Internal and External Factors of Apple Computers
Globalization, Technology, and E-business are all major factors influencing todays
business world. They influence many of our business related decisions on a daily basis.
Some of these decisions could be deciding to use a computer to order a new desk from
Singapore or using your cell phone to make a conference call in India. Even Apples
management functions are not immune to these critical factors.
Apple began selling personal computers produced in the garage of one of the founders in
1976. They were incorporated in 1977. Apples first important product, the Apple II,
personal computer was released in 1977 and by 1982 sales had increased to over $750
million. (Kimmel, 1998). It was clear that globalization played a big part in this success.
Globalization is becoming a must have for large organizations to excel above their
competition. With that being said globalization has been influential to Apples revenue.
According to Apple, their “international sales accounted for 43 percent of the quarters
revenue” (Dowling, 2005), this is continuing to rise. The rise in revenue is a result of
excellent management and planning. Because of the need to go international, Apple
created a strategic plan to go forward in the direction of globalization. This type of
globalization will involve countries with different needs and different markets. For
instance, planning a marketing scheme must involve the different variables that apply for
each market. When planning globally, company structure must be taken into consideration.
With that being said organization and control go hand in hand.
Organizing the strategy can influence future success in controlling changes. For example,
planning the roll out of a new Apple product and monitoring the response can assist each
department involved to gain positive and negative feedback. After the feedback is received
they can make the necessary changes to the original plan. If organized well, the department
can roll out a similar product in the same market using the lessons learned with relative
ease in the future. Establishing controls decreases the chance for unintended problems and
change. Reducing the number of challenging occurrences will enhance the operation.
Another factor that affects managerial operations at Apple is e-business.
To survive and succeed in todays complex business world, all established industries like
Apple must develop a strategy that allows them to take maximum advantage of the latest
trends in technology. Successful companies like Apple have implemented focused
e-business strategies to build cutting-edge enterprises that serve and retain customers,
