BCG Matrix – Apple Inc.

Today we are going to analyse the Boston Consulting Group Matrix on an example such as Apple Inc. Apple was founded in 1976 in California and counts today as a multinational corporation that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, online services, and personal computers. It is one of the most famous electronic company in the world. Offering a diverse range of products, Apple has to identify the role of each, in order to obtain more benefits.

We can classify the products in four different types of classes: the iPhone and iPads, the Mac computers, the iPods and the Apple TV.

In the question mark quadrant we can find Apple TV. There's no real evidence of growth yet, but there is some fruitfulness. The company sells few of these products and it has not earned lots of money with it yet. Now, Apple has to decide, whether to invest in this product or not.

Apple’s star products are definitely the iPhones and iPads. The company is selling lots of these products and they bring them great money. The demand is so high (and it keeps growing) that the company cannot produce enough of these products.

In addition, the mature Mac computers are considered as the company’s cash cows. This type of product is still growing, but not as much as the star product. Its limits of potential growth are insight. Nevertheless, Apple earns lots of profits through the computers, which is why the company has to “milk” it as long as it is successful.

The last definition of products after the Boston Consulting group are the dogs. Here we talk about products that once were a star but now they are not growing or producing any fruit. In the case of Apple these are the iPods. The era of the iPods is fading and almost nobody buys them anymore. The company should be aware of this and not investing more in this product.

For every company, who offers different types of products, it is important to elaborate a BCG-matrix. Only then, you know in what position your products are.