Apple's historical competitive advantages include being highly innovative, pursuing product differentiation through proprietary designs and control of software and hardware, strong branding and marketing, and retail strategy focused on customer experience. Key figures like Steve Jobs drove innovation and a return to focusing on differentiation over mass market strategies. More recently, advantages include being a first mover in new product categories like smartphones and tablets, economies of scale in manufacturing, and strong brand loyalty among customers.

1. Q1.
Initially, Job‟s motive was to offer the first easy-to –use computer to the market. He managed it
and Apple Computer knew its first success in 1977 with the Apple II. It‟s the first personal
computer sold in a large scale, and whom use were democratized, in particular in education
sector. In 1978, this two years old company had already sparked a real revolution in the
computer industry. The next notable revolution came with Job‟s turnaround, when he came
back in the company in 1997. “Soul” of Apple, Steve Jobs, understood very early that in this
fast-moving sector in which changes occur constantly and are disruptive, he will constantly
have to maintain his innovation efforts at a certain level to be in the vanguard. In particular,
Apple was pioneer in the digital market revolution by launching its successful non-computer
products: Iphone, Ipod, Ipad. Considering those successes we can sum up historical Apple
Computer‟s competitive advantage in four words: innovation, revolution, visionary, and
simplicity. And that‟s still Apple‟s key success factors.
1.) What historically have been apple‟s competitive advantages?
Apple was driven by mission to bring easy-to-use computers to market.The strategy went
through some changes over a period of time
Sculley years (1985-1993), Apple targeted low cost computer and forge an alliance with IBM
for OS development on Intel platform, both of which didn‟t bear any results.
Spindler„s („93-„96) strategy to expand to international market gave short-term results, but did
not help Apple in long term.
Amelio („96-‟97) decided to go back to premium price differentiation strategy and invited Steve
Jobs to take over as CEO in 1997. Steve jobs restructured company around the original
strategy of Apple and turn that into a competitive advantage. The following are the Apple‟s
competitive advantages:
* Apple‟s PCs relied on proprietary designs.
* When Apple developed the Macintosh, it was very easy to use, had an industrial design,
and technical elegance.
* “plug and play” system
* Apple pursued a differentiation strategy.
* Innovation was the buzzword in Apple. Apple stood cut for typically designed products from
scratch, using unique chips, disk prices, and monitors.
* High value image of Apple products. Hence, Loyal customers allowed Apple to charge
premium prices for their products.
* Apple retails concept implements direct selling, creates firsthand experience to customers,
customer education, after sales service etc. Apple has never licensed any of its products or

2. designs (except during Spindler's management).
* Suppliers and distribution networks of the company was very strong. It made a point that
when Apple decides to go ahead and make a new product, it buys up literally almost all of
the world's stock of the components that define the gadget.
Apple since its inception was driven by mission to bring easy-to-use computers to market. But
during Sculley years (1985-1993), Apple targeted low cost computer and forge an alliance with
IBM for OS development on Intel platform, both of which didn‟t bear any results. Spindler„s
(„93-„96) strategy to expand to international market gave short-term results, but did not help
Apple in long term. Amelio („96-‟97) decided to go back to premium price differentiation
strategy and invited Steve Jobs to take over as CEO in 1997. Steve jobs restructured company
around the original strategy of Apple and turn that into a competitive advantage. Apple‟s
competitive advantages are its control of software and hardware, marketing, digital asset
management, retail strategy, product differentiation and Steve Jobs‟sstrategical decisions.
Decisions such as switching to Intel processor resulted not only reduced power use & design
ease but also made Macs able to run windows on it. Apple retails concept implements direct
selling, creates first hand experience to customers, customer education, after sales service etc.
With these advantages Apple built a barrier to five forces that shapes industry competition [1].
Apple pursues a differentiation strategy since it started in 1976. Only one time they offered a
computer aiming for the mass market, but soon came back to their differentiation strategy. This
differentiation strategy was at one point supported by a strong promotion campaign, with the
goal of to „differentiate the Macintosh amid intense competition in the PC industry. Apple has
always been a very innovative PC manufacturer. Through excellent R&D, Apple always
managed to launch PC innovations on the market. Although the products sometimes showed
weaknesses, the innovative role still gave Apple a lot of attention. Apple designed its products
typically from scratch, using unique chips, disk drives and monitors. This created a high value
image of the Apple PCs and made the customers „love‟ their Macs. These loyal customers
allowed Apple to charge premium prices for their products.
Apple was and still is very innovative and creative thus, was one of the first movers in many
fields dominating the market share and taking advantages of being the first mover. Apple
invested a lot in R&D, came up with high-end technologies which enabled them to make new
creative products such as iPad and iPhone. Also, as the imitation of their products was
relatively high, Apple was able to enjoy the economies of scale. Steven Job‟s innovative

3. design of Apple‟s product was another competitive advantage Apple had. However, I believe
that the biggest competitive advantage of Apple is that they have a very high brand loyalty. In
other words, there are many loyal customers compared to other competitors, and was able to
gain advantages of the lock-in effect.