Product Assessment
Mary Stewart MKT 100
July 29, 2012 Charla Session-Reed

Apple is undoubtedly the world's largest and most innovative companies. Their products can always call attention from all over the world, which can promote the company's rapid growth. However, as the market become more mature and there is more competition involved, Apple’s investors should not only pay attention to the company’s opportunities, but also guard the possible threat. Now, the largest threat which Apple is facing is how to develop itself after the Steve Jobs era. Facing this challenge, the best practice for Apple is realizing the pressure and keeping in step with the times.

People generally believe that Steve Jobs is the foundation and the driving force of Apple's innovation culture. It is Jobs who bring Apple from the brink of collapse to a global industry leader and one of the most respected brands. From Apple's perspective, we believe that the company's future product blueprint has been basically established within the following two or three years. So the death of Steve Jobs will not affect short-term operations. The main longer-term challenge for Apple depends on whether it can continue to foster the same culture of innovation and the policy of consumer-oriented development approach. Culture is one of the buzzwords of business school, although it cannot be measured, designed or institutionalized. However, we all know that a strong culture always plays a huge role to the company's success and brand recognition. Over the years, Steve Jobs created the apple culture. Therefore, his departure marks the end of an era to the company. Apple needs to rebuild this invisible driving force in order to create the next "breakthrough product" and continue to lead the industry.

Mac computers, iPod, iPhone and IPAD can defeat Google, Microsoft and other companies competing products and become one of the world's most valuable company in Steve Jobs’ era. As competition intensifies, in order to maintain the leading position in the industry in the future, the driving force is indispensable. In the smart phone field, Samsung is Apple's biggest competitors. Samsung and other global competitors continue to raise, the next Google Android operating system will become the most powerful competitors.

As a user of Apple products, I bought NANO3, Ipad2, and continue to wait for iphone5 release. As a consumer, I choose Apple's products mainly for the following reasons:

First, the appearance of their produces is simple and fashion.

Second, there is a wide range of software for me to choose.

Third, the price is acceptable.

But all these factors can actually be found in many other company’s products. So I spent some time thinking about it and continue to ask myself—why I choose Apple products. I have come to my final answer: My choice is not only a tablet PC, but a wide range of applications and a strong after-sales service. In short, the magic thing is not the IPAD itself, but IPAD plus ITunes and the service. All of these together are the reason why I am willing to buy the Apple brand and loyalty to it. Imagine that if Apple gives up its own ITunes system but equipped with Andrews, then simply with iPhone’s appearance, can it attract so many users of all ages? If one day, IPAD and IPhone cannot be synchronized through ITUNES, then will there still be so many users choose to buy an IPhone and also buy an IPAD at the same time. In my case, I would prefer to buy a pink Blackberry phone and an IPAD, but not a high-priced IPhone5. Maybe this is just my side of the story and my personal preference, but I think that Apple's future development will largely depends on the links between the various products and ITUNES synchronization’s development and innovation. Because Apple's most unusual places are – if you choose to buy the product of Apple, you must choose ITunes at the same time.

When we all believe that Apple is well