Apple Computer, Inc.: Maintaining the Music Business while Introducing iPhone and Apple TV
1. Describe the key strategic challenges facing Apple Computer.
Apple Computer's key strategic challenges are its need to keep innovating, finding ways to convey the Apple experience, changing its U.S.-centric strategy to a global one, and preparing a successor for Steve Jobs (Sorman-Nilsson, 2008; Steinbock, 2010; Meyer, 2011). Innovation is Apple's calling card and the primary reason it has managed to stay ahead of its competitors in the marketplace. Apple's constant press to innovate is what drives consumers that already own an iPod Touch or an iPhone to keep buying the latest versions as they are released; each one has new features that make it irresistible. As Sorman-Nilsson (2008) points out, while innovation is everywhere in an Apple store, from the store front to the display windows, product shelves, elevators, and training theater. However, most Apple products are not sold from Apple stores, and Apple needs to find ways to incorporate this innovative touch in the other stores that sell them. Finding ways to convey the Apple experience outside the confines of Apple's own stores and web sites is a problem that Apple has yet to solve satisfactorily. Just as pressing a problem is its U.S.-centric strategy that needs to go global. As the Harvard Business Review's Dan Steinbock notes, when Nokia releases a new model, it is a global event because Finland-based Nokia has a global strategy that brings in 99.3% of its revenues from outside of Finland, but Apple's strategy brings in 60% of its sales from America. This means that when the American market reaches saturation, Apple will be at a crossroads. Finally, Steve Jobs has been the key driver of Apple's success. He infuses his personality and values into all that Apple does. Given his health issues and the fact that even in good health no one lives forever, Apple nee...