Unit_VI_Scholarly_Activity.doc Unit VI Scholarly Activity MBA 5501 Marketing Plan: A

Unit_VI_Scholarly_Activity.doc    Unit VI Scholarly Activity  MBA 5501  Marketing Plan: Apple Inc.  Company Background  Apple Inc. is an American information technology firm located in Cupertino. In its nascent stages, the company focused solely on the manufacture and sale of personal computers. Since then, the company has grown exponentially and has established itself as a leader in information technology innovation. Today, Apple is a valuable mobile phone manufacturer with an estimated market capitalization of over $500 billion. Moreover, the company has expanded its portfolio significantly to include operating systems, media players, mobile phones, tablets, home appliances, and computer applications. This paper will provide an analysis of the marketing strategies applied by Apple Inc. to discover their strengths and drawbacks. It will also highlight the company's competitive advantage over its main competitors in the information technology industry.  Competitive Analysis  Apple Inc. operates under significant competitive pressure. Its main competitors are other manufacturers/developers of computer hardware and software, which include Google, Microsoft, and Samsung (Aljafari, 2016). Microsoft is a dominant player in the computing industry. The company has differentiated itself from other computer software developers through consumer value and product uniqueness (Fast, reliable, user-friendly operating system) (Aljafari, 2016). The windows operating system is incredibly popular around the world, which is