Business
iPhone Print Proposal
Introduction
Leadership in technology and innovation is what Apple is all about. The mobile device industry was changed with the company raising the bar of the competition for being the most innovative company that offers the best quality products. After 20 years of dormancy in the tech industry, the brand has expanded into one of the biggest names in consumer electronics owed to the monumental success of the iPod followed by iPhone. Today, the brand became consistent with its product offering paired with exceptional customer experience. The product proposal highlights the new Apple service branded as iPrint. Furthermore, the proposal will discuss the strengths of the company and its current products in which the iPrint features will be integrated.
Our Commitment
Apple set out to revolutionize the world through our innovative hardware and software applications. Not too long ago, Apple seized an opportunity that revolutionized the mobile phone industry with the iPhone. We did not stop there. We gave consumers around the world the best personal computing experience with iMac, all in part to a great company that has stood by its mission, the mission to provide simple yet extraordinary products. Always focusing on innovation in technologies where we can make a signification impact (Alexander, 2015).
We display self-honesty when needed to advert hopeless projects from taking form and the courage to change directions when focus is lost. Our strategy of coalescing art and technology has skyrocketed us leaps and bounds past our competitors. We pride ourselves on releasing high-end products while our competitors flood the market with products that hardly fulfill the needs of consumers. The immense attention we put in our products allows us to give honest thought to the quality of our product and really think about the union of art and technology and how do we make that happen. Our customers have come to expect delivery of something new and innovative every year. Figure 1 shows yearly upgrades to the iPhone.
Apple’s iPhone yearly innovations
Timing – Being a first entrant into the market with new technology will give us an edge over competitors with brand recognition. Customers have to be ready for the technology or they will find it difficult to understand and will not diffuse properly through the mass market.
Licensing – How will we protect or acquire the rights of our technology? Will we need legal protection for our hardware or intellectual property? Filling for a patent means, we will have to disclose the nature of our invention to the public. Releasing drawings, plans, and detailed explanations regarding the intent of our technology may lead to more replications from competitors. A bona fide solution would be to submit a trade secret. The difference between a patent and a trade secret is the disclosing of detailed information to the public in return for protection against our intellectual property (Schilling, 2009, p.189).
Pricing – One of the biggest advantages of being a pioneer is the ability to set the market price for new technology. We want to strive to be as marketable as possible, even with pricing, we should not price products at the maximum amount that a customer is willing to pay. By controlling the industry we can indirectly control cost.
Distribution – As a globally recognized brand, we are always aiming for a worldwide distribution through our two primary selling channels. Apple stores establishing worldwide is the best distribution channel for the brand as it maintains the consistency of providing the customers with product support right at the stores. Another important distribution for the brand is the online store where customers with Apple ID can directly purchase products from the Apple website and have the item delivered to the customer’s doorsteps through our trusted courier partners. The secondary distribution channel is through the licensed distributors. In locations where Apple Store has yet been established, we have licensed distributors who are exclusively carrying Apple products and provide Apple Care services.
Marketing – Our success was owed to marketing strategies that make the most impact for the brand. First, we turn the ordinary into extraordinary. It’s the details that matter from the fist look of the products the consumers are able to immediately identify the brand as ours. Differentiation is the key in our product positioning strategy, which means that what is perceived, as a common piece of electronics becomes a truly amazing piece of technology with Apple (Moorman, 2012). We also create an ecosystem that adds more value to our product offering. We believe in consumer marketing that is why we focus our efforts in building customer discovery instead of showing loud advertisements. We do it modestly and out products speaks volume about the brand and leverage on customer experience ensuring that every single Apple product owner is satisfied.
Our Core Technologies
Apple Inc. revitalized itself when we released the iPhone. We had released the beast. The core technology behind the iPhone was years ahead of our competitors. This extra footing makes it even harder for competitors to replicate our technology. Our technology is far superior to anything else on the market. An in depth look at our technology will reinforce how our products are engineered to be the most powerful in the world.
The multi-touch screen feature revolutionized the mobile industry. A user interface that was controlled by using only your fingers to glide through albums, flip through your favorite phots, or zoom in with just a pinch. We have now we added a new touch feature, 3-D touch, which detects a full range of pressure to a microscopic degree. Since we are touching, don’t forget about Touch ID. Touch ID is the first biometric fingerprint used on a mobile phone to unlock your phone and make secured purchases (Apple, n.d.).
We made the most advanced mobile processor chip, the A9. The A9 has 64- bit architecture, the best on the market today, with optimum efficiency and overall performance. Engineered for efficiency so you can do more of what you love, for even longer, the basic technology that underlies this all, Apple’s newest operating system, and iOS9. The iOS9 improvements go all the way to the foundation of the operating system battery life, security, and performancenothing was left out. The most powerful enhancement was around intelligence and proactivity. We gave the user an operating system that will learn their habits and act on that information, opening up apps based on historical movements, guide them through their day where they need to be when they need to be their (MacRumors, n.d.). Product intelligence makes our technology different from the rest because we bring what the customers really wants and continue to explore the ways our technology can further satisfy our customers.
