Crimes in the Movie Fletch Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Crimes in the Fletch - Movie Review Example As much as his intentions are praiseworthy, he still runs into trouble. Scene #1 There is a criminal solicitation in this opening scene. According to Section 5.02 of the Model Penal Code, â€Å"an individual is only guilty of solicitation to commit a crime if with the interest of promoting what he supports, encourages or request someone else to participate in that involves committing such a criminal act (Schmalleger, 2010).† It is evident that Stanwyck tries to involve Fletch in a criminal solicitation crime, when he asks Fletch to kill him and end his suffering from cancer and save his insurance for his wife. In this same scene, criminal conspiracy as a crime is evident. When Stanwyck mentions his murder as a way of providing his wife with insurance money, it clearly portrays the conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. According to the Model Penal Code section 5.03, â€Å"an individual is guilty of conspiracy with someone else to commit a crime if with the intention of endorsi ng its plan he agrees to work or help such an individual in planning such a crime (Schmalleger, 2010). Scene #4 In this scene, Fletch doubts the condition of Stanwyck and feels that he is tricking him. To seek the truth behind this, he decides to visit the family doctor of Stanwyck for information who turns him down. Failing to get the information, Fletch disguises as a doctor and sneaks in the hospital to acquire the information. At this juncture, he violates the doctor to patient privileges. According to the Mode Penal Code section 241, impersonating a public servant, â€Å"an individual commits a crime if deceptively pretends to work in the public service with the intention of inducing someone else to give in the pretended official power†(Schmalleger, 2010). The second crime is the violation of doctor to patient information. A patient should not be full of fear of revelation and access of his information to someone else by the doctor. When Fletch disguised as a doctor and accessed the information, he committed a crime. Based on Find a Law, â€Å"Doctor-patient confidentiality is not supposed to be shared unless with the permission of the patient (Breaches of Doctor to Patient Confidentiality, 2012). If this case was to go to court, Fletch would have no defense, since it is clear that he is going against regulations. Scene #7 Fletch is making a phone call at the beach seeking to know the whereabouts of Stanwyck. He then notices a police approaching them fat. The police chase him and another black guy, gummy. After catching them, the policemen start beating Gummy and force him into the car. On seeing this, Fletch tries to stop the police, but his efforts seem futile. As the police drive away, he throws a stone shuttering the rear mirror of the car. He then goes to the newspaper's office asking for money to return to Uttah. When in Uttah, he contacts Stanwyck’s realtor and gets the truth behind the bought property. He sees that Stanwyck paid $30 00 instead of $3000000 as Stanwyck had told his wife. He then decides he needs intelligence and breaks into the realtor’s office to get concrete evidence. Fletch jumps over the fence and gets into the office to get the data. He then takes some photos of the data and gets chased by a guard dog. At the point where the police chase down Gummy, there is clear evidence of excessive use of force, which violates section 3.07 of the Model Penal Code, â€Å"

Famous for their creative ideas Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Famous for their creative ideas - Research Paper Example In short, he helped his country to gain independence from Britain and cope with social suffering connected with this transition (Mandelbaum, 1973). In the essence of his worldview, he strived to solve the lack of morality in modern India (Chakrabarry, 2006, p. 3). Because of this, he invented the moral principle of satyagraha, or truth force, which opposed existing violence by wise authority (Chakrabarry, 2006). On the implementation of his ideas, his leadership skills enabled his achievements. In fact, he headed the national revolution, and was creative in starting it from rural areas not presidency towns (Chakrabarry, 2006, p. 4). Thus, Mohandas Gandhi’s name is an essential part of huge transition for the Indian society. In general, Mandelbaum (1973) shows how different hard situations helped Mohandas Gandhi to turn from the average life plan of his time to become national leader Mahatma Gandhi. For instance, Chakrabarry (2006) says the very simplicity of Gandhi’s la nguage enabled him to become noticeable and easily refer to the grassroots (p. 1-2). Furthermore, numerous obstacles he faced in social life of India strengthened his conviction of the necessity of political reform. For example, he considered poverty as social violence and encouraged people to resist it. Thus, the case of Mohandas Gandhi demonstrates how important it is for political leader to be attentive to social problems. If he did not question the authority of division within Indian society, he would never become as great and creative as we know him. Hence, his idea of non-violence and moral authority is still up-to-date. On another hand, Benjamin Franklin made a crucial contribution to the further development for another part of the world, America. In the time of his living, the question of what does it mean to be American was up-to-date (Houston, 2008, p. 6-7). Thus, the introduced by him concept of improvement mostly referred to this challenge. In wider

Development and Future of the Apple iPod

Development and Future of the Apple iPod The iPod is perhaps the most talked about technological product in recent times. It has set sales records that have lave literally destroyed the predictions of all analysts by superseding everyone’s expectations. The interesting issues concerning this topic is how the iPod impacted not only the digital music electronics industry, but was also responsible for the turnaround of a company on the brink of bankruptcy. It is this very fact that makes the growth and life cycle of iPod an experience in itself and one that creates a sense of wonder at its success. But how did all this come about and just why did the iPod do so well? These are questions that we look to find answers towards whilst shedding light on the internal pressures faced by the parent company Apple. The paper takes the reader through the history of the parent company Apple and its declining fortunes until the introduction of the iPod. This revolutionary innovation then dictated the pace at which the organisation was able to turn itself around to become one of the more successful computer companies in the world today. The report also looks at how Apple as a company defines itself with the onset of the iPod boom – can it still call itself a computer company in the literal sense of the word or does it now see itself entering a diversified phase of business operations and hence, would need to re-think it’s overall business strategy and core competencies. The views of different writers expressed through the paper help in building an understanding of the pressures the company has undergone over the last decade and why it has taken the decisions that it has. The paper revolves around the growth of the iPod as the key driving force for all major business and technical decisions, it understand how it had to be re-modelled and adapted to the market needs and demands. The paper also paints the competitive landscape at different stages of the growth cycle and how this impacted or did not impact the iPod. Finally, the paper looks at the varying consumer tastes, the positives drawn from the product itself and what lies in store for the future of the product and the company. The methods used to create a deeper understanding of the iPod environment were through a variety of primary and secondary sources. Some of this is discussed in greater detail in different section of the paper. However, for the purpose of this report, the researcher took great care in trying to put together different pieces of work by various writers so as to be able to provide more holistic and all-encompassing view of the real scenario that surrounded the iPod boom. On a more generic note, most writers and experts within the industry agreed that the success of this product was unrivalled by others of its kind in recent times. Introduction Background Success stories always find their way to centre-stage. But what makes a journey even more interesting is when accompany that finds itself in some level of difficulty turns the tide and jump starts its engines to climb to the top of the success ladder. Apple’s is one such story. Whilst the problems that affect it lie in the background, the phenomenal success of its iPod has people fascinated. Marketing gurus swear by the growth of this innovative product that provided the perfect solution to a generation that was technologically familiar and defied competition to control every conceivable bit of the market that it entered – the digital music space, and made it its own. How and why is what we attempt to discover. History The history of the iPod dates back to the January of 2001. Apple had just introduced ‘iTunes’ – a programme that enabled Accusers to burn music off audio CD’s and convert them into music files on their computer systems as digital audio files. This provided users with the flexibility of creating libraries for their music files, clubbing favourite songs in order and in time to come, download them to portable devices. This natural extension saw the introduction of the iPod in the month of October 2001. Unlike other portable devices in the same range, the iPod was the first of its kind to store music files on a hard disk similar to a computer. Other devices used flash cards and detachable storage devices that could not hold as many bytes of data as the iPod did. Infect, the first few iPods had a 5GB storage space, which equated to the storage of approximately a 1000 songs. The question to be asked at this stage was if the software for writing music to the computer was developed keeping the iPod in mind? However, sources within the company maintain that the iPod was only conceptualised 6 months before its release date. Whatever the truth might be, the two scenarios complemented each other beautifully giving consumers the best of both worlds and a logical extension to the process of listening to music. In November 2001, the first iPods were shipped to waiting buyers and byte end of the year, 125,000 iPods had been sold for a price of $399.Within a year, other computer companies as well as large retailers were selling iPods as value-adds. Dell, Best Buy and Target were some of the more prominent names at this stage and had dedicated sites and sales teams pushing for iPod sales. By June 2003, Apple had managed to sell 1 million iPods, which could download music from both Macs as well as PCs. Interestingly, by the end of 2003, one of its largest resellers Dell; had decided not to sell anymore iPods and