Question

Submit 1-page write-up with the answers to the case reading: Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple.

You need to answer the following questions:

What are the latest company profiles (financials, etc.) and product performances?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Apple’s current product lines? Examine various areas including technology, operation, user experience, platform/ecosystem, etc.

Do you think Apple's past success factors will continue to be valid? Does the company have to implement new strategic actions/measures for future success?

Answer 1

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Apple products are easily synonymous with the word quality. Their offering is premium product over what they call the “junk-market”. Therefore, their product strategy can be called the “great product strategy”. Leveraging the fact that they produce hardware, software, OS and other implantation.

Apple started with creating hardware for computer and landed into the mobile phone market becoming one of the most recognizable brands in their respect. Their “great product” strategy involves providing the customer with a premium offering of a product that essentially defines quality. They create fewer variations of products due to the reason that they have found their niche in the sense that they know which products perform more and redesign the scope of its implementation over the current design. Their packaging, offering, plans, and updates are what make their brand a favorite for people and provide for the competition aspect for the other companies.
Apple endorses their product through various streams like the media, the internet, big advertising in prime time channels and advertising through sports sponsorships. They spent a fortune on this part of the product’s lifecycle, to a point where pre-sales booking starts a month or so prior to the date of the release and is really hard to buy during that initial phase due to the massive demand in the consumption of the product.

Strength: Apple values are the quality that they ensure to give in every segment of their products that they offer, and the principle of the company to encourage their employees and to provide the customers with the best in class after sales service support in order to achieve their organization’s goal.

Weakness: The biggest weakness of the company is to deal with the high expectations of the customers, as they expect more from the Apple devices/products but every year with their new product launch the consumers only experience a little upgrade in terms of the features and technology which may also impact/taper the revenue of the company in the long run.

Apple offers a wide range of elite class products that are performance oriented with great designs and Apple’s current mission is to develop their new software versions for the iPhone, I-watch, Imac (i.e iOS, mac os, Watch os) and to make their products more sleek in design. The company also focuses on providing the customers great after sales service support.
Apple's vision is to give the customers the best possible experience in terms of personal computing in its class. The company is apparently working on the new technology that is the Infinity display that they have recently introduced in the new iPhone X.

Yes, I do think that Apple's past success factors will continue to be valid as Apple is still doing great when it comes to innovation and technology and the new CEO of the company Tim Cook surprised the Apple fans by introducing the touch id in the iPhone 5s in 2013, being the first smartphone in the world to have a real "fingerprint sensor" and whereas in 2015 Apple launched the 3d touch system with hands-free Siri control and the latest invention such as the iWatch, Airpods and the iPhone x with its revolutionary infinity display design is very appealing and the after-sales service support is as amazing as it was earlier. So, I think that Apple is still maintaining its brand value.