Apple's Competitive Advantage in Smart Phone's Hyper Competitive Environment

Competitive Environment
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Understanding the dynamics of an industry is important for any business manager. It allows him to have a better appreciation of both the internal and external circumstances that affects the success of the business and use its unique advantages towards the success of the firm. Accordingly, this paper would focus on the hyper-competitive environment of the smartphone industry as well as the competitive advantage of Apple as one of the leading smartphone manufacturers in the world. This includes its unique product offering, the perception of the public towards the brand, and even the effects of various external circumstances towards its success. All in all, the author believes that similar to Apple, it is possible to maintain a unique competitive advantage within a saturated and hyper competitive industry.
The Smartphone Industry
The Smartphone industry is one of the most hypercompetitive industries in the world. Although there were inconsistencies in current reports, there are an estimated number of around 7000 different smartphone brands that are produced all over the world. These brands differ in their product offerings, their target market, and even the quality of their products, which is the reason why even smaller manufacturers were able to find their niche market CITATION Kim21 \l 1033 (Kimovil.com, 2021). Nonetheless, despite the sheer number of competitors, several smartphone producers occupy the bulk of the market share with current reports showing the top three brands being Samsung (19%), Xiaomi (17%), and Apple (14%) CITATION Xia21 \l 1033 (Canalys.com, 2021). Nonetheless, the sheer volume of Smartphone competitors, together with the significant fluctuations in market share between these top competitors is the reason why the industry has been hypercompetitive ever since its inception.
Competitive Advantages
Despite these challenges, it must be noted that some of the competitive advantages that Apple has over other providers are; (1) its brand equity and (2) its research and development.
One of the most important competitive advantage that Apple has is its brand equity. Apple was a company that has been famous all over the world ever since 1976. Nonetheless, it become a leading player in the smartphone industry when it launched the iPhone back in 2007, which also established its reputation as an innovator and a premium provider of smartphone products. Because of this reputation, the company (and its logo) has become a cultural icon, which establishes its premium and high-quality appeal, which is the reason why most iPhones released have significantl...