Apple Business STRATEGY Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Use Porters five forces model to analyse an industry on the basis of the five competitive forces.
- Analyse the global smartphone industry and how the five forces have affected Apple and rival firms and the impact on industry structure, attractiveness, and profitability.
- Understand how Apple has managed to defend against intense competition and the strategies it uses to create 'blue oceans' that are defensible, helping it capture market share and maintain competitive advantage.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In August 2018, Apple became the first company to reach a market capitalization of US$1trillion, beating old rivals such as Google and Microsoft. The Cupertino based tech giant is known for manufacturing a wide range of iconic consumer electronics such as the iPhone, iPad, and computer software like Mac OS, iOS and online services like Apple Music. Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne (Dormehl 2018), Apple now operates 492 stores across 19 countries worldwide (Dunn 2017).
In 2017, Apple made annual revenue totaling $229.23billion up from $215.64billion in 2016 (Richter 2018) with a profit of $48.35billion up from $45.69billion in 2016 (Annual Report and Form 10K 2017). Apple’s three major markets include USA, UK and China with a market share of 45%, 37% and 17.4% market share respectively ahead of major competitor, Samsung with market share of 29.5% in USA, 35% in UK and 2.2% in China.
In the following section, we examine how Porters five forces of competition have shaped the global smartphone industry, leading to the commoditization of smartphones at the low end of the market and the counter strategies Apple has devised in the battle against this increased commoditization and powerful low cost rivals.
Apple Business Strategy Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Use Porter's five forces model to analyze an industry on the basis of the five competitive forces.
- Analyze the global smartphone industry and how the five forces have affected Apple and rival firms and the impact on industry structure, attractiveness, and profitability.
- Understand how Apple has managed to defend against intense competition and the strategies it uses to create 'blue oceans' that are defensible, helping it capture market share and maintain competitive advantage.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In August 2018, Apple became the first company to reach a market capitalization of US$ 1 trillion, beating old rivals such as Google and Microsoft. The Cupertino-based tech giant is known for manufacturing a wide range of iconic consumer electronics such as the iPhone, iPad, computer software like Mac OS, and iOS, and online services like Apple Music. Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne (Dormehl 2018), Apple now operates 492 stores across 19 countries worldwide (Dunn 2017).
In 2017, Apple made annual revenue totaling $229.23billion up from $215.64billion in 2016 (Richter 2018) with a profit of $48.35billion up from $45.69billion in 2016 (Annual Report and Form 10K 2017). Apple’s three major markets include USA, UK, and China with a market share of 45%, 37%, and 17.4% market share respectively ahead of major competitors, Samsung with a market share of 29.5% in the USA, 35% in the UK and 2.2% in China.
In the following section, we examine how Porter's five forces of competition have shaped the global smartphone industry, leading to the commoditization of smartphones at the low end of the market and the counter strategies Apple has devised in the battle against this increased commoditization and powerful low-cost rivals.