The Different Strategies of Apple and Samsung - Essay Example

Operation Strategies between Apple and Samsung in Mobile Market

The mobile sector is highly competitive, and large numbers of competitors, as well as competition based on prices, characterize the mobile market. Aspects such as level of income, access to the internet as well as technology drive growth in the sector. In this sector, Apple and Samsung pursue different strategies to be effective. The purpose of this paper is to explore the different strategies that the two companies use in the mobile market.

Samsung Mobile is the largest cell phone manufacturer in the globe. Its mobile product range includes smartphones, tablet computers, laptop computers and different kinds of cell phones. Apple is the most admired company in the world that create various types of smartphones, tablet computers, as well as laptop computers. Recently, these two firms have competed in a number of business fronts. The most common battle has been in the smartphone domain. Samsung has produced numerous Galaxy cell phones that are driven by the Android operating system from Google. On its part, Apple sold numerous iPhones. Samsung replaced Nokia as the largest mobile phone manufacturer. It has also replaced Apple as the largest smartphone manufacturer in the globe. Apple and Samsung also compete in the tablet computer domain. However, in this domain, the competition is less. Apple still maintains a large market share with its iPads than Samsung's Galaxy tablets that are based on Android operating system. Besides, Samsung has started building its own standard user interface, although it employs Android operating system. Such attempts are considered a threat to the software of Apple.

Apple produces excellent, user-friendly mobile products that have an extraordinary aesthetical worth. The company targets consumers who can pay premium prices for the innovative products and who desire an excellent user experience. Apple's retail stores act as destinations to offer the pre-purchase experience of utilizing the devices. The company uses economies of scale and outsources its production plants. It places suppliers under strict control, which allows it to obtain great discounts due to the increased volumes. While Apple does not produce advanced mobile devices as much as Samsung, the company has the ability to develop architectural technologies, which offers its clients integrated devices that have numerous characteristics that encompass excellent quality networking as well as media. Another vital aspect of the company comprises forecasting. The company can predict demands for each retail outlet and arrange a schedule for production consequently. Apple focuses much of its resources on Research and Development in order to enhance the performance of its devices and issue regular launches of devices.

Samsung, on the other hand, is the largest phone maker in the world. In the company, strategic effectiveness comprises a direct concern for the various players in the market as well as clients. Samsung develops the potential of skills in marketing and management, as well as product design. The company has enhanced its comprehensive research and development in order to sustain profitable manufacturing and commodity management. It focuses on operation management of technology to satisfy clients and to offer cost benefits to its staff. Samsung produces high-quality goods that have left a good image among customers and has acted as a source of the company's premium prices. It has numerous strategies and schemes to the process of innovation. The company objective is to understand the test and desired diversity of clients in order to design devices that meet the diversity of customer lifestyle as well as the environment.

At Apple and Samsung, the HR, marketing, as well as support roles, are created consequently to develop a combined approach for both companies. Apple has a customer value proposition of a preferable difference point. Operations strategy in any firm functions to offer a plan for the function of operations to allow a firm best use its assets. Operations strategy stipulates the plans and rules to use the resources of a business to support its lasting competitive approach (Slack & Lewis 2015). The function of operations is to manage the required resources to manufacture goods. Operations strategy comprises a plan that stipulates the creation as well as the use of such assets in support of the business strategy of the company (Errasti 2016). In turn, this encompasses size, type, and location of available facilities; talents and skills of workers needed; technology use, special tools, special required processes; as well as techniques of quality control. The role of operations strategy is to offer a general plan for the usage of all the assets. Thus, operations strategy ought to be harmonized with the business strategy of the company and allow it to attain its lasting plan.

Distinct competencies

Apple and Samsung have established distinct competencies in their operations. In the marketplace, operations managers ought to work closely with marketing to understand the competitive situation prior to establishing competitive priorities. There are four main groups of competitive priorities (Brown, et al. 2013). They include cost, quality, time and flexibility.

Cost based competition implies providing a product at reduced prices relative to costs of competing commodities (Wilson, et al. 2013). The necessity for this kind of competition materializes from the business strategy. Here, operations strategy functions to create a plan for using assets in support of this sort of competition.

Based on quality, numerous firms argue that quality comprises their top agenda (Wilson, et al. 2013). Besides, numerous clients say that they search for quality in the goods they purchase. However, the meaning of quality is subjective, and it relies on the individual defining it. For some people, quality means that a device lasts longer while to others it may mean high performance. When a firm concentrates on quality as a competitive priority, they focus on quality areas that are regarded as vital by their clients.

As a competitive priority, quality has two dimensions (Brown, et al. 2013). The high-performance design comprises the first dimension. Here, the meaning is that the design of the operations function will concentrate on quality elements, for instance, high durability, superior features, excellent customer service, and close tolerance. Product and service consistency comprises the second dimension that measures how often the commodity addresses the precise design specifications. Firms that compete on this dimension ought to implement quality in each domain of the company. The first element to be met comprises the quality of product design that entails ensuring the commodity meets the customer requirements. The quality of the processes comprises the second aspect that addresses developing a process to manufacture products that have no errors. In turn, this encompasses a focus on tools, employees, and materials as well as each operation element to ensure it functions properly. A firm that competes in terms of quality has to meet both elements. The device ought to meet customer requirements as well as the process ought to produce error free commodities.

Based on time, speed comprises the most significant competitive priority (Toni 2016). A firm ought to ensure it delivers excellent commodities in a short period. Clients today do not want to wait. Firms that meet customer requirements faster become leaders in their sectors. Most firms utilize technology to speed-up production processes, depend on flexible workers to address periods of peak demands as well as eradicate unnecessary stages in the process of manufacturing.

