Apple’s Path to Market Share
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The story of Apple’s approach over time is an interesting one. Apple did not start out as a luxury brand and did not market itself as such. It just turns out that Apple products were the most luxurious in comparison to a not-so-luxurious segment within technology: tech hardware. The tech hardware space has always been a sub sector with low margins given the immense costs of production. And actually, Apple was not a very competitive player in the space in the early days of the company. Apple’s initial value proposition centered around the intuitive nature of its personal computer’s interface, rather than any emphasis on product design or appealing to any particular customer segment. In the 1980s, Apple did not have the appeal as a luxury product nor did they have the product infrastructure to back up viability. Computers with Intel chips and Microsoft Windows had faster processing speeds and lower prices, which simply made for the more sensible purchase from the consumer’s perspective. Microsoft applications like Excel and Word cemented themselves as the go-to choices for spreadsheets and word processing. It was during this precarious time for the company that Apple started to appeal to more of the subjective aspects of consumers’ decision-making. While Apple products may not have been the most sensible choice from a technical and hardware standpoint, as they are today, they began to appeal to consumers’ love of design, personalization, and other aspects that can win over expenditure decisions. This enabled Apple to gain a significant foothold from a market share perspective, which in turn enabled the technical aspects of their products to catch up to the competition.