Growth Matrix
Steve Jobs commented recently on the launch of the iPhone 4 and quoted "It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple's history with iPhone 4. The iPad progressed slowly onto the market with more people buying Machinstosh than ever before, and amazing new products still to come this year"). With such confidence, the company has reassured their position into the market, their new device iPad which has made remarkable total sales of $3.27 million. Accordingly the iPad would fit clearly as star product in the BCG matrix for the moment as it is hard to imitate. On the other hand the iPhone4 launched in the beginning of 2010 has also made considerable sales on its launch with a figure of 1.7millions units sold worldwide on the 26th June 2010 according to Reuters (2010). Despite of its high sales, the iPhone4 could be positioned as being a 'question mark product' in the BCG matrix because after the launch of the product in June 2010, some complaints were perceived from customers and professional technicians stating that the product is built as 'faulty'; that is a lack of reception for incoming and outgoing calls which could result a decline in sales worldwide in which buyers will have the tendency to look for other alternative Smartphones such as Google Android or Palm Pre. To compensate its customers, Steve Jobs the CEO has proclaimed that he will be giving free cases to all Iphone4 owners (FT.com, 2010). Some Apple products have been discontinued such as iBook G3 which can be classified as 'Dogs' in the BCG matrix, the product has came to an end in 2006 . Other products called such as the iPod classic music player can be positioned as a 'cash cow' under the BCG matrix as they are known as 'mature' in the market, the iPods series have been released in 2005 and has now a slow growth in the market due to competition from other companies such as Sony producing Mp3 players and Microsoft with its Zune Mp3 Players. Apple has emphasized on product diversification from its iPod classic to iPod Touch which relatively stands within its market share for the time being.
