Overview of the iPhone - Research Paper Example

c) Overview of the iPhone According to thesalesvolume, iPhone is one of themostpopularbrands in the smartphone markets. It has thehighestcustomersworldwide. Thecompany that developsthisbrand is Apple Inc. And is alsothecompany that sellsthe iPhone. The IPhone runs on its operatingsystem by thename of iOS. (iMore)Theprincipalever iPhone wasdivulged in January 2007 by thethen C.E.O, Steve Jobs. Hedepictedthe IPhone as a progressiveandmysteriousitem that is five years' in front of other cellular telephones. In the US, the iPhone hit in June while UK needed to hold up until November. Itwas a GSM phoneandhad a buttonplacement that is nowconsistent. (iMore)After thatfollowed seven moregenerations of theiPhone eachaccompanied by a majorreleases of theiOS. One yearand a halflater IPhone released its secondgeneration of 3G andreviewedthehardware .the phonealsoadded GPS capabilities. Some of thehardwareimprovementsfor iPhone 3GS that included a faster processor and a camera with a highresolutioncapable of recording 480p video. However, thephonehad a fewproblems with its chargerbut overall itmanaged to makemassivesales.(iMore) After that, itsawtherelease of other iPhone 4 models. iPhone 4 featured a front camera to enable video calling, a higherresolution of 960 x 640 and a rear camera of 5megapixels with 720p video capture. iPhone 4S upgraded its hardware to A5 dual-core processor and an upgrade of the camera to 8 megapixels with theability to record a 1080p video. Avoicecontrolscheme by thename of Siri wasemployed. Thenextreleasewas iPhone 5 which was an improvement of the iPhone 4.The iPhone 5 had an A6 dual-core processor, hosted LTE (Long-Term Evolution) supportandincreasedthedisplaysize to 4 inches. An improvement to the iPhone 5 wasreleased by thename of iPhone 5S.Ithad an A7 64-bit dual processor and an upgraded camera with two LED flashes. A fingerprint scanner with touchidincorporated to thehomebutton. IPhone 5C features a casing made of polycarbonate and a rear well-lit camera. Apple's latest iPhone release are the iPhone 6 andthe iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 has a screensize of 4.7inches whilethe iPhone 6 Plus has a screen of 5.5 inches. Both thismodelsfeaturenew A8 processor chipandmotion coprocessors. d)Comparison (1) Market Segmentation and Target Markets The market is divided into the primary segments in order to get a clear picture of consumer preferences; low-end, middle-end and high-end. Samsung produces Galaxy phones for all the three levels.While Google’s Nexus and Apple’s iPhone are both targeted to the high end marketdue to their price .The iPhone successis built around an extremely efficient massmarketingcampaignmachine that mostlymakes Apple stand out as a brand.(Wiens and Corcoran) Under Steve Jobs stewardship, the Apple brandgainednewcustomerseverydaywhilemaintaining a hugefollowing by loyalones. Appledefinedtheessence of simplicity; the silver, slimphysique, uncultured interface, fluidperformance are some of thephrases that will quicklyring a bell to an iPhone user. At over 400$ andcompulsorytwo-yearcontract a piece, thefirstgenerationiPhonewas not affordable to all. Appleemployed a high-end strategythatitmaintainedsince. Thismeansonly a certainspectrum of theincomegrouppurchasedthedevices, over timetheiPhonebrandcarved out a niche of its own among thewell off. On theloopside, especially in developingmarketiPhoneand Nexus understandablyhavesmallmarketshare.Makers of low-endbudgetphonesnotably from Samsung’s low-end Galaxy phonesthatretail as low as 150$ enjoybiggermarketshare. . (ii.) Competitive Positioning Thoughwith fewersalesthe Nexus smartphones enjoyaccess to unadulteratedversions of Android from Google. Owing to its pricerange Nexus to is targeted to thehighend of themarket while since thelaunch of theGalaxybrand, Samsung has managed to penetratea broadspectrum of a customer with the Galaxy phones targeting both themid-rangeconsumersandthehigherendmarkettoo. Though it does not produce low-range and medium-range phones currently, Apple enjoys a huge following among the high end customers.Astatisticalanalysisreveals a marketshare that has beenrisingalmost consistently from the 2007 iPhone 1 generation. iPhoneenjoys a hugemarketshare of 47.7% as of February 2015.(Wiens and Corcoran)Thephonealsopossesses a decentmarketshare in Asia, with 26% in Japan and 13% percent in China. In Q1, Samsung shippedabout 83.2 million smartphones, and Apple sent out around 61.2 million handsets. Thisshowshowcompetition between the two companies is. (iv) Promotion One uniquemarketingstrategy Apple and Samsung createdand dutifully maintained is honoring their customarypromise of introducing a newfeature in the phoneeveryrelease. Notonlydotheinnovationskeeptheloyalty of customers, butwinnewcustomers. Forexample on July 22, 2013, Apple's suppliers saidthatthecompany is testing out largerscreensfortheiPhoneandiPad. Thecompany would lateronproduce iphone5c and iphone6 both spottedbiggerscreens. Samsung alsopromised a majorinclusion on its S6 release. Thecompanyreleased Samsung s6 with a curvedscreenearly 2015 while Google’s Nexus 7 is a seven inch device that runs on Android, it is an attempt to carve out a niche in the tablet market. While Apples IOS is targeted to the high-end marketiPhone, Google’s Android(Samsung Electronics America) is opensourceand has beeninstalledonmore than 60 differentmodels of phone. This wouldnaturallymeanmoremarketpenetrationfor Android based phones. However,theconsistency of Android eventuallygetscompromised as theoriginalflavor from Google undergoesmodification from differentmanufacturers to suithardwareand software capabilities of their devices. Theresult Galaxy and Nexus have to contend with is, applicationsrundifferently in similarreleases of Android installedondifferentdevices. iPhone is a winnerhere; it is easierfor developer consistent user interfaces forthephonesbecause of thesame IOS theyallrun on.