Introduction
Apple is a fortune 500 company with a world-class reputation. However, many obstacles stand on their way to a more prosperous future.
Major failures
To begin with, environmental concerns from its use of toxic minerals like Mercury and Lead form the most important shortfalls of the Apple Company. The company has on several occasions been accused of not being keen at recycling its old products leading to environmental degradation. However, the company’s policy is very silent on waste recycling and even internal customers and external customers, as well as shareholders, have not been informed about the desired greener initiatives of the firm. Additionally, it is worth noting that there are no uniform means of verifying recycling initiatives within the communication industry itself (A greener Apple, 2012).
Secondly, the complexity of Apple’s supply chain and its poor forecasting of customers’ demands is another area of concern. For instance, in 1995, the company tried to enforce a conservative inventory strategy to limit itself from being pressed with excess stock for the Macs PC. This resulted in massive market share losses with orders backlogging to an estimated $ 1 billion, which the company could not supply (Supply chain digest, 2006).
Thirdly, there is overdependence on external suppliers’ efficiency for most of its important raw materials and parts. For example, when parts suppliers’ delivery complications developed in 1995, the company could not fulfill its customers’ demands. This resulted in a major blow during the festive season which led to increased lawsuits by stakeholders, sacking of the Chief Executive Officer, which led to a dramatic fall in market share prices (Supply chain digest, 2006).
Fourthly, there is a potential failure due to the wrong pricing strategy of products. For instance, Apple Lisa, the introductory price was $10,000 in 1983. Even though it was an impressive innovation, the target customers could not afford it. Within only two years, the product was already replaced in the market without recovering its investment cost (Digital trends, 2012).
The fifth concern is the unreliability of Apple’s products’ quality. For instance, when Apple III was introduced in 1980, the company had to replace almost 14000 units as they did not have in-built fans, thereby cramping interior chips. In response, the company redesigned and re-priced this product but customers had already developed a negative attitude (Digital trends, 2012). Another example was the Pippin introduced in 1995. It was also considered unaffordable and problematic, yet double priced compared to competitors’ game consoles from Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. This was rated the top wrong step of Apple Company (Digital trends, 2012; Apple annual report, 2011).
Another concern is the performance of Apple products. For example, the Apple USB mouse had a poor grip, represented a blurred button, and therefore suffered from quality control defects. The mouse did not perform as was expected concerning its price. More so, there was the power Mac G4 cube which was devoid of a cooling fan and was outdated within a year of introduction. Even the iPod Hi-Fi lacked an in-built radio and a holding strap and therefore could not withstand market criticisms (Digital trends, 2012).
Finally, most Apple products lacked proper design and had limited product features. For example, Apple Television was criticized for having limited storage capacity. In 2007, the 40 GB hard drive installed in the Apple television was considered too small compared to its original pricing of the price of $ 229. In addition, the poor framework of Copland reduced its compatibility modes, thereby resulting in numerous errors (Digital trends, 2012).
References
- Apple annual report, (2011). Apple Inc.: Form 10K.
- Apple Inc., (2012). A greener Apple.
- Digital trends, (2012). Apple’s worst products and biggest failures.
- Supply chain digest, (2006). The 11 greatest supply chain disasters, 2006.