Intrapreneurship Plan
Apple Inc. is one of the most successful companies in the world. Since its incorporation, the company has continued to create brands that have been accepted globally. Even so, technology continues to thrive, forcing Apple to realign its strategies to come up with new innovative products. The company needs to ensure that it maintains brand loyalty to its customers, which could be achieved by coming up with innovative brands. Apple could consider diversifying its products by tapping into the digital camera industry. Apple brands such as the iPhone, iPad, iMac and apple watch have done so well in the market because of their unique features and selling propositions (Reuters, 2015). Since the company has the resources, diversification into the digital camera market would not be difficult. Apple’s competitors, including Samsung and Sony are already exploiting this market segment. The camera business would be a new market for Apple; hence, having an intrapreneurship plan is important. The purpose of the business plan is to analyze the viability of the business that a company could consider by assessing the local and global markets (Lamb, 2006).
Apple Inc. has a well-established customer base for its existing products and its place in the market has enabled the company to grow this base further. Currently, Apple’s iPhone is known to have quality camera and this feature has increased the brand’s popularity and image. Consequently, Apple needs to develop a digital camera that would have an automatic photo-tagging feature. The idea of the digital camera would make it easier for individuals to tag photos of family and friends on social media. Most cameras requires people to upload and tag photos individually on any social media platform but the idea of the Apple camera is to be able to tag photos natively. This camera would make it convenient for individual who like social media since they would be able to upload photos to a network that are auto-populated. The rise in social media makes the idea of the Apple camera to be worthwhile because it would increase its profitability and number of customers. Having such a product would be an added competitive advantage considering it has well-known brands.
Digital Camera Market and Industry Analysis
The digital camera market is an important segment of the electronics consumer products market. This market continues to grow due to continuous improvements in technology. The growth in the market has led manufacturers to create more innovative cameras over the years. Growth of social media has also promoted growth in the digital market. Even so, the global market was greatly affected by the economic downturn in 2008 and this slowed its growth (Roberts, 2016). Key brands in this market include Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Samsung among others (Roberts, 2016). Both Sony and Samsung also have a niche in the mobile phone industry where Apple’s business thrives. Although the digital camera market has very many participants, China and Japan are known to have the largest market share globally. In 2015, Canon and Nikon dominated the global camera industry with 54.7% and 39.1% sales share respectively for their DSLR cameras (Roberts, 2016). Nikon’s total sales in 2015 amounted to 3.65 billion and Canon’s sales were 3 billion. Canon’s market share reported a 5.5% growth in the market indicating that there is potential for competition (Roberts, 2016).
Benefits of Apple’s Diversification into the Digital Camera Market
Evidently, Apple will face a lot of competition from Nikon and Canon if it ventures into the digital camera market. However, the company could take advantage of its brand to promote loyalty to its new camera products (Malik, M., & Ghafoor, 2013). Further, the market has potential for growth despite the competition it faces from mobile phone cameras. While mobile phone cameras are portable and easy to use, digital cameras have lenses with high megapixels that produce quality photography. Apple should exploit this market because it has the ability to create quality cameras.
If Apple were to invest in digital cameras, its profitability would increase because the rise in social media and photo sharing has created the need to have quality photography. Additionally, the digital camera market is expected to be worth $5 billion by 2020 (Technavio, 2016). Currently in the United States, Japanese corporations such as Nikon and Canon dominate the market. Apple would have a competitive advantage based on tax burden reductions if it ventures in this market since it is incorporated in the United States. Additionally, since the market is growing, Apple is likely to break even in this segment and record profits within a short period. Consequently, this segment’s profits would translate to overall profitability, resulting in growth.
Resources Needed
Since Apple has never ventured into the digital camera market, it would be advisable for it to collaborate with an existing brand to make the Apple camera. A Partnership would reduce the cost of investment and help in market penetration (McConnell, & Brue, 2008). Apple Inc. could consider working with GoPro, Inc. to create a competitive edge in the market to outdo competitors such as Nikon and Canon. GoPro has since 2002 grown to become a well-known brand and in 2015, its revenue reported was 1.62 billion (Roberts, 2016). To manufacture the Apple camera, finance and human resources would be required. The cost of manufacturing a DSLR camera is approximately $200 and depending on the units that Apple would make, this cost could be lower. Assuming the camera is sold for $250, the company would make a sizeable amount of profit.
Apple would need to hire several people with the expertise to manufacture the Apple camera. Additionally, the company will need a warehouse to store the merchandize. Since, the Apple camera would be a new product, the company could come up with a product development team. The team should comprise of individual with financial, legal, and marketing expertise to ensure success. Having a product development team helps to ensure that product is branded according to the company’s overall strategies and goals. Finally, a lot of equipment is needed to enable the company to manufacture the best camera. As such, working with a company that has a market presence would be beneficial. This is because the company would provide information on the equipment and additional resources needed for the Apple camera product to be successful.
Inter-organizational Relationships
Success of the Apple Camera would require the establishment of inter-organizational relationships. Since the Apple camera market is a new segment, a lot of marketing and promotion would be needed. Marketing is costly and the finance department should provide support to the marketing team to ensure that the product is successful. It is important to note that the employees should all be educated about the brand so that they incorporate the Apple camera to the culture. This implies that employees should not treat the Apple camera as a different product, but as part of the company’s brand. The management needs to work with employees to maintain a good relationship that would help get feedback about the camera upon its launch. Such healthy relationships would create the energy needed to enable the product’s success.
Conclusion
In summary, the Apple camera has a potential to succeed since the global digital camera is continuing to grow. If Apple puts the effort coupled with the resources needed to create a camera brand then definitely, the return on investment would be high. Additionally, the camera business would increase Apple’s competitive edge. It would further improve brand loyalty and continue to increase awareness of its products. Growth in social media also validates the digital camera business idea. People continuously have the need to capture the best pictures to share them on social media and Apple launching a camera would be beneficial to its business. Apple has loyal customers who would definitely accept the move by the company to make a camera brand.
References
Lamb, S. (2006). How to write it: Business plans and reports. Business & Economic Review, 53(1), 17-24.
Malik, M., & Ghafoor, M. (2013). Importance of brand awareness and brand loyalty in assessing purchase inventions of consumer. International journal of business and social science, 4 (5), 167-171.
McConnell, C., & Brue, S. (2008). The business enterprise: Economic concepts supplement (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Reuters. (2015). Apple Inc. (AAPL.O). Retrieved from www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=AAPL.O.
Roberts, J. (2016). Mobile Tech Report 2016: Technology news from 2015 and predictions. Beaverton, OR: Mindwarm Incorporated.
Technavio. (2016, June 24). Global Digital Camera Market 2016-2020. Technavio. Retrieved from http://www.technavio.com/report/global-consumer-electronics-digital-camera-market.