instead launch its own version of the iPod called the DJ(Digital Jukebox). In order to download songs from the Internet, Dell partnered with a company called Music Match that offered that service. By mid-2004, 6 months after it hit the 1 million mark, Apple crossed the 2 million mark in iPod sales but the peripheral market was just getting warmed up to the portable devices segment. In addition to thud by Dell, HP announced that it was repackaging the 4G iPod and selling it as a PC friendly device. Motorola launched its next generation phones that would be iTunes compatible. In one of the more recent statistics of the iPod wave collated in October 2004, there were some interesting findings. Apple held 82 per cent of the digital market across all music players and 92 per cent of all hard-disk based music players. The nearest competitor to the iPod was the device launched by Creative. They had a 3.7 per cent market share. In addition, 2 million iPods are being sold every 3 months. The music industry too has gained immensely through these sales. The total number of downloads have been clocked at a 150 million which equates to 4 million per week. The latest iPod has a mechanism that enables the storage of digital photographs as well as music. Today, Apple figures have registered total of 6 million iPod sales. That’s a fascinating growth path, which would make any marketing professional envious of replicating that kind of success. On careful consideration though, it took very long for iPod to really drive its sales figures to the kind that it was able to achieve in the years 2003 and 2004. Until then, the figures were good, but not something to write home about. The turning point for Apple came with the introduction of the third generation iPods. This is apparent since it took almost 2 years for iPod to register its first million in sales and soon after the launch of the 3G iPod in Tokyo less than 6months later; Apple was able to register its second million in iPod sales. Interestingly, the sales figures recorded over the 3-year period were averse to any form of competition from companies such as Creative, Dell, river etc. They sold cheaper products but not for a moment, did they encroach upon the market share that was and is still monopolised by iPod. Apple has also utilised an aggressive marketing strategy towrope in different age groups by using the draw of celebrities and song choices. For instance, in late October 2004, Apple unveiled what was called the U2 iPod. Apple conducted a promotion exercise in sync with the release of U2’s song – Vertigo. The new iPod was designed with black casing, a red wheel and a back cover that had the engravings ofU2 with the band signatures. It is little things such as these that have made the iPod such a role model for marketing strategists. The unique blend of having a great product and infusing the right level of awareness and visibility to sell it to the masses. In the chart below, the growth path of the iPod from its inception, to the end of 2004shows how sales surged in 2003 after the release of the 3G iPods as mentioned earlier. Not to mention, as the iPod sales soared, so did the number of downloads for music. Initially, the software iTunes needed tube bought in order to write songs from audio CD’s to the computer, following which they could be downloaded to the iPod. In 2003, Apple introduced an online music store that enabled iPod users to download music directly from the Internet. This worked in 2 ways – it provided users with an increase in choice of music that they would like to have downloaded as well as simplified the procurement of iTunes. No more dada user have to buy a software, install it onto the computer and then use it to burn music off a CD and finally onto the hard disk of the iPod. Simplifying this process for millions of users had its positives as can be seen from the graph above. The first big jump in sales was in October 2003 when the PC version of the music store went live. This enabled far more users to be able to download songs onto their computers and diluted the monopoly of Accusers. 2 months later, in December 2003, following a lot of media hype and attention being given to the iPod and a corresponding increase in Christmas sales, more and more people began downloading songs from iTunes. And in between July 2004 and October 2004, Apple registered growth of song sales from a 100 million to a 150 million. (http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=4280_0_8_0_M) It must be noted that in many instances within the paper, the use of iPod and Apple is synonymous. After much deliberation, the researcher decided that it was important to approach the paper from the perspective of the parent company Apple. Any impact that the environment would have on Apple would be reflective in the iPod strategy. At the same time, in circumstances that would affect the company both positively and negatively, would subsequent effect the iPod and vice-versa. Aims and Objectives The aim of this paper is to understand the growth of the iPod through the years. It all began in the year 2001 and it has been a short journey to success. But how long will this be able to continue, what is the future for the product, how will it fend off competition and how will it impact Apple in the longer run. We all know that it has been apathy-breaking journey for Apple as it picks itself up from the doldrums of declining computer sales with its innovative invention that saw it spring back into the limelight. It is also the endeavour of this paper to highlight how important an impact the iPod has had on Apple alone and why can’t other company’s model the same success story. Literature Review The Success of the iPod According to Haddad, Charles (2002),the iPod is one of the most revolutionary products to hit the computer and electronics market place. He believes that the only way forward for Apple is to diversify its product range and move from being a niche computer manufacturer to providing technology that understands the gap between technology and entertainment. He quotes how the market share for Apple in 2002 had remained at 3 per cent for a number of years. In order to move it from there, it was imperative that they looked beyond the computer industry since it was reaching a saturation point in most developed markets and the level of competition from across the globe was making it extremely difficult for large computer manufacturers to survive. Digital handheld music players were a growing market in 2002. There were few players in the market place and industry experts such as ID Chad stated that demand would grow by 74 per cent over the next 3 years. In retrospect, they weren’t right – but only because the demand has recorded triple digit growth since 2002. In addition, the anticipated sales for 2002 were pegged at 12 million units of all kinds of portable digital music devices. Haddad brings up an important point about how the level of competition within the digital handheld music products industry was still at a minimalistic stage in comparison to other industries where companies such as Microsoft and Intel who had taken over the PC market. He believed that the next generation of buyers were more interested in a product that was different, satisfied their requirements and at the same time, was ‘cool’ and suave to have. Especially in the case of handheld devices where consumers would cart it around with them, this need for trendy and sophisticated gadgets was of the utmost importance. At the time of writing his article, Haddad had researched the iPod when music files were downloadable only from a Mac. The iPod sales were still consistent and looking positive during that stage but Apple had not introduced downloading files onto PC’s at that stage. Once that happened, iPod sales grew dramatically. The iPod was never intended to lift the flailing computer business of the parent company but overtime, Haddad statements would hold good, as the iPod would grow to become one of the most successful products ever launched by a computer company. (Haddad, Charles, iPod, You Pod, Will We All Pod? Business Week Online; 7/3/2002) Teething problems with Strategy? With the degree of success that the iPod has seen over the years, there have been few instances that writers have been able to find a chink in the armour of this hugely successful product. One such writer is Salk ever, Alex (2004). In the first of his articles – ‘Apple’s slow boat to China’, he discusses how the Chinese economy is one of the most lucrative investment decisions for businesses the world over and how Apple has failed to take advantage of this huge opportunity. He begins by using the views of consultants who have worked within the Chinese market place for decades now and seen it evolve over the years. He quotes Merrill Weingrod who works with a marketing consultancy – China Strategies. When Salk ever asks Weingrod how lucrative the Chinese market is for product such as the iPod, he answers saying that the market potential for men’s electric shavers is $300 million annually. Weingrod believed that the Chinese have the buying power to spend $200 to $250 on luxury shavers today which are not a necessity by any standing. This was just an indication of their mind-sets and how much they were willing to spend and for what. He reiterates this by stating that the Chinese population measures 300 million in terms of the number of cell phone subscribers across the country. They pay an average of $200 for their handsets and connectivity. In addition, the average Chinese employee earns far less than his / her American counterpart and yet, he / she is willing to pay larger proportion of their salary towards buying luxury goods. This equates to the buying potential and eagerness amongst the population and above all – a prospective consumer. One who is constantly on the lookout for the infusion of luxury goods into the market so that he /she can go ahead and purchase it, provided there is a need of course. In addition, the Chinese economy is the fastest growing economy in the world with its GDP growth rate pegged at 9 per cent annually. It has one of the largest middle-class societies in the world with disposable income that is growing as fast as their growth rate. With every factor in the book of marketing pointing towards the Chinese market, Salk ever is dismayed at Apple’s strategy to stay out of this market and not undertake an aggressive marketing strategy that would tap it’s he potential. The only real steps that Apple has taken towards entering this economy is to ensure that iTunes Music software is downloaded onto every Manufactured by China’s second largest computer manufacturer – Founder Technology. It is an ironical decision considering the consumer who would purchase the machine would have little access to the iPod on which he could have downloaded his / her music. Besides this decision with the Chinese industry, Apple hasn’t taken any more steps towards making any investment decisions in this region. There was one instance when they almost toyed with the idea of opening an iTunes Music Store but then retracted any