Based on flexibility, as the environment of an organization transforms, which encompasses the expectations and needs of the customer, the capability to accommodate such transformations in a readily way may be a winning approach (Flynn, Morita & Machuca 2011).

Flexibility has two dimensions (Quraishi 2014). The first one is product flexibility, and it includes the capability to provide a broad range of commodities and tailor them to the customer's unique requirements. The second is volume flexibility in which a flexible scheme adds new valuable commodities fast or drop easily products that are performing poorly. A firm that competes in terms of flexibility may not compete in terms of speed since it mostly necessitates extra time to manufacture a tailored commodity. Besides, a flexible company cannot compete in terms of cost since it takes extra assets to tailor the device. On the other hand, a flexible firm mostly provides increased customer experience. Flexible firms thus have a tendency to possess general-purpose instrument in order to produce different types of commodities. Besides, employees in such companies usually had increased levels of skills that allow them to perform various roles to address the needs of clients.

Companies ought to create a plan for the function of operations to concentrate on specific competitive priorities to deal with the long-term strategy of the company (Khanna 2015). The creation of the operations function ought to concentrate on established competitive feature.

Based on the competencies mentioned above, Samsung offers low-cost devices for customers. While for Apple the existing circumstance is safe because the two firms function in distinct market segments, it is possible for Samsung to compete efficiently on costs in future, if it utilizes its profits from the low-end market to support R&D of the high-end devices. Samsung provides a broad range of mobile phones compared to Apple. Apple's core philosophy is simplicity in offering fewer options to the mobile market. Apple's perceived device quality is mostly considered greater than the perceived quality of Samsung products. Even though Apple mostly make customers wait for new devices for a long time, the pace at which Samsung delivers its devices to the market is high because of the company's in-house production as well as strong control the company has over its supply chain.

Value chain strategy

Apple and Samsung also compete in terms of supply chain. Organizational leaders identify a vision and direct their staff towards attaining significant objectives. Supply chain and operation strategy deals with essential issues required for a firm to be competitive (Gong 2013). A supply chain strategy deals with the alignment of assets with the requirements of the business. The strategy encompasses the creation of the capability of the organization to leverage internal associations, consumer associations as well as supplier alliances in order to develop sustained competitive edge.

According to Porter, an organization may gain a competitive edge over another organization in two ways (Porter 2008). An organization may utilize cost strategy and establish ways of decreasing product prices as well as offer clients with low-cost products. Another organization may use a focused approach that seeks to target select consumer segment and offer them with a narrow range of distinct commodities. Others may use a differentiation approach that aims to offer unique commodities, which competitors cannot compete (Quraishi 2014). Organizations concentrate on distinctive ways in each case to gain a competitive edge over their rivals and attract clients. Each mentioned strategy ought to be in alignment with the supply chain strategy of the company (Toni 2016). Alignment means that supply chain strategic decisions ought to be consistent with the firm's strategic directions. For instance, a company that stresses low-cost products will require labour, processes, policies and schemes that support low prices.

It is also vital for the supply chain to be agile in reacting to immediate demand changes and be adaptable to capture the importance of lasting transformations (Harvey 2010). Identification of the way the organization generates business is another technique to attain strategic alignment. Order winners comprise those features that differentiate the products of an organization (Maon & Sen 2016). For instance, an organization may offer low priced products, which necessitates high volumes of production. Order qualifiers comprise those features that enable a company to gain entry into a market and compete with other firms (Maon & Sen 2016). For example, an organization may offer a minimal product quality level in order to compete with other firms.

It terms of software creation, Apple has maintained its rank as the technology leader in the mobile market. For instance, the iPhone utilizes the iOS software that accounts for about 20 percent share of the entire operating systems in smart phones. The company does not allow installation of the software to other non-Apple smart phones. The company has also gained a strong ground on software, and its App store has about 1,000,000 applications that are compatible with iOS. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Smartphone depends mainly on Android operating system from Google that possesses the biggest share of the smartphone operating system.

Regarding hardware design, Apple leads with its iPhone line of smartphones. Its GSM iPhone developed the initial design that has persevered across all consequent phones. The design of the iPhone follows the company's idea of simplicity and distinctiveness. For instance, to retain the single home key feature, new iterations of the iPhone possess a sleep key at the top, volume keys on one side and the physical keyboard has been removed. The company added 3g capabilities in the iPhone 3G, a quicker and extra powerful processor as well as a high-resolution camera in the iPhone 3GS. It also added a greater-resolution retina view in the iPhone 4, a dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera as well as a natural language voice control mechanism, ‘Siri' in the iPhone 4S as well as the novel A6 processor and a 4-inch retina view in the iPhone 5.

On the other hand, Samsung’s Galaxy is mostly plastic and provides clients with predominantly two colours, Titanium Gray and Marble White. A chromed bezel surrounds the edges as well as the rounded corners.

Conclusion

Samsung mostly focuses on excellent devices at increased volumes as well as competitive prices. The weakness of the company is its customer associations and service. Samsung utilizes Android software in most of its high-end phones and yet the Android platform belongs to Google. In turn, this lowers its ability to differentiate its products from other Android devices except by restricted UI overlays that do not operate well. Thus, the company has to improve its ability to innovate and enhance its consumer involvements as well as loyalty. On the other hand, Apple does not compete on price and it outsources its production. The company has a strong consumer association with loyal customers. Its products have high user experiences. Thus, the company ought to maintain its differentiation strategy and create products that are more appealing.