Apple Industry Analysis

Canadian University of Dubai

 Case of Apple Computer 2002- Harvard Business School

MGT 470-2: Strategic Management

Professor: Dr. Susan Zeidan

Fatima Kamal Aslanova F1314000530

Seher Beyza Hasan Bas F1314000521

ABSTRACT

In this project we are going to carry out several analysis on the case study about Apple computer reported by David B. Yoffie and Yusi Wang from Harvard Business School in October 20, 2015. We will use and apply various analysis such as internal and external analysis of the company, SWOT analysis, Porter's 5 forces, industry analysis, market analysis, competitors analysis, suppliers analysis in provided time frame of the original case. Our aim is to acquire a detailed knowledge about the history of the Apple company and simultaneously observe the strategies they have adopted through the given period of time, accordingly to implement the analysis of our own to conclude an implications and conclusions. The information source of the material in this project is taken from the Apple case study as well as from the external sources.

INTRODUCTION

Today, rapid advances in science and technology have affected our lifestyle. In recent years,  one of the fastest developments has been the computer. Computers have become a major aspect of our lives in every industry. The first known computer company in the United States, Apple was originally called "Macintosh", the name of an apple species that was found by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. It was incorporated in California, USA. This company and brand has created a customer volume that consumes its own products, especially in the United States. The creation of such a cushion is largely due to the fact that the company is design-focused and influenced by the slogan of Think Different, used in advertising campaigns in the 1980s. Apple has also marketed products such as photo printers and printers at the time. Today, it produces consumer electronics, personal computers and computer software ( Buket Akkoyunlu, 2013)

Apple has a unique reputation in the electronics industry for the consumer for many reasons, including a wide range of aesthetic design philosophy and distinctive advertising campaigns Apple is the world's second largest IT company in terms of revenue  after Samsung Electronics; After Samsung and Nokia, it is the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world. The Apple company has a total of 115,000 employees worldwide. As by the end of March 2016 Apple had 478 retail stores in 17 countries ( Buket Akkoyunlu, 2013).

HISTORY

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Wozniak. After few months Markkula joined them as a new partner. Markkula was an experienced businessman who had the most of the capital, Wozniak was concerned with the technical issues and Jobs had a strong vision for changing the world through technology. Jobs biggest mission in inventing Apple was to create a computer that is easy to use for everyone. In 1978 the company launched Apple II. Apple became a leader in the computer industry in a very short time. When IBM entered the PC market in 1981, market share of Apple dropped sharply. Apple created a next-generation machine called Lisa in order to match the competition with IBM but they couldn’t succeed and they dropped it after a very short time.