steps made in that direction. The figures that Salk ever quotes are astounding to the reader. According to him, at least .3 present of the population of China has disposable income that equates to that of an individual in the US who would earn approximately $25000 to $30000 annually. That figure translates to approximately 60 million people today and will grow to 3to 4 times that number over the next decade. With the increasing middleclass and the ability to buy products that others around the world can afford, very soon the Chinese middle class would equal the entire population of the United States. So what do the Chinese see these new gadgets in the market place as? According to market analysts Bryan Mama company that tracks the buying of cell phones in Asia, but based in Singapore, the number of cell phones that are replaced are astounding. The Chinese people like to replace their cell phones 6 to 12 months earlier than consumers in North America and Western Europe. Gadgets are seen as a status symbol of sorts. Owning the latest models makes individuals feel like they are popular and wanted, according to the company. Chinese consumers also tend to go for gadgets that are sleek, suave and trendy. According to Salk ever those are the kinds of words that would define the iPod but they don’t find any place in the market. He tries to look at the picture from Apple’s perspective. As a company, Apple’s strategy is to consolidate and preserve its position in the markets that it is strong in. In the bargain, it would not look to invest in new markets such as China. In fact, Apple has a miniscule presence across the entire length and breadth of Asia. If Japan is taken out of the equation, Apple draws less than 10 per cent of total sales from this region. Naturally, it is not an area of too much interest for the moment. Whilst Apple takes a back seat to proceedings in this region, competition in the form of Sony, Motorola and Creative have made inroads into the Chinese market. As an example, Motorola entered the Chinese handset market early and in the first quarter of2004, it was proud to declare that it has achieved a market share of 40per cent. It had the first mover’s advantage introducing a technology that few others were brave enough to take into this country many years back and today it has paid off. The Chinese market is known for its penetration problems. The researcher agrees with the insights that Salk ever has provided into this untapped region and understand the problems that Apple faces in the future lest it not take steps in this direction. The level of investment required at a later date where the market is abuzz with competition would be significantly higher. It makes completes sense for companies to invest in C hina at this stage and there is no reason why Apple should not be one of them. (Salk ever, Alex, Business Week Online; 7/22/2004) In another article by Salk ever albeit on a different issue, he adopts similar stand on the problems that will plague Apple. In his article, ‘iPod: Leader, but Not Ruler’, he states that the sales figures by Apple are either over-exaggerated or are inaccurate since there isn’t enough evidence that the data being collated is validated. Apparently, data in countries in Latin America, India, South Korea, Eastern European Taiwan are difficult to validate and not easy to obtain. There are also other areas across Asia, including China where data retrieval and collation is not as accurate as it is made out to be. So when Apple boasts of global sales and achieving market shares across the world in excess of 50 per cent across the electronic market (MP3 players), they may very well be over the top. To evidence his findings, Salk ever looks at the various methods that companies use to collate market data that can be passed onto consumers and other business prospects. On one hand, they can utilise the services of US market research companies such as the NPD group that solely dedicates its efforts to the US retail economy. On the other hand, companies such as Apple can resort to asking OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and component manufacturers how many pieces they are taking to the market place. Whatever may the case be, according to Salk ever, Apple doesn’t quite have accurate information omits global market share. He confirms that Apple is certainly a global leader but not dominant. This could have been a very interesting report but the only flaw with his research is that he fails to document enough evidence either through statistics or through credible sources that can allow him to judge with some level of certainty that Apple’s iPods are infect facing tough times ahead. To be fair to Salk ever though, he does introduce the subject of the growing competition of iPods outside the borders of the US from Asian electronics companies. In the coming years, cheaper labour costs of the Asian companies will allow them to create inexpensive models of the iPod and compete on price aggressively. In addition, Salk ever states that the Asian consumers who are growing to the largest consumers of entertainment products, prefer smaller sized iPods. This is not in sync with Apple’s strategy since they plan to introduce larger and heavier models of the iPod in the coming few months. And even if iPod does take the cue and invests in smaller models in time, it would have lost outing comparison to other digital music manufacturers. But Salk ever does summarise his studies by admitting the dominance of iPod within the digital market place, yet cautions against rising competition and price sensitive market in the near future. (Salk ever, Alex (2004) Business Week On line; 5/27/2004) Curzon (2005) has an equally interesting point of view. He believes that the iPod boom would not be able to sustain the success that it has experienced for much longer. His rationale is based around stock prices and other statistics that he discovers about Apple which point towards changing tide in the coming years. Curzon promotes the concept that Apple as a company is on the decline once again and encourages people to sell their shares now since they would lose money in the coming few months lest they hang onto them. He begins by mentioning the usual success stories of the company – the last 2 years have seen iPod sales rise more than twenty times from 219,000 units towards the end of 2002 to over 4 million units at the end of last year. In fact, Lehman Brothers had initially projected iPod sales to be approximately 3million units at the end of 2004. They had to revise their figures closer to the end of the year and pegged it again at 4 million units for the year 2004. Apple on the other hand clocked 4.5 million units for the year ending 2004, ahead of anybody’s expectations. Another indication of the progressive rate of success is how the number of downloads from the iTunes rose from 50 million to 200 million. Finally, the biggest turnaround statistic lies in how the company almost went bankrupt after the dotcom era a decade ago and last year, recorded sales figures in excess of $3 billion with no debt on their financial statements. What makes very interesting reading is how Ken Curzon describes the decline in the demand of iPods and correspondingly, with the parent company as well. He states that after the Christmas rush for buying iPods, in all probability consumers will not be willing to spend as much money on it. As he puts it – â€Å"Holiday shoppers are more enthusiastic about higher prices, but once the holiday season ends, they usually don’t like to spend money on products that are priced at a premium†. In keeping with the same, Curzon predicts that in the first few months of 2005, the rate at which consumers buy iPods would drop gradually at first and then, more drastically later in the year. Lehman Brothers too have declared that they expect a 14 per cent drop in sales figures over the course of the year. In another case, Curzon talks about how on one hand, the sales of iPods have certainly been increasing in conjunction with an increase in market share, but the parent company Apple has seen a decline in its market share from 2 per cent to 1.9 per cent. The ‘Apple Stores’ are an over-riding success because of the iPod and its driving consumers tithe stores. But although the number of footfalls across these stores has doubled, the number of consumers buying Apple PC’s has remained constant. Additionally, Apple’s revenue figures in comparison to other computer companies are very average. For a company that is on the biggest ride of its business life, it records a growth rate of 33 present in comparison to HP’s 29 per cent. And what makes this look more dismal according to Curzon is that the operating margins for the previous year were declared at 3.94 per cent. This was far lower in comparison to HP’s 5.2 per cent and Dell’s 8.56 per cent. (Curzon, Ken, Esquire; Mar 2005, Vol. 143 Issue 3, p112) Somehow, Curzon does shed light on certain statistics that project Apple’s performance in a questionable light but on closer observation, it appears that the facts have been manipulated to project a negative perspective to the progress of Apple. The researcher believes this tube the case since there are many individuals who constantly try and influence the market forces through published writing such as this to ultimately try and manipulate the performance of the stocks. For every negative statement that Curzon was able to highlight, there appears tube an equally positive explanation for the same. For instance, decline in market share by .1 per cent is not necessarily a negative impact on the company. It depends on the marketing strategy of the company – is it trying to move out of certain markets and invest in others. Additionally, in saturated market places such as the US, any form of product diversification would have an impact on the market share as well. So there are considerations that need to be taken before any conclusions can be made. At the same time, the researcher believed it important to include Curzon’s work since it was one of the most recent articles on the iPod that sounded warning bells and tries to get the reader to see the success story from a different perspective. So where exactly is Apple headed towards now? According to Murphy(2004), a significant contribution of Apple’s success can be attributed to the iPod and hence, any future success parameters would also be defined by the iPod. The competition amongst the computer industry is very intense with players such as Microsoft for software, Dell, HP undim for hardware and a host of other system integrators and competitive channel partners. Due to a diminishing market share as mentioned earlier of under 2 per cent, the total business worth of the company has fallen to half that of its sales revenue. The only light in this dark tunnel is the fact that the stock price at Apple has almost doubled over the past 2 years. But can the parent company depend on single product offering and expect to piggyback ride it all the way tithe bank? It’s not possible says Murphy. There will come a time in the near future when sales of iPods begin to decline, competitive forces take over with lower priced products and existing markets begin to get saturated. Some of these products would come from companies such as HP,Dell, Sony, Creative, Gateway and Rio, each offering a product that is significantly cheaper and has greater memory storage in comparison tithe iPod. For instance, Creative has launched a new product that also has a longer battery life and also has white earplugs similar to those of Apple, taking a leaf out of Apple’s trendy design. At the same time, it has been seen that consumers have complained about the lack of availability of iPods in the stores. And to make matters worse, Apple hasn’t been able to confirm a deadline by when they would be made available. Times will change gradually. As Murphy mentions – the pricing of the iPods over time will fall significantly and Apple would need to sell more and more iPods just to maintain the revenue figures. For instance, there is an assumption based on pricing that Apple would need to sell at least 20 per cent more iPods in the coming year to be able to sustain the same level of growth over the year. This should not be a problem currently considering growth is predicted to rise to 70 per cent but in time, this could certainly become an issue. If looked at differently, Murphy argues that falling prices of products are fine as long as business efficiencies were rising. 