Our Competition
We have such a diverse portfolio of products that we struggle in identifying who are competitors really are. The Mac certainly competes with HP, Toshiba, and Dell. Or maybe it’s with the iPad competing with Amazon or Microsoft. Don’t forget about iCloud, obviously its Google Drive or Dropbox, right? What about the iPhone, is it Google or Samsung, they both eagerly wants to be seen as our competition. As you can see, the list can go on and on.
We have a fierce competition in two major industries, personal computers and smartphones. In 2015 we took home 94% share of the global smartphone profits, sold the only lucrative smart watch and tablet, and we took a huge slice of the music streaming market (Dilger, 2016). In the personal computers industry, we have remained at the top of our competition since the late 70s with Macintosh and Safari operating systems. When you talk about smartphones there is not any real competition, no really, they make up a tiny irrelevant share of the market. Although Google is a household brand, Google-branded devices only make up 0.1 percent of salesIrrelevant! Some would like to say Android gives us head-to-head smartphone competition but lets face itAndroid is not a phone! It is an operating system for phones in much of the same way PC runs Microsoft Windows as their operating system (Bolton, 2011).
Our Customers
Apple customers are innovators and we rely on their loyalty to our products, bringing new ideas into the social network. A great deal of research goes into purchasing behavior to determine to the pricing structure of our products. We rely heavily on them to diffusing our products on the other adopter categories. Every time an iPhone user pulls out his or her phone to show someone a new and exciting feature, that is one more person now exposed, further diffusing our technology through the typology of adopters. We left no one out of our target market, we want to see Apple devices in every demographic from the beginner to premium users. Our products are utilities for fancy designers and super developers. We offer our customers beautifully yet uncomplicated and intuitive products for everyone.
Young children - Apple developers love making fun educational apps for children. Kids can easily handle and maneuver around our devices, again, we make intuitive products. We have made the gaming console mobile.
Adults - We continue to target the iPhone to our adult market. The iPhone has brought so much utility, convenience to our lives. Depositing checks right on your phone with online banking. Never miss that in the moment breathtaking picture of your friends and family. We have brought families closer together with facetime.
Teenagers - We benefit from this market by appealing to their social media and music needs. The iPhone allows them to social media in their pockets. With iMessage, we gave them free text messaging.
Our New Feature Recommendation
Apple focuses on building innovative and beautiful products; every business decision to release new products and features is based on that strategy. We have use this innovate model to bring to you, iPrint. iPrint will allows us to be the first to offer a print media service directly from the camera roll, launching us into a new market, print media.
Apple users love to take pictures with the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPod. Now we are giving them another way to capture the memories they love. iPrint will allow professional grade printing right from the camera roll, delivered right to their door. iPrint will work with iTunes account, eliminating the need to enter any payment or shipping information using the advanced security of Touch ID. With our 12-megapixel-iSight cameras, sharp detailed photos will capture the perfect picture every time and with iPrint, you can now hold those stunning photos in your hand. For this new product to be successful, we know we have to achieve a good fit with customers, minimize development time, and control the cost of deployment.
The printing service will offer stunning professional photos giving the customer the convenience of not having to open a third party application and download photos or going to wait in line at a store. We have done extensive market research to find the most attractive pricing for print media. This feature is first in mobile market making which makes us the first entrant to sell this service. We have branded ourselves innovators on delivering products ahead of our competitors.
Mode of Collaboration
There are several of ways that we could have attempted to roll out iPrint, all came with their advantages and disadvantages. First, we are looking into the various modes of collaboration that we feel the new iPrint feature can be best highlighted across all Apple device users. We are open to the idea of working with other innovators, but the brand must maintain its differentiated characteristic and ensure that the new feature will speak the brand. Apple is looking to into developing its own platform that will accommodate the full operations of the iPrint feature. However, the development aspect of the system and the technologies involve in making iPrint work across millions of Apple devices will take enormous amount of time. Therefore, other possibilities for collaboration are being taken into consideration.
Solo internal development – Developing the technologies required to make iPrint work successfully has its advantages. First, the technology developed for the purpose of the new feature can be exclusively Apple and that aspect adds value to the brand given the uniqueness of the technology to the brand. The second advantage of internal development is that the future improvements of the features including the technologies made exclusively for iPrint can be done continuously without consultations with third party developers. The third advantage is the patent, which means that Apple can claim exclusivity of the technology and make iPrint natively available only in Apple devices. On the other hand, internal development also has its disadvantages such as additional cost for research and development, the risk of being introduced prematurely, and compatibility issues with the Apple devices.
