weaknesses and threat of apple

Introduction to the company
Apple Inc. (Apple), is a multinational corporation that creates consumer electronics, personal computers, computer software, and commercial servers, and is a digital distributor of media content. Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak effectively created Apple Computer on 1st April, 1976, with the release of the Apple I, and incorporated the company on 3rd January, 1977 in Cupertino, California. Apple Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication gadgets and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. The company’s products and services include iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the iOS and OS X operating systems, iCloud, and a variety of accessory, service and support offerings. Digital content and applications are also sold and delivered through the iTunes Store, App Store SM, iBookstore SM, Mac App Sore. Apple Inc. sells its products worldwide through its online stores, retail stores, and direct sales force, as well as third-party cellular network carriers, retailers, wholesalers, and value-added resellers. Apple Inc. offers a range of mobile communication and media devices, personal computing products, and portable digital music players, as well as a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions and third-party hardware and software products. Furthermore, the company also offers its own software products, including the company’s mobile operating system, iOS; the company’s Mac operating system, OS X; and server and application software. iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, iTunes, Mac App Store, iCloud, Operating System Software, Application Software are the well-known primary products that marketed by the company.
We have selected this company because Apple is a well-known brand that most people automatically know all over the world now. They are known for their innovative technology that is usually the first of its kind on the market and something that all people love to own and make their lives a bit easier with the advancements that they gave people. Besides that, Apple Inc. is the world's second-largest information technology company in this present age. Therefore, in order to apply managing information system knowledge and skill into the reality, Apple Inc. is supposed to be an appropriate firm to analysis the issues.
Types of e-commerce used by the company
Ecommerce, a subset of e-business, is the purchasing, selling, and exchanging of goods and services over computer networks (such as the Internet) through which transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically. There are four main categories of ecommerce: B2B, B2C, C2B, and C2C.
Apple Inc. is using B2C ecommerce in their daily business processes. B2C is the commerce between companies and end users, involves customers gathering information; purchase for goods or services over an electronic network. The customer uses the products for his or her own personal use and is not interested in reselling the product. Apple Inc. sells their products directly to the customers through their own retail stores and online official website. Apple Inc. opened its own retail stores around the world, in part because they didn’t like how their products were being displayed and sold in other companies’ stores. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. Apple Inc. also comes out with the Apple App Store, an online store for their customers to purchase and download software applications and mobile apps for Apple computers and devices. The Apple App Store serves as the only way to download native iOS applications without jailbreaking the device, and apps can be purchased and downloaded directly to the device itself or they can be accessed through Apple's iTunes software and then transferred to the iOS device.
Besides that, Apple Inc. also using B2B ecommerce in their business processes. This type of e-commerce is the electronic exchange of business documents between businesses for the purpose of conducting commerce, rather than business to consumer. Apple Inc. offer opportunity for the individual developer or group of development team to create the iOS apps for distribution on the App Store by charging them $99 per year. The developers can random set the price or offer the apps for free toward the users. The users can browse through different categories and genres of applications such as productivity, multimedia, and games; view information and reviews of then; purchase it if necessary, and then download and install the application on their device. By using this B2B ecommerce, Apple Inc. able to enhance their business by increase the users’ enthusiasm toward the App Store.

Types of information systems

SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength
The invention of Touch ID.
Touch ID is basically a biometric finger print recognition feature. Since Touch ID is both new hardware and software from Apple, it's only available on the iPhone 5S. According to Marwan Boustany (n.d), fingerprint scanning for security, authentication and other purposes has always been a conceptually attractive solution in smartphones. It had been created for the sake of increasing the security of its user. Touch ID is built into the home button with laser-cut sapphire crystal to prevent Touch ID from working. The sensor will use capacitive touch to detect the user’s fingerprint.
Apart from other competitive brands, like Samsung, HTC or Sony, those finger print scanning features are developed by third parties and in a software form. This software can be easily cracked which can probably lead their users into troubles.
With Touch ID, it brings a lot of confidence to their users. Besides that, Touch ID allowing users to unlock their phone quickly by using one of up to five finger prints the user can store on their device. Partially, Apple used passcode or password system as a backup method incase users want others to do something for them in their phone or maybe the users are in skin disease.
Innovative method building valuable new relationships
Since Touch ID has been implemented, iPhone 5S made the users more convenient. Apple tend to improve their relationship and building potential relationships with their customer by making the authorization to purchases in the App Store, iTunes Store and iBook Store easier. That means now the users only need to place their finger on Touch ID which located at the home button instead of typing the Apple ID’s password again, and confirming the transaction.
Despite saying this maybe risky for the users, but it's a game-changing advancement that potentially saves time and paves the way for more innovation. Apple has been worked hard on searching ways to enhance their user’s experience as always.

