The big question is why do some companies outdo others within a particular market or industry? This paper shall analyze the sources of sustained competitive advantage of Apple Inc. in essence the document responds to how Apple Inc. has successfully employed quality, efficiency, customer responsiveness and innovation to build the competitive advantage (Hill, Jones and Scilling, 2014).
Apple’s hardware and software- although this is not the only thing that set’s apple apart from other computer electronics companies, Apple got it right early enough and left other industry players behind struggling with differentiation. Apple developed good software and essentially had to develop an equally good hardware worth to run the software. That is the quality aspect of the competitive advantage. Also, this gives Apple control of the hardware and software. This makes Apple devices easier to connect to larger networks making sure the system does indeed work together (Ragnetti, 2011).
Apples approach competition is directly linked to the customers’ responses. While many of the computer companies take pride in introducing new concepts and being first to show and release new products to stores before competitors, Apple is focused on being right so that its products are customer responsive. Apple values the overall consumer experience as opposed to the technical performance of the gadgets (Ragnetti, 2011)
Apple has an efficient approach in launching its products. Rather than launching individual products that generate sales for a short period of time, and then going back to replaces within a short cycle after the sales go down, Apple launches product families that stay for an extended period of time for example iPhones and iPad. These products are priced competitively so that the can generate competitive advertising support and profitability within the long-term launch plans (Ragnetti Andrea, 2011)
iTunes and digital asset management are an innovation that Apple has that could be a strategic tool. Users of Apple products set up iTunes accounts where they provide credit card account information. As of September 2009, there were over 100 million iTunes accounts. Using proper consumer psychology, there is reason to believe that once a consumer trusts a brand to the extent of giving credit card information, he or she may be interested in future purchases as more enhancements on devices continues.
References
Hill, C. W. L., Jones, G. R. & Scilling, M.A. (2014). Strategic Management theory (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Ragnetti Andrea (2011, august, 26). Apple’s Competitive Advantage. [Weblog comment]
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