Apple Computer

Apple Computer 2002

Case questions: Historically, what were Apple’s advantages? How have the structure and dynamics of the PC industry changed over the last 10 years? What are their recent strategies? What should they do going forward?

Apple Computer set about in the early 1990’s to achieve the revolutionary goal of de-commoditizing the billion-computer industry. The established task was not an easy on, but one that Apple had to undertake. And, as the last large remaining proprietary computer company, in order to remain competitive, and even solvent, in the increasingly cutthroat computer industry, it was a task that Apple had to tackle. Apple computers had always been regarded as technologically superior.   In conjunction with the lower product differentiation aspect, Apple faced competitive pressures with both is price structure and its distribution practices.
By the 1990’s, the computer market been saturated by so many personal computer clones.   CEO John Sculley correctly identified the need for Apple to undertake drastic changes. Sculley ambitious plan was to repositioning Apple’s entire business. It began with a new lower-priced of computer designed to increase Apple’s market share.   This strategy was successful in increasing the market share, which, in theory, should have increased the incentive for software manufacturers to write applications for the Apple platform.  
Overall, Sculley did correctly identify the impediments to Apple’s growth and did try to address them in the constrained industry environment of the early 1990s. The marketing mix that he introduced, while not consistently successful, did move Apple towards its current bout of financial success and increased market share.   Apple lost market share in previous years, however, Apple executives Sculley, Spindler, Amelio and Jobs, during their time at Apple, continued to find ways (some more successful then others) to cut cost and differentiate its products from the competitors.
  One way...