Weaknesses include too much fo a dependence on the iPhone and iPad products, a lack of products at the low-end of the market, and a lack of control of the gray market in China for their products (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). The opportunities for Apple are very significant and include selling more iPads and comparable products into the enterprise, greater market penetration into emerging markets including Brazil, Russia and China, in addition to the advances being made with Apple TV. Threats include extreme price competition at the low-end of the market; lack fo control in gray markets over their products, and their high dependence on key suppliers for advanced components for their future products (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). Recommendations for Future Strategies and Conclusion

The future direction fo Apple is going to be defined for the most part by their focus on digital content, specifically in the area of digital video. Apple will need to re-architecture iTunes to allow for greater agility and flexibility of downloading digital content, as purchases of movies over this application today can take well over an hour to download., There will need to be more of a streamlined approach to selling digital content in the future for the company to succeed. Second, Apple will need to move into the low-end of the market with an iPad-comparable...

The enterprise market will be difficult for Apple to penetrate, yet could be the most profitable of all market segments over the long-term (Apple Investor Relations, 2012). Finally Apple must continue to push the boundaries of system design and continually move in the direction of high-end graphics systems as this is their core market, and their operating system technologies are ideally suited for it.
References

Apple, Investor Relations (2012). Investor Relations. Retrieved August 23, 2012 from Apple Investor Relations and Filings with the SEC Web site: http://www.apple.com/investor/

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Michael…