Technology Undergraduate Nursing Program -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Technology Undergraduate Nursing Program? Answer: Introduction External environmental analysis is performed by organizations to evaluate their position in the market and to measure the success of their policies and strategies. The present report provides a detailed analysis of the eight domains that define the external environment of a company. The company chosen for the report is Apple Inc. It needs mentioning that the external management analysis that the report proposes to do is not the usual PESTEL analysis. The eight-domain framework has been chosen for analysing the external environment. These eight domains include technological, economic, competitive, labour, resource, customer, legal and regulatory and global environment. Further, the report tries to identify the main opportunities and threats concerning the company (Khan, Alam Alam, 2015). Company overview Apple, Inc. operates from California, USA and spans across the globe having units in almost each country. It is one of worlds most recognized brands dealing with technological solutions, computer and mobile peripherals and other gadgets. The late Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company. The total market share of the company at present is 19.2% in smart phone sale and its revenues for the year 2017 went up to around 3.5 billion dollars. However, the company is facing stiff competition in the smart phone segment from its biggest rival, Samsung. In the segments concerning personal computers and laptops, Apple holds a strong position (Fortune.com., 2018). External Environment Analysis The technological environment of Apple presents itself as a great opportunity for the company as it deals in technology only. The new trends in technology like cloud computing, growth in apps marketing and technological integration have provided great opportunities for the company to expand its business into new geographic and demographic areas. Cloud computing is gradually becoming popular amongst organizations and individuals (Lee, Chan McNabb, 2017). Apple has realized the potential of this emerging technology. The company invests millions in cloud services provided by Google. Furthermore, with the growing market for apps, apple has the capacity to expand its market and broaden its App Store. In addition, the integration of technology has provided a great platform for companies like Apple to produce products that can effortlessly be connected to other devices (Forbes.com., 2018). The company has been able to establish a concrete ground from which it could diversify into other mar kets that promote and encourage technology. The technological environment for Apple hence can be stated to be positive and filled with opportunities. Economic Environment The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the concerned country in which it has its headquarters measures a companys economic environment. Apart from that, the growth of economy in countries where the company has operations also decides its economic environment. Apple is headquartered in the US and its economic environment is affected by the status of economy in the country. It is a positive sign for Apple that the GDP of US is on the rise and showing great trends over the past few decades (Wheelen et al., 2017). Growing at 2% per annum, the GDP of US is likely to provide continuous boost to Apple. In addition, the stable economies of other developed nations where Apple operates also prove to be an opportunity. Further, the trend of fast economic growth in developing nations especially Asia, provides great opportunity for apple in the future (Apple.com., 2018). Although a fall of 14% was recorded in Apples China market, it still has shown growth in other Asian nations. With the rise of new competitions every day, Apple is looking to be as innovative as possible. Competitive Environment In the world of advanced technology, companies like Apple are bound to face intense competition from rapidly evolving tech companies. Among its toughest competition is Samsung, the South Korean giant, which is at present leading in the race of smart phone shipments from Apple. However, Apple leads on overall performance. During the 2012-2013 period, Samsung nearly surpassed Apple on mobile phones revenues. In 2013, the gross revenue of Samsung Mobile Communications stood was 128.2 billion dollars, ahead by 2.3 billion dollars from Apple. The controversial issue of Note 7 batteries overheating and exploding however contributed to the companys decline in the consequent years (Lockamy, 2017). Apart from Samsung, Apple faces stiff competition from companies like BlackBerry, Nokia that is looking to regain its lost position in the mobile phone market and the recently emerging Xiaomi smart phones. In the field of tablets, Apple faces tough competition from Googles Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft. Both Google and Microsoft are the giants in this field with Google being the one slowly making a mark in this field. Google is also a competition for Apple in the entertainment media and applications segment. The Apple iOS on iPhones, iPods, and the iTunes app on Google Play Store are examples of the competition. In the arena of mobile payments, Apple has started to make quick inroads although it has the daunting challenge to beat the traditional players like PayPal (Mann, Medves Vandenkerkhof, 2015). Labour Environment Apples labour environment varies from country to country and from department to department. The countries that manufacture Apple products include China, Philippines, Czech Republic, South Korea and Singapore. China however houses the main factory of Apple known as Foxconn. A look at the recent cases of workers death while manufacturing Apple products in China has bring forth a concerning picture for Apples labour environment. During the end of 2016, news of the death of workers working on Apples new device in China proved to be bigger news than Samsungs battery disaster. The more disturbing part about the news was the cause of the deaths. The workers were reported to have taken their own lives owing to unbearable stress (Pun et al., 2016). Apart from that, no news of worker death has been reported in other countries. Further, the HR department of Apple is very active and promotes quality and equality of labour. The rise in the number of employees tells the fact that Apple does attract huge workforce each year. The total labour force of apple in 2017 was 123, 000 that is an increase of seven thousand from the previous year. Resource Environment Apple being the leading company in tech solutions and devices has abundant resources. The biggest and one of the most important resources, which is capital, is Apples biggest strength. Apart from that, other resources like raw materials, production facilities and machineries are easily available owing to the huge capital the company has. In addition to that, Apple also boasts of a highly motivated staff