Apple Computers - Apple’s Competitive Advantages and Vrio Analysis
Autor: mani_sikka • July 20, 2016 • Case Study • 674 Words (3 Pages) • 1,333 Views
Apple Computers - Apple’s Competitive Advantages and VRIO analysis
Group C13, Section C
Apple’s competitive advantages along with the VRIO analysis are detailed as follows:
- User Experience
Apple’s primary focus was to provide an unparalleled experience to personal computer users by increasing the ease of use and making the interaction between the user and the computer as natural as possible. They did this by introducing GUI and enhancing the multimedia component of the computer.
In a DOS based computer industry, where computers were known to be huge machines which were really complex to use, an Apple computer which has a GUI and is relatively easier to use will add value to the user, is rare to find and difficult to imitate. While other computers tried to imitate the user experience that Apple had, their expertise lay in hardware and standardizing PC assembly and not on enriching the user experience (as in the case with IBM and Windows 3.0 where there was still a huge gap with respect to multimedia tech).
Also Apple had an engrained philosophy of designing for ease of use while other organizations did not focus on user experience primarily.
- Proprietary Design / Closed System
Apple had complete control on the entire chain of computer production. Apple designed its hardware and software. Apple designed all its products from scratch right from the unique chips to disk drives to unusual shapes for the computer chassis. The design was a closely guarded secret and Apple didn’t allow other companies to clone its operating system.
This helped add value to Apple’s products as Apple could design its computers in unusual shapes, influence any part of the design and build a range of applications for the Mac. This led to Apple’s products being perceived as highly versatile. This was rare in the industry and the only other player to have done this was IBM. However, IBM lost its competitive advantage by maintaining an open standard for the hardware design and allowing it to be cloned by several manufacturers thereby diluting the uniqueness of the computers produced by IBM. Coming to the question of imitation, it was far too late for IBM to adopt a closed standard as IBM’s design had now become the industry standard.
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