Paper Example on Business Level Strategies of Apple

Introduction

The primary business level strategy at Apple Inc. is innovation. This business level strategy does not only means creating new products, but it also involves improving the existing products. The organization management does not rely on the revenues driven by the new products, but they consolidate and improve on the existing line. One such example is the new iPad models that focus on enhancing resolution and capacity and reduction of their sizes. At the same time, the new iPhone models concentrate on improvement and innovation within the earlier versions. The innovation also highlights on the software application that the Apple products use. The App store together with other applications that they sell, Apple Inc. has been driving innovation to match the needs of the consumers (Harrison & St, 2010). The innovation aspect has been fundamental in achieving sales revenue and increasing their market share across the globe.

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The business level strategy also focuses on diversification which, moves on two vectors: price and quality. Because of the two dimensions, the consumers have perceived Apple products as of better quality, and this has come in part, from the fact that the prices are higher than the existing products in the market. This marketing strategy is, therefore, expected to support the approach utilized by Apple in the long term and bring out superior quality. Another essential aspect of differentiation is product design whereby the products are always innovating in providing the consumers with products that are easy to use, are more presentable and are acceptable by a large number of users. The MacBook Pro, for instance, are sleeker, lighter and provides superior technological features as compared to other products in the market. The design differentiation also adds some aspects of class within the society.

Another business level strategy is the focus on the digital music environment. Some of their products such as iMovie and iTunes provide supportive tools behind the hardware that utilize music that they sell. This concept was well correlated and allowed consumers to use applications like iTunes to feed music of their preference into their Apple machines. On top of this, it can be concluded that the applications and the Apple products are exclusive and restrictive. This means that other products cannot function with Apple instruments hence increasing the unique factor in the business environment.

The company has focused on expanding their retail and online stores together with the third party distributors to reach a larger consumer base and offer them with high-quality services and after-sale service. As part of the business strategy, the aim is to expand the platform and deliver third-party digital content and applications through their commercial platform (iTunes). Subsequently, the company has incorporated the advanced features to the products and services to provide a competitive advantage over the competitors and dominate the market share. The business level strategies are highly efficient and fundamental towards the realization of the long-term business goals of Apple Inc. They have helped establish the foundation that allows the company innovate new products and improve consumer loyalty for the product hardware and solutions. Diversification is the best business model since it creates a quality perception in the minds of the consumers and this facilitates sales revenue and increases market share.

Corporate Level Strategy

The company's corporate level strategy compare to others on numerous levels, and all the products produced utilizes parallel design techniques. The techniques are applicable to many other devices without the change of format. The Corporation is one of the few technology-based firms that have retail stores distributed across the globe. The benefit the comes with the physical retail stores and the online stores are that the consumers can make their purchases easier. The differential approach has been linked to the corporation's position in the market and translates to the portfolio of the product (Lashinsky, 2012). The differentiation covers diverse consumer interests from laptops to iPhones, from music to different types of software applications. The integration of product to Apple portfolio is another corporate level strategy. These applications can operate on all Apple machines, and for this reason, the devices can be interconnected. MacBook can be interconnected with an iPad or iPhone. This integration enables users to interact with the Apple products in their day to day activities. The fact that everything can be bundled up creates fundamental scale economies and supports the brand on which the business idea is built. Since the business competes in numerous markets across the globe, it is difficult to identify the main competitor.

Since Apple Inc. operates in numerous markets, focusing on a single market such as the computer network points the increasing competition that comes from dominant Asian firms such as Asus, Sony or Samsung. Each of the companies competes in different market segments with Apple Inc. using various different instruments. Samsung, for instance, competes on price while Sony competes with Apple on product quality and design. Sony has over the years focused on producing sleek computers and mobile phones, with almost similar designs as Apple products. This has worked in part to win some existing consumers and help Sony increase their market share. On the pricing aspect, Samsung has produced products with significantly lower prices and almost similar features as Apple Inc. Products. Evaluation of Apple and Samsung prices reveals that Apple products are double a single Samsung product (Lashinsky, 2012). Nevertheless, the competing products are still far behind Apple's when it comes to quality and customer service.

