In addition, the company sells a variety of third party phone, pad, pod, and Mac compatible products, including application software and various accessories through its online and retail stores. The company sells to consumers, small and midsized businesses, educational establishments, and government entities. As of 201 5, Apple employs 92,600 people worldwide. 7 Strengths Advertising: One of Apple’s biggest strengths is its marketing and advertising capabilities, which increase brand awareness and create a greater demand for company products.
Apple’s annual advertising budget reached $1. 2 billion in 2014, more than doubling their $501 million budget of 2009. 6 Despite their increased budget, it is not large when being compared to that of its competitors. In 2013, Apple spent only 0. 4% of total sales on advertising compared to Samsung 1 . 75% of total sales spent. 5 The same situation is reflected in the company’s brand valuation growth. Both Forbes and Interbrain listed Apple as the most valuable brand in the world in 2014, and valued the company at $124. 2 billion and $118. 8 billion. Strong marketing and advertising capabilities have given Apple the competitive advantage that no other company can match. Other strengths include but are not limited to, strategic agreements with well know mobile carriers such as T-Mobile and AT, their utilization of user friendly design elements for both hardware and software, incredible brand loyalty, universally accredited and world-wide acceptance, and it’s astonishing revenue $182. 795 billion (2014) and profit $39. 510 billion (2014). 7 Weaknesses Premium Pricing: Apple’s computing devices are typically among the pricier ones in the market.
This luxury positioning has made it difficult for Apple to make big inroads overseas in countries where the pressures on ordinary consumers are considerable. It also makes the company vulnerable to price competition, not Just from South Koreans Samsung but from up-and-coming company’s like China’s Axiom, which has grown substantially over the past few years. Innovation decline and lack of Soot Analysis Final Project By benefiting part of the century. The leadership qualities that Steve Jobs possessed in his time with apple worked as both a marketing and advertising tool in itself.
Innovation appears to be taking a backseat to business sense at Apple and the new CEO Tim Cook lacks many of those cutting edge success orientated qualities of his predecessor. 3 In the coming years, Apple must address the fact that its best years could be behind them. Opportunities Market-Share Growth: Despite Apples historic growth over the past several years, it till has room to extend its share of the traditional computing space. It currently holds almost 20% of the global PC/tablet pie but the number will be increasing in the years ahead as the company gains ground in China and the rest of the Asia/Pacific region.
The Company’s recent distribution agreement with China Mobile will provide opportunities for growth inside a network of roughly 760 million subscribers. 2 Purchase of Digital Content and Third-Party Applications: The 2013 purchase of Beats Electronics and its most recent 201 5 purchase of Line Computational Imaging should create systematic improvements for Apple in the coming years. The acquisition of Beats makes strategic sense. The up-and-coming music properties will likely complement Apple’s free tunes radio service.
The high end headphone line and streaming music service founded by respected music industry veterans Jimmy Loving and Dry. Dire has a highly creative management team. This should help Apple maintain its status as the sectors leading innovator. Line an Israeli camera company makes multi-lens cameras for laptops, tablets, and smart phones that can take pictures almost as high-quality as those taken by pricier single-lens reflex (SSL) cameras. Additionally, Links cameras are about half the thickness of the cameras usually found in smart phones and tablets.
Threats Competition: The main threat to every tech outfit. Considering the relentless product cycles, the rapid move toward contamination in the sector and the fickle nature of today’s consumers make this threat very real. As Apple is already susceptible to price discounting by low-cost rivals, it is imperative that the company continues to make strides in the cutting edge innovation sector. Gross Margin Pressures: With competition being a factor and the resulting loss of pricing power, product shortages ND rising component prices, Apple is faced with an unfavorable mix of price and product problems.
