The Operations of Apple Inc in the United States of America and China

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and markets consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. It has a wide range of products both software and hardware; the hardware include, iPod, iPhone and the iPad while software includes; iTune, iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software and iWork suite of productivity software.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Operations of Apple Inc in the United States of America and China specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Owing to its emphasis on the philosophy of comprehensive aesthetic design and its distinctive advertising campaigns, the company not only endeared itself to consumers globally but also confirmed its status as a major player in the consumer electronics industry. The fact that the Apple App store can be found in 96 countries globally underpins its scope (Chesbrough Henry, 2003). Apple’s mission stat ement sums what the company is all about. ‘Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and internet offerings. Apple Inc. deploy Apple brand to compete across various competitive markets. These markets include computer industry, the electronics industry and the advertising market. Apple’s product strategy has been instrumental in helping the company to launch and maintain a formidable campaign against its rivals. Apple’s product strategy entails developing innovative products and services that are in sync with a digital hub strategy. Apple Macintosh computer products serve as digital hub for the various Apple digital devices such as the iPod, digital video and still cameras, cellular phones, personal digital assistants and other digital devices. The most recent brand strategy by Apple lays a lot of emphasis on customer experience. It took Apple a long time to penetrate the China market. When iPhone was released in the year 2007, it did not get a positive reception. It was deemed to be unnecessarily overpriced. Apple did not also have an official Chinese distributor. Nevertheless, the product became popular with the affluent Chinese who had more disposable income. Apple eventually got an official distributor for its merchandise. China Unicom, the second largest mobile phone operator in China, obtained the rights to distribute the iPhone in China. A lot of factors are responsible for Apple’s success in China. Apple had an extremely strong series of products starting with the iPod in 2001 to the iPhone in 2007. The level of product differentiation by Apple was unprecedented. It was superior to the ones that existed in the market at the time. Their superb design appealed to a wider audience (Chandler Alfred, 2001).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can h elp you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Apple Inc. in America added to its distribution channels to shore up sales. They opted for distribution channels with high sales volumes such as ATT, Best Buy, and Wal- Mart. These allowed Apple to reach to a wider audience. Apple has also opened retail stores in various major cities around the world in high-end shopping malls in an effort to shore up its sales volumes. In China, Apple teamed up with China Unicom to distribute Apple’s products and services. The formation of strategic alliances is applied in other countries as well. Apple opened its first store in Beijing in the year 2008. It has plans to open twenty five more stores around China in future. The Apple brand is referred to as a premium brand because its competitiveness is not centered on the price of its products and services. Apple does not have to slash the prices of its products and services for it to be competitive. This is because the reduction in prices will not only lead to reduced profits but will also erode the value of the company’s shares (Carlton Jim, 1997). The reduction of prices is unhealthy for premium brands such as Apple because of price elasticity. Price elasticity is the change in demand for a product in response to the change in price of that product. Premium brands have low price elasticity; change in price of premium products or will not significantly alter the demand for those particular products. Therefore, reducing the prices of premium products is of little consequence if any to its demand. Apple’s price strategy is anchored on the human psychology. Human beings are interesting in that if a product is out of their reach with regard to its price, they will attach more value to it. Affluent consumers will ‘break their banks’ so to speak just to acquire what they intensely desire. This informs Apples price strategy (Grindley Peter, 1995). In the States, Apple’s origina l iPhone recorded obscene sales despite it costing more than its closest competitor. In China, instead of manufacturing affordable products for the Chinese market, Apple opted to wait until the disposable incomes of their target market increased to a level which they could afford to purchase Apple’s core products. A global business environment refers to factors within any business environment that should be considered as they will have a bearing on the performance of a business in that environment. They include, the economic outlook of the region in which the business will operate in, political and social developments, availability of skilled labor, consumer buying behavior, physical infrastructure and the competitive strength of potential rivals.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Operations of Apple Inc in the United States of America and China specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In our countries of choic e, United States and China, the global business environments differ. The United States is a nation that subscribes to capitalism while China subscribes to social communism. The United States has for a long time now has had the largest economy globally. It is only recently that China’s economy has grown exponentially to be the second largest economy in the world. The United States boasts of population with more disposable income which they freely to spend. The governance structures of the two countries are diametrically opposite; hence their respective formal institutions impose statutory rules, regulations and laws which differ (Philip Tushman, 1990). The competitive environment for Apple in the United States favors Apple’s. Nokia found the going hard when Apple’s iPhone