1.

5 Competitive Advantage/ Major Strengths of the company (SWOT MATRIX)

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSESS
S1 Strong brand equity W1 Selling product with
higher prices
S2 High R & D W2 Short products life

TOWS MATRIX
S3 High profit Margins W3 Weak relationship with
Intel and Microsoft

S4 Great Marketing W4 Lack of employees

concern on conflicts occurs
S5 Have the most valuable W5 Open to hackers and
and strongest brand and software pirates
customer loyalty

OPPORTUNITIES SO STRATEGIES WO STRATEGIES

O1 Distribution network S1, O1 Increase brand W2, O5 Advertise older
expansion equity by expanding remaining products to less
distribution network into developed countries at a
cheaper product cheaper cost to reduce
inventory
O2 Rising demand for S2, O2 Use R&D to W6, O4 Promote the
tablets and smartphones develop new products lines business the safety of
to meet rising demand having a worm and virus
free computer by using Mac

O3 Formation of strategics S5, O6 Continue to W3, O7 Growth

line in terms of goals, aggressively develop opportunities in growing
vision, mission. mobile apps market mobile system in market
O4 Accessory potential

O5 Demand for mobile

communication

O6 Protect iP’s value

 THREATS ST STRATEGIES
T1 Aggresive competition S2, T3 Use strong R&D to
deveop new technology
and rising labour costs
T2 Imitation of Apple S4, T5 Use marketing skills
products to promote an
environmentally friendly
practise
T3 Rising labor costs S5, T6 Use marketing skills
and customer loyalty to
combat scandal
T4 Loss of innovation
T5 New environmental
regulations
T6 Tax scandals
WTS STRATEGIES
W4, T4, S2 Recycle old
outdate products parts for
use in new products
W3, T2, S3 Concenrate on
software protection to
combat hackers and pirates
to increase competitiveness
W7, T6 Train employees on
how to immediately
respond to legal issue and
scandals to prevent
customer loss.
3.6 Strategic Issues of the company
Functional level strategies
a) CHILD LABOUR ISSUE
https://www.channelnews.com.au/apple-admits-to-using-child-labour-to-build-iphone-x/
https://nypost.com/2017/11/21/apple-has-been-using-teen-labor-to-assemble-the-
iphone-x/
Apple has been using teen labor to assemble the iPhone X. According to reports
made by author David Richards, Apple supplier in China have been tapping high
schoolers to staff their factories in a scramble to meet demand for the iPhone X. In China
there is a factory call as Foxconn. Foxconn is Apple’s main assembler for the iPhone. The
company benefited in 2017, as it is the exclusive assembler of the iPhone X. Foxcoon
was hirer the student who range in age from 17 to 19 years old. Most of the labour working
in Apple is high school student. They need to work as labour in Apple atleast three month
in order to gain work experience. In addition employing school kids they spend almost 11
hours to make their ultra expensive iPhone X. Almost 1,200 units iPhone X was made by
one students. That was amazing but the student feel tiring because they are forced to
work overtime.
Foxconn factory has brought almost 3,000 high school student to assemble the red hot
smartphone as it work to make up ground following severe production. The reason they
hired student because the company want to give a chance and gain work experience as
graduation requirement. Since 2012 Apple says it has reduced the number of underage
workers in its extended supply chain, which includes locations where rare earth minerals
are mined for use in the smartphones.
This shown that HR in Foxconn by the local government Apple, they have been abusing
the workforce for forcing the students to work overtime.
 b) SALES

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/technology/apple-revenue-decline-china.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46281768
According to San Francisco reported in China, the revenue for the final three months of
2018 would be 10 percent lower than expected. Chief executive Tim Cook blaming
slowing iPhone sales in China whose economy has been dragged down by uncertainty
around U.S. Meanwhile local rivals like Huawei had been gaining market share over
Apple. Leaders in Beijing supposedly balance and forcing some to readjust their plan in
the market. As we know, most consumer using iPhone because of its unique and
sophisticated features compared to other phones. Meanwhile, in China Apple finds itself
in tricky position. Where it is a leading marketplace and produces most of the iconic
products had been sold worldwide. One of the reason Apple in China felt down because
Chinese government not targeted Apple product as well. They found out some of
consumers may have elected not to buy an Apple device due the firm being an American
brand.
This issue shown that Apple sales in China have not been doing well this lead economic
was slowdown in China and smartphone market has dropped sharply than the expected.
 c) FINANCE https://businessays.net/apple-inc-strategic-issues/
https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/04/19/inenglish/1366396093_838664.html
According to El Pais, Apple have lower prices mean lower profits. Situation in India, there
are selling iPhone 4 for 275 euros. Entering into some sort of coupon competition
(Samsung has struck back with a similar scheme) would have been simply unthinkable
back in Jobs’ time. Apple’s slogan “think different” implied paying a premium for an
exclusive product. The firm’s financial health was based on this premise. There is no other
company that earns so much with so little: upgrading from a 16-gigabyte iPad to a 32-
gigabyte one, which costs Apple 17 dollars more, sets consumers back an additional 100
dollars. For every iPhone it sells, Apple’s profit margin is as much as 53 percent, while an
iPad Mini “only” brings in a 40 percent margin, a figure that remains unrivaled in the
market. Given these numbers, there is a logical resistance to joining any kind of price war.
But right now there is no choice. Everything seems to indicate (Apple never talks about
its projects) that the company will launch a cheap iPhone for Asia. The consulting firm
Piper Jaffray holds that 75 million units will be sold in 2014...as long as the price remains
below 300 dollars.
Recommendation