4 years ago, when the sales figures of Apple were 4 per cent higher than they are today, the operating profits of the company were at 9 per cent of total sales. Today, that figure has come down to 3 per cent. In addition, the number of employees added over the past 4 years has gone up by 32 per cent and the sale per employee has significantly decreased from $930,000 to$674,000. For apple to be able to sustain its growth and maintain a leading position in the market place, it cannot depend wholly on the iPod revolution. Its notebooks and desktop products account for 64 per cent of its current sales as a company. But except for the month of June that recorded a 14 per cent increase in revenues, the rest of the year remained much the same in terms of sales. This is worrying for Apple since it doesn’t have too many back up measures to fall on should they land in trouble. To tackle some of this problem, Apple had introduced a series of Apple stores across the US, UK and parts of Western Europe. These stores hosted the latest introductions by the company including all models of the iPod and its peripherals. The rationale lay in ensuring that consumers would walk into these stores with the excuse of looking at the iPods and at the same time, browse around and take look at the range of other Apple products as well. Unfortunately though, this move didn’t bring in the kind of sales that Apple management had predicted. When Apple was asked about this stagnancy that was creeping into their product lines, they said that 50 per cent of all buyers at their new stores that they have introduced are new consumers and they propose to build relationships through their product quality and peripherals and increase their market share of repeat buyers. Interestingly, Murphy is one of the only writers on this subject who believes that the main fault of Apple’s moderate performance lies with its CEO Steve Jobs. Over the course of its business history, Apple has always ensured that its software configures only with its hardware and no others. For instance, the Mac operating system can only be run on Mac computers. In comparison, the Windows Operating systems can be used on a variety of different hardware systems making it a more universally accepted operating system. The time for niche solutions in not the way forward. Apple must realise that the money lies in the numbers and they can in no way get to those numbers by limiting access to their software. It really is a Catch-22 situation for them. In much the same way, the iPod can only play music that has been downloaded from iTunes. What happens when the iTunes faces intense competition from other music download software companies in the near future? Are we saying that the iPod would only have limited access to music and perhaps, not the entire range of mus Development and Future of the Apple iPod Development and Future of the Apple iPod The iPod is perhaps the most talked about technological product in recent times. It has set sales records that have lave literally destroyed the predictions of all analysts by superseding everyone’s expectations. The interesting issues concerning this topic is how the iPod impacted not only the digital music electronics industry, but was also responsible for the turnaround of a company on the brink of bankruptcy. It is this very fact that makes the growth and life cycle of iPod an experience in itself and one that creates a sense of wonder at its success. But how did all this come about and just why did the iPod do so well? These are questions that we look to find answers towards whilst shedding light on the internal pressures faced by the parent company Apple. The paper takes the reader through the history of the parent company Apple and its declining fortunes until the introduction of the iPod. This revolutionary innovation then dictated the pace at which the organisation was able to turn itself around to become one of the more successful computer companies in the world today. The report also looks at how Apple as a company defines itself with the onset of the iPod boom – can it still call itself a computer company in the literal sense of the word or does it now see itself entering a diversified phase of business operations and hence, would need to re-think it’s overall business strategy and core competencies. The views of different writers expressed through the paper help in building an understanding of the pressures the company has undergone over the last decade and why it has taken the decisions that it has. The paper revolves around the growth of the iPod as the key driving force for all major business and technical decisions, it understand how it had to be re-modelled and adapted to the market needs and demands. The paper also paints the competitive landscape at different stages of the growth cycle and how this impacted or did not impact the iPod. Finally, the paper looks at the varying consumer tastes, the positives drawn from the product itself and what lies in store for the future of the product and the company. The methods used to create a deeper understanding of the iPod environment were through a variety of primary and secondary sources. Some of this is discussed in greater detail in different section of the paper. However, for the purpose of this report, the researcher took great care in trying to put together different pieces of work by various writers so as to be able to provide more holistic and all-encompassing view of the real scenario that surrounded the iPod boom. On a more generic note, most writers and experts within the industry agreed that the success of this product was unrivalled by others of its kind in recent times. Introduction Background Success stories always find their way to centre-stage. But what makes a journey even more interesting is when accompany that finds itself in some level of difficulty turns the tide and jump starts its engines to climb to the top of the success ladder. Apple’s is one such story. Whilst the problems that affect it lie in the background, the phenomenal success of its iPod has people fascinated. Marketing gurus swear by the growth of this innovative product that provided the perfect solution to a generation that was technologically familiar and defied competition to control every conceivable bit of the market that it entered – the digital music space, and made it its own. How and why is what we attempt to discover. History The history of the iPod dates back to the January of 2001. Apple had just introduced ‘iTunes’ – a programme that enabled Accusers to burn music off audio CD’s and convert them into music files on their computer systems as digital audio files. This provided users with the flexibility of creating libraries for their music files, clubbing favourite songs in order and in time to come, download them to portable devices. This natural extension saw the introduction of the iPod in the month of October 2001. Unlike other portable devices in the same range, the iPod was the first of its kind to store music files on a hard disk similar to a computer. Other devices used flash cards and detachable storage devices that could not hold as many bytes of data as the iPod did. Infect, the first few iPods had a 5GB storage space, which equated to the storage of approximately a 1000 songs. The question to be asked at this stage was if the software for writing music to the computer was developed keeping the iPod in mind? However, sources within the company maintain that the iPod was only conceptualised 6 months before its release date. Whatever the truth might be, the two scenarios complemented each other beautifully giving consumers the best of both worlds and a logical extension to the process of listening to music. In November 2001, the first iPods were shipped to waiting buyers and byte end of the year, 125,000 iPods had been sold for a price of $399.Within a year, other computer companies as well as large retailers were selling iPods as value-adds. Dell, Best Buy and Target were some of the more prominent names at this stage and had dedicated sites and sales teams pushing for iPod sales. By June 2003, Apple had managed to sell 1 million iPods, which could download music from both Macs as well as PCs. Interestingly, by the end of 2003, one of its largest resellers Dell; had decided not to sell anymore iPods and instead launch its own version of the iPod called the DJ(Digital Jukebox). In order to download songs from the Internet, Dell partnered with a company called Music Match that offered that service. By mid-2004, 6 months after it hit the 1 million mark, Apple crossed the 2 million mark in iPod sales but the peripheral market was just getting warmed up to the portable devices segment. In addition to thud by Dell, HP announced that it was repackaging the 4G iPod and selling it as a PC friendly device. Motorola launched its next generation phones that would be iTunes compatible. In one of the more recent statistics of the iPod wave collated in October 2004, there were some interesting findings. Apple held 82 per cent of the digital market across all music players and 92 per cent of all hard-disk based music players. The nearest competitor to the iPod was the device launched by Creative. They had a 3.7 per cent market share. In addition, 2 million iPods are being sold every 3 months. The music industry too has gained immensely through these sales. The total number of downloads have been clocked at a 150 million which equates to 4 million per week. The latest iPod has a mechanism that enables the storage of digital photographs as well as music. Today, Apple figures have registered total of 6 million iPod sales. That’s a fascinating growth path, which would make any marketing professional envious of