superseded Nokia’s Smartphone in sales. Nokia consequently lay off 7000 employees to cut costs. Apple officially became the largest mobile phone company in terms of revenue leaving Nokia with the unenviable title of the largest handset maker in terms of volume. In China the case was no different. Many tabs had flooded the market with better features than those of iPad 2. None challenged Apple’s supremacy. The sleek design together with the app support in the Apple store put the iPad in a class of its own. It is all the rage among affluent consumers in China. Other tablet makers in China are looking to launch tablets that will challenge iPad 2’s dominance. Apple does not target markets. Therein lays the gem that turned the fortunes of this company around for the better. Apple realized that it was the individuals who worked for the companies that Apple was trying to target rather than the company itself who ultimately rejected or accepted a product. Apple targets the end user and allows them to decide where and how they are going to use Apple’s products. Apple focuses on the end user, develops superb products for them, and let’s them decid e on the best way to put the technology to use. Apple uses all forms of media to communicate to its prospective consumers. In the year 2007, Apple’s advertising budget was approximately $467 million to specifically market the iPhone. Apple used all modes of advertising to bring purchasers to its point of sale. These include television, radio, print and digital media. Culture has impacted the operations of Apple in the United States and China. Since the United States has a free and vibrant society, it follows that the consumers will spend freely leading to increase in revenue as a result of increased sales. Apple is free to do whatever it wants to so long as its activities are legal. In America, Apple’s options are endless as it can engage in whatever activity it wishes to (Grant Robert, 1991).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In China, liberal spending is abhorred. This leads low sales Apple’s part considering its products are expensive. Every activity that goes on within the borders of China is monitored by the State. This can be costly to Apple since it has to always confer with the authorities if it wants to engage in any activity hence curtailing its flexibility. Lastly, the only undoing of Apple is the fact that all the power lies with one person, the CEO Steve Jobs. This is risky to the interest of the company. Other managers ought to have jobs delegated to them so that they can learn the ropes of management gradually. If they make any mistakes they are corrected immediately hence if Steve Jobs leaves, the company will be able to run without any hitches. References Carlton, K., Jim, A. (1997). Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunder. New York: Times Business. Chandler, F., Alfred, D. (2001). Inventing the Electronic Century. The Epic Story of the Consumer Electr onics and Computer Industries. New York, NY: Free Press. Chesbrough, P., Henry, J. (2003). Open Innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Grant, L., Robert M. (1991). The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation. California Management Review, 33, (3), 4-22. Grindley, A., Peter, M. (1995). Standards, Strategy, and Policy: Cases and Stories. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Philip, R., Tushman, M. (1990). Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, (4), 604-633. This essay on The Operations of Apple Inc in the United States of America and China was written and submitted by user Haylee Y. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Satis house and entrance Essays

Satis house and entrance Essays Satis house and entrance Paper Satis house and entrance Paper Dickens uses repetition often so it makes the readers think there is a sense of danger and threat. It also causes a bit of humour because the convict keeps saying he will rip out Pips heart and liver.  In the churchyard Pip meets a man called Magwitch who is a convict and Pip knows he is a convict and the readers also do because Dickens says  A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied around his head. A man who ha been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled: and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin. In Dickens day if you didnt wear a hat you were considered not to be a gentlemen and were worthless so this make Pip sense threat.  Dickens uses verbs such as soaked, smothered, lamed and stung. This is to keep the readers visualising what the convict has been through to escape. This also ties in with earlier when the convict says  I wish I was a frog or a eel!  Magwitch says this because he is soaking wet and muddy he has escaped from prison and he wishes he were an eel because hes on the marshes and being an eel would suit him and the environment.  In chapter eight Dickens writes about Miss Havishams house in a dark and creepy manor and this sets the atmosphere for her house. It was paved and clean, but grass was growing in every crevice. And all was empty and disused. The cold wind seemed to blow colder than outside the gate; and it made a shrill noise in howling in and out at the open sides of the brewery, like the noise of the wind in the rigging of a ship at sea.  The world shrill noise gives the readers a unpleasant imagination of what kind of dark noise it. This makes the house sound supernatural and like it is in a world of its own. The house makes Pip feel insecure and it makes him feel like he doesnt know himself. Also the words ship at sea implies that Pip is on a new voyage because he is meeting different people and going on new journeys. In chapter eight Dickens portrays Satis house and explains how the entrance has got two chains across it, which acts as a prison. This shows that Miss Havisham has become a prisoner and has imprisoned herself in her own house.   The great front entrance had two chains across it outside- and the first thing I noticed was that the passages were all dark. This also ties in with chapter one because Miss Havisham has imprisoned herself and Magwitch has escaped from prison. The word dark reveals that Miss Havisham lives in complete darkness because she has imprisoned herself from light because she has closed all the shutters and windows so the light doesnt peer through. Dickens later on writes bout Miss Havishams brewery yard in a very negative way and he implies death is all around and this ties in with chapter one and this is why the brewery yard is deserted.   