Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Apple Inc. has effectively managed to be a successful company in a very competitive consumer electronics industry. It has innovated and differentiated the company’s products with similar products in the markets by offering high quality products and good customer service. The company has set high standards that even the company itself has to be on its level best to maintain the standards that it has set.

Apple is a multinational corporation with products that belong in different industries, because of this, apple has several marketing strategies to fill out its duty for each set of products, one of these strategies is called strategic alliance. The strategic alliance strategy helps Apple learn from competitors, manage risk, and share costs. One of apple's most notable alliances is apple's alliance with AT&T in production and launching of the iPhone. Another notable alliance is Apple's alliance with Microsoft. Under this alliance, Microsoft agreed to develop Microsoft Office software for the Mac and in return, Apple agreed to bundle Internet Explorer in all of Apple Computers.

Another strategy that plays an important role in Apple's success is called the differentiation strategy. This strategy has helped apple stand out from the competition by focusing on design quality. Apple offers sufficient hardware and software features that allow its consumers a high quality user experience. It is on the high-end market because of their hardware, which are made to provide high value for the money. Apple's computers are made from the same company unlike windows computers which are made from dozens of different manufacturers. All this has helped Apple stand from competition and till this day continue to do so.