replicating that kind of success. On careful consideration though, it took very long for iPod to really drive its sales figures to the kind that it was able to achieve in the years 2003 and 2004. Until then, the figures were good, but not something to write home about. The turning point for Apple came with the introduction of the third generation iPods. This is apparent since it took almost 2 years for iPod to register its first million in sales and soon after the launch of the 3G iPod in Tokyo less than 6months later; Apple was able to register its second million in iPod sales. Interestingly, the sales figures recorded over the 3-year period were averse to any form of competition from companies such as Creative, Dell, river etc. They sold cheaper products but not for a moment, did they encroach upon the market share that was and is still monopolised by iPod. Apple has also utilised an aggressive marketing strategy towrope in different age groups by using the draw of celebrities and song choices. For instance, in late October 2004, Apple unveiled what was called the U2 iPod. Apple conducted a promotion exercise in sync with the release of U2’s song – Vertigo. The new iPod was designed with black casing, a red wheel and a back cover that had the engravings ofU2 with the band signatures. It is little things such as these that have made the iPod such a role model for marketing strategists. The unique blend of having a great product and infusing the right level of awareness and visibility to sell it to the masses. In the chart below, the growth path of the iPod from its inception, to the end of 2004shows how sales surged in 2003 after the release of the 3G iPods as mentioned earlier. Not to mention, as the iPod sales soared, so did the number of downloads for music. Initially, the software iTunes needed tube bought in order to write songs from audio CD’s to the computer, following which they could be downloaded to the iPod. In 2003, Apple introduced an online music store that enabled iPod users to download music directly from the Internet. This worked in 2 ways – it provided users with an increase in choice of music that they would like to have downloaded as well as simplified the procurement of iTunes. No more dada user have to buy a software, install it onto the computer and then use it to burn music off a CD and finally onto the hard disk of the iPod. Simplifying this process for millions of users had its positives as can be seen from the graph above. The first big jump in sales was in October 2003 when the PC version of the music store went live. This enabled far more users to be able to download songs onto their computers and diluted the monopoly of Accusers. 2 months later, in December 2003, following a lot of media hype and attention being given to the iPod and a corresponding increase in Christmas sales, more and more people began downloading songs from iTunes. And in between July 2004 and October 2004, Apple registered growth of song sales from a 100 million to a 150 million. (http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=4280_0_8_0_M) It must be noted that in many instances within the paper, the use of iPod and Apple is synonymous. After much deliberation, the researcher decided that it was important to approach the paper from the perspective of the parent company Apple. Any impact that the environment would have on Apple would be reflective in the iPod strategy. At the same time, in circumstances that would affect the company both positively and negatively, would subsequent effect the iPod and vice-versa. Aims and Objectives The aim of this paper is to understand the growth of the iPod through the years. It all began in the year 2001 and it has been a short journey to success. But how long will this be able to continue, what is the future for the product, how will it fend off competition and how will it impact Apple in the longer run. We all know that it has been apathy-breaking journey for Apple as it picks itself up from the doldrums of declining computer sales with its innovative invention that saw it spring back into the limelight. It is also the endeavour of this paper to highlight how important an impact the iPod has had on Apple alone and why can’t other company’s model the same success story. Literature Review The Success of the iPod According to Haddad, Charles (2002),the iPod is one of the most revolutionary products to hit the computer and electronics market place. He believes that the only way forward for Apple is to diversify its product range and move from being a niche computer manufacturer to providing technology that understands the gap between technology and entertainment. He quotes how the market share for Apple in 2002 had remained at 3 per cent for a number of years. In order to move it from there, it was imperative that they looked beyond the computer industry since it was reaching a saturation point in most developed markets and the level of competition from across the globe was making it extremely difficult for large computer manufacturers to survive. Digital handheld music players were a growing market in 2002. There were few players in the market place and industry experts such as ID Chad stated that demand would grow by 74 per cent over the next 3 years. In retrospect, they weren’t right – but only because the demand has recorded triple digit growth since 2002. In addition, the anticipated sales for 2002 were pegged at 12 million units of all kinds of portable digital music devices. Haddad brings up an important point about how the level of competition within the digital handheld music products industry was still at a minimalistic stage in comparison to other industries where companies such as Microsoft and Intel who had taken over the PC market. He believed that the next generation of buyers were more interested in a product that was different, satisfied their requirements and at the same time, was ‘cool’ and suave to have. Especially in the case of handheld devices where consumers would cart it around with them, this need for trendy and sophisticated gadgets was of the utmost importance. At the time of writing his article, Haddad had researched the iPod when music files were downloadable only from a Mac. The iPod sales were still consistent and looking positive during that stage but Apple had not introduced downloading files onto PC’s at that stage. Once that happened, iPod sales grew dramatically. The iPod was never intended to lift the flailing computer business of the parent company but overtime, Haddad statements would hold good, as the iPod would grow to become one of the most successful products ever launched by a computer company. (Haddad, Charles, iPod, You Pod, Will We All Pod? Business Week Online; 7/3/2002) Teething problems with Strategy? With the degree of success that the iPod has seen over the years, there have been few instances that writers have been able to find a chink in the armour of this hugely successful product. One such writer is Salk ever, Alex (2004). In the first of his articles – ‘Apple’s slow boat to China’, he discusses how the Chinese economy is one of the most lucrative investment decisions for businesses the world over and how Apple has failed to take advantage of this huge opportunity. He begins by using the views of consultants who have worked within the Chinese market place for decades now and seen it evolve over the years. He quotes Merrill Weingrod who works with a marketing consultancy – China Strategies. When Salk ever asks Weingrod how lucrative the Chinese market is for product such as the iPod, he answers saying that the market potential for men’s electric shavers is $300 million annually. Weingrod believed that the Chinese have the buying power to spend $200 to $250 on luxury shavers today which are not a necessity by any standing. This was just an indication of their mind-sets and how much they were willing to spend and for what. He reiterates this by stating that the Chinese population measures 300 million in terms of the number of cell phone subscribers across the country. They pay an average of $200 for their handsets and connectivity. In addition, the average Chinese employee earns far less than his / her American counterpart and yet, he / she is willing to pay larger proportion of their salary towards buying luxury goods. This equates to the buying potential and eagerness amongst the population and above all – a prospective consumer. One who is constantly on the lookout for the infusion of luxury goods into the market so that he /she can go ahead and purchase it, provided there is a need of course. In addition, the Chinese economy is the fastest growing economy in the world with its GDP growth rate pegged at 9 per cent annually. It has one of the largest middle-class societies in the world with disposable income that is growing as fast as their growth rate. With every factor in the book of marketing pointing towards the Chinese market, Salk ever is dismayed at Apple’s strategy to stay out of this market and not undertake an aggressive marketing strategy that would tap it’s he potential. The only real steps that Apple has taken towards entering this economy is to ensure that iTunes Music software is downloaded onto every Manufactured by China’s second largest computer manufacturer – Founder Technology. It is an ironical decision considering the consumer who would purchase the machine would have little access to the iPod on which he could have downloaded his / her music. Besides this decision with the Chinese industry, Apple hasn’t taken any more steps towards making any investment decisions in this region. There was one instance when they almost toyed with the idea of opening an iTunes Music Store but then retracted any steps made in that direction. The figures that Salk ever quotes are astounding to the reader. According to him, at least .3 present of the population of China has disposable income that equates to that of an individual in the US who would earn approximately $25000 to $30000 annually. That figure translates to approximately 60 million people today and will grow to 3to 4 times that number over the next decade. With the increasing middleclass and the ability to buy products that others around the world can afford, very soon the Chinese middle class would equal the entire population of the United States. So what do the Chinese see these new gadgets in the market place as? According to market analysts Bryan Mama company that tracks the buying of cell phones in Asia, but based in Singapore, the number of cell phones that are replaced are astounding. The Chinese people like to replace their cell phones 6 to 12 months earlier than consumers in North America and Western Europe. Gadgets are seen as a status symbol of sorts. Owning the latest models makes individuals feel like they are popular and wanted, according to the company. Chinese consumers also tend to go for gadgets that are sleek, suave and trendy. According to Salk ever those are the kinds of words that would define the iPod but they don’t find any place in the market. He tries to look at the picture from Apple’s perspective. As a company, Apple’s