a) CHILD LABOUR ISSUE

The Republic Of China has been generally abusing underage children to do the
economic job while they manage to cut down the wages by paying less than
normal amount to the underage child. Using the false introduction of the job to
the student, the company said that student need to work atleast 3 month to gain
experience. This is total wrong and abuse child underage that suppose goes to
school to learn have adventure and many more but instead forced them to work
overtime just to reach the demand of Iphone daily.

The Republic of China need to generate a strict labor act that can withstand
child abuse like The Sri Lankan government has adopted both the ILO
“Convention on Minimum Age to Employment (set at age 18), 1973 (No.138) and
Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 1999 (No.182).” The Sri Lankan
government has set a goal of achieving “Zero Worst Forms of Child Labor in
2016.” Republic of China and Apple Inc. should have measure this activity as one
the major event to obtain a good company prospect that can implement a good
relationship for the worker well being outside of the company.

Additional through this, social economic of the worker could also be improve
through increase of they daily wages that could meet their normal basis of
overtime and cover up for their misleading of abusing the workers to work
overtime.

Next, Education is the most powerful tool to prevent children working fulltime as
laborers. For instance, in developing countries accessibility of schools is a major
issue (located faraway) and the quality of education is so poor that parents do
not want to enroll their children in school. Further, enhancing the quality of basic
education and increasing accessibility will help to reduce child labor in
developing countries to emphasize that the public budgets in education are
insufficient in developing countries.
b) SALES
Apple Inc. need to develop a good relationship with The Republic of China
goverment, where Apple Inc. can start favour up some of the social donation that
would have to ease the citizen problem of starvation, homeless problem and
supplying of the school for their learning program. This would be a good example
that an American brand is actually care for their customer country and this would
act as Corporate Social Responsilibities for Apple Inc.

This issue will eventualy help to increase the the market sales for Iphone Inc. this
is because they would believe a good action will lead to a good outcome.and that
for, they will look Apple Inc. as a good brand to spend and use for their daily life.

Other than that, Apple Inc. need to create more job advantage to win the citizen
of China’s heart.

c) FINANCE

Approach liquidation companies or sell via online marketplaces

Apple Inc. in India should try selling the excess stock on sites example customer
able to reach using Cash On Delivery (COD) methods. While this route might
take a little bit of time to explore, Apple Inc. need to create product pages for
them, for example they can be great solutions if you have problematic stock that
you just can’t seem to shift.

Alternatively, Apple Inc. should approach a liquidation company and simply sell
on your inventory surplus to organizations that specialize in buying excess stock
from merchants. These organizations tend to pick and choose items, though, and
buy at the lowest possible price point.

Give items away as incentives (or freebies!)

If some of Apple Inc. inventory surplus is comprised of low-cost items, why not
consider giving them away? Especially if they are very tough to sell despite Apple
Inc. best efforts. For instance, Apple Inc. could use some as a bribe or reward for
signing up to Apple Inc. email newsletter, spending a some amount, or for buying
a particular product. This, in the long-term, can lead to sales Apple Inc. otherwise
would not have made.

Sell the stock at a strategic discount

Apple Inc. can try incremental discounting to get rid of items that just won’t sell.
Start with 10%, then up it to 20%, 25%, 30%, and beyond if Apple inc. need to.
Obviously, if the stock starts flying out the gate at a 20% discount then Apple Inc.
won’t be rushing to up it to 30%.
Conclusion

With completing the Apple Inc. case study of overall past year, I was able to
benefit from a variety of a new things from the Apple Inc. itself full of exciting new
development of business and new developing system every year.

The biggest hurdle that Apple Inc. need to overcome was when thread of a new
entrants. The economies of scale is fairly difficult to achieve in the industry in which
Apple Inc operates. Due to those