Global Benchmarking Plan: Apple part 2 Ronnie Spears BUS 689DL: Global Benchmarking: World Class Performance Professor: Alstete August 6, 2015 Business Comparison: key indicator  The key indicator in business comparison is the growth in sales and market share as this will translate to bigger profits allowing the company to gain a competitive edge. The cellular phone market has attracted the entry of other new players especially from East Asia with China making inroads by proving cheaper alternatives. There is a need to take into account pricing and technologies since customer are attracted by both aspects. Since the market is increasingly competitive, the differences in attributes perceptions and buying habits differentiate phone makers on one hand, cellular phone manufacturers desire to remain competitive by introducing new features, but since the market is highly competitive lower prices are increasingly forcing companies to be more competitive. Benchmarking Partner Analysis The benchmark partner analysis highlights on comparing performance with Samsung which is Apple’s main competitors in the cell phone market. Even though, Apple lagged behind Samsung in sales I 2014, in the first quarter of 2014, the company outperformed Samsung. The market share of Apple in 2013 was 15.5% but then fell slightly at 15.4% in 2014. The highest growth in cell phone sales was in the U.S and China, but some of the customers were those already using Apple products and needed a...