Successful new product research - iPod

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Project# 1 Successful New Product Research - iPod

In today's computer market, although many people know or have heard about Apple Computer or Mac, but only a small portion of the population actually own one. According to Gartner Dataquest and IDC, Apple remained standing at around . percent of the worldwide market, while NPD Techworld showed that Apples U.S. consumer market share stayed between and 4 percent. In order to reach a wider market, Apple repeatedly tried entering into different markets, first with the Newton handheld and then with the Pippin game console, which both of them failed in the early 10s. Recently Apple tried expanding their market again by entering into the digital music industry. In October 001, Apple introduced its first portable digital music player, the iPod, to the world.

I would certainly consider the iPod as being a successful new product. Ever since it was introduced to the general public, it has saved Apple while Mac sales have remained flat. According to a March survey by NDP Group, the iPod has jumped to the top of the chart since it's release in October 001, owning 7 percent of the digital market share while compared with 10 percent for the top competitor SonicBlue Rio. Although the iPod has such a great market share, Apple so far has largely sold the iPod to Mac users, which represents only a tiny portion of the market.

In order for us to understand what makes this product being so successful, let me first share with you some of the background of the iPod and what was Apple's strategy against this product.Cheap custom writing service can write essays on successful new product research - iPod

Now in its third generation, the iPod had changed its target market and improved in many different ways. When it was first introduced in 001, the iPod was a breakthrough MP music player that are able to hold up to 1,000 CD-quality songs into an ultra portable, 6.5 ounce design that is about the size of a pack of cards that can easily fit in your pocket.

The iPod has a simple white front silver back design with a 160-by-18 pixel high-resolution display, with a white LED backlight to give clear visibility in daylight as well as low-light conditions. Beneath the display is a unique scroll-wheel dial surrounded by four buttons menu, play, next and previous, with a select button in the middle of the scroll-wheel. This design makes it possible to hold and operate the iPod with just one hand and able to find your music in seconds.

The iPod is a portable music player that store music on its super-slim 5 GB hard drive and incorporates megabytes of flash memory to act as a 0-minutes buffer for shock protection for nonstop playback when running, biking or other activities. In additional, the iPod's built-in 14 FireWire port allow users to download an entire CD into the little machine under 10 seconds and 1,000 songs in less than 10 minutes that is 0 times faster than USB-based players, which is used in almost all other competitor brands. Moreover, the iPod's high-capacity hard drive doubles as a portable FireWire hard drive for storing any digital files.

The iPod's rechargeable lithium polymer battery allows it to play up to 10 hours of continuous music, and recharges automatically whenever iPod is connected to a Mac, using power supplied over the six-wired version of FireWire cable, which USB cables are not capable of. Each iPod also comes with a compact, FireWire-based power adapter for traveling.

The iPod also is capable of playing back a wide variety of popular music formats including AAC (16 to 0 Kbps), MP ( to 0 Kbps), MP VBR (variable bit rate), AIFF and WAV. For CD-quality sound, iPod is equipped with a high-output 60-mW amplifier that delivers 0 to 0,000 Hz frequency responses for deep bass and crystal-clear highs and its factory earbud-style headphones are built with neodymium magnets for enhanced frequency response and high-fidelity sound.

The iPod also features with Auto-Sync, which makes it easy to get the entire music collection into the machine and update automatically whenever the iPod is connected to the Mac computer. Simply connecting the iPod to the Mac with the FireWire cable and all of the iTunes, software that is included with the iPod, songs and playlists are automatically downloaded into iPod at high speed.

The iPod would be selling at a relatively high price comparing to other competitive brand for its 5 Gigabytes models at $ and is for Mac only and therefore not Windows compatible. In additional, you must have a Mac that is equipped with the FireWire connector in order to plug in your iPod, which is the recent Gs or newer models.

A year after the release of the Mac only iPod, Apple introduced the nd Generation of the iPod that consists of several minor changes. Finally a year later, Apple introduced an iPod for Windows-based PCs, but which is not interchangeable between the two versions, i.e., the Mac version will only work on Macs and the Windows version will only work on a PC. Anyway, the Windows version had the same design as the Mac version and also work as well as the Mac ones.

