Business Essay Sample: The Factors Contributing to the Financial Success of Apple Company

Abstract

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The objective of this extended essay is to answer the research question "How has a shift to E-commerce helped shape the profitability and financial growth in Apple Inc. Corporation?" The research question above is answered by applying the three business management models; Ansoff matrix, BCG matrix, and marketing mix, 4 Ps models to determine how e-commerce services have helped Apple Inc. Corporation improves its financial growth and profitability in the past years. The information used in this study is obtained from secondary sources such as online magazines, government documents, articles, and books.

The acquired sources demonstrated that Apple has launched different products and services that aim at improving its revenue income; thus, resulting in better financial growth. E-commerce services such as iTunes, Apple Pay, and products like Apple Watch and Apple TV are among the key indicators of development in the recent years. The sources further showed that Apple's revenue income has significantly increased due to the expansion of the market share. These sources also showed that Apple Inc. The corporation is becoming the giant of e-commerce business in the world today. The company has embraced the need to respond and meet its customers' needs. The executive led by the CEO, Tim Cook has taken great steps to maintain the legacy of the co-founder Steve Jobs of maintaining the innovativeness in Apple Inc. Corporation.

This essay concludes that e-commerce has significantly influenced the financial growth of Apple Inc. Corporation. Despite the challenges in other segment markets, Apple still remains a top performing and leading Technology Corporation in the world today.

Word Count: 260

Introduction

The business environment is affected by many factors; however, technology seems to be the greatest factor that affects every aspect of the modern business world. As the companies continue to experience both physical and virtual changes in their operational environment, they have also to deal with the increasing and ever-changing demands or expectations of their clients. Therefore, every business tries to meet the needs of its clients anytime and anywhere. Electronic commerce or E-commerce as it will be referred in this study has been widely accepted and acknowledged in various businesses especially with the development and advancement of the internet services and use. The growth of the internet use has rapidly changed the business models on how people carry out their business operations. This extended essay will answer the question "How has a shift to E-commerce helped shape the profitability and financial growth in Apple Inc. Corporation?" Apple Inc. Corporation has undergone various transformations especially after the death of the co-founder, Steve Jobs. In contrary to many people's perception that the company would have collapsed or even reduced its profitability, the company has continued to record remarkable financial improvements and tremendous profitability in the past few years; thus, showing that the company is still on its good shape. Apple Inc. Corporation has always tried to reach out to meet the expectations of its customers. The company's success can be attributed not only to effective and good leadership in the company but to new business strategies like the E-commerce, which has significantly helped improve the company's financial performance and raised its profitability in the previous years. This study will be focusing on the context of financial performance. My previous engagement with this topic has shown that Apple Inc. Corporation's financial performance is one of the factors that have maintained the company in the face of global technology corporations. Apple Company has attained the loyalty of many customers in the market due to its quality and attractive products. As a result, it is important to mention that this study focuses on the introduction of E-commerce services in Apple Inc. Corporation as it is the greatest source of the company's financial and profitability success.

Methodology

This study focused on the factors contributing to the financial success of Apple Company, specifically the E-commerce services. Therefore, a qualitative study of secondary resources was employed in the study to determine how E-commerce has shaped the performance of Apple Inc. Corporation's financial performance in the past years. Data was collected from the secondary sources such as peer-reviewed article journals, online magazines, government documents and books. Since the wide area of the discussion revolves around Apple Company, information regarding the company was very crucial in determining the performance in the past years. This information was also considered crucial in answering the research question directing this study, which required the author to determine how E-commerce has contributed to Apple's financial success.

The collected sources provided more information regarding the company's strategies or approaches which have assisted in analyzing the critical aspects of financial performance of Apple Inc. Corporation. However, through the analysis of the E-commerce's attribution in Apple's financial performance, it is easy to deduce the advantages and effectiveness of the E-commerce strategy in business today.