Acquisition decision to improve product quality
Apple has been chosen as the most innovative business in the world for the 3rd time in 2012. Although Apple is being praised in technology sector, they never forget about their product quality. Steve Jobs always tell his design team, “Don’t worry about price, just focus on what the product can do.” This shows that he got the balance right, which is keep the focus on making user experience great and the profits will follow.
During the sixth generation of iPhone, Apple developed and invented their own mapping service application called Apple Map/iOS Map. Unfortunately, Apple received quite huge number of complaints, for example like bringing users into the wrong road, ignoring warning sign and causing misdirection from their customers who relies on GPS. On November 2013, Apple acquired Prime Sense, and Israel Company which provided 3D sensors and quality mapping technology.
According to research, the acquisition made by Apple is not for anything TV-related but combine the technology of both parties to improve its underrated iOS Map application. Refer to the sources; it claims that the acquired company is much more strategic for mapping. Apple attempt to overtake Google in the mapping sector by using Prime Sense’s mapping technology.
Amazing operating system
Despite being the pioneer of innovative in mobile phone sector, Apple is also expert in developing their own operating system, Macintosh Operating System (MAC OS). MAC OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating system by Apple for their Macintosh line of computer.
The most significant part of MAC OS is it does not require installing any anti-virus. For other OS like Windows, you need to install anti-virus manually and run the anti-virus manually to scan the computer. Sometimes, anti-virus software makes the computer operate even slower than having no anti-virus. However, MAC OS is very nature sandboxed because it is Unix-based operating system. It’s having a series of fire doors inside the machine. The malware could not spread to the heart of the machine even though the malware gain access to one’s Mac.
Make use of their website to collect feedbacks from customers.
Apple Company not only emphasize on their product quality and profitability, they value customer’s opinions and feedbacks too. Apple used their main webpage as a platform to conduct survey in order to obtain customer’s experience while visiting their retail store around the world.
Based on the surveys conducted, Apple knows what to do next to increase their customer’s satisfaction and fulfill their needs and wants. By then, this shows that Apple is always keep their goal: “delight the customers” within their organization.

Weaknesses
Security Weaknesses in Apple’s iOS
There are few security weaknesses related to data protection can be found in the Apple company latest mobile operating system, iOS7, which runs on its popular smartphones and tablets. The security issues are related to the control centre of the operating system. The control centre is a convenient new feature in iOS 7 that gives us quick access to Airplane Mode, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, media controls, and a handful of other features by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. In principle, this lets you perform many common configuration tasks without diving deep into the phone's settings. By default, the control centre is always one swipe away, whether we are on the lock screen or in an app.
The problem coming when the phone is stolen, any thief can easily access the control centre, even without any passcode. From there, they can enter airplane mode, which makes it impossible to use any of the “Find My Phone” features, which include playing a sound remotely, tracking down the phone's exact location or wiping the contents remotely. Besides, someone also can access to our photos without any passcode. This hack also targets the control centre but requires some finger gymnastics to pull off.

Incompatibility
One of the weaknesses comes to the operating system of the iPhone company. Basically the iOS and OS X are quite different from other OS and uses software that is unlike the software used in Microsoft OS. Due to such differences, both in software and hardware, users often choose to stay with their accustomed software and hardware for the example Microsoft OS and Intel hardware.
The problem come when making a transition is always difficult for anyone at all. Not all iOS users would be willing to switch immediately to the new version. On the other hand, the new iOS 7 though compatible with the iPhone 4 that will causes the devices runs very slowly. Many users of the iPhone 3G and older iPhones and iPods are generally unwilling to go in for the latest smartphone model. Developers who create apps exclusively for the latest version would end up losing out on a considerable customer base and more risky. For the example, designing apps that are compatible with multiple OS versions would prove to be an expensive proposition for app developers. The earliest developers would be taking a massive risk investing in apps, which may not turn out to make a decent enough profit for them.

Weak relationship with Intel and Microsoft

Apple is exploring ways to replace Intel processors in its Mac personal computers with a version of the chip technology it uses in the iPhone and iPad, according to people familiar with the company’s research. Meantime, Apple’s success in mobile computing has been central to the rise of ARM technology and its expansion into larger devices, such as tablets, that have challenged the role of larger computers running Intel chips. In addition, Apple’s technologists have grown more concerned in recent years about Intel’s ability to create lower-power chips. As a result, Apple was working on thinner versions of its MacBook line, featuring its power- hungry high-resolution retina display, and Intel had failed to convince Apple executives it was serious about focusing on lower-power chips.

