Is Apple IPhone Really Worth Buying - Research Paper Example

? Business Study Skills Report Pranav Jain Is Apple IPhone really worth buying? Tony Ukuwanna Final 17th November 2013 Table of Contents 1 2. Procedure 3 4. Challenges facing the IPhone 4 4.1 Radical and Regular Upgrades 4 4.2 Incompatibility with third party applications 4 4.3 Competition from Samsung 5 5. SWOT Analysis of the IPhone 5 5.1 Strengths 5 5.2 Weaknesses 6 5.3 Opportunities 7 6. Conclusion 8 7. Recommendations 8 1. Terms of Reference Pranav Jain has written this report to Mr Tony Ukuwana. This report is due on the 17th November 2013. This report was written to analyse the worth of IPhone by looking at its strengths and weaknesses and what opportunities, threats and competition it has in today’s market. 2. Procedure In order to gather information for this report the method used was the review of books from academic libraries, online journals, newspaper articles and reviews given on IPhone and competing mobile devices. This is the most appropriate method bearing in mind the smart phone industry is very dynamic and the internet is the only reliable source of up to date information. Moreover, there being little time to carry out a primary research and the high expenses associated with it, literature review was the most appropriate secondary research method. 3. Introduction on IPhone Inc In 2007, Apple, under the leadership of Steve jobs introduced the IPhone which turned out to be one of the most revolutionary mobile gadgets of the century, over the course of the next two years; the IPhone 3G was also launched into the smartphone market (Richie, 2013). The devices offered better technology at significantly reduced prices and effectively took command of the huge portion of the smart phone market beginning the smart phone revolution that persist to-date. The smart phone evolution was taken up a level higher by the subsequent introduction of the IPhone 4 and 5 and Apple currently ranks as the second biggest producer and market of smartphones globally. The initial smart phone cost $499 and although the debut price was considerably high, it was not the priciest phone on the market and it cost substantially less than some of the older but less developed mobile device on the market. However, this price proved too high to penetrate the mainstream market and as a result, the phones were mostly limited to an upper and middle class corporate and personal clientele. The second IPhone flagship model was the IPhone 4 series that offered significant improvements from the earlier 3G, and through it Apple introduced optical lamination, an interplane switching effectively scaled over the matching display sizes offered by the completion (Richie, 2013). Despite the challenges the device faced in the marketing as well as some technical difficulties, it was stated as the best smart phone ever by many. The latest model of IPhone, IPhone 5 was introduced in 2012 September (William 2013), and it was bigger smarter, lighter faster and the firm had used the experience from the glitches in previous IPhones to make the new one as flawless as possible. Customers received it enthusiastically and although its sales did not match rival Samsung galaxy III, they still performed considerably well on selling their phone (Gruman 2012). 4. Challenges facing the IPhone 4.1 Radical and Regular Upgrades Apple releases a new IPhone every year but despite that, many customers do not upgrade, but a significant number of customers have retained their IPhone 4 models owing to economic or speculative reasons (Swift 2010). Therefore, this problem is likely to keep affecting many of the firm’s clients and when they decide to make a shift, they may opt to buy a phone from a different firm such as Samsung or Microsoft. Apple customers often have to struggle to catch up with the firm’s rapid and on occasion drastic hardware upgrades (Associated Press 2013). Apples upgrades vary form one model to the other; however sometimes, the changes can be very subtle such that the newer is only slightly different or profoundly different to a point of obsoleting prior models. For example, the jump between IPhone 4 to and 4s was only marginally significant; however the shift from the 4s to the IPhone 5 was a complete and radical overhaul of the size, specifications and internal plans. Most consumers are willing to upgrade their phone every now and then but they expect to get a product that will remain mainstream and relevant for as long as possible, Apple tend disorient such minded customers (Gruman 2013). 4.2 Incompatibility with third party applications Despite the fact that Apple is seen as the one of the most innovative companies in the world, an in-depth and critical examination shows it may not be conducive to external innovation and thus customers buying Apple devices may be forced to limit their expectations on third party software(Wyner, 2010). This is because apple lacks the versatility and scope of the Google app store which provides tens of thousands of apps for android users that are unavailable to IPhone users. 