Introduction
The future prosperity of any company depends on its ability to adapt the culture of innovation in its employees. With the scientific revolution, technology keeps on changing in it is only through innovation that a company can ensure that its products remain relevant in the competitive market.
Innovation has been the fuel driving the success of Apple Software Company. Under the leadership of Steve Job, this company has been able to introduce in the telecommunication industry new software. This in turn has increased the company’s returns in terms of profits.
Apple has been ranked among the top most well performing telecommunication companies in the world due to its innovation culture. Taking from the current stability of Apple as a company, it is easy to conclude that the future of this company is bright. This paper will discuss Apple software with the aim of predicting the future of this company. Much attention will be paid to the innovative culture of apple as a technologically oriented company (Michael 2010).
Nature of the company
Founded by Steve Jobs in 1976, Apple this company introduced the first personal computer in technology the market. Right from the beginning, Apply has been making remarkable changes in the computer technology, which has in turn resulted to a rapid growth of both the computer technology and the company.
The success of Apple as a company has been attributed to the innovative nature of the company in producing quality brands for their customers. This company is well known for its coming up with new and unique products. This has made Apple enjoy great popularity in the world market that has enabled it to challenge its competitors in the market. Apply has specialized in the ever changing technology industry.
It is among the top producers of mobile phones and laptops among other technological gadgets with Dell, HP and Acer being its main competitors. It is worth noting the high entry barrier created by the standardization of the PC component that gives Apple and its competitors a remarkable degree of monopoly.
As noted by Bartholomew (2010), any new player interested in this market is forced to have a differentiated strategy from that of the existing companies. Apple also enjoys the benefits of early entry in the market and the high learning curve that makes customers take a lot of time before they are accustomed with new products.
Among the challenges facing Apple is on how to come up with highly innovative products in order to survive the stiff competition in the market. Presently, this company enjoys a gross margin of over 35% which exceeds that of Dell, a close competitor by 16% Bartholomew (2010).
The innovation strategy of Apple is guided by the company’s strategic objectives. For instance, Apple aims at satisfying the needs of customers looking for unique technological gadgets. The demands by these “techno savvy” consumers have led to the company developing a wide rage of products ranging from personal computers (Mac book), iphones and ipods.
These products have been highly differentiated to serve customers’ desires. Apply has been able to achieve the success it has achieved so far through its identification of consumers’ demands and ensuring that it is among the first companies to meet these demands.
The trendy behavior of the youth has particularly influenced the innovativeness of Apple to come up with new items in the market. For this group of customers, fashion is their desire and this has been well addressed by the ever emerging new products by Apply (Merrion 2009).
Innovation analysis
Apply as technological gadgets providing company has been able to differentiate its products from those of other operators in the already flooded market through innovation. The products of Apple are designed with high standards application to meet the current market demand.
This is evidenced by the music potential of apple’s iPod and iPhone, which are mostly preferred by the younger generation. Despite the high standards of Apple’s products, the company has been able to strategically differentiate the prices for its products from that of other operators in the market. For instance, Apple provides computers and other entertainment gadgets at low prices (Stephen 2011).
Through innovation, Apple has remained among the top world wide Electronics providers and has shaped the image of PC manufacturing and Music provision. This has been necessitated by the unique resources and differentiated managerial strategies adapted by the company.
As noted by Burrows (2010), Apple offers the best designated hardware and unique software in its products. A common feature among Apple’s products is the plug and play solutions. This enables the user of the products to play a variety of refreshing games in their phones and computers. The company’s invention of the iPod was a major boost to its popularity in the market. According to Burrows (2010), iPod is the Icon of the digital age (Kirkpatrick 2011).
From the beginning, Apple has been motivated to differentiate its products from those of other players in the market. This can be attributed to the company’s commitment to creating value to its customers. It is this commitment that has seen apple develop unique products such as the iPhone and iPod which despite having a sustainable competitive advantage in the market, has been threatened by imitation.
This company has been able to withstand the changing challenges associated with technology through innovation. This has in turn enabled the company to command a considerable premium in the market and gain high returns. As noted by Zachary, G. P.& Stephen, K. Y.(2011), the success of Apply can be attributed to the company’s ability to differentiate its technologically superior products from those of other operators in the market by applying innovative skills.