strategy is to consolidate and preserve its position in the markets that it is strong in. In the bargain, it would not look to invest in new markets such as China. In fact, Apple has a miniscule presence across the entire length and breadth of Asia. If Japan is taken out of the equation, Apple draws less than 10 per cent of total sales from this region. Naturally, it is not an area of too much interest for the moment. Whilst Apple takes a back seat to proceedings in this region, competition in the form of Sony, Motorola and Creative have made inroads into the Chinese market. As an example, Motorola entered the Chinese handset market early and in the first quarter of2004, it was proud to declare that it has achieved a market share of 40per cent. It had the first mover’s advantage introducing a technology that few others were brave enough to take into this country many years back and today it has paid off. The Chinese market is known for its penetration problems. The researcher agrees with the insights that Salk ever has provided into this untapped region and understand the problems that Apple faces in the future lest it not take steps in this direction. The level of investment required at a later date where the market is abuzz with competition would be significantly higher. It makes completes sense for companies to invest in C hina at this stage and there is no reason why Apple should not be one of them. (Salk ever, Alex, Business Week Online; 7/22/2004) In another article by Salk ever albeit on a different issue, he adopts similar stand on the problems that will plague Apple. In his article, ‘iPod: Leader, but Not Ruler’, he states that the sales figures by Apple are either over-exaggerated or are inaccurate since there isn’t enough evidence that the data being collated is validated. Apparently, data in countries in Latin America, India, South Korea, Eastern European Taiwan are difficult to validate and not easy to obtain. There are also other areas across Asia, including China where data retrieval and collation is not as accurate as it is made out to be. So when Apple boasts of global sales and achieving market shares across the world in excess of 50 per cent across the electronic market (MP3 players), they may very well be over the top. To evidence his findings, Salk ever looks at the various methods that companies use to collate market data that can be passed onto consumers and other business prospects. On one hand, they can utilise the services of US market research companies such as the NPD group that solely dedicates its efforts to the US retail economy. On the other hand, companies such as Apple can resort to asking OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and component manufacturers how many pieces they are taking to the market place. Whatever may the case be, according to Salk ever, Apple doesn’t quite have accurate information omits global market share. He confirms that Apple is certainly a global leader but not dominant. This could have been a very interesting report but the only flaw with his research is that he fails to document enough evidence either through statistics or through credible sources that can allow him to judge with some level of certainty that Apple’s iPods are infect facing tough times ahead. To be fair to Salk ever though, he does introduce the subject of the growing competition of iPods outside the borders of the US from Asian electronics companies. In the coming years, cheaper labour costs of the Asian companies will allow them to create inexpensive models of the iPod and compete on price aggressively. In addition, Salk ever states that the Asian consumers who are growing to the largest consumers of entertainment products, prefer smaller sized iPods. This is not in sync with Apple’s strategy since they plan to introduce larger and heavier models of the iPod in the coming few months. And even if iPod does take the cue and invests in smaller models in time, it would have lost outing comparison to other digital music manufacturers. But Salk ever does summarise his studies by admitting the dominance of iPod within the digital market place, yet cautions against rising competition and price sensitive market in the near future. (Salk ever, Alex (2004) Business Week On line; 5/27/2004) Curzon (2005) has an equally interesting point of view. He believes that the iPod boom would not be able to sustain the success that it has experienced for much longer. His rationale is based around stock prices and other statistics that he discovers about Apple which point towards changing tide in the coming years. Curzon promotes the concept that Apple as a company is on the decline once again and encourages people to sell their shares now since they would lose money in the coming few months lest they hang onto them. He begins by mentioning the usual success stories of the company – the last 2 years have seen iPod sales rise more than twenty times from 219,000 units towards the end of 2002 to over 4 million units at the end of last year. In fact, Lehman Brothers had initially projected iPod sales to be approximately 3million units at the end of 2004. They had to revise their figures closer to the end of the year and pegged it again at 4 million units for the year 2004. Apple on the other hand clocked 4.5 million units for the year ending 2004, ahead of anybody’s expectations. Another indication of the progressive rate of success is how the number of downloads from the iTunes rose from 50 million to 200 million. Finally, the biggest turnaround statistic lies in how the company almost went bankrupt after the dotcom era a decade ago and last year, recorded sales figures in excess of $3 billion with no debt on their financial statements. What makes very interesting reading is how Ken Curzon describes the decline in the demand of iPods and correspondingly, with the parent company as well. He states that after the Christmas rush for buying iPods, in all probability consumers will not be willing to spend as much money on it. As he puts it – â€Å"Holiday shoppers are more enthusiastic about higher prices, but once the holiday season ends, they usually don’t like to spend money on products that are priced at a premium†. In keeping with the same, Curzon predicts that in the first few months of 2005, the rate at which consumers buy iPods would drop gradually at first and then, more drastically later in the year. Lehman Brothers too have declared that they expect a 14 per cent drop in sales figures over the course of the year. In another case, Curzon talks about how on one hand, the sales of iPods have certainly been increasing in conjunction with an increase in market share, but the parent company Apple has seen a decline in its market share from 2 per cent to 1.9 per cent. The ‘Apple Stores’ are an over-riding success because of the iPod and its driving consumers tithe stores. But although the number of footfalls across these stores has doubled, the number of consumers buying Apple PC’s has remained constant. Additionally, Apple’s revenue figures in comparison to other computer companies are very average. For a company that is on the biggest ride of its business life, it records a growth rate of 33 present in comparison to HP’s 29 per cent. And what makes this look more dismal according to Curzon is that the operating margins for the previous year were declared at 3.94 per cent. This was far lower in comparison to HP’s 5.2 per cent and Dell’s 8.56 per cent. (Curzon, Ken, Esquire; Mar 2005, Vol. 143 Issue 3, p112) Somehow, Curzon does shed light on certain statistics that project Apple’s performance in a questionable light but on closer observation, it appears that the facts have been manipulated to project a negative perspective to the progress of Apple. The researcher believes this tube the case since there are many individuals who constantly try and influence the market forces through published writing such as this to ultimately try and manipulate the performance of the stocks. For every negative statement that Curzon was able to highlight, there appears tube an equally positive explanation for the same. For instance, decline in market share by .1 per cent is not necessarily a negative impact on the company. It depends on the marketing strategy of the company – is it trying to move out of certain markets and invest in others. Additionally, in saturated market places such as the US, any form of product diversification would have an impact on the market share as well. So there are considerations that need to be taken before any conclusions can be made. At the same time, the researcher believed it important to include Curzon’s work since it was one of the most recent articles on the iPod that sounded warning bells and tries to get the reader to see the success story from a different perspective. So where exactly is Apple headed towards now? According to Murphy(2004), a significant contribution of Apple’s success can be attributed to the iPod and hence, any future success parameters would also be defined by the iPod. The competition amongst the computer industry is very intense with players such as Microsoft for software, Dell, HP undim for hardware and a host of other system integrators and competitive channel partners. Due to a diminishing market share as mentioned earlier of under 2 per cent, the total business worth of the company has fallen to half that of its sales revenue. The only light in this dark tunnel is the fact that the stock price at Apple has almost doubled over the past 2 years. But can the parent company depend on single product offering and expect to piggyback ride it all the way tithe bank? It’s not possible says Murphy. There will come a time in the near future when sales of iPods begin to decline, competitive forces take over with lower priced products and existing markets begin to get saturated. Some of these products would come from companies such as HP,Dell, Sony, Creative, Gateway and Rio, each offering a product that is significantly cheaper and has greater memory storage in comparison tithe iPod. For instance, Creative has launched a new product that also has a longer battery life and also has white earplugs similar to those of Apple, taking a leaf out of Apple’s trendy design. At the same time, it has been seen that consumers have complained about the lack of availability of iPods in the stores. And to make matters worse, Apple hasn’t been able to confirm a deadline by when they would be made available. Times will change gradually. As Murphy mentions – the pricing of the iPods over time will fall significantly and Apple would need to sell more and more iPods just to maintain the revenue figures. For instance, there is an assumption based on pricing that Apple would need to sell at least 20 per cent more iPods in the coming year to be able to sustain the same level of growth over the year. This should not be a problem currently considering growth is predicted to rise to 70 per cent but in time, this could certainly become an issue. If looked at differently, Murphy argues that falling prices of products are fine as long as business efficiencies were rising. 