The diversification corporate level strategy is used to enter new business in the event that the products correlate in some way to another the business they are already in but do not have the link to the market. In case the business applies constrained diversification, they only enter the new business or market if it related to their primary resources or competencies. The companies that are based on linked diversification have little rationality to the overall corporate strategy while the organizations that apply the constrained diversification are more focused towards achieving their set goals and objectives. The constrained diversification approach allows organizations to fully exploit the effects of the resources since they are shared. Since inception, Apple Inc. has been using the constrained diversification, applying competencies to develop their software and hardware. Their products allow interconnection and sharing of resources between businesses. The ability to share information between business, therefore, creates economies of scale which ultimately leads to cost saving. In my opinion, the diversification corporate level strategy fits into Apple mission and vision since it covers diverse needs of the consumers and therefore, high market share. iTunes aims at making the major types of media applicable to their devices and available while iPad is positioned as a reading device.

Competitive Environment

As a technology related firm, there is a need to create the best product, utilizing the most innovative ideas from the employees to design products that can be competitive in the market. Apple Inc. has been in the technology business for more than 25 years due to the fact that it has remained competitive in the market. Nevertheless, there is need to deal with the upcoming and existing companies to maintain a competitive advantage and high-profit revenues. This can be done by focusing on the manufacturing strategies and bring enhancement to the products and quality of work.

The main competitor is Samsung which is known for introducing numerous variants of smartphones but lacks the thought and time to produce high-quality products. Because of this, there are numerous technical and quality issues which, makes it hard to overtake Apple in terms of profit share and sales revenue. Apple Inc. is expected to increase their margins through the production of high-quality products and innovative ideas from the consumers which are incorporated into the final product.

Samsung doesn't focus on quality and produces a variety of products to increase their sales revenue. Ideally, there is a belief that this is the most appropriate strategy for Samsung as it tries to appeal to high end and the low-end markets. Most of their products range from $300 to $700 and are released into the market quickly giving the consumers limited time to explore the phones before an upgrade is launched into the market. Apple is expensive as compared to Samsung but it gives their consumers time to look forward to the new products. At the same time, it lowers the prices of old version models by $100 making the products more affordable.

Whether the Choice from Question 3 Would Differ In Slow-Cycle and Fast-Cycle Markets

The choice for question 3 would be the same in slow-cycle and fast-cycle market. When Apple continuously focuses on the consumers and their needs, there is a high probability that it will remain competitive in the market. Producing products that are appealing to the end consumers is expected to increase their profit revenues in the coming years (Hunter, 2016). Apple doesn't need to innovate products after every six months to dominate the market. Through focusing on what the consumers need, it is expected to continuously design products that almost match the needs of the consumers.

Consumers have a high preference for Apple because it meets their needs. The company has over the years produced products that the consumers may want to associate with and at the same time are user-friendly. User-friendly products is another unique attribute that Apple Inc. has focused which, has been fundamental towards the establishment of the competitive advantage. Apple also offers exceptional customers service to their customers making their buying experience memorable. According to Time Magazine, when a client visits an Apple store, he is greeted by one of their staff. Instead of asking how to assist or help, the sales representative asks "what would you like to do today." In this case, they touch into the heart of the technology user through the question which, relates to their needs (Bajarin, 2012).

Products are not released into the market unless is something better than the existing in the market. This helps maintain a competitive advantage and gives the corporation sufficient time to launch much better product than the previous.

References

Bajarin, T. (2012). 6 Reasons Apple Is So Successful. TIME. Retrieved from techland.time.com/2012/05/07/six-reasons-why-apple-is-successful/

Harrison, J. S., & St, J. C. H. (2010). Foundations in strategic management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Hunter, P. (2016). The Seven Inconvenient Truths of Business Strategy. Routledge.

Lashinsky, A. (2012). Inside Apple: How America's most admired-and secretive-company really works. New York: Business Plus.