Propriety and Controlling
Apple would not open their operating system to outsiders to develop hardware to work with other company products, keeping hardware sales to itself. Apples central weakness may simply be its ideology. Open systems are what have made the internet the powerful tool it is today and remains the mantra of companies such as Google and Microsoft. The diversity and specialization of competing open products highlight this issue. Individuals who are not already hooked on the Apples ecosystem or swayed by any social encouragement can usually find exactly what they are looking for with another brand. Besides that, Apple’s Intel computers will run a full-blown installation of Windows just as easily as they can run a copy of Mac OS X. Moreover, it’s not really Apple’s own hardware which comprised largely of countless components from third-party vendors. Basically, it’s not the hardware itself that’s proprietary, nor is it necessarily the software of the operating systems. Apple’s chosen to restrict the types of machines that its operating system can run on for the example Mac OS X can indeed run on non-Apple hardware.

Slower pace of innovative
One of the major concerns for Apple's recent sell-off has been the company's reduced pace of innovation. The company hasn't introduced game-changing products for a while now. The yearly product apple offering of the iPad, iPhone and some MacBook products is a cause for concern for consumers and Apple also. When new products are expected to be released, Apple experiences a major decline in sales for that particular product which is expected. In most instances, consumers will be polarised in their opinions of new releases. Some customers can justify making a yearly purchase of a gadget which is useable just to get faster processors, while other consumers may not agree and find a product better for them elsewhere. Recently, the iPhone segment of the company has innovated in some aspects such as speed but lacks feature which is found on various other mobile products made by competitors. Features such as near field communication (NFC) and better resolution cameras have been present in products other than Apple smartphones. Apple needs to ensure that they can innovate enough on a yearly basis to justify a new contract renewal or upgrade from older handsets.

Oppurtunies Take music player technology into new era
As Apple is expert in technology sector, Apple has the opportunity to make it very own music player, iTunes technology into a mobile phone format. Apple can design an application for its iTunes to make the music player to not only usable on computers, but also usable on mobile phone. With iTunes on mobile phone, users can control the tracks they had purchased effortlessly.
Once that application are invented, users can purchase and download song they desire anytime, anywhere with their credit card saved inside their Apple ID. Besides that, side features like song tracker, auto pause system can be implementing too. Song tracker is when users heard of a song from radio or somewhere else, they can use the song tracker to look for the song from iTunes if they want to buy that particular song. Auto pause system is a feature that automatically pauses music when a phone call comes in while in handset mode. Strong growth of mobile advertising market.
In the era of technology today, mobile devices are a necessity for the whole world. According to statistic, it shows that more than 70% of the world population owns a mobile device. By this, we can foresee that mobile advertising is a very good opportunity which Apple could be seized on.
Apple has developed iAd advertising platform, which allow third-party developers to directly embed advertisements into their application for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad line of mobile devices. iAd allow advertisements to mix into applications that sold on the iOS App Store, which means if the user taps on an iAd banner, a full screen advertisement will appears within the application. It is differ from other advertisements that direct the user into Safari web browser for advertising. In this case, iAd promised their advertising services are more interactive than others, and users can simply close the advertisements whenever they want thus returning to where they left their application.

Increasing demand for cloud based services
Nowadays, people are more affiliated with better graphic and quality experiences. Thus, many developers tend to make their software and application more attractive with better graphical display. On other side, these quality graphics need to sacrifice your devices storage usage. Since the economy status is fluctuating for the past few years, many people couldn’t afford larger storage device so they choose to buy cheaper devices to fulfill their wants.
However, Apple has iCloud. iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple Inc. iCloud allows users to store music, photos, applications, documents, bookmarks, reminders, backups, notes, iBooks, and contacts, and provides a platform for Apple's email servers and calendars. Nevertheless, with cloud based services, it allows users to store their media into the online storage. By then, they can simply move their media out whenever they want to, it is like copy & paste on computers. Thus, demand for cloud based service is getting higher day by day.
As an opportunity, Apple can expand its iCloud service and software as the demand for cloud-based services is expanding. So far, only Apple and Nokia have their own cloud-based services. If Apple could figure out innovative way to penetrate the market, they may become the long term winner in the cloud-based services market.

iTV
Exclude Apple, some of its competitors such as Samsung and Sony, already launched their own branded Television. Based on studies, in Steve Job’s biography which wrote by Walter Isaacson, we knew that Steve Jobs claimed he has figured out how to solve the problem of an integrated television. This means Apple is making a TV – a TV called iTV that would change another media industry.
“It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”, said Steve Jobs (n.d.). With the launching of iTV, it will create opportunity for Apple to boost its existing product, Apple TV sales and the product’s ecosystem.

