APPLE MANAGEMENT CASE

Apple Management Case

[Name of the Institute]

Apple Management Case

Introduction

The development of mobile technology has much of its history in the evolution of the cellular phone. From simple cell phones to modern smart phones, this technology still dominates the marketplace for devices used to connect with other phones and to the Internet. Phone technology has evolved through several generations, which has allowed for increasing capabilities. In the earlier days, 2G (known as GSM: Global System for Mobile communication) used digital signals and integrated a modem to call dial-up Internet service numbers provided by the phone carrier (Clark,2000,14-25). This technology was relatively slow compared to the subset of 2G mobile phones that were able to browse the Internet via a Wireless Application Browser (WAP) installed on the device, which enabled text messaging for the first time. The next generation, 2.5G, or GPRS: General Packet Radio Service was a significant advancement in data speed network over the previous generation; it more readily supported data-centric applications such as e-mail, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), and Web browsing.

Smart phone & Tablet industry

Macro-Frameworks

Political Factors

The major political factors associated in relation to the smart phone and tablets are the impact of exports due to the political barriers, and tariffs. Thus may harm the manufacturing capability of Apple if the political condition of the countries importing smart phones is not stable with the home country. In addition, the security, confidentiality and integrity of the RFID system are also important things to consider. Especially, when the wireless technology, RFID tags cause potential security problems when users between tags and readers are exposed to listening, and traffic analysis. Safety concerns may arise from a compromise of data during wireless transmission, storage and physical security of the storage site. Supply chain applications can be particularly vulnerable to security risks, because the variety of external entities can use the tags or their associated databases (Carlsson, 2003, 10-60).

Social Factors

In the case of individual consumer markets, the main target market is formed by high-income professionals who need a portable device to coordinate their agendas and to communicate with family and colleagues. These consumers prefer low prices functional PDA with expandable memory. The secondary group consists of university undergraduate students and graduate students who need to organize studies, work and personal calendar, access and input information from anywhere at any time keeping in touch with family and friends (Carlsson,2003,10-60). For businesses, the target market is composed of medium and large enterprises that want to keep their employees in regular contact and have access to relevant information anywhere, anytime. The second segment in this market consists of organizational entrepreneurs and small business owners who need to stay in permanent contract with the company and organize schedule at any time. A third segment is formed by users related to the world of health, especially doctors and nurses who want to get a quicker and more up to date records of their patients (Barney, 2006, 56). However, the rapidly changing consumer preferences and the industry dynamics had been exerting ...