4 years ago, when the sales figures of Apple were 4 per cent higher than they are today, the operating profits of the company were at 9 per cent of total sales. Today, that figure has come down to 3 per cent. In addition, the number of employees added over the past 4 years has gone up by 32 per cent and the sale per employee has significantly decreased from $930,000 to$674,000. For apple to be able to sustain its growth and maintain a leading position in the market place, it cannot depend wholly on the iPod revolution. Its notebooks and desktop products account for 64 per cent of its current sales as a company. But except for the month of June that recorded a 14 per cent increase in revenues, the rest of the year remained much the same in terms of sales. This is worrying for Apple since it doesn’t have too many back up measures to fall on should they land in trouble. To tackle some of this problem, Apple had introduced a series of Apple stores across the US, UK and parts of Western Europe. These stores hosted the latest introductions by the company including all models of the iPod and its peripherals. The rationale lay in ensuring that consumers would walk into these stores with the excuse of looking at the iPods and at the same time, browse around and take look at the range of other Apple products as well. Unfortunately though, this move didn’t bring in the kind of sales that Apple management had predicted. When Apple was asked about this stagnancy that was creeping into their product lines, they said that 50 per cent of all buyers at their new stores that they have introduced are new consumers and they propose to build relationships through their product quality and peripherals and increase their market share of repeat buyers. Interestingly, Murphy is one of the only writers on this subject who believes that the main fault of Apple’s moderate performance lies with its CEO Steve Jobs. Over the course of its business history, Apple has always ensured that its software configures only with its hardware and no others. For instance, the Mac operating system can only be run on Mac computers. In comparison, the Windows Operating systems can be used on a variety of different hardware systems making it a more universally accepted operating system. The time for niche solutions in not the way forward. Apple must realise that the money lies in the numbers and they can in no way get to those numbers by limiting access to their software. It really is a Catch-22 situation for them. In much the same way, the iPod can only play music that has been downloaded from iTunes. What happens when the iTunes faces intense competition from other music download software companies in the near future? Are we saying that the iPod would only have limited access to music and perhaps, not the entire range of mus

Free Merchant of Venice Essays: The Price is Right :: Merchant Venice Essays

When I first read The Merchant of Venice, I had a lot of mixed reactions. One of them, surprisingly enough, was that it was too short! How can this be? We all know that Shakespeare's plays are notoriously too long. In reading it over, I think this perception comes from a number of sources. One is the idea that the two story lines, that of Portia and her suitors and that of Shylock and his money-grubbing ways, are only loosely held together by the title character, Antonio. The other reason is that when we finally get to the trial scene, the supposed highlight of the play, we notice that the trial is only a very small part of the whole play. It is not "what the play is about" in my opinion. Many people have suggested that the play should have ended after the trial, that the final scene served no purpose. I saw it more like the hurriedly thrown together conclusion to a choppy paper. We have talked about cut versions of literature as they make their way to the screen. This seems to me as though it is a choppy version of an idea that didn't work out as well as the playwright had hoped. As I read even more closely, I may find I change my mind. Since it didn't seem to be about what I thought it was supposed to be about, I decided to try to figure out what it really is about. Based on my current understanding (subject to further enlightenment), the play is (at least partially) about the merchandising of people. People can be bought or sold for "Three thousand ducats, well" (Act I Scene 3 Line 1), or "chests of gold, silver and lead" (I.ii.30). Every one has a price. All are bought or sold at one time or another. Let's look at some of the leading characters and see what price they require. Antonio sells "a pound of his flesh" for "three thousand ducats" in Act I Scene 3. Bassanio sells his marriage vows to repay the lawyer/ judge for defending Antonio (Act IV Scene 2). Grationo sells his vows, by giving away the ring that represented them, and his friendship to Bassanio at the same time. Portia sells herself as property in marriage

Auteur Essay: Tarantino and Lee Moulding Emotions Essay

A common goal for most modern directors is to engage the audience emotionally. It’s a seemingly simple task that is often left by the wayside, half finished and ineffective. Those directors that do achieve this task, tend to make better movies. Two such directors are Ang Lee and Quentin Tarantino. The ways that they manipulate their audience’s emotions are completely different yet they are both effective. Where Tarantino’s manipulation of tension is unmatched in the modern world, Lee’s grace and subtlety often leaves audience’s with a sense of awe and wonder. The manipulation of an audience’s emotions is often a difficult task but Lee and Tarantino achieve it in their own unique ways. Suspense, defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen. Quentin Tarantino’s manipulation of suspense and tension in a scene is unmatched in today’s world. Like the former â€Å"Master of Suspense† himself, Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino leads the audience to a the point of near exhaustion, through the pent up pressure in his trademark lengthy scenes. These scenes serve to focus every ounce of mental and emotional energy on the situation, instead of cutting away to an inter-related subplot elsewhere and releasing the pressure, as is conventional. In the film â€Å"Inglourious Basterds† (2009), Tarantino leaves the audience gasping for breath right from the opening scene. The scene, in which a German â€Å"Jew Hunter† is questioning a farmer about the Jews hiding on his farm, is built up over nearly twenty minutes of pure dialogue between the two, as the German manipulates the farmer into telling him where the fugitives are. As the scene progresses, it grows increasingly obvious that the German is playing a horrible game with the farmer and the audience. As the farmer is slowly reduced to tears, the music escalates, the ticking of the clock grows louder and the camera circles the pair, making the audience feel trapped and vulnerable. It’s despair the audience feels as the Jews are finally gunned down through the floorboards amid the screams of frantic violins and only then does Tarantino release his choke hold on the audiences emotions, letting the pressure off slightly. However, the masterful effect achieved here is that the audience is almost glad that the scene was resolved, however heinous it was. It lets the audience know that the ride is only starting and that they’d better buckle up. In the same movie Tarantino again demonstrates his ultimate control over the audience. The scene is another tense, pressure filled affair, as a group of undercover allied spies are trying to work their way out of a conversation with a Gestapo agent in a French bar. The manipulation of mis en scen is excellent as every element is used to full advantage. The audience is made to squirm in discomfort as the bar gets quieter and quieter and the Gestapo agent asks more threatening questions. The ambient lighting of the set serves to make the audience feel calm and safe but as the situation progresses the lighting seems harsher and brighter as the scene grows more tense. The scene itself, which is about twenty minutes long, starts off relatively light hearted with a game of cards between a group of enlisted Germans who are celebrating a comrades new baby. Strangely the camera stays with this group for longer than really necessary, to make the audience feel attached to the group especially the new born father. The reason why this was done becomes clear later as all his friends are slaughtered and he is left bargaining for his life, which adds yet another emotional sub-plot to the scene that the audience must deal with. In both these examples Tarantino manipulates sound to build the tension in the scene and escalate the suspense. Put simply, Tarantino â€Å"moulds† his audience throughout a scene, showing his absolute control over mis en scen, the editing process and the audience. The way in which Ang Lee conducts a scene is completely unique in today’s world. Contrasting to Tarantino’s â€Å"moulding† of the audience, Lee concentrates on making the scene â€Å"beautiful† in both the emotional and physical sense. This in fact is Lee’s own version of â€Å"moulding†, except his does so in a much more subtle fashion to connect to the audience on a higher level. In his Academy Award winning film â€Å"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon† (2001), every single movement has a gentle, graceful feel. This is exemplified in the first combat scene, where Yu and Jen are fighting over a stolen sword. The quick, yet elegant style of movement makes the scene flow far better than a traditional fight passage where the viewer is wrenched through fast paced camera angles and shots coupled with gratuitous violence. In this scene, camera angles and shots are sparing and well used and the gentle way in which the characters manoeuvre, leave the audience feeling not an adrenaline rush but strangely calm and at ease. Similarly in â€Å"Brokeback Mountain† (2005) Lee strives to communicate beauty on multiple levels. In the scene where Ennis is visiting Jacks parents, he goes to Jacks bedroom. In this powerful scene, there is no dialogue or interaction between other characters. The camera follows Ennis as he tenderly caresses the clothes in Jacks cupboard and sits wistfully by the window with tears in his eyes. This scene is significant because it demonstrates how even though there was no interactions or dialogue it still is deeply affecting and meaningful. Ang Lee seeks to reveal the beauty of all his scenes no matter how different and diverse that beauty is. In conclusion, even though Ang Lee and Quentin Tarantino differ greatly in their techniques, they both achieve something that modern directors rarely accomplish. They connect with their audience and as a result control their emotions. From Tarantino’s masterful use of suspense, to Lee’s ballet-like grace and control over a scene, they both affect the audience in ways that compliment both the scene and their film. These two directors prove that if you control the audience’s emotions you control their outlook on the film and ultimately how successfully it is.