Technology and Product Design
The success of Apple according to Frieberger, P. & Michael S. (2010) depends on the company’s ability to come up with new technology and product design in the market.
This has not only won the confidence of customers towards buying the company’s products but also contributed to the growth of the company. The urge to develop the existing products and come up with new products has led to Apple launching products such as iPod, iPhone, iTune and iWorks (Burrows 2010).
This clearly indicates how this company has been able to perfect the chain of its activities in innovation. Relying on the innovative mind of Steve Jobs among other employees, Apple has taken the advantage of developing its products independently from scratch to finished products. The competitive employees of Apple enable the company to develop its own ideas about its products. These ideas are then designed through the company’s own resources, manufactured and marketed without outsourcing from other companies.
The ability of this company to develop its own hardware and software is a major boost to the company’s production process. The company supremacy of Apple to come up with outstanding products is demonstrated by its integrated distinctive styling of the multi-colored translucent iMac.
The redefined operations of the iPod through a 64-bit architecture are another example of how innovation has helped Apple to design outstanding products.
These technologicaklly superior products have helped Apple develop a love affair with their customers, thereby boosting the growth of the company. The company continues to aggressively pursue software and hardware updates. This has been demonstrated by the company’s commitment to develop software that can run Windows XP on its new iMac product (Bartholomew 2010).
The strength of Apply as indicated earlier in this paper can be attributed to the company’s commitment to innovation. This has proved to be very essential to the company’s past and is expected to play a significant role in its future.
The success of Apple to invent new products in the past and the potential of this company to grow in the future that has attracted the partnership with other companies. For instance, Apple has successfully made alliance with AT&T which is expected to help Apple improve the technology of its iPhone.
Similarly, the success of this company has enabled it to secure partnership with Google and You Tube with the aim of including in its iPhone features such as mapping, high speed search and videos. As noted by Kirkpatrick (2011), these partnerships will differentiate Apple’s products still further and add value to its customers.
To remain at the top of technology gadgets provision industry, Apple is committed to employing the latest technology and providing its customers with sleek products designed to meet their specific needs. Honoring this commitment ensures a bright future for the company in terms of growth. The company is currently committed to improving the compatibility f its products which has been a major challenge.
As indicated by the above discussion, Apple has been able to rise to its present status through innovation and differentiation of its products from those of other operators in the competitive market. The employees of this company have been committed to coming up with new technological ideas to serve the specific needs of the company’s customers.
Much of these ideas are developments of existing ones. A close analysis of Apple’s products indicates that each new product is a development of an existing one. This culture of improving products with each innovation has seen Apple grow significantly in the past. It has also attracted other companies such as Google and You Tube to form partnerships with Apple.
These partnerships added to the innovative culture of Apple are expected to improve the company’s products significantly, thus contributing its future growth. According to Merrion (2009), partnering with Google and You Tube will win the trust of Apple’s customers in purchasing the company’s products. As a result, the company will increase its profits from the increased sale of its products.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is clear that innovation has been the core factor behind the growth and prosperity f Apple as a company. This strategy has been used by the company to differentiate its products from those of other operators in the market.
The innovative culture of Apple has led to the production of outstanding products such ass iPod, iMac and iPhone, winning the confidence of customers and attracting other companies to forming alliances with Apple. This culture of innovation added to the benefits expected from forming alliances with other companies assures Apple growth in future.
References
Bartholomew, D. (2010). What’s Really Driving Apple’s Recovery. Industry Week, March 15, p12.
Burrows, P. (2010). Apple May Be Holding Back the Music Biz,” Business Week, December 19, p 23.
Frieberger, P. & Michael S. (2010). Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, Berkeley, Calif.: Osborne-McGraw-Hill
Kirkpatrick, D. (2011). The Second Coming of Apple, Fortune, November 9, p. 86.
Merrion, P. (2009), Inventor of Music Player Takes a Bite Out of Apple, Crain’s Chicago Business, November 28, p. 45.
Zachary, G. P.& Stephen, K. Y.(2011). Apple Moves Its Microsoft Battle to the Marketplace, Wall Street Journal, April 16, p.27.