Apple had also adjusted the price for the 5 gigabytes model to $ and two other new models, 10 gigabytes and 0 gigabytes, which runs up to $4 but also ship with carrying cases that include belt clips for easy carrying and a wired remote control for easy controlling. Apple also replaced the new 10 and 0 gigabytes models' scroll-wheel dial into a touch-sensitive dial, therefore nothing moves and makes navigating all the easier. The only different was the iTune software that was used to synchronize with the iPod in the Mac version was not available on the PCs. Instead, Apple used a third-party software, the MusicMatch 7.1, in replace of its iTune software for the PC model iPods.

In this update, Apple enabled the iPod to play "Audiobooks" from Audible Inc., which any models could easily fit in a full book. The player will also be able to pinpoint at the spot where the book was last turned off, and able to playback at the same spot when the book starts to play again.

Finally the rd generation iPod is being released in June 00. In this generation, Apple had redesigned its look by making it even slimmer and adding great new features that would make it worthy to consider an upgrade for old iPod users. There are three models for this generation 10, 0 and 40 gigabytes, which runs from $ to $4 and includes the same but upgraded software as the previous generation and a dock for the two larger models.

The new iPods are about half as thick as the older ones and also lighter. For the two models that come with a dock, instead of connecting via a FireWire cable to charge the battery and download music, the new iPod slides easily into the dock and connected through it to the computer or a power source.

The new iPod has an all-touch interface for enhanced durability and sensitivity with new backlight controls. Many new features are also added to the new iPod, for example, an alarm clock with new external sound that allows the iPod to sound even if not connected to a stereo or headphones, new games, calendar, contacts, text notes and many more which makes it much more useful like a PDA. It also gives the user a choice of connecting the iPod through FireWire, USB .0 or even USB 1.1, although data transfer speeds are extremely slow comparing to the two other choices.

After introducing the features and benefits of the iPod, many would be very curious why Apple did not even consider Windows users, which owns 0% or the computer market share, in the beginning when they design their iPods. And this all leads to the marketing strategy and target market of the iPod.

First of all, the design of the iPod just would not work well on Windows PCs for a couple of reasons. One is that the iPod depends on Apple's iTunes software, which runs only on Mac and if needed to be Windows compatible, it would take months of work by a committee from Microsoft, Intel and the major PC makers just to agree on a common specification. In fact, Apple is the only computer company that makes both hardware and software and likes to introduce products that works as elegantly as iPod.

Secondly, the iPod is able to transfer music at lightning speed and recharge the gadget all through the IEEE-14, six-wired FireWire which Apple designed, and also is a standard features on all Apples computers that are sold after the introduction of Mac's Gs in 1. And Apple has been shipping millions of Macs since then which are FireWire-equipped and setting up the stage for the iPod. In contrast, neither the FireWire nor USB .0 is being a standard for the Windows PCs. Windows PCs manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Compaq and SONY had only standardized most of their PCs with USB 1.1 and not until recently a few of them had started to implement the FireWire technology. Even so, for example SONY is only using a four-wired version of FireWire instead of the Six-wired FireWire, which does not carry current and therefore not capable of charging the iPod through the connection.

In additional, on October 001 Microsoft also officially released Windows XP and the major drawback is that Microsoft was trying to force Windows users to adopt the Windows Media Player (WMP) and wanted to stop users from using the preferred format for music piracy, MPs. In a nutshell, the Apple iPod was a powerful MP player and embracing the popular MP format while Microsoft wants to take it away.

I believe Apple's another strategy is to sell solutions. iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, the iPod, and other solutions that assists Mac users and simplify the process in creating digital medias which are gaining their popularity, are only available on Mac machines. Apple wants to differentiate itself from its competitor and create competitive advantage. And through the nice cool looking, easy to use, fast, smartly designed iPod, Apple is trying to draw more attention to Apple's product and to take a deeper look and consideration in owning a great product, Apple's computer and gain market share from the Windows PC users.

After the first launch of the iPod, and successfully selling the product and gaining attention, they then start redesigning the iPod and start attacking the rest of the computer market by coming up with a Windows version iPod. They also used an off the shelf third party software to synchronize with the iPod on the Windows PC so Apple could even reduce their cost and time of redesigning their iTune software for Windows.

