An Exploration of Apple's Dominance of the Smartphones Assignment

An Exploration of Apple's Dominance of the Smartphones - Assignment Example In addition to this, the other research questions will be that how the other organisations in the Smartphone industry trying to compete with Apple in UK’s market and what Apple can do to maintain its competitive advantage in the UK’s market. Apple, Inc. is an US based multinational company which was founded in the year 1976. The Smartphone industry in UK has been booming because of the continued increase in demand of Smartphone by the people in UK. Along with Samsung and Nokia, Apple is found to be dominating the UK Smartphone market (The Telegraph, 2012). According to the report of Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, the market share of Apple’s Smartphone increased by around 10% from 21% to 31% during the period of 12 weeks that ended on November 2011 (Virki, 2011).It is mainly attributed towards the release of new model of Smartphone in UK by Apple, named iPhone 4S during October 2011. However it has been argued that Apple is ranked second to the Android platform develo ped by Google in terms of market share in the Smartphone industry of UK (Warman, 2011). ... Research Background The proposed topic in this research study and the analysis of the findings based on the research done on the topic would provide an in-depth knowledge about the Smartphone industry in UK at present and the consumer behaviour patterns related to Smartphone products in UK. Smartphone is only a new concept in the field of mobile technology and is different from other standard mobile phones available in the market. As a result of these facts, the existing literature in this field is limited and not much research studies have been conducted till now. Hence, this research study would add to the existing literature and pave way to further research that can be done in this field. Moreover, Apple is a dominant player in the UK’s market of Smartphone products and has had its market dominance for a significant amount of time till now. It is evident from its market share in the Smartphone industry of UK which was around 31% during November 2011 (Virki, 2011). However, lot of other mobile companies are also introducing their Smartphone products in the UK’s market. This can have an effect on Apple’s market share in UK. According to the recent reports published by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Apple has fallen behind Google in terms of market share in the UK Smartphone industry. Android operating system installed in the Google Smartphone is being preferred by the consumers in UK more than Apple Smartphone (Arthur, 2012a). However, Android is divided amongst various brands like Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc. Hence Apple iPhones which is the single branded Smartphone is the most used brand by the consumers in UK. Moreover, with respect to customer satisfaction, Apple is found to have the highest level of customer