Srinivas Aditya Vaddadi

D40424504.

NETW 583

Case Analysis 1

09-05-2015.

1. What were Apple’s biggest successes and failures? Describe why?

Answer: Over the past few decades, Apple is the most successful organization among its market and environment. They launched several products and services for their customers which helped them to increase their circle of products to various versions in the market. They were top in mobile industry and computing industry which gave some healthy competition to other fellow organizations in their own field respectively. Following were some of their key features which lead them to succeed.

Products: Some of their products like IPhone and IPad and IPod were succeeded and sold in the market like crazy. Last year IPhone 6 was the product which gained them lot of profit and benefit and made new people attract them.

Quality: The quality of the product which was related to the customer need accordingly. The products of apple were more easy to use and were unique in such a way that no other product will compete with them.

Security: All the products of the company were secured, such that there is no data loss for the customer which helped the company to attract the customers. It looked like a cherry on cake for them. Because a product which have fantastic security features which help the customer to store their data would will always be succeeded.

Attracting Customers: Also attracting people by having various range of products with various process and features helped them to get succeed because they followed the scenario in MacBook and IPad which was a good thing at that time.

Cost: Although Apple’s products were a bit costly but they were within reachable price range and to buy them, there were various installment methods for customers. So price and these kind of offers helped them to succeed well.

On the other side of coin, there were also some issues those were faced by Apple during their time of growth where they see some failures in market among all other companies. It may be a financial loss or a product failure. Some of the reasons why failures occurred were as follows

Price: As the price is too high for some products like IPhone and IMac people could not afford for such products. Although they were good products, but some people felt like the price was too much.

Design: Also for some people, the design of the product and the range and software of it was not understood properly. Mainly people who were illiterates, cannot use an IPhone because they don’t know how to use it.

Gaming: As Apple were too much into gaming, but they could not cross Microsoft’s Xbox which was more successful than them.

No Publicity: Some products were not known by some people due to lack of publicity and lack of knowledge on the product. If people know about the product, they would buy in for sure. But Apple missed this trick and faced some serious financial issues.

2. How much of Apple’s success can be linked directly back to its culture? Why?

Answer: In my research I found some serious tactics those were followed by Apple to link their success to their culture. This gained them lot of name and fame including success which would help them to grow further. They created a new environment which helped the employees to work peacefully in their work environment. Also the culture in the company was very unique, like it was more pathetic and simple. But they always try to innovate new things and discover something new. They also funded and invested in new things which is their native culture to get succeeded.

Also their vision about the future market and structure helped them to discover new things and continue their culture further which will lead them to higher stages. For example we can consider a scenario where they started to invest and do research on IPhone 7 before the release of IPhone 6. The main reasons were, what if the product failed? The solution is they need to do launch a new product with best features immediately. Another question is what if the product succeeded? They need to launch a better product with better features than this. So this type of culture helps them to innovate and research on new things which will automatically help them to grow further.

3. How do the actions of Apple apply to the TCOs?

Answer: After my research, I observed that Apple is related and can be applied to all the TCOs because

This company provides the most reliable service and quality to the customers which can be related to all the TCOs. The way Apple designs their company products and services to the customers helps the company to grow further which is an indirect part of TCO. Although they see some failures in the initial days of the company launch, but Steve jobs managed to take the responsibility and thought innovatively and made the company grow further. Also the launch of the operating systems and the necessary security measures took the company helped them to gain lot of money because the impact of TCOs was very higher.

Although there was a great competition between the rival companies Microsoft, Apple managed to be the top most successful brand in the market with its various range of products and services. I think this topic satisfies all the TCOs and the company is making more money with the help of these things. When price plays an important role in the future of the company, Apple didn’t compromise with these issues and grown innovatively. That made them to be number one in the market with the help of other company’s weaknesses and those became advantageous for Apple which relates to all the TCOs. The customers also encouraged apple to be the number one product because, people got used to the company’s products and services and the quality and reliability. People are also looking for something new in the market and Apple is the answer for all their questions.

Another important TCO that relates to Apple is the products having extended versions for them. For example after launch of IPhone 4, they launched 5 and 6 versions which is a trend became in all other companies now and they were working in the research and launch of the version 7. This also implies to all other products like MacBook and IPod. It means the company wants to grow further and make money with all of its products and services. Apple equally sponsored money in all the different products but I think they invested more in Mobile phones and services because Mobile technology is the latest trend in the market and using one version and one phone, people can download and install another versions too. All of these advantages helped Apple to relate to all the TCOs.

References:

1. Morrison, C. (n.d.). Four Principles of Apple's Successes (and Failures). Retrieved September 6, 2015. Retrieved from : .cbsnews.com/news/four-principles-of-apples-successes-and-failures/

2. Gruman, G. (n.d.). Rotten Apple: Apple's 11 biggest failures. Retrieved September 6, 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2606286/mac-os-x/163363-Rotten-Apple-Apples-11-biggest-failures.html

3. Morrison, C. (n.d.). How to Innovate Like Apple. Retrieved September 6, 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-innovate-like-apple/

4. Jobs, S. (n.d.). Apple Innovation - Steve Jobs Insights, Case Studies, Best Practices, Ideas, Strategy, eBook. Retrieved September 6, 2015. Retrieved from: http://appleinnovation.blogspot.com/