What, Historically, Have Been Apples Competitive Advantages

What, historically, have been Apples competitive advantages? Apple since its inception was driven by mission to bring easy-to-use computers to market. But during Sculley years (1985-1993), Apple targeted low cost computer and forge an alliance with IBM for OS development on Intel platform, both of which didn’t bear any results. Spindler‘s (‘93-‘96) strategy to expand to international market gave short-term results, but did not help Apple in long term. Amelio (‘96-’97) decided to go back to premium price differentiation strategy and invited Steve Jobs to take over as CEO in 1997. Steve jobs restructured company around the original strategy of Apple and turn that into a competitive advantage. Apple’s competitive advantages are its control†¦show more content†¦After Steve Jobs took over in 1997 he led Apple to create niche products for customers. Present company performance figures are proof of success. How sustainable is Apples competitive position in PCs? Steve Jobs laid out his vision for Macintosh computers to be a Digital hub. Apple wanted to target consumers who were living the digital lifestyle. I believe Apple’s competitive advantage is sustainable as long as Apple keeps on innovating and be one step ahead of competitors. Up till now Apple Macintosh computer gives wonderful user experience. Hardware is of top quality, product design is exceptional, OS and applications has right mix of software needed for everyday use, which other operating systems in market do not offer efficiently. It is true that other competitors will catch up, for example Microsoft’s Windows 7 has improved a lot and the improvements is rumored to based on ideologies that are same as of OSX (Mac OS). But Apple will need to innovate continuously to differentiate in terms of quality, user experience and creativity. Given Apple’s history and Steve job’s leadership, Apple’s innovation is expected to continuous. For example, in 2 011 Apple will offer Mac App Store [3], an application store similar to Appstore for iphone, ipod ipad, which may change the way PC industry do business. How sustainable is Apples competitive position in MP3 players? In smartphones? Apple’s competitive advantage in mp3 players and iPhone are its sleekShow MoreRelatedWhat, Historically, Have Been Apples Competitive Advantages?1371 Words   |  6 PagesAPPLE INC. 1. What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantages? Apple pursues a differentiation strategy since it started in 1976. Only one time they offered a computer aiming for the mass market, but soon came back to their differentiation strategy. This differentiation strategy was at one point supported by a strong promotion campaign, with the goal of to ‘differentiate the Macintosh amid intense competition in the PC industry. 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