Apple Inc Swot Analysis

SWOT Analysis Apple Inc.

Apple Computers Inc. is an American-based multinational company that deals with consumer electronics goods and computer software. Apple is also involved in development, designing, and marketing of personal computers, communication devices, servers, network solutions, portable digital music devices, and all their related accessories. The Company's well-known hardware products are Mac Computer, iPod, iPad, and iPhone. The software products include Mac operating systems, iTunes, iLife suite, iWork suite, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio, and IOS is a mobile operating system. Apples internal stakeholders are the employees and external stakeholders are the investors who invest in the company stock. The wants and needs of the internal stakeholders are job security, medical benefits, and retirement pension. The wants and needs of the external stakeholders are that their investment increases in value and nets them financial growth. Apple has been a strong company over the past 10 years with consistent growth. From the data shown It appears Apple is fulfilling the needs of the stakeholders. Apple offers its employees medical coverage along with job security. Many employees who work for Apple have been at their job for many years, which shows job security and a good work environment. In recent year the stock market has taken a decline with almost every company taking a hit including Apple. Investors who are in for the long haul will see their investment pay off. Apple is a stable company that has positive potential for both internal and external stakeholders. We will conduct a "SWOT analysis, which analyses the organization's strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats it faces, usually in that order."

STRENGTHS:

One of the key strengths of Apple is brand recognition. Apple is one of the most recognizable and established companies in the world. Apple has a very loyal customer base with customers who will buy nothing but Apple products. Apple has a very strong set of both young and old enthusiastic base customers who praise the brand. Possessing such a strong following for Apple products means that Apple not only recruits new customers, it retains them. Customers will continue to come back for more products and services from Apple. With this type of following the company also has the opportunity to offer new products to them, for example the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. Not only is Apple one of the most successful companies in the United States, sales from the Apple iPod have helped increase profits in just one quarter alone to $320 million. With this type of brand recognition, Apple has also increased its sales on Mac Computers, iPads, and iPhone sales. Having the iPod, iPad, Mac, and iPhone has given the Apple Company a broad range of products to reach different consumers over a large age range and ethnic background.

Strength of Apple is their innovative thinking when they invented iTunes Music. ITunes was created by Apple as an additional source of revenue, which has helped increase their overall sales and has helped them control a good portion of the music market. When an individual owns an iPod or music device, ITunes is where the consumer will purchase their music. Apple with the use of ITunes provides consumers a safe and reliable way to receive the music they want at an affordable price. The compatibility of ITunes with windows software has also made ITunes easy to use and compatible with every computer program. The genius behind ITunes is it works!

Apple has changed the way we look at home computers and laptops. The innovation behind touch screen home computers and home computers with not external towers are amazing. Apple software designers are skilled at developing their own hardware and software, which makes them dependent on no other sources. Apple partnered with Intel Computers in 2006, which helped expand their customer base.

WEAKNESSES:

A weakness that may be viewed by consumers is Apple's decision to change its computer chip supplier from IBM to Intel. Some industry specialists suggest that the switch from IBM to Intel may confuse Apple customers. Apple consumers are accustomed to using an operating system that functions in a certain fashion and with this change people feared the operating system would change.

According to recent reports, there was rumored to be a system failure where customer's personal information was leaked out to hackers. Any consumer who owned an iPad, iPhone, and iPod may have had his or her information stolen. Apple is currently working on fixing the situation. Security threats are always around and if a company like Apple has its security defenses broken it can happen to any business.

It was also brought to Apples attention that the iPod Nano has a defect in the design of the screen. Apple has commented that research has shown that a certain number of iPod Nanos have had screen that break under applied pressure. The company has offered to repair all manufacturers' defects. This is in addition to older iPods that had faulty batteries installed, Apple has offer battery cases to people who experienced these problems.

With all the positive attributes that ITunes offers, Apple is receiving pressure from the music industry to raise the price of its music downloads. Many companies that use ITunes as a source for people to receive their music have requested that Apple raise the price of down loading music because they make more money from ITunes than they make from the sales of their CD's. Apple has sold nearly 22 million iPods and more than 500 million songs downloaded from