4.3 Competition from Samsung The main source of competition for Apple is currently Samsung which is leading in global sales and brand recognition; in addition, its products are marginally cheaper than Apple despite the fact that on several levels Samsung has been described as having the better phones (Sruthijith 2012). This is however not conclusive since Apple still holds the lead on several fronts. For instance, the IPhone 5 was recently ranked the world’s fastest smartphone by “which?” magazine and its models also provides the best camera and screen resolutions. There is no doubt that Samsung galaxy S4 is Apple’s answer to the IPhone 5, the technical specifications are largely par, it is however notable that Samsung seems to emerge better off in most respects than Apple (Tsukayama, 2013). Despite the debatable difference quality, the price is radically different with the Samsung retailing on average at fewer than 400 dollars while the IPhone cost up to $560. Bearing in mind that Samsung, in addition to having progressive technical specification also offers its users a wide variety of android apps numbering up to tens of thousands; it would appear that the IPhone is not worth the extra cost. This is because the difference is just the reputation and perceived brand superiority, which not based on technical observation. 5. SWOT Analysis of the IPhone 5.1 Strengths Among the company strengths include the IPhone’s look is iconic and it carries the impression of top-notch construction especially with the glass and metal framework that puts it ahead of most smartphone in the market in the aesthetic department. IPhone users can also enjoy a high level of synergy with other Apple products such as the iPod and iTunes players; furthermore, it can be integrated with most of the desktop media player’s. Since the IPhone shares the same dock connectors with iPods, and it works flawlessly with a variety of other Apple accessories. Apple has by far had more experience in making smart touchscreen devices than any other firm in the smartphone market, as a result they offer extremely intuitive touch screen devices with the ability to recognize multi touch gestures and emulate the users hand mannerisms. The IPhone provides mobile users with the full functionality of the safari browser such that they can access full web pages using and intuitive zooming IU instead of the scaled down web pages used by most of its competitors (Williams, 2013). One of the other major strengths of Apple IPhone is the reputation for value for range of products and it is resistant to any kind of virus that is common among many smartphones (Sruthijith, 2012). 5.2 Weaknesses Apple has embraced the one size fits all approach and this does not give a good outcome with customers who would prefer to choose from a variety of designs. In addition, the IPhone is locked down to new innovations and users cannot benefit from the many innovations in the external app development first since IOS, unlike android is compatible with Apple-developed apps as well. Apple designers have also avoided including a micro SD card slot in the new IPhone5, consequently one is forced to limit themselves to the 16GB-32GB of memory allocated or for ICloud storage that is expensive in terms of data. As a result, if one wishes to store large amount of content in an IPhone they have to ensure they have perpetual access to data that can be quite expensive (Zeman, 2012). The new smartphones such as the Nokia Lumia 920 is providing both NFC and inductive charging which Iphone lacks the position of IPhone on the market is significantly weakened. Despite the popularly of the IPhone 4 there have been numerous complains about its reception problems, in fact soon after it was released, consumer report withheld its recommendation for the phone based on its “death” grip which arises when the antenna comes to contact with the skin (Johnston & Palenchar 2010, p.6). The IPhone 4 was fitted with a stainless steel band around its edges which acted as the antennae, nevertheless, this results in dropping of calls when one continuously hold the phone with their hand around sensitive parts of the band. The IPhone 5 has however taken that to consideration and there have been no complains in as far as the reception is concerned. After releasing IPhone 5, Apple will most likely release later upgrades in the year of IPhone 5 C or IPhone 5S; however, less than 6 months after their last update, they may unveil IPhone 6 with significantly different features from the 5 range, this could frustrate the customers who had only purchased the later IPhone. As a result, smart phone customers may be better off investing in less pricy smartphones that offer similar functionality and which can maintain their currency for a reasonable time which is ultimately a better long term investment (Associated Press. 