that comprises technically brilliant minds along with good strategic planners and advisors. The one important aspect gives Apple the reputation it enjoys its human resource. One of the unique features of Apple is that it has human resources that span from the young generation to the extreme older generation. Maintaining this range of human resources if tough but Apple has been able to provide benefits that suit every employee (Giachetti, 2018). In one of its recent endeavours, the company updated its benefits for employees that included longer leave on parental grounds, reimbursement s for educational classes taken by employees, expansion of programs like donation-matching, subsidised student loan and so on. The plan proved to be a great one as is evident from the employee turnover in 2017. Customer Environment Apples customers are diverse and possess mostly the younger generation. The consumers of Apple mainly belong to the high income premium range. The teens are the primary target market for Apple and they are attracted by the premium product offerings of the company including iPods, Macs and iPhones. The customers who have purchased the iPhone for once become loyal to the company as they are impressed by the performance of the products. Apple has a loyal and almost blind customer base who simply buy the products due to the value related to the brand (Brockmann, Stieglitz Cvetkovic, 2015). Apple is a brand that falls in the premium category and the customers of the company also have premium levels of income. The most suitable customers of the company are wealthier and younger. The millennials or the premium group of people tend to be the next best target segment for the organization (Qiu Wan, 2015). The users of Apple spend much more on travel related facilities as compared to the cons umers of the other organizations. The people who own the products of Apple are found to be from a more urban area and they also follow the news related to technology on a regular basis. Legal and Regulatory Environment Apple has entered the sector of financial services with the help if Apple Pay. The levels of the government oversight and regulations that will be faced by Apple can increase due to this step. The offering of financial services of Apple can further increase the issues related to litigation that is faced by the company. Apple is dependent on many products which are related to music, software for the most part of its income. The sale of the various products is related to many laws and regulations which are covered by the laws of intellectual property. This makes the organization vulnerable to the activities including litigation and piracy (Piao Kleiner, 2015). Global Environment Apple was established in the year 1976 and the highly volatile technological industry has evolved a lot since the inception of the organization. The organization has been neglecting the trends in the market and always a targeting a niche market for the promotion and marketing of their products. This has made the company to lose its share in the market after many years of its establishments. The external environment of Apple has an influence on the sales and revenue of the company (Khan, Alam Alam, 2015). Apple needs to adhere to the policies related to tax, restrictions related to imports and the laws related to competition in the country where it operates. The global spectrum of Apple influences business related operations of the company. The issues related to global compliance needs to dealt with in an effective manner. Apple has been famous in the industry globally as the technological innovator and the company has further tried to remain relevant in the market and keep their ope rations ahead of the competitors. Apple has been operating in the industry is a profitable since its inception and the major reason behind this being the loyal customer base of the company (Dong Zhang, 2016). Interpretation and Discussion The market potential of the smartphones and their huge craze in the market is a huge opportunity for Apple to flourish their operations. The smartphone market is growing with a fast pace and this huge potential can help Apple in growing their revenues and profitability. The advancement of technological environment is another major opportunity for Apple to increase the market growth. Apple has been launching unique products from the time of its inception and the consumers therefore expect highly innovative products from the company. The people have started becoming much more dependent and addicted towards technology and the power of spending among the consumers has also increased (Chuang, Morgan Robson, 2015). This will act as a major boom to the market growth of Apple. Another major opportunity for the organization is related to the geographic expansion of the operations of Apple. The market is likely to grow in the future and this will provide huge opportunities for Apple in the in dustry. The market of accessories related to mobile phones is also growing quite fast and Apple can encash its opportunities in this market and increase its revenues (Chen et al., 2015). Main Threats The biggest threat related to the growth of the market of Apple iPhone is mainly the growth of the operating systems of smartphones based on Android. The mobile operating has been taken by storm by the launch of the Android in the market by Google. Major threat to the market expansion and growth of Apple is the competition that is provided by Samsung. The power of android based phones has been depicted to the world by the phones launched by Samsung. The products that have been launched by Apple in the past few years have been lacking in the innovation related features (Gandomi Haider, 2015). The high expectations of the consumers related to innovative products of the company have put immense pressure on the revenues of the company. This is a major threat to the growth of the company in the future and the ways by which they can increase their profitability. The brand has been losing its shine since the last few years after the death of Steve Jobs and the change of CEO. The changes th at have occurred in the leadership of the organization has affected the innovation levels of Apple. The launch of a single product which is innovative in nature will help in improving the brand value of Apple (Lustgarten, 2015). Conclusion The report can be concluded by stating that the factors related to external changes in the environment have caused many changes in the operations of Apple. The changes in the mobile technologies in the global world have led to changes in the products and the offerings of the company. The demands of the customers have also changed with the fast growth in the smartphone market. The threats related to the revenues and the growth of the company has also increased in the last few years after the death of the CEO of the company Steve Jobs. The levels of innovations have decreased which has led to the loss in the customers of the organization. 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