Marketing Process

Marketing opportunities
The history of the iPhone line of phones begins with a direction from Steve Jobs to Apple Inc.'s
engineers, whereby he asked them to investigate touchscreens and a tablet computer, which later
came to fruition with the iPad.[1][2][3][4] Also, many have noted the device's similarities to Apple's
previous touch-screen portable device, the Newton MessagePad.[5][6][7][8] Like the Newton, the iPhone
is nearly all screen. Its form factor is credited to Apple's head of design, Jonathan Ive.[3][9]
n April 2003 at the "All Things Digital" executive conference, Jobs expressed his belief that tablet
PCs and traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite
many requests made to him that Apple create another PDA. He did believe that cell phones were
going to become important devices for portable information access, and that what mobile phones
needed to have was excellent synchronization software. At the time, instead of focusing on a followup to their Newton PDA, Jobs had Apple put its energies into the iPod, and the iTunes software
(which can be used to synchronize content with iPod devices), released January 2001. [10][11][12][13] On
September 7, 2005, Apple and Motorola released the ROKR E1, the first mobile phone to
use iTunes. Jobs was unhappy with the ROKR, feeling that having to compromise with a non-Apple
designer (Motorola) prevented Apple from designing the phone they wanted to make. [14] In
September 2006, Apple discontinued support for the ROKR and released a version of iTunes that
included references to an as-yet unknown mobile phone that could display pictures and video. [15] Ed
Zander (Motorola CEO at the time) inspired Steve Jobs with Moto's multimedia (e.g., iTune) +
smartphone product concept. In result, Apple gained new product concept which was named
"iPhone" while Motorola ironically walked away with limited version of iTunes app for Rokr/Slvr.
On January 9, 2007 Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving
substantial media attention,[16] and that it would be released later that year. On June 29, 2007 the first
iPhone was released.
On June 11, 2007 announced at the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that the iPhone
would support third-party applications using theSafari engine on the device. Third parties would
create the Web 2.0 applications and users would access them via the internet.[17] Such applications
appeared even before the release of the iPhone; the first being "OneTrip", a program meant to keep
track of the user's shopping list.[18] On June 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.3 of iTunes to
coincide with the release of the iPhone.[19] This release contains support for iPhone service activation
and syncing.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone is manufactured on contract in
the Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Hon Hai (also known as Foxconn).[20]

Target market:

Marketing mix
Strengths:

Product development. Doesn't invent the market, but its products set high standards for the
market.

Design and utility. Sleek, not clunky. For instance, the desktop computer is part of the
screen, not a separate box with wires; the iPhone has very few buttons and feels nice in the hand.
Products are easy to use, almost intuitive.

Marketing. Clever and takes advantages of people's frustrations with other hardware.

Brand name.

CEO Steve Jobs. Visionary and charismatic.

Weaknesses:

Very proprietary and controlling. Won't open the operating system to outsiders to develop
hardware to work with the products, keeping hardware sales to itself. While this keeps design
control inside and up to standards, it has hurt wide adaptation of its hardware, especially
computers, where it has a relatively small market share. Apple has veto power over Apps sold.

CEO Steve Jobs. He has been described as a control freak and very demanding. When he
dies, the company will take a severe blow. When his health was in the news, his secretiveness
damaged the company's reputation.

Not shareholder-friendly. Has abused option granting in the past and refuses to pay a
dividend despite a huge (and growing) cash level, no debt, and gobs of free cash flow.
Opportunities:

Very loyal customer base which has expanded beyond the Mac-heads of the 1990s with the
iPod and the iPhone. The iPad has had a very successful launch. This seems to be leading to
more sales of computers.

Has a well-deserved reputation for high-quality products that work smoothly. New products
are generally well-received and have a built-in purchasing base.

Move into other computer or media product spaces that are not served well. Can continue to
design the standard-setter for those spaces.

A new version of Apple TV could take advantage of today's more highly developed Web.
Threats:

Big ideas are easy to copy. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT ) copied the graphical user
interface, and even Linux has a version. The touchscreen interface is being used in other phones
(e.g. Android). Apps are being developed for other smart phones and devices.

High-priced products. Apple priced itself out of the personal computer market, and that
remains a problem. Other smartphones that look and behave similarly to the iPhone are less
expensive.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) is moving into Apple's smartphone space by giving away the
operating system, and it has announced that it will also be moving into the TV space. Both
companies are well-funded, so any battle between the two could be long and ugly.