Apple Being Engaged in Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Apple Being Engaged in Design - Essay Example †¢ Is world renowned for its pioneering efforts in personal electronic communications devices and systems Apple or "the company" is engaged in design, development and marketing of personal computers, media devices, and portable digital music players. The company also sells a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. The company's portfolio of offerings comprises Macintosh (Mac) computing systems, iPods line of portable digital music and video players, iPhone handsets and iPad portable multimedia and computing devices. The company primarily operates in the US. It is headquartered in Cupertino, California and employs 46,600 employees. (Datamonitor 2011) Slide 3 Industry Analysis Macro-environment Analysis †¢ Political issues o Stigma of big business (SEC scandal) o Tighter policies imposed by gov’t o Different policies by different gov’ts †¢ Economic issues o Global economic crisis o Strong emerging economies Slide 4 Industry Analysis Macro-environment Analysis †¢ Social issues o Growth of social networking o Connectivity push by many countries †¢ Technological issues o International Protection of IPR o Continuous R&D Slide 5 Industry Analysis Macro-environment Analysis †¢ Legal issues o Pursuit of litigation for IPR globally o Dangers of faulty product design †¢ Environmental issues ... Fujitsu, Samsung Electronics, Sony and Toshiba, among others.The company is currently focused on market opportunities related to mobile communication devices including the iPhone.The mobile communications industry is highly competitive with several large, well-funded and experienced competitors. The launch of iPhone spiked the demand for smartphone with touch functionality and other innovative features. This made several players in the mobile phone market, such as Nokia, HTC, RIM, Palm, Samsung and LG Electronics, launch their respective smartphone devices in the market creating significant competition. Unique vision (primarily by Steve Jobs) Apple has been usually viewed along with its charismatic and visionary founder, Mr. Jobs who has always been instrumental in managing the growth of the company and leading it to its current size. Network of interrelated support services (i.e., the APP store) bundled with peripherals Mobile apps are one of the most important factors in driving sa les of smartphones. Apple is the strongest player in the mobile apps market, with approximately 350,000 apps. Its closest competitor, the Android market has 250,000 apps, while Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 has 20,000 and 9,000 apps respectively. The mobile app market is expected to exceed $9 billion by 2014. With its innovative products such as iPhone and iPad, Apple is in a position to increase its share in the growing smartphone and tablet market. Strong horizontal and vertical integration ‘Plug-and-play’ solutions Slide 9 SWOT Analysis (Datamonitor, 2011) Strengths Powerful brand image According to industry sources, Apple is the fourth largest player in the global mobile phone market. The company holds a market share of approximately 5% and trails Nokia, Samsung and LG Electronics,