The research report is focused on the topic “Why have Apple computers grown in popularity?” Apple Inc is the U.S. based multinational company that designs and sells electronic products, personal computers and the computer software. It is the third largest mobile phone manufacturer of the world after Samsung and Nokia. The incredible success of Apple over the last five years can be attributed to decisions of the company for expanding its production to such several mobile electronic devices as iPhones, iPads and iPods. The company also offers thousands of applications through the App Store and iTunes. The ever exploding popularity of Apple has persuaded many consumers to shift towards Apple computers. Jeff (2011) noted that almost four million computer users purchased Mac Computers in 2011; this corresponds to 14% increase in sales than it was in the previous year. Therefore, it is accepted that the success of Apple computers is increasing very fast. The proposed research will be evaluating the factors behind the growth of Apple computers.
Research Questions
The questions that will be discussed in the research, and they are as follows:
- What are the reasons influencing on the popularity of Apple computers?
- How has Apple incorporated those factors into its business strategy?
- Is this an innovation strategy of Apple that attracts its customers?
- How does Apple satisfy the needs of its customers to make them happy?
Hypothesis
The hypothesis developed for the study is as follows:
H0: Innovation has a strong relationship with the growing popularity of Apple computers.
H1: Innovation has no relation with the growing popularity of Apple Computers.
Rationale of Study
The proposed study will be focused on the evaluation of factors that have enhanced the popularity of Apple computers. Apple Computers have shown a remarkable growth in their sales during the last years. The leadership of Apple has been known for its famous innovation strategy. Many studies have been conducted in order to evaluate the significance of innovation for Apple Inc. This organization adopts a number of factors for attracting the customers. In fact, the popularity of Apple Inc is not restricted to its innovation strategy only. There could be other factors that may attract its clients towards Apple computers. The proposed study will be aimed at the evaluation of those factors. The way through which Apple Inc incorporates those factors in its business strategy for producing products and services will also be evaluated. The study will also find the relationship between the innovation strategy and the popularity of Apple computers.
Methodology: Data Collection Approach
In order to conduct the research, a selection of appropriate methodology is very important. Different methodologies of research are triggering different results for the same research questions. It is important for researchers to justify the selected research methodology in the light of research questions. The proposed research will be conducted through the triangulation methodology. Some qualitative and quantitative methods will be combined in this particular research. The existing theories of attracting and retaining customers will be investigated with the help of the qualitative research methods. This will be important to investigate the factors applied by Apple Inc for attracting its customers and making it as the most popular brand in the world. The qualitative methods will discuss the research questions in words in the light of the available literature (Saunders et al., 2009). Existing reports and articles devoted to the popularity of Apple computers will be critically evaluated through the qualitative methods. On the other hand, the quantitative research methods explain the research problem in the form of some figures (Saunders et al., 2009). The factors influencing on customers to purchase Apple computers will be found by using the quantitative research methods. The use of both methods will form a strong base of the proposed research. The answers to the research questions could not be achieved until both methods have not been employed in the research.
The primary and secondary data will be used in the proposed research as suggested by the triangulation research methodology. The previous work of researchers (the secondary data) regarding the popularity of Apple computers will be investigated in the literature review. The secondary data will be collected from books, journals and articles. It is very important to incorporate the secondary data for evaluating answers of all the research questions in the effective manner. Moreover, the qualitative methods also suggest the incorporation of the secondary data (Saunders et al., 2007). In the proposed research, the primary data will also be included. The primary data are the data that do not exist in the earlier records. The researcher has to collect them for the first time through several tools such as a survey, an interview and the focus groups. The primary data will be collected to find the factors influencing on the popularity of Apple computers. The primary data will be collected through the survey technique in the form of a questionnaire. In the questionnaire, some important variables are being extracted from the literature review. They are included in order to find the factors persuading in the increased popularity of Apple computers. The survey will be conducted with the customers of Apple computers in order to know their opinion regarding different features of Apple computers. One aspect of the research (factors behind the popularity of Apple computers) will be achieved through the survey technique. In order to find the other aspect (the incorporation of these factors into business strategy) can only be found through management reviews. Therefore, the interview technique will also be used to collect the data from the management of Apple computers regarding its innovation strategy and other factors behind its success. The interview will be conducted via Skype to overcome the time constraints. The use of the primary and secondary data is very important in order to evaluate the answers to research questions in details. The findings of the primary data will be cross checked through the findings of the secondary data. Moreover, the opinions of customers and managers regarding the factors behind the popularity of Apple computers will prove to have more diverse and acceptable answers to the research questions.
Conclusion
The proposed research will be conducted through the triangulation methodology. The primary and secondary data will be incorporated in order to find the answers to the research questions. The adopted data tools are aligned with the triangulation methodology.