Apple and Dell

Apple Inc.

Apple Inc was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Since its establishment, it has grown and achieved a lot of success. Today, it has become the leading designer, developer and distributor of personal computers, computer software, hardware and electronics. Its hardware products include Mac, iPod and iPad, while the software are OS X, OS, iLife, iTunes, iWork and Safari Web browser. As at June this year, it had a total of 72,000 full time and 3,300 part time employees working in its head quarters at Cupertino, California and other branches allover (Jeffrey, 2008).

Apple has consolidated a large pool of assets because of its enlistment in the New York Stock Exchange where it trades as a blue chip company. In fact, in the 2012 fiscal year, it emerged the largest traded public company with an asset value of $ 626 billion. Besides, the success of this company is attributed to its management strategies. As a result of the establishment of the marketing department, it has managed to carry out an extensive marketing research to find out the available gaps. Hence, it has managed to come up with more appropriate commodities for their clients. Some of recent innovations include iPods and iPads. These are portable devices which have become popular with many consumers globally (Jeffrey, 2008).

According to the company’s web site, it plans to expand its coverage and improve its sales to $ 100 billion by 2015. Therefore, it plans to increase the number of its stores from the current 394 to 600. Thus, the number of countries in which these stores would be located can double. In doing this, Apple will collaborate with Braeburn Capital, Anobit and File Maker as its main subsidiaries. This, coupled with specialized production, will enable it to enjoy a competitive advantage over other rival companies and expand its profit.

Dell Inc.

According to Fortune Magazine, Dell is the second largest non-oil company in Texas, the USA, after AT&T.  After its establishment in 1984, it has emerged to be the leading multinational in the development, selling, repaired and support of Information Technology (IT) consultancies, computer hardware and software. In 2012, it had a total of 110, 000 employees distributed in all parts of the world. The Texas-based company has subsidiaries such as Alienwae, Forue 10, and Sonic Wall (Koehn, 2001).

Dell Inc has managed to expand because of mergers with other similar companies. For instance, in 2006 and 2009, it acquired Alienware and Perot Systems companies respectively. This collaboration gave it a large pool of capital for expansion and also expanded its customer base. Hence, by 2012, it had a total asset of $ 44.53 billion, with a net income of $ 3.49 billion.

Dell owes its success to its marketing strategies. Apart from participating in print, broadcast and online advertisements, it has a 24-hour customer support for its customers. Moreover, it sells its products at a slightly lower price than its competitors and offers free shipping services to its customers. For example, in 2006 it cut prices for almost all its products (Koehn, 2001). The link between it and the consumers has been shortened by the introduction of goal supply chain management which emphasizes on the use of direct channel of distribution.

In order to maintain 37% of the market share, Dell plans to increase its coverage. Despite having several kiosks in the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, and Singapore, it plans to expand to other continents like Africa and Asia. These will be used as distribution points and for offering technical support to its clientele. As a result, it will be the number one dealer in printers, cameras, desktops, data storage devices, MP3 players and servers.