Apple Inc. is a multinational company specializing in producing technological electronic devices. The Company was first established to produce personal computers but later shifted and began manufacturing phones (Linzmayer, 2018). Consequently, its name was changed from Apple Computer to Apple Inc. throughout its existence; the Company has grown to be a multinational company. Nevertheless, the Company has endured many challenges that have impacted its progress, including increased competition, increased cost of labor, increased lawsuits with competing companies, and high prices.
Organizational problems: Increased Competition
Since its inception, Apple Inc. has consistently produced products that enabled it to dominate the market. However, in recent years different companies have emerged with almost similar products, which has posed a challenge to the Company’s market dominance. Companies like Huawei have developed electronic gadgets that are more user-friendly than Apple’s operating systems (Tsukayama, 2022). These companies use the android operating system in their devices, which has fewer restrictions and is easier to operate. On the other hand, iPhones of Apple Company run on iOS, which the Company restricts and, at the time, difficult to use for some consumers (Wu et al., 2019). As such most people prefer android phones to iPhones, which has reduced sales for the Company.
Increased Cost of Labor
The success of this Company has been highly attributed to the efficiency of its supply chain. As such, the Company has invested in ensuring that its factories are managed effectively to maximize their efficiency and eventual profitability. However, in recent years there have been reports of poor work conditions for employees in the subsidiary factories. These claims have created a public uproar against the Company to provide better conditions for its workers. This has resulted in legal actions against the Company, which has cost money in trying to settle the suits (Tsukayama, 2022). In creating a better environment for its employees, the Company has incurred costs that have impacted its profits and total income.
Law Suits and Patent Suits
Over the years, Apple Inc. has been involved in many legal fights with different companies regarding different products. The suits disadvantage the Company since they disrupt the progressive growth of the Company. The amount of energy and time directed to the legal battles would be beneficial if it was instead focused on developing the Company. The money spent by the Company on these suits culminates in losses if they are not ruled in favor of the Company. More so, these suits prevent the Company from reaching more customers from different parts of the world.
China Apple Inc. cannot sell its iPad since there is a company that claims it is the rightful owner of the trademark. The Company can barely meet its projected sales (Tsukayama, 2022). Similarly, the Company is involved in lawsuits about intellectual property with companies like Samsung and HTC. The Company won the suit against HTC since it was banned from producing devices that share the same dial feature as iPhones. Though Apple won the lawsuit, it had already spent more time.
High Priced Products
Apple Inc. is known for setting high prices for its products. These prices set the Company apart from its competitors as it uses the high prices as a brand. Though the high prices enable the Company to remain consistent in the market, they have created an opening for the competitors (Smithson, 2022). Competing companies like Samsung and Huawei have taken the opportunity and begun producing cheaper devices with similar properties, attracting more consumers. As such, the Company has experienced reduced overall sales of its gadgets.
Environmental Analysis
The Company has existed for a long time; thus, it better understands its audience. The Company has analyzed to understand better the factors that impact its growth and thus knows how to meet the consumers’ needs. More so, an analysis has been conducted to establish the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and technological developments that the Company ought to focus on to ensure its dominance over the market (Chen et al., 2021). The Company has implemented strategies and innovation programs that enable it to remain ahead of its competitors. The Company keeps its developments secret, thus limiting its opponent’s ability to compete.
Diversification
In recent years the Company has experienced competition due to the rapid growth of rival companies, which has influenced its sales and profitability. However, the Company can solve this problem by adopting a diversification strategy (Smithson, 2022). Through this approach, the Company will be able to seize other sources of income that are yet to be dominated by rival companies (Gao, 2021). This will help to maximize its profit while providing an upper hand over the competitors.
Labor associations
Apple Inc. can be able to solve the labor problem of labor by joining labor associations. These associations focus on auditing the working conditions of employees in companies while providing an affordable and readily available workforce (Tsukayama, 2022). This will be essential in reducing the resources used in settling labor cases and courts. As such, the Company will be able to focus solely on its development and growth.
Patenting products and Ideas
The Company should focus on patenting its ideas to avoid patent suits in the future. More so, the Company has a culture of keeping its ideas secret; however, this creates opportunities for other companies to claim the ideas, thus subjecting Apple Inc. to legal actions. Therefore, the Company should ensure its ideas are known and patented to prevent unnecessary lawsuits that end up costing the company money and time.
Alternative Prices
Apple Inc. is best known how the high prices of its products. Though the high prices attract customers because of their branding, other customers are lost. Customers who cannot afford expensive products resolve to buy from competing companies that are cheaper (Smithson, 2022). The Company can solve this by producing cheaper products that accommodate all consumers. Manufacturing expensive and cheaper products will enable the Company to cater to everyone regardless of their social status.
The success of these recommendations can be evaluated using the predictive accuracy metric. This program allows for the measurement of the closeness of the recommended results to the actual results by the use of ratings from the users. The procedure utilizes the means, and means squared errors to help determine the precise differences between the estimated rates and the actual product rating (Leave, 2022). For instance, in the case of cheaper devices, the Company will collect data from the public on their attitudes toward the new devices and compare them with the theoretical predictions. Through this procedure, the Company will be able to know where to make adjustments and thus increase the chances of success.
Conclusion
Apple Inc. is one of the major companies that deal with the manufacture of information and technological devices. Though the Company has existed for a long time, it is faced with challenges that hinder its planned progress and trajectories. These challenges include increased competition, patent suits, labor costs and suits, and high-cost products. Nonetheless, these challenges can be minimized and solved if the Company diversifies its operations, joins labor associations, manufactures alternative cost products and patents, and makes its ideas public.
References
Chen, X., Liu, Y., & Gong, H. (2021). Apple Inc. Strategic marketing analysis and evaluation. In 2021 3rd International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021) (pp. 3053-3061). Atlantis Press.
Gao, J. (2021). Analysis of Diversification strategy of Apple Inc. Academic Journal of Business & Management, 3(9).
Leave, V. (2022). How to Measure the Success of a Recommendation System? Analytics India Magazine. Web.
Linzmayer O. W. (2018). Apple confidential 2.0: The definitive history of the world’s most colorful Company (Rev. 2nd ed.). No Starch Press.
Smithson, N. (2022). Apple Inc. SWOT analysis and recommendations. Panmore Institute. Web.
Tsukayama, H. (2022). Apple’s biggest challenges. The Washington Post. Web.
Wu, J., Wang, H., & Shang, J. (2019). Multi-sourcing and information sharing under competition and supply uncertainty. European Journal of Operational Research, 278(2), 658-671.