Apple also had taken a different approach in designing its iPod. Apple usually designs its entire products, but for iPod, Apple took an outsourcing approach and designing through third party and buying off the shelf products for the iPod's components. For example, Apple took and outside-in approach in designing the iPod by specified how they wanted the iPod to look like and what they want for the components, and the ultimate circuit design was still Apple's. Then Apple relied on a platform and reference design created by PortalPlayer, a third party, which had developed a base platform for a variety of audio system, including portable digital music devices, general audio systems and streaming audio receivers. Apple also had 4 other partners for iPod that Apple highly relied on design ideas. It used Sony's lithium polymer battery, Wolfson's Codec and digital-to-analog converter, a flash memory chip from Sharp, a Texas Instruments 14 FireWire interface controller, Toshiba for the ultra slim hard drives and power management from Linear Technology.

This design approach is able to reduce Apples risk since it is using a platform, in which systems are designed and chip designs are verified, and also offers fewer worries to a company that is in a rush to market since there were already many portable digital players before iPod. Apple was also able to avoid the technical challenges of integrating DRAM and logic processes through the design chain approach. In addition, custom work can offer cost reductions in large volume.

Apple was also able to capture what consumer needed through since Napster's success. Consumer had clearly indicated that they want simple online access to a wide range of music at a real low cost and like the ability to download it from the Internet and carry it around on digital devices. Recent incident in the music industry also gave a hint to Apple and show what should be done. Major record companies are joining together to try suing several hundreds of college students and kids whose computers have allegedly distributed illegal music for damages in millions. This incident happened at a right time for Apple while they recently successfully launched its iPod and with the iTunes software on Mac computers, Apple are able to open a new Mac users only Music store online, which would soon also be accessible by Windows users, allowing consumers to download music online legally at a low price of cents a song. Apple is also using this incident to promote their products and services. Apple is able to provide a complete chain of services that attract many consumers by showing them how easy it would be to download through the Web Site into the iTunes and automatically sync into their iPod in lightning and bring it around and listen to music anytime they want anywhere they are. Apple is selling a complete package of music entertainment at high quality, low price and simple.

According to Wired News, the iPod was able to successfully target the young people and became one of the coolest companies in America during the summer. Young users also named the iPod as one of the top "cool new gadget". They also were the most likely to name the iMac and iPod as "extremely" well designed products, and Apple's new advertising had contributed to that image.

In additional, there were many success factors of the iPod, which leads to the success of this new product. Although iPod was not the first portable music player introduced to the market, only Apple is able to do it the right way. They are just able to combine hi-tech and simplicity. The significant increase in the number of portable music player and sales clearly indicates the need of this type of products and the iPod is just that and matches what people wants.

The iPod's ability to deliver a meaningful and perceivable benefit and are different in some meaningful way from substitutes are clearly the most significantly impact on the success of this new product. Its lightning fast downloading rate, cool looking design, highly portability, large capacity and ease of use is clearly the benefits that the iPod is able to provide to all consumers and also are things that none of its competitors are able to provide. At 6 ounces, the iPod is by no means the lightest nor the smallest portable music player, but the lighter ones use flash memory storage, and can only hold a maximum of an hour or two of music, while the iPod could hold 65 hours of CD-quality audio at 5 gigabytes. On the other hand, it is not the only hard drive based portable music player and lack certain features that other provides, but they either weigh more than twice as much as the iPod, or they're way too big to fit in a pocket. Putting the weight and size aside, the iPod is the only one that uses FireWire while other are only using USB 1.1 which by far much slower then the iPod and filling up a hard drive of that size would take hours, while the iPod will only take a few minutes and can even double as a storage device, which is also a has a fairly high demand by the consumers. The iPod can also to certain extent act as a PDA, which is another high demanding product.

Combining all the above factors and benefits, even though at a relatively higher price, the iPod is still being able to attract a majority of customers and gaining a significant high market share with the high sale volume simply illustrates that the iPod has been a very successful new product, and the iPod definitely had opened a lot of eyes and minds to the idea that technology needs to be not just functional but also pretty, cool and easy to use, and had set a standard of how future product should be designed.

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