Apple aims to expand by opening new stores and creating new products; thus, product development is a suitable growth strategy.
The approach to increase the number of customers and open hundreds of new stores based on implementing new products is beneficial today. Apple is well-known for the innovations they continuously work on (Bala et al., 2017). Product development means a firm’s expansion is based on creating new goods or improving the existing ones (Golder and Mitra, 2018). The SMART objectives require goals to be realistic and measurable; therefore, new tools must consider actual production and critically evaluate implementation outcomes (Bjerke and Renger, 2017). The strategy is suitable for Apple because they dedicate funding and human resources to innovation, improvement, and releasing novelties (Hajiheydari and Alibakhshi, 2018). Besides, Apple is already involved in various worldwide markets such as software, computers, phones, and applications and can enforce their positions through product development.
For instance, that strategy was the exact way for Apple to survive and maintain growth in the nineties. The Macintosh software’s continuous improvement helped them stay competitive when Microsoft was the leader and open-source programs like Linux appeared (Chatterjee et al., 2019). The company also prepared and announced various updates for their computers’ hardware and expanded by entering other countries’ markets (Cooper, 2019). Product development was critical for Apple when the difficulties occurred because the strategy implementation prevented losing customers’ loyalty.
Furthermore, the recent practical example of product development as a strategy to get more customers for Apple is their 2020’s AirPods Max headphones release. The new gadget encouraged professional studio musicians or filmmakers to become consumers of the company’s goods (Kahn, 2018). The approach of releasing new tools for a specific audience is profound for firms known for high-quality production (Cusumano et al., 2019). Today, Apple’s leading product is iPhone, and millions of devices are being sold daily worldwide (Chatterjee et al., 2019). Samsung is the company’s significant rival in the given industry as it has also had high-quality production (Tien et al., 2019). Compared to Samsung, Apple has more innovations to offer, and its product development strategy is beneficial for its competitiveness.
Reference List
Bala, H., Massey, A.P. and Montoya, M.M., (2017) ‘The effects of process orientations on collaboration technology use and outcomes in product development’, Journal of Management Information Systems, 34(2), pp.520-559.
Bjerke, M.B. and Renger, R., (2017) ‘Being smart about writing SMART objectives’, Evaluation and Program Planning, 61, pp.125-127.
Chatterjee, N., Goswami, A., Fernandes, A. and Ijas, M., (2019) ‘Comprehensive and conceptual analysis of revival of Apple Inc. in 1997’, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 5(1), pp.549-552.
Cooper, R.G., (2019) ‘The drivers of success in new-product development’, Industrial Marketing Management, 76, pp.36-47.
Cusumano, M.A., Gawer, A. and Yoffie, D.B., (2019) The business of platforms: Strategy in the age of digital competition, innovation, and power. New York: Harper Business.
Golder, P.N. and Mitra, D. eds., (2018) Handbook of research on new product development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Hajiheydari, N. and Alibakhshi, R., (2018) ‘Exploration of application stores’ business model deploying value network and system dynamics approach: Case of Apple App Store’, In Cybernetics and Systems (pp. 491-496). London: Routledge.
Kahn, K.B., (2018) ‘Understanding innovation’, Business Horizons, 61(3), pp.453-460.
Tien, N.H., Long, N.T. and Chi, D.T.P., (2019) ‘Price Policy in International Marketing. Comparative Analysis between Samsung and Apple’, International Journal of Research in Marketing Management and Sales, 1(2), pp.144-147.