Question

3. Complete the chart below to analyze Apple’s competitiveness. What you put in the left column can be from the value chain or from the resources you listed. You can add extra rows as needed or delete rows as needed. You do not need to list every resource and activity, just the main ones.

Resource/Activity	Is It Valuable?	Is It Rare?	Are There Few Substitutes?	Is It Difficult to Make?	Implication for Competitiveness*

*Implications for Competitiveness should be one of the following:

• Competitive disadvantage
• Competitive parity
• Temporary competitive advantage
• Sustainable competitive advantage

What resources, activities, and relationships enable Apple to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage?

Answer 1

Apple Inc is an American technology giant having headquarters in California which develops and markets variety of consumer electronics, computer software and online services. Apple enjoys a clear competitive advantage due to its various unique features, resources and activities. Since technology can be imitated, it is quite difficult to maintain the competitive advantage since its competitors are also of equal strength. We can list a few reasons for its competitive advantage.

1) Brand itself/ brand equity

Brand equity is a set assets and liabilities linked to a brand, which adds the value provided by a product/service to the firm and/or to its' customers. Apple's brand strength  gives the company a great visibility in the market and the interrelationships between their products encourage the customers to try out Apple's different products.

2) Innovation

Apple own's a unique innovation strategy which helps them in developing new products sharing the same operating systems. The exceptional feature of Apple's innovation is that innovation in one product can complement other products too thus helping in a chain of innovations to all the linked products.

3) Integrated strong supply chain

Apple has quite a lot control over its suppliers since it owns a chip manufacturers and concentrates on strict quality standards. Towards the other end they own stores to reach their end users too. Apple has a community of more than 6 million independent software developers creating applications for them all around the world. this helps them in concentrating on other activities.

4) Pricing strategy

Apple follows a premium pricing strategy which helps them to give a perception of high valued product as well as high profit. They don't believe in giving discounts which helps to maintain a consistent pricing through out the market. But they make sure that the product carry all unique features and benefits to justify the premium price.

Also find below the chart to summarize the points....

RESOURCE/ACTIVITY	IS IT VALUABLE?	IS IT RARE?	ARE THERE FEW SUBSTITUTES	IS IT DIFFICULT TO MAKE	IMPLICATION FOR COMPETITIVENESS
Brand equity	yes	yes	yes	yes	sustainable competitive advantage
Innovation	yes	no	yes	yes	Temporary competitive advantage
Operating systems	yes	yes	Very few	yes	sustainable competitive advantage
Own chip manufacturers	yes	yes	yes	yes	sustainable competitive advantage
High quality standards	yes	no	yes	yes	competitive parity
Own exculsive retail stores	yes	no	yes	no	competitive parity
large community of independent software developers	yes	yes	Very few	yes	sustainable competitive advantage
maximum control over software and hardware	yes	yes	Very few	yes	sustainable competitive advantage
Steve Job's remarkable leadership	yes	yes	no	yes	sustainable competitive advantage
Extensive R&D activities	yes	no	yes	yes	sustainable competitive advantage