerland who supply gyroscope, USA who supply glass screen, wifi chip, Audio Chips. Since 2007, Apple design already become a leader in this industries. They will make an innovation but then other company will follow their design, for example, in 2019 Apple has released their brand new iPhone which is iPhone 11, iPhone 11 pro and iPhone 11 pro max has a creative and innovative design of camera, they put 3 cameras with their own specialty on each camera. Apple product are more user friendly than those of windows, android, and other operating system. There have statistics mention it that older people more prefer Apple product this is because their product is very simple in term of operating system, their information like clear crystal but one thing that apple cannot do which is customization. User can’t customize the device for their specific needs. But Apple’s overriding strategy always has been to produce elegant, easy to use products. People nowadays are very sensitive about their privacy, Apple do care about them. Apple also has a culture of not collecting every details about its users. For example, Apple does not read or store iMessages or FaceTime. Even if a government were to ask for these data, Apple could not provide it, for the company simply does not keep it on file. The latest version of IOS 8 is more encrypted than ever. This is one of the differences between Apple and their competitors. The company uses personal selling in the form of Apple Store employees who provided product specific information in the aim of convincing store visitors to make a purchase. Also among the 4ps, this element involves sales promotion, which usually happens at the Apple Store locations and authorized reseller locations. Moreover, the company uses public relations to optimize its Page | 6

corporate image. The company is also involved in various initiatives such as Connected which aims to improved formal educations outcomes, while promoting the business and its products. As of late 2014, 83% of all credit card transaction in the United States were compatible with Apple Pay, with bank not offering compatible products quickly but rather coming to agreement with Apple. The company reported sales increase in all regions in fiscal 2014, except in the Rest of Asia Pacific region, which experience a small decline. The largest percent growth came from Chine and Japan.

Weaknesses Apple currently operate 450 Apple store and employs 98000. Apple Inc. has a limited distribution network because of the company’s policy of exclusivity. For example, the company carefully selects the authorized sellers of its products. The SWOT analysis framework considers this exclusivity strategy as a factor that limits market reach. This weakness exists despite exclusivity’s advantages, such as Apple’s strong control on the distribution of products. Another weaknesses of Apple, the dependence of sales on high-end market segments. High prices attract customers from the middle- and high-income brackets, while preventing customers from low-income brackets to easily purchase the company’s products. This internal strategic factor is a considerable weakness because high-end market segments represent only a minority of the global market. Based on the internal factors in this aspect of the SWOT analysis, Apple Inc.’s pricing and distribution strategies impose limitations or weaknesses in the business. To keep cost low, almost all Apple hardware product are manufactured in Asia and many of these are manufactured at a single location, except for a few Macs that are manufactured in United States. While able to better maintain quality control, this does put Apple at risk over strikes, poor management or other disruptive activities at a single location facility. But Apple tends to stock enough supply to cover its demand for up to 150 days, but during a new issue of an iPhone for example, there can be supply shortage, where customers must wait weeks or even month to receive their products.

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When a customer buys an apple product, they enter the Apple universe. Apple’s products do not support other software or technologies making them incompatible with other devices. Customers have to exclusively purchase Apple apps or accessories to continue using their Apple products.

Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix Weight

Key External Factors

Ratin

Weighted

g

Score

Strength 0.09

4

0.36

2. Apple product are more user friendly.

0.33

1

0.33

3. Apple also has a culture of not collecting every details

0.09

2

0.18

0.5

1

0.5

0.2

4

0.8

2. The dependence of sales on high-end market segments

0.03

2

0.06

3. Apple hardware product are manufactured in Asia and

0.14

3

0.42

0.12

2

0.24

1. Apple designs, manufactures and markets the world’s single most popular smartphone, the iPhone

about its users. 4. The company uses personal selling in the form of Apple Store employees who provided product specific information Weaknesses 1. Apple Inc. has a limited distribution network because of the company’s policy of exclusivity

many of these are manufactured at a single location 4. Apple’s products do not support other software or

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technologies making them incompatible with other devices. Total

1.5

-

2.89

Opportunities Apple has sued Samsung twice in the last couple years for patent infringements in the hypercompetitive smartphone industry. Apple was awarded $120 million of a $2.2 billion claim for Samsung violating three patenting infringement. This is an opportunities for Apple, when thing go viral on social media, the company will be well-known. Apple can grab his opportunity to increase their sale. Most smartphone market in develop countries are expected to see growth rates subside moving forward. Apple is a growing company in a growing market. In the upcoming years, there are expected to be more competitor, at that time apple already become a well-known company so they just need to sustain their product line. Statistics show that tablet sales in the United Stated are projected to increase from $55 billion in 2014 to $63 billion in 2018 or a 15 percent total increase. Other than that, the opportunities for Apple company is the current culture of customers being trained to update their phones at least every 2 years, the long term outlook for smartphone provider looks promising. This is a great chances for apple because they can advertise their product more just like they do nowadays.

