Apple Computer was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, their mission was to bring an easy-to-use computer. Their first computer was the Apple II, which was a simple computer that consumers could use straight out of the box. The company's main competitive advantages are marketing, innovative hardware design, technical elegance and research and development.
The PC industry is an industry that is always evolving and reinventing themselves in order to achieve more market share. In the past 20 years the PC industry has changed a great deal, even though Apple pioneered the first usable personal computer, IBM was the company that brought PCs into the mainstream. In the 1980s, most PC buyers were business managers who were inexperienced first-time buyers. By the 1990s consumers became more knowledgeable and a variety of alternative channels emerged The competitive environment in the PC industry is determined by which company holds the most market share. In the case of Apple, their competitors are all "Wintel" PC manufacturers, therefore Apple offers the alternative to customers who do not want to buy a "Wintel" based computer. In 1006 the top three pc vendors were Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo, all of which accounted for 40% of all PC shipments. Dell centers their business model on direct-sales and built-to-order manufacturing. This model helped Dell to reduce costs and maintain high margins while undercutting prices. Since Apple's competitors all function under the same operating system platforms, their main advantage over Apple are their pricing strategies which help them to offer more competitive prices. Apple has to compete more intensely because they are the alternative product; this means they have to attract customers by promoting the bene ...