Question

Topic: Marketing and Strategy

As I sit here typing this on my MacBook Pro, checking my Apple Watch, getting distracted by my iPhone XR, while my roommate is messing around on her iPad, it makes you recognize that Apple has a strong hold on its selected market. Even though that may not be the case for every household, you can normally look into a crowd and find at least 1 Apple product, though you will more than likely find many more.

Looking back at the company, which was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it has held a tight grip on the technology market and according to Forbes, “Apple remains the top player in the tech scene, not only ranking as the largest tech company in the world, but also the eighth largest company in the world on Forbes’ Global 2000 list. The company saw $247.5 billion in sales, $53 billion in profit, $367.5 billion in assets and a market cap of $927 billion for the past year(2017)” (Stoller, 2018). “Apple revealed it sold its one billionth iOS device in the December quarter of 2014, specifically on November 22” (Owen, 2018). To think that that was almost 5 years ago, and now the company is slated to sell its 2 billionth device sometime in the second quarter of 2021.  

Apple has many competitors, as tech is wide ranging. Some of those competitors are Dell Technologies, Lenovo, Hp Inc., Sony Corp. for the computer market. Looking at their mobile device market, Samsung is their number one competitor, with Microsoft coming in second.

As industry trends are constantly change nowadays, due to ever changing demands, Apple faces the biggest impact from the technology. As there is always some “bigger and better” being released to the market, Apple has got to stay in front of those changes and influence the consumers to “need” their products. Apple has gone through many market changes with recessions and economic downturns, only to continue on just as strong, if not stronger, than ever. During 2007-2009, when the economy collapsed, market analysts warned Apple to fear for the worst as they released the iPhone into the market – only to see wild success.

Looking at the overall market for Apple and their continued success in the technology sector, they are on track to continue to dominate this segment. Apple has a hand in nearly every segment of the market – from phones to headphones, tablets to Apple TV, watches to operating systems – and they do it well, with a loyal consumer base.

For Chegg: Based on my above post, discuss trends that may affect my chosen company and possible impacts on the company branding image and business success.

Answer 1

Previously, Apple only sold USB-A cables, the standard USB style that’s also used for its iPhones and countless other gadgets. But the company is slowly swapping over to USB-C cables, which have a higher data transfer rate, can support more types of data being sent over them, and charge devices at the same time. They also happen to be the only type of ports on every MacBook laptop released since 2015, meaning that iPhone and Apple Watch users can’t charge their devices from their computers with the cables that come with their products.Apple started selling USB-C to Lightning (the iPhone charging port) cables around the time the new MacBooks came out, but didn’t offer a similar cable for Apple Watches. The new cable will run you $29, but at least it does mean you theoretically only need to bring one charging brick to charge all your Apple devices when you travel.