CASE STUDY: APPLE INC.

COMPANY 1

Apple Inc. Company

Student’s name

Institutional affiliation
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Case Study on Apple Inc. Company

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in

Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells electronics, computer software, and

online services. It is being considered as one of the largest technology companies alongside

Google, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft. The company was founded in 1976 in the first date

of April in Cupertino, California. The founders of the company included Steve Jobs, Ronald

Wayne, and Steve Wozniak who came together for the initiation of the company. The current of

the Apple Inc. company is none other than Tim Cook who took over on 24th August 2011. The

company deals in the production of products such as watches, IPhone, IPads, Macintosh, TVs

and many more of the electronics that are being supplied all over the world as far as consumer

demand is concerned. According to (Johnson Katherine et al., 2012) the company also has

subsidiaries including apple store, beats electronics, Mobeewave Inc. and much more.

The apple Inc. company has an online store where customers all over the world can make

orders of whatever they need at the position of the sitting and get them delivered wherever they

want. This is majorly made easier as the company offers both retail and whole services.

According to (Yusuf Mohamed et al., 2018) he customers make their orders by just logging into

their various portals created by the company and they choose whatever type order they are

interested in. Through the portal or the account of the customers the orders made are verified and

checked by the company managers who then confirms the payments made by the bidders or the

buyers. The management then officiates the delivery of the goods ordered after payment

confirmation. As said by (Usman at el., 2015) the management ensures that the goods are

released with invoices as per the order requirements. Through this well coordinated procedure of

goods delivery, the customers are assured of a hundred percent security of their orders.
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The company’s devices run on their state of the art software operating system known as

iOS. The services segment is basically composed of app store and licensing sales, as well as well

as some subscription based services such as apple app music. Apple also has contracts with

multiple hardware suppliers, notably Qualcomm (QCOM) be responsible for its semiconductors

and other parts. This makes apple company to cope up with the competitive market.

As one of the biggest companies being in the level of the likes of Google, Facebook and

Microsoft as far as the return profit is concerned, the Apple Inc. company plays an integral role

in the American economy. Being a competitive industry as far as technology is concerned, it

raises the level of competitiveness of the country’s economy hence enabling it to be the one of

the world top economies. This is majorly achieved proper ways put in place by the management

to aid in the management process as far as the growth of the company is concerned. The apple

company also helps build a positive belief on US’ products apart from the electronics in the

world market. While the company produces quality products into the world market, it builds a

name for the country as consumers would mostly believe that the country’s products as being of

high quality. This in turn would increase the sales of other products from the same nation and as

a result the country’s economy would be growing to a notch higher.

The company renders much revenue to the government which can be used for production

of other products which are not electronic related. The so produced products also when sold

injects the money back to the economy thereby maintaining the money supply in the economy.

The stability of the economy makes the government in a better state to strike various economic

sanctions to economies that are a threat. When the company faces low sales (recession) it is

replicated in the country’s cycle. This occurs majorly because of the direct link between the

country’s economy and the company’s return in terms of the sales incurred. This usually occurs
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due to the close relation have with the country’s economy as there would be less income or

revenue rendered to the government hence balancing the economy would seem difficult.

The company has employed a number of individuals just right from the company’s

headquarters down to the retail sector. This makes it a major contributor to the country’s

employment rate as it has several employment opportunities. When there is an interruption

within the company as far as management is concerned, is high chance or possibility that the

employment rate would be affected adversely as a result layoff or retrenchment of employees

would preferably be done in order to keep the organization in a position that it can sustain its

employee wage bill. This in turn would render some employees jobless which would implicate

negativity in the economy.

Furthermore the apple company has connection with several other companies which do

supply it with the raw materials. All this companies contribute directly to the country’s economy

hence when the apple company fails to meet its requirements the economy would adversely be

affected. Once the supply is stopped by the apple company in either way then the companies

supplying the raw materials would lack market for their products hence they too would not be in

a position function normally. This finally would be replicated in the country’s economy. Last but

not least, the apple company contributes widely towards the country’s total revenue collection

due its vast net incomes. The tax the company renders to the government annually is very high as

compared to other minor companies hence its low deterioration is major concern for the better

state of the economy. Being one of the major contributors to the country’s economy its failure

would automatically derail the growth of the economy.