2013). 5.3 Opportunities Apple greatest opportunity is its own exceptionally loyal fan base, despite that some of their products are very pricey and the upgrades can sometime inconvenient upgrades, the fans remain loyal and will always buy the phone no matter the faults (Zeman 2012). Even when the Samsung android offers its customers with a cheaper device wit more range of features in it, there are consumers that still buy the Apple IPhone, this is because of the brand reputation and its perceived brand superiority that there are a part of population which still buys IPhone Apple has retrospectively proven to be the winning brand in enterprise, it successfully replaced blackberry in most boardrooms and based on corporate popularity it holds great potential at becoming even more dominant in enterprise globally. If it capitalized on this niche, it could effectively prevent windows, android from establishing themselves in the corporate, and enterprise market (Zeman 2013). 5.4 Threats The main threat to the IPhone smartphone is the Samsung range, the Samsung s3 quickly took over form the IPhone 4 and the S4 remains ahead of the IPhone 5 in terms of global sales. In addition, it took over from Apple as the world’s number one smart phone manufacturer. While other firms such as LG and Motorola threaten Apple, this threats pale in significance compared to what Samsung portends. For every device Apple releases, Samsung seems to match with an equal or better product and it has thus effectively bulldozed Apple from the top of the smartphone industry. According to Gary Kovac AVG’s chief executive, owing to the fact that the development techniques for Apple are very specialized, more exerting and expensive and while this makes their process safer, it locks out the users from accessing the many newly developed apps from third parties such as android users can (Wayner 2010). Many consider that Samsung smart phones are much better than that of Apple’s as it gives a better variety of applications that the users can download which is not available to the IPhone users and that too on a cheaper price than IPhone. 6. Conclusion While conceding that Apple does indeed provide a range of quality gadgets, it is from the evident examined herein that the IPhone is would only be a viable alternative if the competing products were not as good as they are. Compared to Samsung, Apple either comes up second or even at best (Tsukayama 2013), however in most cases IPhones are more expensive than Samsung devices, although this is advantageous in making Apple appear to have better quality products from a critical perspective the assumptions is spurious. In addition, its incompatibility with android apps which are rapidly gaining worldwide popularity has locked out many IPhone users from accessing new innovations and based on those and other shortcomings, it is evident that under current market conditions, the IPhone does not deliver value concomitant with its price or the hype surrounding it. 7. Recommendations To match keep up with the dynamic global market conditions, Apple needs to make the IPhone more compatible with android apps (Swift 2010); otherwise, the customers stand to miss out on a lot of new innovations The pricing of the IPhone should be scaled down so as to combat the impact of Samsung’s devices are cheaper although they provide equal or better quality services Apple should strategically plan its hardware and software upgrades to avoid frustrating its clients who sometimes end up having to make numerous and expensive updates to keep up Apple manufacturers also need to ensure they troubleshoot the devices comprehensively to avoid faults that end up inconveniencing customers such as the reception problem that plagued the IPhone 4 resulting in customer apathy 8. 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Viewed on Oct. 27, 2013 < http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16044567 > Tsukayama, H. 2013, Apple's new IPhones: How the 5S and 5C stack up against the competition. The Washington Post. Viewed on Oct. 27, 2013 < http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-11/business/41958913_1_IPhone-moto-x-samsung-galaxy-s4 >. Wayner, P. 2010, "Where Android beats the IPhone", InfoWorld.com, . Viewed on Oct. 27, 2013 < http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/where-android-beats-the-IPhone-397 > Williams, A. 2013. Samsung Galaxy S4 vs IPhone 5. Trusted Reviews. Viewed on Oct. 27, 2013 < http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/samsung-galaxy-s4-vs-IPhone-5 > Zeman, E. 2012, "Apple IPhone 5: Opportunities And Threats", Informationweek – Online. Viewed on Oct. 27, 2013 < http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/apple-IPhone-5-opportunities-and-threats/240007231 > Ritchie, R. “History of IPhone (original): Apple reinvents the phone”, imore.com Viewed on Oct. 27, 2013 Read More