Threat
Android OS growth
Google's Android and Apple's iOS are operating systems used primarily in mobile technology, such as smartphones and tablets. Android, which is Linux-based and partly open source, is more PC-like than iOS, Android OS is the main competitor for iOS in mobile device market. The domination of Android decreases iOS power over influencing consumers to join Apple. For the example, Android can get apps from Google Play easily, which currently has 600,000 apps available, most of which will run on tablets. Many originally iOS-only apps are now available for Android, including Instagram and Pinterest, and Google’s more open app-store means other exclusive apps are also available, including Adobe Flash Player and BitTorrent. Android also offers access to Google-based apps, such as Youtube and Google Docs. The second example, apple iOS uses Siri as a voice-based virtual assistant to understand and respond to both dictation as well as spoken commands. On the other hand, Android OS also designs and offers a similar assistant “Google Now” which features the above abilities, plus can keep track of your calendar and give verbal reminders when it is time to leave. It allows for voice search and dictation. This may become of the biggest treat for Apple.
Rapid Technology Change
One of the most severe threats Apple and the other tech companies are facing is rapid technological change. Companies are under the pressure to release new products faster and faster. The one that cannot keep up with the competition soon fails. This is especially hard when a business wants to introduce something new, innovative and successful. Apple was able to bring very innovative products to the market so far but for the moment, even Apple hasn’t unveiled any plans for the new products and may lack new introductions to keep up with competition. For the example, in the computer hardware division, there are many competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Dell produces low-budget computers and products that appeal to economically cautious consumers. Apple has a higher stock price than Dell and HP but Apple’s market share and total revenue are significantly lower. It is imperative for Apple to consistently create new products that set financial and technological standards for the computer industry in order to follow up the market.
Competitive products more features
In addition, threats are usually considered to focus on the external factors, in the case of Apple, it’s the competition. The largest smartphone manufacturer Samsung is making it harder and harder for Apple to keep its customers. This is mainly done by the different features Samsung offer on their smartphones. As a result, The Galaxy Note II is due to arrive with a massive, 5.5-inch display that puts the iPhone 5's 4-incher to shame. Further, the number of features and capabilities Samsung has been putting into its devices is astounding. The Galaxy Note 2, in particular, has more camera options than some digital SLRs used. .Even Nokia can boast the fact that they are creating smartphones for the developing market with their Asha range of phones which are available out of contract for a cheap price relative to the cheapest Apple product. Besides that, Sony can use their imaging division to create smartphones with great cameras to entice photographer enthusiasts that want something compact which still produce compact camera quality images.
Microsoft gaining market share
As the consumers use iOS and Android tablets more and more they are starting to realize the limitations of those devices. For the example, Windows 8 was launched to be the first system to work both on a PC and a touch-screen mobile device, and the demand for more complex capabilities will grow as the tablet market grows, Flores says, touting the tablet's ability to work with printers, Skype messaging and the X-Box game system. The new Windows screen for tablets irked some consumers because it was a departure from the traditional interface, so the 8.1 upgrade made the screen simpler and brought back the traditional "start" button. This system could solidify its share of the PC sector and gain momentum in the tablet market. Furthermore, Microsoft Corp is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers and tablets as they try to fend off cheaper rivals like Google Chrome books. Apple is facing the effects of being a high-end PC maker during a recession. Because of the tough economy, consumers have been buying low-cost PCs and this causes the Microsoft gaining the market share easily.
Online Streaming Music Service
It over a decade since the first Apple iPod emerge don the scene, disrupting the music industry and prompting the inevitable shift towards digital. And since that, iTune and iPad hardware software co-design has evolved as the MP3 industry’s dominant design model, while motivating other competitors to understand and mimic its ecosystem. Through endless efforts by designers in the industry, the process innovation eventually brings up the new type of business model, the online streaming music services, provided by companies, such as Spotify and Pandora. Streaming music services offer a lower cost structure, which allows them to compete in this industry as the market evolves. Apple will need to compete by opening up its architecture and perhaps allowing an iTunes streaming service with competitive pricing as the results this will eat into high margins.