Apple Inc 2010

Apple Inc. in 2010

Apple Inc. compete across several highly competitive markets, including the personal computer industry with its Macintosh line of computers and related software, the consumer electronics industry with products such as the iPod, digital music distribution through its iTunes Music Store, and more recently in the smart phone market with the Apple iPhone and tablet computer iPad. Apple’s innovation or broad differentiation has always been its hallmark and its competitive strategy. In order to be successful in product differentiation Apple needs to have the resources and capabilities to incorporate unique attributes into its products so that customers will find appealing and worth paying for it.

Apple’s competitive strategy since the begging it has been creating products that have the capacity to change the development of the market, especially during the last decade, with the first iPod’s lunch to the present with a new tablet computer, the iPad. In 2001, marking Apple’s 25th anniversary, Jobs laid out his vision for the Macintosh in what he called the “digital hub.” He believed that the Macintosh had a real advantage for consumers who were becoming entrenched in a digital lifestyle, using digital cameras, portable music players, and digital camcorders, not to mention mobile phones. The Mac could be the preferred “hub” to control, integrate, and add value to these devices. Jobs viewed Apple’s control of both hardware and software, one of the very few remaining in the PC industry, as a unique strength to the company and its products to align to its competitive strategy of differentiation from the competition.

Apple’s products align with the company’s competitive strategy of differentiation from the competition. To start with, Apple’s competitive position in the personal media player industry and the inclusion of the iPod. Although Apple did not introduce the first portable digital music player, the company held a 73 percent market share digital music players in 2010 and were able to create the iPod as a generic name term for digital players. Apple allows the customer to choose from a basic digital player to a complete or complex digital player that allows the customer the use of Wi-Fi, play videos, access the internet, and touchable screen. Furthermore, to complement their digital player, Apple launches their website/program iTunes which allows customer to buy songs, videos, movies, television shows that could be player on any iPod contributed to the popularity of the iPod. The success of the iPod/iTunes combination gave Apple a 69 percent share of the US digital music market in 2010.

Furthermore, Apple’s competitive position in the mobile phone industry became a reality in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone; a multi-touch screen with a virtual keyboard, camera, portable media, and text and visual voice mail. Clients were able to surf