Apple, Tim Cook Case Study, Blue Ocean Strategy Analysis, Strategic Implications - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Apple Case Study

The Apple CEO is trying to find some quiet time to look over the day’s events and handle some e-mails. Having joined Apple in 1998 as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations, Cook had been appointed CEO based on the recommendation of Steve Jobs, who lost his battle with cancer a few weeks after resigning from the top spot in August 2011. Cook had been filling in as CEO while Jobs had been on medical leave. Cook was a low-profile, but high-impact executive at Apple who was responsible for restructuring Apple’s supply chain, which had allowed Jobs to focus on high-profile product launches. Moreover, Apple’s now super-efficient supply chain also increased its profitability tremendously.  

 Steve Jobs had led Apple through a period of innovation that saw the introduction of category-defining products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad and disruptive business models complementary to those products, such as the Apple Retail Store and the iTunes online store. iTunes had started by selling music for Apple’s iPods and later expanded into books, movies, television shows, and applications for all of Apple’s iOS devices. Apple’s competitive advantage under Jobs was the ability to continually innovate, but Cook couldn’t help but wonder if such success was sustainable, especially without Jobs.  

 Just the previous September, to great fanfare and expectations, Apple had launched the new iPhone 5. In his presentation to an exuberant crowd of loyal Apple devotees in San Francisco’s Moscone Center that day, Cook had highlighted Apple’s great performance by focusing on its retail stores and the sales of Mac notebooks and iPads. In particular, Cook had emphasized the performance of Apple’s 380 retail stores in 12 countries around the world. 1 An astounding 83 million people had visited Apple retail stores in the preceding quarter, which equates to almost one million people a day, on average. In addition, he had stated that Apple ranked number one in notebook sales in the United States, with a 27 percent market share. That represented a notebook sales growth of 15 percent a  year.

Cook had also commented on the iPad, crediting it with creating a post-PC revolution. Having sold  17 million iPads between April and June 2012, Apple claimed a 68 percent market share in tablet computers. In addition, the iPad accounted for 91 percent of web traffic by all tablets, which Cook attributed to the then over  700,000 iOS applications (apps) available to Apple users. A whopping 94 percent of Fortune 100 companies had begun deploying Apple iPads in the workplace, many with customized apps to provide enterprise-specific business solutions. “To put this achievement in some perspective, we sold more iPads than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC lineup,” Cook said. 2 By June 2012, Apple had sold a total of 84 million iPads, a product that had been introduced less than 2.5 years prior.  

Review the following:
“Apple (in 2013): How to Sustain a Competitive Advantage?” 

Case Study
Write a polished analysis that responds to the prompts below.
Q-Provide a detailed explanation of the critical competitive forces (and their underlying dynamics) in the smartphone industry that may threaten Apple, Inc., based on a very thorough, detailed, and relevant 5-Forces analysis and other concepts you’ve learned from your MBA program. Be sure to explain how and why you’ve focused on the critical forces that you’ve identified. Include a detailed explanation of the potential for new entry and/or effective substitute competition, based on a relevant Blue Ocean Strategy analysis and other concepts you’ve learned from your MBA program. Be sure to explain how and why you’ve focused on particular new entry or substitute threats to Apple, Inc.
Q-Explain the strategic implications of the competitive forces you identified above—what are the opportunities and threats to Apple, Incorporated’s position in the ecosystem of the smartphone industry that it must factor into its strategy for the future, based on your analysis, and why? Provide evidence from the case and any other research you might do, and support your reasoning with references to appropriate academic readings and from prior MBA program content.
Q-Your response to these prompts should be polished, researched, and well documented, and should be approximately 1000 words in length.

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