It takes an analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats commonly known as SWOT to identify the situation of Apple Inc in the process of venturing into new markets. For this course, the situation analysis takes the form of weaknesses assessment to determine the areas where the company would need to improve for it to be successful. In my opinion, the company has the following weaknesses in their service provision;
Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses is that it offers limited products and or services- their services are only limited to the American Express cards. The services are also only limited to the newest phone models such as the 6 or the 6S. This implies that only those customers with specific needs and the specified gadgets can access and enjoy their services. The majority of the Canadian can perceive this as an institutional weakness and their perception may shift. Such a product is only used by approximately 2% of the Canadian population, yet this forms the market target (Youssef, 2013). The long term effect may be a faced off or unhealthy competition from the alternative service providers. The launch of Apple Pay in Canada is one such an opportunity that has seen the company presented in the market with a myriad of challenges and growing market demand. However, with limited products the company is likely not to fully enjoy its venture in Canada.
The second weakness is on the prices of their product. The Apple products are of relatively higher prices as compared to their compared to their competitors. For instance, comparing the prices of smart phone or iPhone from the Apple Company to those from other companies like HP or Samsung may pave the way into a customer's mind into being convinced to buy from this other companies. The competitors may therefore take the opportunity to perfect their price-mediated persuasion to win the customers' trust (Kratky, 2013). The law of demand applies that the lower the price the higher the demand. Keeping the pace with these competitors may therefore prove a tall order and the company might undertake unnecessary marginal cost in doing sales promotion amid the competitors. This may be a source of loss to the company in future especially when they do not put proper strategies in solving this Marcus, 2015).
The third weakness is based on the marketing strategies. The company has not laid a common strategy and channel of communication to reach their customers. Either way, still, the operations management strategy is not well defined. It is common sense that most of the customer-intended communications are not well channeled and most of the information are said to be rumored among the customers (Wonglimpiyarat, 2012). Such a kind of customer guess on the presence of a new product may make the customers lose trust in the products or lack information on their existence. Customer-relation is the most important aspect of product promotion in the market, clear communication is, therefore, very vital to persuade the consumers from buying from the competitors. However, in the case it is evident that the information stayed as a rumor for a long time.
In conclusion, the Apple Company must therefore address the highlighted weakness in the order of priority if the future market is to be secured. Identify the gaps to allow healthy and fair competition in the market.
References
Kratky, S., & Reichenberger, C. (2013). Client/Server Development based on the Apple Event Object Model. Atlanta.
Wonglimpiyarat, J. (2012). Technology strategies and standard competition—Comparative innovation cases of Apple and Microsoft. The Journal of High Technology Management Research, 23(2), 90-102.
Marcus, A. (2015). The Money Machine: Combining Information Design/Visualization with Persuasion Design to Change Baby Boomers’ Wealth Management Behavior. In Mobile Persuasion Design (pp. 79-161). Springer London.
Youssef, M. H. (2013). Strategic tensions within the smartphones industry: the case of BlackBerry. VISTAS: Education, Economy and Community, 3, 125-141.
