Company Description
The company that produces the product Apple iPhone 7 is the Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is a multinational American corporation that deals with technology. The headquarters of the company is based in Curpetino, California. The business process of the company entails; designing, producing and selling electronics, software, personal computers and also online services. Examples of the hardware product of the company includes; Mac computers, iPod media player, Apple Watch, iPad and iPhone. Online services provided by Apple Inc. include; App Store, iCloud and iTunes. Software produced by the company includes OS X, Safari web browser, iWork, iOS, and iLife. The company is the second biggest internationally in terms of revenue, following Samsung Electronics. It is also the third biggest manufacturer of mobile phones (Sculley, 2007).
Company Background
Apple Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976 by three people; Ronal Wayne, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The founders of the company aimed at producing and then selling the personal computers. On January 3, 1977 the company was incorporated through the name Apple Computer, Inc. It was eventually renamed on January 9, 2007 to Apple Inc. The new name was effective in illustrating the shift in operations to consumer electronics. On March 19, 2015 the company was enrolled in Dow Jones Industrial Average. In 2014, the company was declared the biggest publicly traded company in terms of market capitalization globally. The company is the first in America to be worth more than $700 billion. The company presently has approximately 72,800 permanent staffs. It manages 437 retail outlets based in 15 countries. The company runs Apple and iTunes Stores. iTunes Store is the largest music retailer globally (Hertzfeld, 2014).
Business Problem
Market analysts explain that Apple Inc. will review its normal product launch plan, and head directly towards iPhone 7 during the 2015 autumn. This is one year earlier than the initially planned arrival date. Thus, the iPhone 6S brand will not be applicable. Apple is thus working on the development of its flagship product, which will ensure faster, stronger and effective performance during photograph taking. In the normal launch schedule, Apple Inc. iPhone 6was planned to be followed by the new brand iPhone 6S. However, business and technology analysts explain that the new phone product will bring new superior features. This made Apple Inc. to shift from the normal trend and name the new product iPhone 7. Apple, Inc. intends to apply the Force Touch technology, which is presently being applied in Apple Watch. The technology applied will then be updated in 2016 (Sculley, 2007).
Brief Overview of Issue
The issues being discussed entail the unique features of the iPhone 7 that will greatly enhance usage effectiveness and also customer satisfaction. The Force Touch technology applicable adequately differentiates the light taps applied on the touch screen and the harder pressure. This enables phone to be sensitive to the diverse pressures (Amelio, 2009). Example on how the technology works is the usage of light tap to reply on email, or applying a stronger touch to respond to all emails. The company initially intended to apply the Force Touch technology on the iPhone 6 product, but abandoned the plan after illustration of technical challenges. The new product, iPhone 7, will possess superior features. Examples of the superior features are; 3-D camera, better image focus and stabilization, Samsung chips and also the new aluminum frame (Young, 2008).
References
Andy, Hertzfeld. (2014). Revolution in the Valley. CA: O'Reilly Books.
Gil, Amelio. (2009). On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple. NY: MacMillan.
Jeffrey, Young. (2008). Steve Jobs, The Journey is the Reward. TX: Lynx Books.
John, Sculley. (2007). Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple. NY: HarperCollins.
