The post 2000 period for Apple Inc
Apple’s phenomenal Success
Apple’s phenomenal success can be attributed to the introduction of innovative products such as iPhone, iPod, and iPad. The introduction of these innovative products prompted customers to perceive the company as an exception, thus increasing its market power.
In addition, the expansion of its market segment and operations into emerging economies contributed to the increment in the company’s revenues with customers in China being four times more as compared their US counterparts.
With the innovative improvements, Apple countered competition and widened its market segment by maintaining approximately 80% tablet computer market.
How company identified and capitalized on market trends
According to Adeniyi (2007), Apple made significant investment in market research for comprehensive understanding of the potential to capitalize on profitable trends. Steve Jobs identified trends such as digital consumerism and the commoditization of the PC industry.
Through such trends, Jobs visualized and produced products that were in line with the consumer need.
Emerging trends forced Apple to venture into the production and sale of integrated products to counter the completion in the PC sector. Integrated products incorporate multiple proprietary components that work together in cohesion.
With such products, the responsible company has the authority to control the product’s software and hardware, unlike in products whose ownership of hardware and software is different (Rust, Zeithaml & Lemon 2004). With the competition from Microsoft, Jobs shifted to vertical integration.
Through vertical integration, Apple produced Macbook Air and Macbook Pro, thus compelling consumers to appreciating the company’s high value performance in computer.
From this analysis, it is evident that Apple, capitalized on market research and strategic vision for the company to identity and capitalize on the emerging trends.
Global success, competition and growth of market segments
With the stiff competition in the global market, customers focus on products that suit their needs, irrespective of their prices (Bellin & Pham, 2007). Jobs focused on innovativeness to make quality products that provided best value to customers.
Kazmi and Azhar (2008) posit that innovators predict the future of the market and capitalize on products that depict high success rate. The Apple’s management observed changing trends in the market, and acted to embrace the changes for profitability.
Moreover, the Apple’s expansion into emerging economies such as China played a significant role through which the company achieved global success (Schermerhorn et al. 2011).
With the innovations applied by Jobs, most competitors to the Apple lost their market share. For example, Motorola and Nokia lost their popularity and ended up being purchased by Google and Microsoft respectively.
Google and Microsoft also failed to match with the competition posed by the Apple as the two companies lost track of their customers. The PC market segment grew due to Apple’s strategies. The company also produced high quality communication devices such as iPhone and iPad, thus revolutionizing the electronics industry.
Steve Jobs’ management style, Apple’s culture and changes introduced by Tim Cook
Management styles entail different ways through which leaders make decisions concerning the organization and relationship with the subordinate employees (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson 2012). Researchers highlight different management styles that include democratic autocratic and paternalistic (McLaurin 2006).
The film, Jobs, highlights Steve Jobs as an unconventional leader whose management style was not based on the theoretical academic knowledge (McCollum 2013).
Such sentiment is evident from the film’s portrayal of Jobs as a college dropout, who managed to establish a successful electronics company in partnership with Steve Wozniak starring as Josh Gad. The film begins with Kutcher introducing an iPod in one of the Apple’s meetings.
Such a move reveals Jobs’ innovative nature as characterized by the introduction of high quality products. Jobs’ innovativeness accounts for the Apple’s inventions that led to the creation of high quality products, thus contributing to its competitiveness in this sector (Linstead, Fulop & Lilley 2009).
Furthermore, through innovativeness, Jobs demanded excellence from employees, hence the ability to articulate his vision for the company. For example, from the film, Jobs cannot work with employees who fail to support him, and this aspect forced some other companies such as Macintosh to drop him from their team.
Moreover, in his quest for control different business aspects in a bid to achieve perfection, Jobs was in a position to introduce positive changes at Apple. From the film, Jobs’ resilience is portrayed by his ability to solicit funds from other sources despite the many failed attempts (McCollum 2013).
Moreover, Jobs was ready to learn from hard situations. For example, after being forced out of the Apple, Jobs depicted his ability to assume new challenges when he purchased Pixar and transformed the company to a leader in the animation industry (Conger & Rabindra, 2008).
Apple’s culture was characterized by intense work ethics that motivated employees to be committed to deadlines. However, it was fun working for Apple as the environment was relaxed and casual, yet demanding.
With the adoption of result-driven approach, Apple’s structures were neither formal nor hierarchical, thus paving way for creativity among employees (Ployhart 2012). Nevertheless, employees were required to adhere to secrecy, which was infused from the start.
However, Apple had exemplary strategy to facilitate social responsibility and managerial ethics. Apart from adopting a positive policy that focused on employee development, the company was committed to producing safe products for the consumers through environmentally friendly processes (Bellin & Oham 2007).
Apple’s culture was closed as it involved adherence to secrecy; however, under Tim Cook’s leadership, the company adopted a profound yet simple open culture. Cook ensured that he fostered teamwork within Apple and appreciated employees publicly.
Through public recognition of the team performance and the employees’ commitment to the company, Cook promoted the aspect of open culture. In addition, he publicly criticized some of the Steve Jobs’ malpractices such as the documented cases of bullying (Pontefract 2014).
Apple’s current market position
According to the statistics released by Forbes in 2014, Apple maintained a lead in the smart phone market by scoping approximately 41.4% of the market share for the first quarter of the 2014 financial year (Jones 2014). However, this proportion depicted a decline from the previous financial year.
At the end of the fourth quarter of the financial year, Apple had lost leadership to Samsung by 0.2% (Jones 2014). Furthermore, Apple’s decline in market share was caused by a decrement in demand for its products, hence causing decreased margins (IDC 2014).
From this analysis, it is evident that Apple is losing its competitiveness as it has failed to defend its market position. Apart from competition, other factors that can lead to such a decline include management challenges that contribute to the increment in the company’s expenses (Drucker 2012).
In the course of producing sophisticated products, Apple has maintained the utilization of sophisticated technology that proves to be costly.
The cost of production and profit margin are taken into consideration during pricing, hence accounting for the extremely higher prices of Apple’s products as compared to those of the competitors (Avery & Ryan 2002).
Such a move characterizes the Apple’s discrimination against the low-income earners as it focuses on high-income earners’ market segment. With the rising competition in the electronics segment and increment in the rate of creativity, Android will not continue to expand its dominance in the smart phone operating systems.
With the competition from rising companies such as Huawei, Apple is deemed to lose its leadership in the global market. Currently, Huawei focuses on midrange and high-end smart phones, as opposed to Apple, which specializes in the high-end products only (IDC 2014).
New product development at Apple
Various reasons can account for the Apple’s move to launch its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as it anticipates to launch its smart watch. First, the apparels industry is undergoing significant evolution in the contemporary times.
The majority people are shifting their focus to accessorizing their apparels with gadgets that match with a person’s taste and value as depicted through dressing. Additionally, Apple has taken this direction to counter competition in the market as the company tries to remain ahead of other companies in the market.
However, imitating what other companies are doing in a bid to counter competition entails playing catch up and this competitive strategy can ruin an organization significantly (Samson & Daft 2009).
If I were the Apple’s CEO, I would focus on market research and invest in research and development to come up with products that do not become obsolete within short periods (DuBrin 2009). It is possible for Apple to regain its reputation as the market innovative as opposed to being a follower.
Such developments can be possible by subjecting employees to extensive research, training, and reintroducing performance-based approach (Rust, Zeithaml & Lemon 2004). Considering large technology companies, my first choice for employment would be Samsung.
Samsung has grown to overtake Apple in the electronics market segment within very short periods. Furthermore, the company targets high, middle, and low-income earners, while providing quality products at the same time.
Reference List
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