Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Marketing & Competition

As most of us know or have been hearing about for a few months the new iPhone Models are coming and Apple held a reveal event at their Headquarters in Cupertino, CA. At this event two new iPhone models were announced the new iPhone 5S which out of the two is the product that differentiates since it provides a valuable and unique appearance at a higher price end than the iPhone 5C. Apple has always had competitive advantage not only with their iPhones but with all of their products being that they are perceived as significant and superior to the competition for they are on the higher end, I like to call them Luxurious. There are a lot of new phones coming out that are affecting the sale of Apple for example the new Samsung models therefore Apple knows that they have to keep working on innovating their products as quickly as the other Markets. 

Having the competition attack their prices on commercial and also maybe losing customers, they have came up with a cost competitive product starting with an iPad Mini. Though the product still expensive they created a version that is cheaper than their original iPad. By this diversification they started attracting new customers not only because of the cheaper price but because of the size of the new product, which is what made me want to buy it, and also making it more similar to its tablets competitors like Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's  Nook.

Continuing their cost competitive products on September 10th they announced a more affordable iPhone, the iPhone 5C. The Marketing strategy that apple seems to have for this new phone is to target a younger Market by having these new iPhone 5C in different colors and at lower cost but maintaining the satisfaction of their customers by having these product still be some what luxurious. This also makes it more affordable for parents. 

Apple's product have been imitated on their physical end resulting in law suits but what makes them sustainable is their Operating Systems with iPhones and Ipads and also with their Mac, they are the only ones to have it and I believe nothing has come close to it.