Apple - case study - publié le 22/02/2008

Résumé du document

Apple's designs are, well, elegant. There is no better word for it. Sony and Toshiba can come close at times, but, on average, Apple has the best designed hardware from an aesthetic's point of view of any vendor. It is amazing that, after several years, no one has been able to design a better hard-drive-based MP3 player than Apple did with iPod. Even Toshiba's design, which used many of the same components, failed. Sometimes, it's the little things. For instance, I went to the Apple store in New York and I look at the laptop hinges on the new PowerBooks and iBooks, you'll see the way screens should be attached to laptops. The screen opens out and down, minimizing the height of the open laptop and making it much more practical for airplane use. The hinge itself is not only robust, but also protected, so it would be difficult to break it. The end result is like a Porsche design in a good year, clean, understated and elegant.

Extraits

[...] But the iPod captured the heart and minds of the public like no other device since the Sony Walkman. Unlike the Walkman, the iPod had to connect to the computer to download songs, so there was an extra step that Apple had to simplify for users. But this step proved to be where the iPod distinguished itself from the competition. key to the iPod's success has been the tightly integrated hardware, software and services,” said Roger Kay, president of the market-research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. [...]

[...] As mentioned, in the first quarter the iPod was available Apple shipped 125,000 units over two months not bad for a new music device. That quarter Apple also shipped 746,000 Macs and reported a profit of $38 million. Skip ahead five years to the fiscal fourth-quarter of 2006. Apple reported a profit of $546 million; it shipped 8.7 million iPods and 1.6 million Macs. The iPod is certainly credited with having an affect on those numbers over the years, but as NPD's Ross Rubin points out Apple has not forgotten the Mac. [...]

[...] That's why Mac Books are eating into rival laptop sales and the already stagnating market for basic PCs. Consumers are willing to pay more for better laptop hardware because of its perceived value and potential for resale. Vista is non-returnable, non- transferable, and has zero resale value. It should be no surprise that there is little consumer demand for paying hundreds of dollars for such a software upgrade. That's forcing Microsoft to push more activation restrictions in Windows Vista, killing the same pirate market that has helped prop up the Windows monopoly. [...]

[...] Maybe the HP iPod will, in fact, be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Apple will introduce the iPhone in June in the American market and in September in European market. Consequently, Jobs's company will enter in a new market and will compete with the mastodon of the mobile phone's market like Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. Is there a place for Apple on this market? Indicative bibliography: Le cerveau d'Apple- think different : comment Steve Jobs a révolutionné le monde par C. [...]

[...] Moreover, you can manage easily your play lists. The personal computer industry: a highly increasing market. The personal computing industry The personal computing industry includes desktop and notebook PCs, PC- based servers, and various handheld computing devices such as PDAs, personal music players, and smart phones. Worldwide revenues for the industry totaled $235 billion in 2005, including $191 billion in desktop and portable PCs, $28 billion in PC servers, and $16 billion in smart handheld devices. In addition, PC software accounts for a large share of the packaged software industry, whose sales were $225 billion, and PC use also drives sales of IT services and of other hardware such as storage, peripherals and networking equipment (IDC, 2006a). [...]