PC Market Analysis - Essay Example

Weaknesses also include the competitive edge of companies like Apple and the iPad device that is expected by many experts to have a high share of the market by the end of 2011. Competition is a weakness in moving forward and gaining profit in certain market environments because of this.

Strengths include consumer interest in innovations that are being provided by pc makers both in the engineering environment and in the consumer sector. Online blogs that provide short-term publicity further reinforce this interest when viewing reputable, industry-related articles on the Internet. Some even predicted a 6.1 percent growth in this market. Strengths are also consumer demand for these products that are built by business and personal lifestyle.

Opportunities include finding new advertising methods. This would outperform other companies and take away some of the reputations from their products if it has a connection with buyer markets. This is true with consumer markets only and does not seem to impact large business buyers.

Threats to the industry include rising competition and faster output of innovative and competitive products in many markets. Threats to the business model are also price-sensitive issues spilling into higher-paying customer groups due to economic conditions or drops in demand.

New business opportunity

So much of it would depend on the manufacturing ability of the company along with the costs of raw products to decide which market is best or worst. The workhorse has the most devoted customers and therefore has less room for growth. It demands more performance which would alter the costs of the supply strategy. Even though it is a higher price, it only has importance in offices that will allow for only so much more expansion.

Mercedes is far from high performance on the positioning map. But, the segment information shows a much smaller segment, however much less purchasing frequency. It would require top-performing products to make it operate to specifications. This is a cost factor when thinking about production. The expansion rate of engineering and manufacturing businesses does not seem to be as rapid as once before. The speed of new customer gaining would be limited in this market and the higher price would probably not offset the costs of trying to capture the market.

The traveler needs a computer for use in business. It shows price-sensitive buyers and this is also noticeable in how companies might be using the price to show their market differentiation. IDC is using a marketing strategy using price awareness and other interactive concepts when promoting their systems (Idc.com, 2011). If there is the potential for a pricing war in a larger-sized market segment related to competition, it might not represent a long-term opportunity. At the same time, there is a need rather than a personal feeling regarding the need for the traveler's product that will make their decisions. There is much less emotion attached to this product then and more decisions that are based on value and probably reliability. Competition from products like the iPad would also hurt this market.

The workhorse is the best market to allow competitors to serve since it will probably not expand further than it has already been developed to be for use in personal computing. Without a formal innovation that requires the replacement of their current products, the product lifecycle is a long one before needing replacement. It would be best to focus on the Mercedes and traveler segments for long-term value. Spending in India on these products continues to grow, showing some new market potential (Asia Pulse, 2010). These are higher-need products for use in professional companies found overseas in other countries. Opportunities for travelers and Mercedes are most definitely in line with more profit expectations and avoiding price-sensitive buyers. This competitor can use its resources to serve the workhorse market rather than changing its processes to seek global markets in higher-cost engineering computers.