What Are the Chief Elements of Apple’s Overall Competitive Strategy? How Well Do the Pieces Fit Together? Is the Strategy Evolving?

Apple Inc. in 2010

Anita Dirini

A Case Analysis

Christopher Brands

Cynthia Marentette

Summer 2014

1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the

pieces fit together? Is the strategy evolving?

Innovation has been the driving force behind Apple since its inception, and continues to be

the most significant element of their competitive strategy. However, Apple has successfully

incorporated other elements into their strategy, including product differentiation, sustainable

competitive strategy, and vertical integration. Their differentiation strategy has a focus on a

particular market, namely the premium price point market. Their strategy seems to have focused

more on the education market and graphic design/computer art market. The 1987 Macintosh was

a favorite for K-12 education. Later, the iMac product line was targeted toward educational use.

Two things can be assumed about the education market: 1) a premium price point is not attractive,

and 2) customizability is not essential. Therefore, Apple designed these products at a lower price

point and did not have the custom features available in PCs. The Mac Pro line could enforce a

premium price strategy as these were used by professional graphic designers. These machines

differed from PCs due to their superior graphics capabilities. Effectively combining these

elements into a cohesive strategy has resulted in both the introduction of new products and in the

improvement of existing products. Overall, Apple incorporated this innovation into their strategy of

differentiation in the creation and manufacture of their three core products (e.g., computers, mobile

phones, and personal media players). In addition, they have expanded their strategy to attempt

to gain consumer loyalty overseas. Finally, Apple has maintained a rigorous level of secrecy in

terms