Week 3 - Titan Project Case Study Mock SWOT analysis PDF

Preview

Summary

a case study that helps develop the understanding of a business concept that is called SWOT analysis....

Description

Case – MKT100 Week 3 Mock SWOT Analysis for the Titan Project Apple’s Potential Entry to the Car Industry: The Titan Project

There have been many tech companies to emerge in the past several decades; perhaps none of which has been more influential than Apple. As the news broke that Apple had become the world’s first trillion-dollar company, all arguments against this were essentially put to rest. The company’s beginnings were certainly humbler. Originally, the company was focused on manufacturing computers (hence their original name: Apple Computer Inc.). Despite enjoying some popularity, Apple’s computer sales were unstable, to the point that the company nearly declared bankruptcy in the mid1990s. What brought the company wider success was their expansion into novel product categories. The trend began with their launch of the iPod (2001), followed by the iPhone (2007) . Since then, the company expanded into a novel product category every few years: from iPad to Apple Watch, to Apple TV, to AirPods. Three key characteristics remained stable for all Apple products: the products were userfriendly, had great aesthetic appeal, and could be easily connected to other Apple devices through Apple’s iOS. The last point meant that once a consumer was happy

with one product, it was easy for them to devote themselves to the ‘Apple ecosystem.’ With this diversified portfolio, it's clear that Apple has a number of projects going on behind the scenes, and at least one of them involves cars. The company just like many other tech companies - has been looking at how technology will find its way into the cars of the future. This anticipation was the driving force behind the secretly ongoing ‘Titan’ project. Although the details have not been made public, rumours suggest that Apple has been working on an electric car that would run with their operating system (iOS) since 2014. More than 1,000 employees are devoted to the project, some of which being veterans of the car industry such as Andrew Kim, a senior designer at Tesla, and Doug field, the chief vehicle engineer of Tesla. Apple has already procured several patents for a potential car. The company has also been in contact with regulators about self-driving car rules, and procured a selfdriving car permit in California back in 2016. Finally, the company has purchased online domain names for their potential cars (apple.car). Initially, unnamed employees of Apple were suggesting that project Titan would "give Tesla a run for its money." However, a January 2019 CNBC report claims that 200 employees in Apple's Titan project were laid off, suggesting that the project may end up being canned. Most recently, Apple announced their intention to continue with this project with a potential date of 2024 for the introduction of their first ‘iCar.’ However, it is an open secret that other big players, such as Google, are also working on autonomous driving car prototypes, making it uncertain whether Apple will succeed in this endeavour. You are tasked with conducting a SWOT analysis to understand whether Apple should launch into the car industry. When conducting the SWOT, you should consider opportunities and threats that are informed by the CREST model (competitive, regulatory, economic, social, and technological factors)....