Apple Inc. 2008 Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Overview of the company – Apple

Apple Corporation Inc. is a multinational company, which is based in America and has been headquartered in California. The company is renowned for its hardware products, which are Mac line of computers, iPhone smart phones, iPod media player and the iPad tablet computers. Along with this, it is known for the consumer electronics products, computer softwares, personal computers and the online services that are offered by the company. The online services that are being offered by the company are the iTunes Store, icloud and the Apple playstore where customers and users can come in shop online. The software version used by the company is called iOS software. The company was founded by Steve Jobs on April 01, 1976 to sell and develop personal computers. The company was made a public limited company in the year 1977 where the name was changed to Apple Computer Inc., however, the name was again changed as Apple Inc. in 2007 (W. Chan, 2004).

Apple is the second largest company in the information technology sector behind Samsung electronics. It is ranked as third largest company in cell phone manufacturing after Samsung and the Nokia. According to Fortune magazine, Apple was declared as the most admired organization in the American market and it continuously won the same award for four consecutive years. In 2013, Apple became the most valuable brand in the world after Coca Cola as declared by Omnicom Group's "Best Global Brands" report.

Apple has its retail stores in 14 countries globally with approximately 425 stores. Apple Inc. has been the largest public traded company in the world by the market capitalization. The total number of permanent employees in the company is approximately 72,800 worldwide, while the number of temporary employees is 3,300 worldwide employees. The total amount of revenue for the company as per the annual report of 2013 showed a figure of $170 billion. In 2013, Apple entered the list of top ten companies on the list of Fortune 500 list with the ranking of 6th place in the list.

Assess their current situation

Apple Inc. has grown rapidly since the birth of the company. It has manufactured number of products globally and locally. The company with such huge expansion in the market has gone various changes in the culture of the company. The company has also transformed its organization structure in the recent past. The reason for all these changes has been entirely because of the increasing competition in the industry. Apple to remain a competent force in the industry has tried to create a balance between various options available from the company in its internal competency. For example, the company Apple has looked to overcome the various organizational changes globally to transform itself as a competitive company (W. Chan, 2004).

The current situation of the company is quite strong with the company having different revenue streams where the company is not dependant on single business to generate revenue for the company. As far as growth in the high end tablet is concerned and market phone market is concerned the growth has actually started to decline globally. However, it is important to understand that the iPhone’s unit sales will remain stable in the coming time as the company Apple has actually maintained a very high retention rate for it smart phone industry. The iPad demand although is decreasing but it will still be enough to support the company in investing at the R&D department for the company to stay as a revenue generating department for the company. Apple’s sales with this strategy can beat the expectations for the company (W. Chan, 2004).

The retention rate of customers has been a major factor or source of inspiration for Apple as they have looked to maintain a good level of satisfaction with each one of them. With the future of the industry driving towards innovation and technically advanced, Apple to remain competitive has to counter the challenges in sales mix to overcome any shortcomings. The ability of Apple to cut the cost has been a key factor in expanding or maintaining higher sales volume in the smart phone business. However, with the intense competition in the industry, Apple management is looking to introduce ideas to reduce the cost and drive earnings to increase future estimates, which are handy for the overall price of the share (Robert, 2000).

Choose which of the three topics below would be most relevant to their current needs

Out of the three options, Apple is more focused with the concept and idea of design thinking. Innovation is powered with the understanding and the observation what people might desire and need, like and dislike. It is basically a form of solution based thinking that actually starts with what is meant to be the desired achievement instead of starting within a certain problem. By focusing on the present situation and the future predictions, the parameters and the problems are resolved skillfully simultaneously (Michale, 2008).............................

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In January 2007, three decades after its incorporation, Apple Computer shed the second word in the title and became Apple, With that move, the company signaled a fundamental shift from its historical status as a supplier of Macintosh personal computer (PC) line. Mac sales remained vital for the future of Apple, but now they are less than half of total revenue. Line of the company in a bid media players, its ITunes online store content and its newly launched iPhone mobile phone business was a large portion of their operations. In early 2008, due to the rapidly increasing sales in these areas and a resurgent sales of Macintosh products, revenues and Apple's stock price has reached record levels. The case is considered the sustainability of current business models of Apple, which is positioned at the same time in the PC industry and consumer electronics. While Apple enjoys a high market share in digital media players and online music sales, it has remained a niche player in the global PC industry. The case examines the history of Apple's strategic moves under the direction of leaders Jobs, Sculley, Spindler, Amelio, and (again) work space, these steps in the context of the structural features of developing the computer industry, and covers the iPhone and iPod business much longer. "Hide
by David B. Yoffie, Michael Slind Source: HBS Premier Case Collection 32 pages. Publication Date: February 29, 2008. Prod. #: 708480-PDF-ENG