Apple Inc. is a consumer electronics company behind the renowned smartphone brand, iPhone. The iPhone found its way into a saturated cellular market which was characterized with massive competition. Despite, the fears of market entry, iPhone has managed to cut a slot for itself as a true smartphone with the ultimate consumer experience. It has combined innovation by adopting a sleek design, a brilliant touch interface as well as a superior operating system named IOS.
The superiority of the iPhone in all these major aspects made it a cult product. Due to the high brand equity associated with Apple, iPhone retails at high prices with its 1st generation 4G and 5G phones retailing at 499$ and 599$ respectively. The product, too, has been subject to the law of demand and supply “in defining the impact of the availability of the product and the demand of that product has on its pricing” (Collander, 2012). Due to its swelling demand, it has global supply chains based in Asia that see to it its target global consumer-base needs are met.
Apple Inc.’s iPhone main competitor is Samsung which too has an array of mobile phones powered by android operating system. Samsung has managed to produce less costly phones as compared to Apple Inc. which target various market segments. The global android revolution is highly credited to this brand. The competition is, further, heightened by the fact that android operating system is owned by Google which provides it to its global market free of charge
The iPhone smartphone’s target market is, primarily, the upper-middle income earners and, secondarily, students who are in need of a portable multifunctional device. This market segmentation is arrived at through brand equity, innovation and high prices associated with the iPhone series (Apple Incorporated, 2014). The market segmentation is also enhanced by the cult-like loyalty associated with Apple consumers who perceive it as a brand of promise in terms of innovation and design.
References
Collander, D. C. (2012). Microeconomics (9th Ed.). McGraw-Hill Company.
Apple Incorporated. (2014). (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/apple_computer_inc/index.html