The apple company on the hand also provides a platform for a faster movement of goods

within the business cycle. Through its various gadgets such as iPhone, the apple company offers
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a better and a faster platform where the traders find it cheaper and easier to sell their products to

the buyers who suits them. This thus improves the level connectivity between the buyers and

sellers by reducing the duration of transactions. The apple company a hierarchical organizational

structure, with divisional characteristics plus weak functional matrix. The divisional

characteristics deals with the product based grouping within in apple such as iOS and macOS.

The weak functional matrix involves inter divisional collaboration while the structure is

preserved.

Apple Company also has corporate structure which include spoke and wheel hierarchy,

product based divisions, and weak functional matrix. Spoke and wheel hierarchy is like a bird’s

eye view of apple’s structure which has more collaborations among different parts of the

organization such as software teams and the hardware teams. The president, Tim Cook is the

center man and has two senior Vices, one who reports to the president and handles business

functions concerning retail while the other handles worldwide marketing. Product based

divisions being involved in both the upper and lower tiers as an element derived from the

divisional organizational structure. Here there are senior vice presidents and other vice presidents

for different outputs. This structure is used to manage specific products or components that the

company distributes to its clients.

Weak function matrix is a collaborative interactions among the various components of

the business. Here the top management determines project direction while project heads have

limited control. Through this structure the company facilitates information dissemination that is

needed for innovation process. This is a major business strength shown in the SWOT analysis of

Apple Inc. this basically helps the company maintain a strong innovation process that would

support brand development and use of premium strategies.

The apple company last revealed its financial results for its fiscal 2020 third quarter

ended 27th June,2020 where it posted a quarterly revenue of $59.7 billion, which was an increase

of 11% the previous year. The quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.58, up 18%.

International sales accounted for 60% of the quarter’s revenue. This record June quarter growth

was attributed to by double digit growth in both products and services developed in each of the

company’s geographical segments as in accordance to the CEO.’ The company’s Board of

Directors declared a cash dividend of $ 0.82 per share of the company’s common stock. The

dividend was paid on August 13th, 2020 to shareholders of record as of the close of the business

on 10th August, 2020.This was seen as an improvement from the previous year which was

described to have come through due to the improved service delivery by the company employees

who have devoted to improve their level of commitment to serve the many customers of the

apple company who are scattered all over the world.

The apple company’s financial growth has gone a notch higher as compared to the

previous years. This might due to the increased consumption rate which has also gone up due to

increased population as claimed by the CEO, (Tim Cook 2020) in his last press briefing while

revealing the financial analysis of the third quarter. Also according to(Yager, 2020), Financial

Analysis Apple link, the rise must have been brought forth following the improved services

offered by a hundred thousand Apple Inc employees who are all over the world.
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References

Johnson, K., Li, Y, Phan, H., singer,J., ang Trinh, H .,(2015) The Innovative Success That Is

Apple Inc. retrieved from:https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

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Press Release (2020).Apple Report on third Quarter Results accessed from:

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%20%242.58%2C%20up%2018%20percent.

Usman, A, Noor, M, and Shabir, A (2015). A Critical Analysis Of Internal And External

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from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Md_Alam136/publication/282274921_A_CRI

TICAL_ANALYSIS_OF_INTERNAL_AND_EXTERNAL_ENVIRONMENT_OF_AP

PLE_INC/links/56ff003908aea6b77468d502/A-CRITICAL-ANALYSIS-OF-

INTERNAL-AND-EXTERNAL-ENVIRONMENT-OF-APPLE-INC.pdf

Yanger, B. (2020). Financial Analysis Apple Inc.

https://www.academia.edu/12162206/Financial_Analysis_Apple_Inc accessed

from:https://www.academia.edu/12162206/Financial_Analysis_Apple_Inc

Yusoff, M., & Husnina, N. (2018). Determinants of Risks and Performance in Apple Inc.

Available at:https://ssrn.com/abstract=3181705 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3181705