Assignment 4

Week 8 Assignment 3

Sherri Coleman

Strayer University

BUS499 Business Administration Capstone

Dr. Keller

December 3, 2018

Week 8 Assignment 3

Many businesses in the world today have the aim of acquiring profits, gaining returns for shareholders and remaining relevant in the market. Apple Inc. is not an exemption in the quest to be a leader in the business niche where it exists. The company is facing large competition from some established corporations like Samsung and others which are growing at a very faster rate. Failing to have good strategies will make the company obsolete and will be overtaken in the industry. Fortunately, Apple Inc. is aware of the challenge and has put forth the best business level strategy and corporate level strategies which are indicators of each growth even to new and unexploited markets in the world. The strategies of Apple Inc. are clearly illustrated and compared to that of Samsung, its giant competitor and the outcome is that there is hope for retaining the global leadership in technology investments (Piao, & Kleiner, 2015).

Business-Level Strategies

The business-level strategy that is more appealing at Apple Inc. is the product differentiation. Apple through this strategy was able to produce a wide range of products which are almost similar but with minor differences to match the customers’ needs and also the financial capabilities. This made the brand to be very popular because it could serve people of all economic classes and the market increased from only the high-class citizens but also to the middle class and even low-class citizens. Apple has a wider connection and an ear to the customer meaning that all the concerns which will be raised by the customer are handled with utmost care. The research and development team works around the clock to ensure that the kind of products produced is the replica of what the clients want. The best example is the improvement and addition of features to meet clients need (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015). When

the business realized that more people need an app store to access important services, the business corporation launched an app store complete with all the packages needed by the clients all over the globe. The app store was launched in some of the major products and customers could make choices accordingly.

The product differentiation is strongly boosted by the innovation which is the language at Apple Inc. the development of iPad became a huge milestone for the organization. Thousands of songs existed in the database to meet the needs of the customers; innovation made it possible to have a shuffling capability for all the songs present in the system. Through the incorporation of things like iCloud and other beautiful features, customers have had a wide range of choice. The product differentiation is important to the corporation because giving customers a choice is a good way of retaining them. Once a client walks into a stall, they expect to get what they want. Without this strategy, the company would have lost great markets about the middle class and low-class citizens. In a nutshell, product differentiation made the products from Apple Inc. to have a wide range of markets and a continue of the same will make the corporation gain even more markets.

Corporate-Level Strategies

The most lucrative corporate level strategy used by Apple Inc. is the diversification of products and technologies to reach various market niches. All the products at Apple Inc. have adopted high-level diversification whereby many products are produced, and they all relate well to give a good output on the same. The main goal of the strategy is to ensure efficiency in all the products and make the business relevant for a very long period. Through the diversification, smart phones, desktop computers, laptops, TVs and many more electronic devices have been

produced to meet the various needs of the client and at the same time open Apple Inc. to exiting opportunities and offers in the business today.

The Apple ability to diversify the products brought a lot of fame when the music download feature was incorporated into all the Apple products like smart phones, TVs and computers boosted the sales a great deal and made the corporation a global leader in sales. Initially, Apple Inc. was known only for computers, but the diversification strategy made the company to include other digital products, and in the end, the business was able to acquire great markets. The products produced were diverse but at the same time was able to meet the various needs of the customers. Introduction of good smart phones embedded with software like the Gmail makes it easy and efficient for a person to prefer walking with a phone where emails can be read easily compared to the stress of walking with laptops (Khan, Alam, & Alam, 2015). The diversification, therefore, offers a wide growth to the company, and at the end of the day, the more convenient technology will be employed. Customers need nothing but efficiency and reliability. The corporate strategy of diversification is more appropriate in the dynamic market structure where new entries are still in the rise. Diversification hits the nails on the head in assuring quality to customers at all times and the market base for Apple Inc., and it will always be a leader in the market.

Competitive Environment

The technology-based products face large competition from the equal corporation and even businesses that are making entry into the market. In the production of computers, there are competitive corporations like the hp and the Dell corporation who at all times striving to produce machines which are very fast, current research being done to have a product more superior than the coi7 which are underway. In the smart phones and TVs, there are also large corporations like Huawei who are producing the same services. The largest competitor of Apple is the Samsung corporation which is the giant corporations in Korea, and the Asian countries view it as the mother of the struggle to outshine the market dominance of the USA giant Apple. When Samsung Launched the Samsung Galaxy S4, it was a big blow to the giant Apple because the product attracted so many customers and Apple lost a great deal. With a revenue of over $150 billion annually, it remains to be the largest threat in the market niche for Apple, and therefore the strategies have to be unique and sure to make the Apple Inc. survive the huge competition and remain dominant in the market. Few developments, however, made the Apple Inc. more competitive after it won court cases that Samsung had imitated its product and produced products with features imitated from Apple. The winning of the court case gave confidence to the customers that with Apple being the original owner of the ideas, it could be more trusted than Samsung. Samsung also started employing business level and corporate level strategies which made it remain competitive in the market. Apple Inc. has the main competitor as Samsung and care should be taken lest they are overtaken.

