Apple's SWOT Analysis - Term Paper Example

It is one of the largest technology companies in the world (David B. Yoffie, Renee Kim, 2010). A strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis of the company reveals a lot of issues surrounding the business operations, its resources and its environment. It is worth to investigate all these issues if a person wants to invest in any company. This is because the tool provides information that can be used by investors to predict the company’s operational trends, its financial viability and its markets before investing in it (USDA, 2008).

Apple Company has so many strengths that put it ahead of its competitors. The first strength is its brand such that it was rated the best global brand in 2010 by Millward brown Optimor. It increased in value by 84% to $153.3 billion. Its customers are also loyal to apple such that they tend to forgive the company’s product problems. This is a huge strength that most companies strive to get and fail (Millward brown Optimor, 2011). A second strength is demand; apple’s products are of high demand especially the iTunes that has given the company a huge number of registered users already secured by credit cards.

The popularity of its products that have become common street names has increased the demand for its products too (David B. Yoffie, Renee Kim, 2010). A third strength is the design and innovativeness in the products they produce. Apples products aesthetic values keeps their customers glued to the company despite the fact that the products are of premium pricing. On the other hand apple’s products have a unique design that allows consumers to be up and running even without reading product manuals, due to this aspect they have set the standards for design which other companies must follow to outwit them (Stefan Thomke, 2009).

The fourth strength is its marketing approach; apple was awarded the title of Marketer of the decade by Advertising Age. It was the first firm to ever receive this title. The company has been able to influence the media, the advertising industry and popular culture through its innovative techniques and marketing approaches that puts it on the fore front as a marketing powerhouse (Appleinsider , 2010). The last strength that can be identified is Apple’s retail stores that are located in many countries.

These retail stores ensure that the come continues to receive revenue without having to rely on new product developments. Apple has a few weaknesses that affect the company in its day to day operations though the strengths identified above seem to outweigh the weaknesses. The first weakness is the delay that was especially experienced on iPads. There were shipping problems with the products and also the companies are always put on waiting lists in order to receive products which delay and come with numerous other problems.

The second weakness has to do with the way the company reacts to complaints from customers. Most of the time it, will deny the existence of a problem on their products and later come to correct. This was experienced especially with the iPhone 4G that had a problem with its antennae. The problem was corrected later after a long period of accusing customers of mishandling the phones (D.Burton, 2010 ). The third weakness has to do with compatibility issues. Apple has been very protective of the kind of applications to be developed