Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

The SWOT analysis is made up of Apple’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Each segment will be analyzed as an independent component followed by a conclusion.

Strengths :

1. Customer loyalty combined with expanding closed ecosystem
2. Apple is a leading innovator in mobile device technology
3. Strong financial performance ($10,000,000,000 cash, gross profit margin 43.9% and no debt)
4. Brand reputation
5. Retail stores
6. Strong marketing and advertising teams

Weaknesses :

1. High prices
2. Incompatibility with different OS
3. Decreasing market share
4. Patent infringements
5. Further changes in management
6. Defects of new products
7. Long-term gross margin decline

Opportunities : 

1. High demand of iPad mini and iPhone 5
2. iTV launch
3. Emergence of the new provider of application processors
4. Growth of tablet and smartphone markets
5. Obtaining patents through acquisitions
6. Damages from patent infringements
7. Strong growth of mobile advertising market
8. Increasing demand for cloud based services

Threats :

1. Rapid technological change
2. 2013 tax increases
3. Rising pay levels for Foxconn workers
4. Breached IP rights
5. Price pressure from Samsung over key components
6. Strong dollar
7. Android OS growth
8. Competitors moves in online music market