Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Ipod- Will The Hype Carry Long Enough

Posted by Anonymous on 11/10/2005 at 7:13 AM ET 50 Points
hi,

There has been a lot of hype about ipod and there are many issues regarding that. Do you think that ipod has really followed some segmentation strategies and are doing some market research to follow up their ipod. Is the hype about ipod going to end shortly, and are there any cheap substitutes going to take them over?

thanks.
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  • Posted on 11/10/2005 at 7:30 AM Member
    A new competitor would face many barriers to entry right now, given the ipod's acceptance. Also, I'm not sure whether it was Sony who coined the term "podcasting", but this lends even greater credibility and acceptance of the brand, and likely also helps to engender brand loyalty (think about "Band-Aid" for example - most people use this term instead of the generic "bandage"). If poscasting is succesful, this will position ipod as more of a long-term proposition, and present yet another barrier to newcomers. Also, Sony keeps coming out with new variations (e.g., shuffle) - I would be shocked if their internal market research was not a strong driver. As far as segmentation, it seems to me that podcasting is alredy doing this by drawing the ipod in as a business tool.

    I'm certainly curious as to whaqt others think!

    Joy
  • Posted by wnelson on 11/10/2005 at 9:08 AM Accepted
    The iPod marketing strategy has been very good to date. Let's remember...they are basically an MP3 player. Many competitors existed prior to their market entrance. What they did very well was to understand the needs of the customers. First, they beefed up the memory. I believe the first iPod came out with 1GB of memory. Prior to that, MP3 players had 128MB or less. This was about 12 songs. Secondly, Apple found that getting and downloading music was a problem. Not because of availability, but because of the pirating issue. So, they came up with iTunes. iTunes is fairly inexpensive and 100% legitimate. Apple signed up major music providers to have plenty of source. And now you rarely hear about Napster - the first MP3 music deliverer (albeit illegally at first). So what's on the horizon for iPod? Video. In time for Christmas, they have announced their new product. The commercials show music videos - not a very heavy need given the additional cost, I would assume, but the video delivery system allows them to deliver...guess what? Movies. Part of iPod's position statement must be "to be the leader in personal entertainment." Very smart. iTunes has also partnered with cell phone manufacturers and you can get a cell phone today that downloads music from iTunes. Where will they go next? Games? Cell phone? Camera? PDA? Hard to say. Probably games - they have some on a unit today and that would be coincident with the personal entertainment position. Are they a fad? I don't think so.

    I hope this helps.

    Wayde
  • Posted by Carl Crawford on 11/10/2005 at 9:20 AM Member
    Joy, Sony DON'T make the Ipod, it is Apple that makes them. Heck Sony are STILL releasing CD players.

    Now on to najarajthebest's question.

    Try reading this article:

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/5/dsouza40.asp

    The market for FLASH based MP3 players in currently in consolidation and a lot of cheaper players have been pushed out of the market (sadly), Apple has an agreement with most suppliers of large flash (1 GB+), they are pushing there suppliers and milking them dry, the deals they have mean that most supplers dont make any money by selling there product to apple but they are stuck in there deal for another year or two, to top it off there is a shortage of large flash.

    There was a news story about it a few Weeks ago, on yahoo news.

    Personally i think Ipods are crap, there batteries dont last very long and then you have to buy another battery which costs about the same as a new ipod.

    They have LESS features than competitors, you have to buy extra stuff to get the features you need/want.

    They are priced way too much, for the $500 i can buy an Iriver and have $100 left over for something else, or i can buy a (or a couple of) cheap non branded one for $50 (512 mb each) and just use that/them.

    And the nanos screen scratches way to easily, Apple said they used the same material the mini and original ipod was made of (which was true) BUT they left out the fact the special spay the put on it to protect the ipod was 1/10 the thickness of the original.

    Also in there forum, when people post a complaint about the ipod or another apple product there thread disappears, there account is removed and there IP is banned.

    I think they are going to keep pushing new updates, i certainly wont buy one because it seems every few days there is a "new" ipod.

    But i do like there distribution strategy:
    https://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/ipod-vending-machine-133740.php

    Only problem is there is no music.

    More links:
    https://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/ipod/

    Are you planning on making an ipod product? or are you thinking of launching a low cost competitor? or is this just for academic purposes?
  • Posted on 11/15/2005 at 5:00 PM Member
    Sorry - I meant Apple!!

    I guess the brand side of my brain had not yet awoken (note time of my original post). The rest of my post stands, though. I think their strategy is working, and whether or not there are problems (as noted with the battery), I don't think it's a fad. I do think, however, that Apple will have to stay on top of trends and product development/improvement and not take their market position for granted.

    - Joy
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