Apple’s strategy

Introduction:

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc is thinking deeply about reasons for medio core
performance of company in terms of sales of smart phones. He is wondering about the failure
of company’s strategy which was working perfectly fine till 2015.Being and employee of Apple
since 1998 he has seen his company making wonders all these years.

Sitting in his corporate office located in Cupertino, USA, he is going through the
different models of phones launched by company and stories behind those revolutionary
products. Thinking deeply about the competition from Chinese and Korean players who grew
at rapid rate to compete Apple in premium segment.

Being a smart phone designer Apple never had competition in premium segment. But
things got changed a lot during recent times which made apple to re think about its strategy.
All these years company enjoyed monopoly market in premium smartphone segment. Apple’s
products are effective and efficient too, which is rare phenomenon in smartphone industry.
Chinese and Korean players started producing premium smart phones leveraging the growth
in recent technology. These products equally competitive to Apple’s revolutionary products
at reduced pricing.

Tim Cook, before becoming CEO of company used to take care of supply chain of Apple
Inc across globe. He is instrumental in devising strategy to produce Apple’s product at lowest
cost. He always believed that any product/service can be both effective and efficient provided
huge demand is the market.

While his team is busy organizing event in which Apple is planning to launch its
upcoming line up of smart phones, Tim is going through the upcoming of smartphones of its
competitors and featured offered by them. This is first time, Apple is deeply mulling about
competing companies during its long journey. Company had a bad experience from last year
product launch which disappointed Tim. He believed that this time it is going to be different.

Smartphone Industry:

In 1992, IBM has come up with a revolutionary product which had more capabilities
than a regular feature phone. This smartphone was named as the Simon Personal
Communicator. The device had many of the modern elements of current smartphones.
Highlights include Touch screen, Email, Fax, Notes and Calendar Apps and other widgets that
would become widespread decades later While it was a bold entry into the market. The Simon
was advanced for its time, but has nothing on the smartphones of today. It only had a small
screen and a one-hour battery life.
Apple Entry:

Apple Computers, Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
For more than 30 years , Apple Computer played key role in manufacturing of personal
computers. After introducing iPod music player in 2001 and iTunes Music Store in 2003, Apple
established as a leader in the consumer electronics and media sales industries. After this
phenomenal change Apple dropped "Computer" from the company's name in 2007.

After transforming people’s life using portable technology with iPod Apple has set up
stage to unveil their latest device in 2007. Company came up with its smartphone (iphone-1st
generation) in the year 2007 which is a grand success in smartphone market. The iPhone was
taunted as one of the most advanced smartphones in the market had. Apple sold 1.4
million iPhones units in 2007, and the device exploded to 11.6 million units sold in 2008. Its
extended battery life played a key role in success of product (8 hours of talk time and 250
hours on standby). The operating system of iPhone (iOS) made it consumer-friendly device,
particularly for daily use.

In the sub sequent years it came up with upgraded models of iPhone and created huge
disruption in premium segment of smartphone industry. Before the explosion of smartphone
market in 2015, 84% of Americans said they couldn't go a day without their phone.

Samsung entry:

Samsung, a Korea based company founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938. Over the next
three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance,
securities, and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in 1960s. Since 1990,
Samsung has augmented its global activities in electronics, particularly in mobile phones and
semiconductors. These segments have become its most important source of income. As of
2017, Samsung has the 6th highest global brand value.

Samsung came up with its first phone in the year 1988 naming SH-100 in Korean
market. Market perceived this as medio core product. In 1998, Samsung came up another
product SGH-600 which got introduced in European market for first time. It has done
comparatively well compared to its previous product.

Samsung Galaxy – the next big thing.

In 2009, Samsung came up with its first premium segment smartphone, Samsung Galaxy. This
has put Samsung at the forefront of people’s minds when it came to Android (Open source
mobile platform).

After success of Galaxy(1st Generation), Samsung came up with line of Galaxy product
targeting premium segment audience. These Smartphones are based on android platform
which is a major rival of iPhone platform.
Huawei Entry:

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a China based multinational networking and

telecommunications equipment company. Huawei is the largest telecommunications
equipment manufacturer in the world.

The company was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, an ex-military officer. The main mission
of the company was to provide consulting and operations services to most of the enterprises
across the world. The company has invested huge amount in R&D and engaged 46% of the
employees in research & development.

In July 2003, Huawei established its handset division in 2004, Huawei came up with its
first phone same year naming C300. The U626 was Huawei's first 3G phone in 2005 and in
2006. In December 2013, Huawei introduced Honor as a subsidiary independent brand in
China to target budget friendly customers. Huawei continued to launch flagship devices (P
Series) to target premium customers and became 2nd largest manufacturer of smartphone
surpassing apple in 2018.