(iMore) Apple's app storehosts over 400 million accounts with registeredcreditcards, 650,000 available apps to download as well as 30 billion applications(iMore) downloaded from the app store as of 2012 and Google play 300 million. But Google play, fueled by growing Android users has since outgrown Apple store. v) . Distribution The iPhone, Nexus and Samsung Galaxy maintain a series of the retailstoreall over USA, thestores, however, witnesseslongqueues during newreleases of smartphones.(Wiens and Corcoran) There are alsootherthirdparty retail shopsand online stores which stock iPhone. But in developingworld Samsung maintains a well-developed network of a supplychainfor the sale of its lower-end Galaxy smartphones. Well fueled marketing machinery drives iPhone (iMore)and Samsung Galaxy sales. Thecompany has invested a lot in advertisingrunning into millions of dollarsannually. Themarketingteamdesignshighly targeted advertisements which as seen from thesales are in factworking. At somepoint, Google had to admitthat its recent Nexus devicesalesweresluggish. Nexus 6 and 9, in fact, did not meetthecompany’s expectations. (vi) . Market Performance: Recently iPhone marketshare has witnesseddrops in keymarkets, Apple saw its, US Phonemarketsharedecline from 47.7% to 42.8% in January. 47.7% wastheuppermost since 2012's, In China iPhone marketsharewitnessed a growth; themarketshare has grown from 21% in January to 25% in March.(Samsung Electronics America)while Samsungtoosaw a substantialdrop in bothsalesandmarketshare of its mobilephonedivision. In 2012, Apples' marketportion in the U.S.A phonemarketwas 38.1 percent. 296.65 million Phonesweresold globally in 2010. Samsung managed to strengthen its foothold in the U.S. by accountingfor a 28.6 percent share of themarket, (Samsung Electronics America)Apple’s flagship phone Iphone6 faces a stiffcompletionfrom Samsung’s Galaxy S6 plus. Curiously Samsung’s (Samsung Electronics America)marketportion has takensharpsmashes with every of new iPhones releaseandlaterrecover after its newrelease In March 2015, the Apple announcedfinancialresultsfor its fiscal 2015 secondquarterended March 28, 2015. It posted quarterlyrevenue of $58 billion andquarterlynetprofit of $13.6 billion (vii) Major innovations The iPhone, Nexus and Samsung Galaxy have all launchedsmartwatches to complement its smartphones line. Theycome preloaded with a variety of applications e.g. a chronometer that can be customizable to a stopwatch;(Wiens and Corcoran) a solarcycleface that showsactualsunsetandsunrisetimes, andalsopresentchangingarcs depending on theseason among others. Samsung introduced a curvededge to its Galaxy S6 plus smartphone. (e) Future Plans Apple Inc. has new plans for the iPhone brand. There have recently ventured into music service based on its lately acquired Beats music. (iMore)They charge $7.99 per month for the music streaming. Apple are trying to court famous music artist i.e. Florence and Taylor Swift to release tracks on the service so as to give it a competitive edge to the already existing Spotify. Apple through it engineers is helping developers to create apps and fine tune them for the apple app store. This is expected to increase the level of innovation and bring along faster and powerful apps to their play store. This will give the iPhone users a wide range of options to select from when one requires an app to solve a particular need(Wiens and Corcoran) There have also been rumors going on that Apple will unveil a couple of iPhone on September or August. One of the models will most likely be iPhone 7. The models are expected to be significantly slimmer or same dimensions as the iPhone 6 with high screen resolutions. The camera is on the key point that Apple focuses on the development of each iPhone.it is expected that the future camera models will have two lenses with the capability to support ‘DSLR-like’ pictures. The camera will also have a better megapixel rating probably a 12Mp back camera. There will also be slight improvements on the battery life due to battery stacks that make good use of internal space. It’s expected of the company to give an update of the operating system (iOS) for the iPhone during the publication of the next model launch. Apple have developed the wearable Apple smart watch that synchronizes with your iPhone. The smart watch enables you to tracks your fitness goals, make calls, listen to audio messages and send transcriptions.(Wiens and Corcoran) The company is working on enhancing more capabilities to the Apple watch so as to increase a better experience to the iPhone users. References iMore,. 'Iphone'. N.p., 2015. Web. 21 June 2015. Samsung Electronics America,.N.p., 2015. Web. 21 June 2015. Wiens, Kyle, and Peter Corcoran. 'RepairabilitySmackdown II: IphoneVersusIphone'. IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine 3.1 (2014): 19-24. Web. Read More