Questions of Case Study 4: Apple of Your i 4-12. Which ofPorter’s four competitive strategies does Apple engage in?Explain.4-13. What do you think are the three most importantfactors in Apple’s past success? Justify your answer.4-14. SteveJobs passed away in October 2011. Until his death, he had been theheart and soul of Apple’s innovation. Today, 35,000 Apple employeescontinue onward in his absence. A huge question for many investorsis whether the company can be successful without him. The currentstock price would seem to indicate that the market does not. Whatdo you think? What role did Jobs play? How can Apple respond to hisloss? Would you be willing to invest in Apple without hisleadership? Why or why not?4-15. Microsoft took an early lead inthe development of skate devices (like the iPad), and it had theworld’s leading operating system and applications for more than 20years. Provide five reasons why Microsoft has not been able toachieve the same success that Apple has. Most industry analystwould agree that the skills and abilities of Microsoft’s 88,000employees are as good, on average, as Apple’s. 4-16. Consideringyour answers to the four questions above, if you had a spare $5,000in your portfolio and wanted to buy an equity stock with it, wouldyou buy AAPL (Apple)? Why or why not?
