COMPANY 1. APPLE. Investigate and analyse the entrance and the growth strategies APPLE used to become a dominant company in the global smartphone industry from 2007 onwards. Answer the following questions: How did Apple enter the smartphone industry and become the dominant participant in the market? What makes it hard for competitors to imitate their offerings? Based on what you learned, what do you recommend a company should do to succeed in a new market? To answer the questions, the you should: Analyze the conditions of competition in the global smartphone industry Analyse Apple's business model Identify and analyze the resources and capabilities Apple possess that enable them to succeed in this new market. Identify new capabilities they need to develop.

The main discussions from the lectures include Business models, Industry structure analysis, determinants of competition (e.g., five forces), the Resources Based view, capabilities, and strategic options.

Process 1. Identify the main sources from which you will get the information about the company to support your findings 2. Identify the concepts and the frameworks in the (academic) literature that help to analyse the strategic issue in question. 3. Organise the information about the company: according to the concepts and chronologically. 4. Identify the patterns in the companys evolution and strategies in the respective issue. 5. Make sense of the information and establish the discussion by using the frameworks you used from the (academic) literature. E.g., business model design, strategic choices and sources of competitive advantage.