Acheiving a Competitive Advantage

Achieving a Competitive Advantage

IS/COM 370

Achieving a Competitive Advantage

Gaining a competitive advantage in any form of business is important. Having the ability to distinguish the company from other businesses in the market will bring in more consumers which will in turn create a competitive advantage. In some cases, a company’s supply chain will also ensure that a competitive advantage is reached. Apple has stepped into the new arena of digital supply chain which is fast becoming a necessity for technological products. Blackberry, a product of Research in Motion (RIM), is currently battling Apple because of the iPhone and touchscreen craze. However, Blackberry has already established a competitive advantage in the business world.

Apple Co. is a known power in the technological world. Apple produces Mac desktops, and notebooks and they are most known in recent years for the iPhone and even more recently the iPad. The iPhone introduced the world to the touchscreen smartphone. By being the first to introduce the touchscreen and with minimal problems to the devices, the iPhone has made the smartphone and touchscreen market play “catch up”. The competition is trying, sometimes in vain, to make a comparable smartphone as the Apple iPhone. Most attempts have been feeble at best. The iPad is a tablet computer made by Apple. Its sleek size and light weight makes it the ideal choice for having wireless internet access anywhere with a bigger screen than the typical smart phone.

Blackberry is made by RIM. The Blackberry PDA’s and smartphones were and still are the most used smartphones for businesses. This is where Blackberry’s most prominent competitive advantage lies. Large corporations are hesitant to go away from the standard bearer in business smartphones for the newer shinier alternatives such as the iPhone and Android phones. The new touchscreens are harder to insure if something happens to them and the price of these smartphones make it less...