Theory Used

The incredible profitability and good financial performance of Apple Inc. Corporation has been attributed to good leadership and proper management, which results in good and effective decisions making process and proper planning approaches. The theories used in this study are obtained from the Business and Management unit. Since the goal of this study is to determine how E-commerce has attributed to the better financial performance in Apple Inc. Corporation, the most probable management theories for the study include the Ansoff matrix theory, BCG matrix model, and marketing mix theory 4Ps. The BCG matrix provides the four key areas or aspects of analyzing the development of Apple Inc. Corporation. This theory explains the potential products and services in Apple that contributes to the financial growth and profitability. While examining the previous performance of Apple Company it is clear that its successful financial performance is associated with the various phases of development, which describes the organizational growth through the BCG matrix. Ansoff matrix, on the other hand, provides the dimensions of how the existing and new products in an organization can contribute to the growth and development of the whole company.

Finally, Apple's products have always reached many customers due to the effective marketing techniques that the company chooses; thus, increasing its profitability. Therefore, the marketing mix 4 Ps theory by Jerome McCarthy is also used in this study to determine how the company has designed strategies to help widen its brand recognition across the world. It is the company's sales that lead to better financial performance. Only theories that provided the most effective way to determine how E-commerce has helped Apple Inc. Corporation were used in this study.

Body

Background of the Company

Apple Inc. Corporation is a technology company that designs, manufactures, and markets different mobile and media products such as computers, portable music player (iPods), software products, and networking services. The renowned company products and services include iPad, iPod, Apple TV, MacBooks, iOS and OS-X operating systems, among many other accessories. The company was founded in 1976 with the key phase of the company, co-founder Steve Jobs. However, it was established in 1977 in California. The company has since been in the competitive business environment trying to outdo other competitors. The company has tremendously been in good shape especially after the death of its phase, Steve Jobs in 2008. The death of Steve Jobs would have affected the company in many ways, but it continued expanding its operations and launching new products that have kept its performance at the top in the market. As recorded in Form 10-K report of 2014, Apple Inc. Corporation launched the Apple Watch in September 2014 to not only enhances its financial performance through increased sales but also to meet the expectations of the dynamic consumer demands. Further, the company has also added some other benefits such as iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Macbook App Store, all aiming at improving customer experience with the technology.

Application of Theories in Apple Inc. Corporation

The transformation of Apple into an E-commerce giant started back before 2014; however, it is in 2014 when the company's significant attributions of E-commerce services started to be recorded or given more attention. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook may have picked the good management skills from his predecessor, Steve Jobs who saw the company through most of its trying times. Cook understands that the internet has become an integral part of the modern society many people are starting to rely on the internet for various services. This has led to unprecedented transformations in Apple Company through the way they carry out business operations, governance, and management among other spheres of the company performance.

Marketing Mix, 4Ps

Internet usage has significantly increased over the past years; so businesses are trying to compete with the numbers as well as try to meet the expectations of their customers. Like his predecessor Steve Jobs, Cook has realized that the advent of the internet is an opportunity for the company. Therefore, there is need to infuse the technological innovations to help create new services and products that will attract more customers and retain the already attained ones. Even though many people disagree on the explicit definition of electronic commerce or E-commerce, but the basic meaning is that it revolves carrying out business through the technological platforms and devices such as phone, television, electronic payment (credit cards), money transfer systems, and other online services. Edwards (2014) reports that Apple Company has significantly reduced its of physical products such as iPhones and iPads, but instead increased its online services such as iTunes, iBooks, App Stores which involved 19% of the total company's product and recorded sales of worth $4.4 billion in the first quarter of the year 2014. Edwards (2014) further explains that despite that the E-commerce services is only small part of the Apple's operations, but its performance has shown some remarkable and impressive results; thus, it is considered an effective business strategy for the company. The author further notes that since the launch of different E-commerce services, the company has recorded about 20% profit growth annually. O'Reilly (2014) further notes how Apple is becoming an E-commerce giant company slowly in the market by highlighting some of the services that have placed the company at the top. For example, the expansion of its in-app mo...