Joint Venture – Apple had been collaborating with other companies to development its products. For the iPrint feature a joint venture with print media Technology Company is a considerable strategy and it has its advantages. First, joint ventures will save the company time and money developing the technologies that will enable iPrint. Secondly, the resources required in developing iPrint and enabling it to perform across all Apple devices can be readily available including facilities and core technologies that the partner developer can provide. Lastly, implementation, control, and monitoring can be done easily with another company on board to oversee how the iPrint will perform on the electronic devices. On the other hand, joint ventures have its disadvantages such as lack of exclusivity to the technologies developed for iPrint, issues with shared resources in relation to development cost, and the risk of exposing Apple trade secrets during the process of collaboration.
Licensing – Acquiring the rights to utilize the resources, technology, and implementation platform of a third party developer can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for the brand. For instance, acquiring Shutterfly to host the iPrint media service makes it all easier for Apple to implement the technology. Licensing will enable us to implement iPrint using the readily available technological infrastructure provided by companies such as Shutterfly. The second advantage is that iPrint can utilize other features that Apple perceive as valuable to the customers. Lastly, the mode of distribution can be spread through other platforms apart from iOS. However, there are disadvantage in licensing. First, the service agreements with the third party provider has an expiration, which means if the Shutterfly for instance refused to renew the license to use their technology will put iPrint service in a complete halt. Secondly, there is a huge difficulty in implementing the native technologies of iOS into a licensed third party technology given the patents that Shitterfly for instance will insist to retain during the implementation of iPrint. Lastly, licensing will significantly erode the presence of the Apple brand as primary developer of the print media technology considering that iPrint will carry the brand name of the licensed technology.
We haven’t’ had any experience with print media so we choose to team up with a well-known corporation that possesses its own manufacturing and production facilities. We will be able to see and learn how to produce high quality prints at the lowest possible cost. The cost of building our own production facilities will yield our current investment returns. Collaborating with Shutterfly will be extremely beneficial to the brand in terms of speeding up the implementation process for iPrint. The acquisition and implementation part is easier given that Shutterfly already have a technology available for Apple to utilize. If the license agreement yields permission to customize the core technologies to accommodate changes that will highlight iPrint as distinctively Apple, then we will not have a problem with the implementation. Besides, future internal developments will be undertaken while the licensed agreement is in effect.
Protecting Intellectual property
Exclusivity to design and technology is both our important defense and weapon in a very dynamic competition in the electronics device industry. We hold copyrights and patents to trademarks that identify the brand. The term iPod, iPhone, iTunes, Macintosh, iOS, OSX, Mac, and other related trademarks patents and copyright protected from infringement. The same will apply to the iPrint feature, although the initial plan is to acquire license to use a third party technology, the term iPrint will remain an exclusive trademark of Apple. We have several intellectual property registered under the Apple trademark even if the technology or service was obtained from a third party provider. While it is necessary to seek for new licenses for products and services that will be implanted in the future, the company believes that licenses can be obtained on reasonable terms, in which the brand’s identity can be protected.
On the other hand, there is still no guarantee that licenses from third party provider for features such as iPrint can be obtained at all given the commercial interest of the company owning the patent to the licensed technology. Considering the extensive rate of technological developments and the fast changing innovations applied electronic devices, it is possible that the components and other business methods applied in iPrint can be infringed. Therefore, it is important that the company highlights the conditions of the possible licensing agreement for the development of iPrint stating exclusivity of the company to the modifications Apple made towards the acquired technology for iPrint. Currently, the company has filed numerous patents and copyrights with APPL 10-K document filed for 2015 being the latest, the company will ensure that the core technologies behind iPrint, the business method and model, and design will remain under the Apple trademark. The conditions and information pertaining to the copyright and patent statements for all Apple trademarks can be found in the Form 10-K filed to SEC.
Reference
Alexander, A. (2015). Apple’s mission statement. Retrieved From http://alvinalexander.com/blog/post/mac-os-x/apple-business-philosophy-mission-statement
Apple. (n.d.) Apple. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/iphone-6s/technology/
Apple Inc. (2015). Apple 10-K 2015. Wikinvest.com. Retrieved 7 April 2016, from http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Apple_(AAPL)/Filing/10-K/2015/F126775851
Bolton, M. (2011). What is Android? A beginner’s guide. Retrieved From http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/what-is-android-a-beginner-s-guide-975482
Dilger, D. (2016). Apple’s competition is going to have a tough year in 2016. Retrieved From http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/01/09/apples-competition-is-going-to-have-a-tough-year-in-2016
MacRumors. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/ios-9/
Moorman, C. (2012). Why Apple Is a Great Marketer. Forbes.com. Retrieved 7 April 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinemoorman/2012/07/10/why-apple-is-a-great-marketer/2/#57e50da0174a
Saini, J. (n.d.). Apple Inc. Case Study. Retrieved From http://appleinccasestudy.weebly.com/apples-target-market.html
Schilling, Melissa. (2009). Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, 3rd Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions. VitalBook file.
Travlos, Darcy. (2012). Apple: Product Commoditization? Forbes Magazine. Retrieved From http://www.forbes.com/sites/darcytravlos/2012/05/15/apple-product-commoditization/
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