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Two products which can increase the presence even further are the iWatch and Apple TV, both of which are aimed at the future, for when the digital presence increases. Apple iWatch already has a 50% market share of Smart watches in US. The revenue were $51 and $7 billion, respectively for the first quarter 2015. Smart wearable technology will soon dominate the world. According to Forbes, smart wearable technology device sales will double by 2022. It will become a $27 billion+ market with 233 million unit sales. Apple has the opportunity to capitalize on smart wearable technology.

Threats Apple Pay’s fingerprint technology is more convenient for consumers and also more secure for credit card companies such as Visa, American Express and Mastercard. However, competitor such as Samsung currently have a similar technology on some of their phone and all phone will likely have a similar technology moving forward. But with Apple, merchants are charged the same fee as normally charged by a credit card company, which is an average of 2 percent in the United Stated. Apple competes in a highly competitive and rapidly changing industry that is often associated with strong customer loyalty. But then Apple continue persuade their customer to sell their product are actually a very good product with a reasonable price. There has been a significant change in market penetration by other brands in the smartphone market. Companies like Samsung, HTC, and Lenovo are using Android software to create new smartphones. Currently, Android has captured 72.23% of the market share, while Apple has only 24.55% of the market share globally. Although Apple as a brand has solidified itself, it still faces threats from competitors. With the advancement in technology, brands like Samsung, Google, and Dell are giving Apple tough Page | 10

competition. As the competition is getting stronger, Apple either has to introduce new technologies or revise its pricing policy to stay ahead of its competition. Most of the world’s smartphone are manufactured in china, china is popular with counterfeits product. Apple has become vulnerable to third world countries illegally utilizing the brand image to sell counterfeit products. The illegal dealers sell Apple counterfeit products at the same value as an original Apple product. Counterfeit products can make potential customers believe that it is a product made by Apple with low quality. Big news can result in negative reviews and bad publicity for the company.

External Factor Evaluation Matrix

Key External Factors

Weight

Rating

Weighted Score

Opportunities

1. Apple has sued Samsung twice in the last couple years for

0.11

3

0.33

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External Factor Evaluation Matrix

Key External Factors

Weight

Rating

Weighted Score

patent infringements in the hypercompetitive smartphone industry

2. Most smartphone market in develop countries are expected

0.09

1

0.09

0.24

2

0.48

0.10

1

0.10

to see growth rates.

3. The current culture of customers being trained to update their phones at least every 2 years

4. Two products which can increase the presence even further are the iWatch and Apple TV, both of which are aimed at the future

Threats

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External Factor Evaluation Matrix

Key External Factors

Weight

Rating

Weighted Score

1. Same technologies with competitors

0.17

4

0.68

2. Apple competes in a highly competitive and rapidly

0.03

2

0.06

0.14

3

0.42

0.12

2

0.24

changing industry that is often associated with strong customer loyalty

3. Although Apple as a brand has solidified itself, it still faces threats from competitors. With the advancement in technology

8. Apple Bullied By Counterfeits.

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Apple is leading in term of design, so they could keep innovated on their upcoming product to attract more customer

People have no choice because their behaviour they want to change their product after a year, Apple can increase sell.

Apple should open more their authorised dealer in order to minimize counterfeits.

Make Apple product more premium in term of compatible with other product, so there can reduce counterfeits

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Findings Although Apple still generating the vast majority of its total revenue from iPhone sales, the company is still in a continuing process of making the sales increase and many strategies has been implemented to make boost the product sales into the market. But with iPhone sales slowing and the broader smartphone market stagnating it's time to look ahead to Apple's new opportunities. And if the above segments are any indicator, Apple still has a bright future to achieve a long term objectives. Wearable tech It's understandable if investors are a bit skeptical about wearable tech to help boost Apple's longterm sales. Wearable tech devices like the Apple Watch have been out for several years and aren't the runaway success that smartphones have been. But dismissing this segment's potential would be a huge mistake. Recent data from Markets and Markets shows that wearable tech adoption is speeding up and that this year; one in five internet users in the U.S. will own a wearable device. The wearable product expansion includes other side products beside smartphones like apple watch and airpods. To fully understand the size of Apple's wearables business, consider that Luca Maestri, Apple CFO, said on the recent earnings call that, "Based on revenue over the past four quarters, our wearables business is approaching the size of a Fortune 200 company." If all of that isn't enough to make investors optimistic about Apple's wearable-tech future, Apple is also rumored to be working on augmented reality (AR) glasses that, when launched, could add an estimated $13 billion to Apple's top line. But even if Apple doesn't release AR glasses, the company is already growing its wearables sales rapidly, and Apple investors should expect more focus on this segment.

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Artificial intelligence Nearly every tech company is investing time and resources into artificial intelligence (AI) these days, and Apple is no different. Last year, Apple hired John Giannandrea, who had previously worked on AI at Goog...