To be sure it was a deserted place.  Also the word no is repeated often because this reveals that everything in the brewery yard is dead including animal and this is why its deserted.  Later in Great Expectations Dickens writes about how the beer in the empty caskets had turned sour which is a metaphor and this implies with Miss Havisham because she has also turned sour. He also writes about the garden, which he describes as a rank garden and he also writes about how the house is overgrown with tangled weeds. This ties in with chapter one when Pip goes to the churchyard to his parents grave to visualise them and his brothers the grave stones are overgrown with tangled weeds. Which had a certain sour remembrance of better days lingering about them;  Behind the farthest end of the brewery was a rank garden.  When Pip first enters Miss Havishams house he walks into a dark room which waiting for him is Miss Havisham. When he walks in he sees a ladys a dressing table and back in Dickens days if you had dressing table you were considered to be rich.  And that I made out at first to be a fine ladys dressing table.  When Pip goes into Satis house and meets Miss Havisham he realises that she has a ladys dressing table and that Miss Havisham herself was wearing rich materials like satin, lace and silks. The word white is repeated a varied of times and this makes it incongruous. He also notices that she is not wearing her watch and neither her train and she only has one shoe on this gives the reader the impression Miss Havisham is half arranged. She was dressed in rich materials- satins and lace, and silks- all of white. For she had but one shoe on- the other had was on the table near her hand- her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on.  Dickens uses imagery of death and decay by describing Miss Havisham dress as faded and yellow. This implies that she has also faded and lost her essence and immortality. She has also withered, and has sunken eyes this implies she has lost the passion from her eyes and now her eyes seem to reveal a dark past. She also looked liked a ghastly waxwork, which tells us she seems alive but she is no longer living inside.  Furthermore Dickens writes about how Miss Havisham is half dressed and still trapped in the past with all of her bad memories she cant escape. Miss Havisham is stuck in a time where she doesnt wasnt to forget that she was gilted. Miss Havisham has stopped all the clocks because she doesnt want to forget. Watch had stopped a twenty minutes to nine, and that a clock in the room had stopped at twenty minutes to nine.  Miss Havisham has stopped all the clocks because she doesnt want to forget that awful day. She wants people to know that she was gilted and its like she wants to drag everyone down with her so they can also feel her pain and misery. Miss Havisham because of this sort of inhales all of her pain and misery and thrives off it to sort of survive.   She uttered the word with an eager look, and with strong emphasises, and with a weird smile that had a kind of boast in it. Dickens creates death imagery again by creating Miss Havisham as a dead corpse and describes everything as decayed and which have no expression to them anymore. A shroud covers a dead body so this ties in with the death imagery.  Dickens writes about how Miss Havisham looks like she is wearing grave-clothes or the long veil so like a shroud. So she sat, corpse-like.  Dickens writes about Miss Havisham in a very low and intimidating way. He writes about now the emotional blow from when she was gilted is like physical violence because of he appearance. Her chest had drooped, so that she stooped; and her voice had dropped, so that she spoke low, and with a dead lull upon her; altogether she had the appearance of having drooped, body and soul, within and without, under the weight of a crushing blow.  The first time Pip meets Estelle he gets very intimidated by her and she is very sarcastic towards Pip and this makes Pip feel small. She always calls Pip boy and this intimidates him even more even though theyre about the same age.   But dont loiter boy. She seemed much older than I, of course being a girl and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was a scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen. Later on again Estelle makes Pip feel really small and she intimidates him so much about his hands. This makes Pip feel insecure about his body and also this hurts him inside because he doesnt know who he is anymore.   I had never though of being ashamed of my own hands before; but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it.  The same as Estelle keeps on making Pip feel insecure and makes hi not sure of who he really is. Estelle treats Pip like dog and this is very humiliating for Pip.   As if I was a dog in disgrace. I was humiliated, hurt spurned, offended, angry and sorry.  After Estelle had intimidated Pip about his hands she humiliates Pip about his background and about how he plays cards and what he calls them. Hes always been like a friend to Joe but because now Pip has been taught wrong what the cards are called he feels ashamed and embarrassed and blames Joe for it. They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages. I determined to ask Joe why he had never taught me to call those picture- cards, Jacks, which ought to be called Knaves.  After this Pip is feeling even smaller and very scared. He is scared of Estelle because of the way he was brought up by his sister in a very strict and punishable way. This has made Pip feel sensitive and very vulnerable when around Estelle.   My sisters bringing up had made me sensitive. In the little world in which children have their existence, whoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. In a great part refer the fact that I was morally timid and sensitive.  Dickens creates imaginative and passionate images of people and places by the novel being serialised. Dickens teases us by not telling us more of the story and leaving it exciting and imaginative moments. The favourite image in my mind Dickens has created for me when Pip was stood outside Satis house and entrance and it had chains across it which made it look like a prison you were trapped in. It creates and very strong and dark image in my mind and it was like I was there visualising the entrance of Satis house