Introduction

Apple Inc.’s iphone

Introduction

Ever since the company announced the plans to launch the iPhone in 2007, there was a strong buzz among the customers who hoped to purchase the product as soon as the iPhone was launched. The reason behind the same was revolutionary phone, and featured various other features such as touch screen and high memory capacity. Few of the analysts was of the opinion that the phone was among the best launches. In addition to the capture of the Us mobile market share, apple strived to cover the market for its phone. In November 2007, the company launched

the phone in three European markets UK, Germany and France. Though Apple received a strong response in the sales of the market it later dropped owing to the deficiency of 3g capacity

1. Main reason for Iphone success in America

Iphone is a pioneer in the market and product of Apple Inc. a premium company based in US. The company is well known for the establishment of the innovative electronic tools and iPhone is one major innovative mobile phone developed by the company. The company started production of iPhone since 2005 and after that it launched different models in the market. The major reason for the success of iPhone in America is the fact that it is easy while using and the proper customer service offered by the company across different stores. The product ranks high in various features such as multi touch screen, Wi-Fi system and high memory. The revolutionary feature of the company in terms of affordability and competitive price has made it a successful one (Castelluccio 2017). There are various other reasons for the success of the iPhone in America that is the mouth marketing, television campaign, advanced feature in terms of flexibility and celebrity marketing. iPhone is successful because the hardware and software is structured to perform with each other and increase the interface. Furthermore, the phone comes with incredible feature and popular camera. Hence, the success is based on the following five traits:

1. Mouth marketing – even termed as mouth advertising is done through local identity all over America
2. television campaign – Hello tagline of the company launched in June

• higher features – advanced features provides the maximum benefit to the product

1. flexibility – Not only did it provided the phone but even the solution to use it
2. celebrity marketing – another marketing strategy where people follow their loved actors

2. Success of iPhone in Europe as compared to success in America from the existing competitors like Nokia, HTC and BlackBerry

At the initial journey of iphone, the company performed successfully in Europe. Initially the iPhone was launched in Germany, France and UK in the year 2007. The initial response was highly appreciated however at the later stage there was high struggle. The success was not that much as it was in America (Chulkov & Nizovtsev 2014). The main reasons why the company could not be so successful in Europe are:

• Not sharing the revenue – the revenue share of the handset was non prevalent in Europe. The revenue sharing of Apple faced protest from Telefonica
• Link with the single operator – The Europeon law prohibited companies from linking with the partners in a manner that customers is needed to buy only a single product to get others. It is a hindrance for the global strategy of Apple for linking with the network operations. Hence, they were unable to take the profit share from the European market.

Customer Behavior:

The strategy of linking with a single operator will never work in Europe as the European customers were familiar with the usage of any network operator of their selection (Chulkov & Nizovtsev 2014).

High price

In the European market, the price stood high in comparison to others. It is another apt reason why the product could succeed in the European market.

3. Formulating strategy for Apple and a marketing plan in Europe.

The success of iPhone in England was strong and moderate success was observed in France but the scenario was different in Germany and was a bad performance even though the market was bigger as compared to the France or England. When Apple was launched in the European market, there were issues at the initial point of time. The plans for Apple in the Europe market can be as follows:

• Reduction of the third party distributor will help Apple in reduction of the price and commission will be reduced.
• The iphone price will be reduced if it goes for the process of direct selling
• The selection of local network for selling the iPhones can be a great boost
• Through the selection of a prepaid network instead of postpaid, Apple can avoid the contract selling from the initial stage in Europe.
• Launching of software that will help in disabling the unlocking will help the company to prosper.

In Europe there are higher concern when it comes to environment hence Apple can follow holistic campaigning of marketing for the Europe market as cautious nature of the Apple regarding the harmful material Brominates and Polyvinyl Chloride before the launch will help it to have a command on the Europe market.

4. Apple’s pricing policy 

Yes, as per opinion the pricing policy of Apple will enable the company in attaining the market share. When iPhone was introduced in the market, the iPhone was launched in a frenzy that even the premium price was not a blockage to it. Apple comprises of a 50% margin on the iPhone (Xing 2020).

Yes, the drop in the pricing was a perfect strategy. The drop in the price was one-third of the actual market price took everyone by surprise. After the drop in price, the Iphone sale increased from 9000 units per day to 27,000 units per day. Towards the end of September 2007, the company had a whooping sale of 1,389,000 units in comparison to the estimation of 75,000 units at the initial price (Xing 2020). Though Apple had few issues while dropping the price however they managed it effectively. The company issued a public apology on the official website and credited $100 to everyone who purchased at the introductory price. The high pricing at the beginning and the sudden drop in the iphone price by Apple was one of the best strategy as it helped the company in earning huge profits from the early customers and even helped to attain a better market share.

References

Castelluccio, M. (2017). The iphone and the mobile revolution. Strategic Finance, 99(4), 55-56. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/iphone-mobile-revolution/docview/1947782258/se-2?accountid=30552

Chulkov, D., & Nizovtsev, D. (2014). Economics of apple iphone: price discrimination or pricing error? Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 20(1), 49-53. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/economics-apple-iphone-price-discrimination/docview/1647822306/se-2?accountid=30552

Xing, Y. (2020). How the iPhone widens the U.S. trade deficit with china: The case of the iPhone X. Frontiers of Economics in China, 15(4), 642-658. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3868/s060-011-020-0026-8