Comparison of the business level strategy

The main business-level strategy focus in the Samsung is the product differentiation, even though it sounds the same as the one in the Apple Inc. it is different in that they concentrate more on what the competitors are producing to maintain leadership in the technology niche. The concentrate on a particular niche and ensure that the particular niche is serviced in the most appropriate way possible and that the product matches the benchmark at the time. The strategy means that if the competitor has produced a particular technology to meet a given need in the market, Samsung will do research and either improve or imitate the product features so that it can also gain momentum in the market. The approach of Samsung in conquering the market niche is however disadvantaged because it meets a very narrow target concerning the individual product. Apple Inc. is likely to be more successful in the long term, and this is because the approach it takes is customer oriented and the customers will be pleased more because their specifications in the design are met (Piao, & Kleiner, 2015). The challenge Samsung has is concentrating more on the features and the technological advancements which make them relevant rather than concentrating on what the customer needs. Imitating can miss the context in which a particular app was developed hence losing big in the competitive struggle.

Comparison of the business level strategy

Samsung has a corporate team with also very strong ideas and tactics and the ideas developed brings about a very good corporate level strategy and has the potential of propelling the company to greater heights. The main strategy of Samsung at the corporate level is coming up latest features which will meet the demands of the customer at all times. The strategy is evident by the evolution of Samsung Galaxy phones which keeps on changing at all times. The strategy ensures that the products are always up to date and matches all the needs of the customer. The strategy won a big deal in the market when the Samsung Galaxy S4 was launched. However, the strategy is more likely to fail the company in the long run. Too much innovation and updating are good, but it tends to lead the business into losses. For example, when Samsung galaxy J6 was introduced, it rocked the market and was the talk of the town, however, even before the first stock was completely sold, a newer and much-advanced version were launched. The sales of Samsung Galaxy J6 reduced a great deal. The strategy of Apple Inc. is more likely to win and gain more market because it is mainly concerned with efficiency and reliable services to the customer and with that, customer confidence is guaranteed in the long run. Apple Inc. also involves more options for the customer and also increase its chances of being competitive in the market. For example, if the smart phone market is flooded, apple will be able to gain more from the other sales like laptops which will be more diversified to meet the needs. With fast growing technologies like Techno and Infinix, the Samsung smart phone market may collapse, it could have diversified its operations if it needed to be more relevant in the market in the long run.

Market Cycles

Slow cycle markets are markets which are greatly characterized by low trading volumes and has very few initial public offering in its initial stages. Fast cycle market on the other hands are very complex markets that grow rapidly, and very aggressive strategic decisions need to be made for the business to remain competitive in the market.

Apple Inc. has a competitive advantage in the slow cycle market because its brand name shields it in the competitive advantage and makes it very difficult to imitate. With difficulty in imitation, the company enjoys customer confidence and the market for it will greatly increase without being negatively influenced at all. The features which were incorporated first in the manufacture of Apple phones made it remain competitive in the market (Evans, 2017). When Samsung tried to imitate the same features in its products, it strongly backfired and made the company lose court cases giving Apple much advantage over it. The quality of products produced by Apple maintained their name and protected the company image from imitation.

In the fast cycle market, Samsung can have a bit of advantage compared to Apple Inc. this is because, in the process of producing quality technology to solve a particular product, customers in the very volatile market segment can shift their loyalty to the company that gives them what they need at that particular time. In the short term, Samsung can benefit from the volatile market environment but in the long run, it will be overpowered by Apple Inc. the fast cycle markets deal with unprotected technology, and because Samsung is more aggressive in the technology updates, it will do very in the short term for fast cycle markets (Miranda, & Rey, 2015). The idea of imitating and coming up with a technology to best suit the days need, Samsung will benefit more in the competition.

References

Evans, D. S. (2017) why the Dynamics of Competition for Online Platforms Leads to Sleepless Nights but Not Sleepy Monopolies.

Khan, U. A., Alam, M. N., & Alam, S. (2015). A critical analysis of the internal and external environment of Apple Inc. International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management, 3(6), 955-961.

Miranda-Agrippina, S., & Rey, H. (2015). World asset markets and the global financial cycle (No. w21722). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Piao, M., & Kleiner, B. (2015). Excellence in the Electronics Industry: The Comparison of the Organizational Culture among Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics and Google Inc. Conflict Resolution & Negotiation Journal, 2015(1).

References

Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2013). Strategic management: Concepts and cases: Competiveness and globalization (10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

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Note: You will be graded on the quality of your answers, the logic/organization of the report, your language skills, and your writing skills.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Identify how the six segments of the general environment affect an industry and its firms.

Identify the five forces of competition.

Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm.

Analyze the internal environment of a company for strengths and weaknesses that impact the firm's competitiveness.

Use technology and information resources to research issues in business administration.

Write clearly and concisely about business administration using proper writing mechanics.

NOTE: Strayer uses SafeAssign – an automated plagiarism checker. It is advised that you do your own writing and use external resources (other websites) to support what you have written in your own words.