Apple’s capabilities for competitive advantage

An organization should have unique capabilities to have a long run existence and to
gain a competitive advantage, having only threshold capabilities do not create a
competitive advantage. Unique resources are resources that critically underpin
competitive advantage and that others cannot easily imitate or obtain.

Core competences are the activities and processes through which resources are
deployed in such a way as to achieve competitive advantage in ways that others cannot
imitate or obtain (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2005).

Unique design capability

The designs of electronic products have been almost similar for long time. But Apple
came with a unique user interface design by considering the screen, touch pad, battery
and other better functionality in its products. The unique design of the company’s
products like Ipod , Imac and Iphone has a major impact for the success of the company
and for the products to be on top over the competitors. Apple always focuses on quality
and differentiation for a better looks. The competitors of Apple like Google, Microsoft,
HP, etc should have to be aware of the unique design of Apple to be able to compete in
the electronic market. 

Innovation capability
During the competitive pressure of today’s rapid advanced technology, Apple focuses its
competing strategy on innovation. By combining technological knowledge with a new
idea of selling music online, Apple came up with a revolutionary Ipod music player and
Itunes which becomes most popular in the whole music industry. Apple continues
designing its innovative products like ease to use desktop computers, iphones and Ipad
to maintaine its reputation from its consumers.

The company invests little in research and development when compared to other
competitors. It spends only 3.7 percent of its revenue on R&D. The founder and CEO of
Apple Steve Jobs doesn’t believe that innovation has something to do on investing a lot
of money on R&D rather innovation is about the knowledge of the people that the
company has and the way how to deploy them and how much to get from it (Plantes
2008). Rather than focusing on existing products and services, Apple’s core competitive
strategy is innovation of new product design with exceptional elegant easy- of-use
around customer experience.
Powerful Brand Image
Apple has a powerful brand name which is highly recognized in the entire personal
computer industry as well as in the consumer electronic industry. The company’s
product strategy is to create innovative products and to satisfy its customers through its
high quality of services.

The Apple brand personality focuses on simplicity and the removal of complexity from
people’s lives; people-driven product design; and about being a really humanistic
company with a heartfelt connection with its customers.

The popular innovative creations of Apple products are Imac, Ipod, Iphone and OS X
operating system. It also revolutionized the music industry through its ITunes. The
launch of this products helped Apple to gain a reputation of its high brand image and
customer loyalty.

As mentioned earlier in the company’s strength, Apple’s brand value $ 21,143 billion
during 2010 and become the fastest growing worldwide. The Brand also considered as a
symbol of technological modernity and the company uses it to compete with its high
competitive market. Having a powerful brand image is a unique competence which
helped the company to gain a competitive advantage by gaining customer loyalty.