Propaganda, Recruitment and Resistance Essay

When war broke out, the British army was professional but small. The government desperately needed a lot more troops, and they turned their heads straight to recruitment. Britain was very different to its allies in recruitment; they started the war recruiting volunteers. The Government believed that as tradition, they should not force any men into conflict; they had never done, and believed they never would. Volunteering was a British thing to do; using posters, and leaflets, they thought would get enough soldiers to volunteer. The Government assumed that many soldiers would come forward as patriots and out of honour, for generations men’s predecessors had fought in civil war, Lord Kitchener and the PM Asquith supposed men had to maintain the loyalty. Those who wanted to join the army, joined out of excitement, the thrill of killing, and a break from normal life. They thought that the war was going to be a short, easy war which they would not be a major part of, as they had been reassured that the Naval power would wipe out supplies of food, and arms. These troops would have been highly motivated and ready for whatever was to come at them (or so they thought). Propaganda was a factor in men volunteering; a number of the male citizens were genuinely persuaded by the propaganda and believed what it told them. The Government realised that all men who volunteered were going to train harder, and in the long term where going to be superior soldiers, even if there was a smaller number of them. Women, older men (who had fought in civil wars before them) pressured young men who had not enlisted, also their friends, and relatives were joining. In theatres, actresses interrupted performances to call men up onto the stage and sign up. Those men who were watching the play felt embarrassed, also as if everyone was watching them and urging them to sign up. The Government encouraged this in homes, and although it was an illegitimate way of getting men to join, it was very useful, and many of those who were put under such pressure, crumbled and enlisted. The figures of unemployed men in Britain were rising, and the amount of jobs for these men was decreasing, as they didn’t have the necessary skills to acquire a job that paid good money. Prime Minister Asquith seized upon this opportunity to give these unemployed a ‘future’ in the army. The unemployed had to accept the opportunity, as it paid good money, it was an exciting experience and that they simply they had no where else to go. The men were happy to receive this break away from their dirty, shabby lifestyle. Asquith, and Kitchener exaggerated this prospect, and the unemployed believed that this was easy money, and a gateway to a new life. Men who volunteered into the army where grouped in accordance of what area they came from. Theoretically this was a good idea, but in practice demonstrated a fatal blunder. ‘Pals Battalions’ as these neighbouring units were named, were awfully effective in making each soldier feel at home, and able to settle in to army life. At the front though it was a different story, as each Pals Battalion went ‘over the top’ it was usually on the first day of a major battle, which resulted in 70% or more of their men killed or seriously wounded. Local areas in England wit a small population lost many of its younger men in a short space of time. The rest of the male population who did not volunteer chose not to for various reasons. Some men decided not to enlist on occupational grounds. Men who worked in vital industries such as mining felt it was there duty to stay home and continue their essential job. However, this was not the only reason on work-related grounds that people did not volunteer. Some men did not want to fight because they had a well paid job and good career prospects, whilst others left the rest of the population to volunteer because they thought that the war would not last long. They assumed that if they joined the army they would die, they were scared of dying and losing everything that they had worked for. This fear of dying was made a great deal worse when rumours of the conditions on the front line filtered through to the public. They were told of the huge numbers of deaths and casualties that the British were taking. Other chose not to volunteer on the moral or religious grounds. The Quakers did not volunteer because they did not believe the war was the answer. Many other men refused to ‘play God’, ad take away another mans life. Some men refused to volunteer because they had people at home depending on them, and they were the main breadwinner of the family, for example children and wives or elderly relatives. The Government thought that the war would be over by Christmas, and this small army would do fine, because the Navy would be the major battle point in the war, where the ships would create blockages, and starve them to surrender. Conscription being introduced from 1914 would have caused pandemonium in Britain, for the fact that the public would have realised that this war was going to be a long and drawn out war. Asquith did not want to cause any panic, and wanted to carry out ‘business as usual’, one of his idea’s to keep Britain an active and calm country to live in still, although the war was only overseas, but as many exports and imports happened overseas, and where transported into foreign countries, ‘business as usual’ could not happen. Also the government didn’t introduce compulsory military service because they trusted the public to volunteer, as it was a change, it was supposedly ‘exciting’, and the thought of becoming a hero was a chance to be loved by your friends, but most importantly, the whole country. Lord Kitchener and Asquith were spot on; by the end of August in 1914 300,000 more soldiers had enlisted. In September of 1914, 462,901 out of 600,000 volunteers stepped up to support the war efforts. The aim for the end of December was an army of 4 million (which even for the ‘Supreme British’, I believe was a long shot). Conscription would have faced a battering by civil rights activists if introduced in 1914, as conscription was anti-liberal, and a breach of civil rights and individual freedom. In hindsight, with all the protesters, volunteering was an easier way of recruiting without hassle. Another aggravation of conscription was the cost of it. It was considered that conscription would be a waste of needed money and resources. All of the eligible men must be registered in a system, not all men would turn up to register, resulting in wasted time, which could be used to produce posters to round up troops for volunteering. However by 1915 not enough soldiers were being recruited, and drastic measures hadto be taken to gather enough soldiers to compete with the large German army. In 1916 there was a change in Government. Lloyd George became the new Prime Minister, he was determined to win this war, and his practical mind led to the introduction of conscription. The Government primarily thought that they would recruit enough soldiers without moving to conscription, but they were very wrong. The German land forces were huge, and the previous Prime Minister (Asquith) believed this war would be won by Britain’s naval supremacy. Again, they were wrong, the trenches was where the major fighting was taking place, thousands of deaths happened each day at the front. As the war dragged on and on, fewer and fewer amounts of men were enlisting to fight, this was mainly due to leaks from the front of the poor conditions, and high amount of deaths were published by the media. As the numbers of deaths on the front grew, the Government started to ban the lists of deaths. This was due to ‘over the top’ tactics’ as men were old to walk in lines, shooting to gain breach the trenches of the German’s. As the deaths increased men became more wary of what was really happening in the war, and some men began to see through the lies of propaganda. But deaths were not the only reason why men weren’t signing up; the wages at home were increasing while unemployment was decreasing, resulting in men taking the chance of staying at home rather than fighting for the army, which at that time had very low pay. The army was made up of lots of previously unemployed men, but as many of those had already enlisted, there was a shortage of men that wanted to sign up. As volunteers piled through in the early months of the war, the Government believed the army was going to have enough men to win this war, on foot and on sea. But as the number of volunteers each month declined, women of husbands who had volunteered, and the general public (except most younger men) began to complain that it was unfair that some men had volunteered and others had not. There had to be a fairer system, those who had not volunteered were getting away lightly. The only way to improve this system was to introduce conscription. Not only were there thousands of deaths occurring on the front every day, but men did not receive the right, or enough ammunition to compete with the constant bombardment of shells, and the onslaught of machine gun bullets ripping through the British defence, it s men. This was called the Shell Scandal. The reason for the shortage of ammunition was due to the amount of workers that had joined up to the army from indispensable war industries. Factories that made shells, bullets, and armour where literally deserted. The pay was substantially higher in the army, it was an exciting prospect and a change for the men that work the same shift, producing the same goods all day. The press began campaigning to introduce conscription, because they knew the real deaths that were taking place at the front, given that the government banned them from publishing the amount of deceased. Bearing in mind that the newspapers had a major influence over the public then, (and still do now) it started to persuade (using propaganda) the public that conscription was acceptable, and the right way forward. The general public began to succumb to the idea, and by the end of the campaigning the national Service league (NSL) demanded the change from the new government. Lloyd George, as a practical man realised that this was the only way to win the war. Conscription commenced in January 1916, but a long time before that there was talk on how the government would assemble all of the eligible men for active military service, and the restrictions they would put on those that could be exempt from military service. They started the process by creating a National Register, which collected together every citizens details from the age of 15 to 65 e.g. name, age, marital status, occupation and skills. All of the data was collected together. It allowed the government to calculate how many men were of military age, and those who would be in the future, but also those who were in reserved occupations, which means those jobs that are essential to the war effort e.g. industry and agriculture. The National register not only provided the government with information, but also opened the door for new ideas. One of these ideas was the Derby Recruiting Scheme. It was named after Lord Derby the Director of Recruiting, as he was the one who manipulated the information from the National Register to his advantage. He asked all British men aged between 18 and 41 if they would be disposed to serve in the army. Although you may have thought like the propaganda posters, the personal, frontal approach would have worked, it didn’t. The results were disappointing. Firstly, those who were not in reserved occupation did not like the idea of fighting in the war, those would did want to fight were summoned with two weeks notice and secondly, a plus can be drawn from this, this was the first time an actual system had been put in place for conscription, so things could only get better. After the poor response from all those who were not exempt from the war, there was only one way to get men to fight, that was to force them. Four months after The Derby Recruiting scheme the conscription came in form of the Military Service Act, which required all unmarried men, and widowers without children or dependents e.g. sick mother, between the age of 18 and 41 to join the army. Unmarried men in reserved occupations were exempt from duty, as well as those who were breadwinners or sole supporters in their household, those who had medical disabilities and finally conscientious objectors. But as the National Register was unreliable, needed soldiers were not raced. The change from total volunteering to conscription happened in a short space of time, only four months. Compulsion did not just stop at exempting men, it became universal, on May 3rd 1916 all men despite any circumstances between 18 and 41 were forced into battle. Universal Conscription was now introduced and there was no going back. As soldiers died and needed soldiers were untraceable due to poor organisation, the government looked overseas to all British born people, and for Allied citizens living over here to fight for their natural country. This was another Military Service Act to boost friendship with their Allies. It gave each side more men to fight but mustn’t have gone down well with those who tried to flee the country. In two years the British public had gone from hating the idea of conscription to deeming it as acceptable. The newspaper’s had much to do with bringing the country round to believing the Government, but the Government wanted everyone involved. In November 1917, the Ministry of National Service was formed; the power given to them was unbelievable. They could cancel all exemptions on occupational grounds; almost playing God with people’s lives, as they well knew that 70% of these men would die or become seriously injured, before the war had ended. The government began to keep on rising the age limits, and the limits on who should fight, they were becoming desperate; the age limit was raised to 50, and if deaths were on high occurrence then it would be a staggering 56! Even Ireland was made to abide by the same rules of compulsion that was already in place in England. The British Army wanted to out number the Germans, but in the end they had a lot of soldiers at the front unwilling to fight, even those who had volunteered were becoming reluctant to fight. By the end of the war the British realised that they no longer needed so many men, as they were slowing crushing Germany, and the Minimum age of exemption was 23. Men under that age were considered too weak. Slowly but surely the Government extended the restrictions on compulsion. If there hadn’t been a change in government then I believe compulsion would have been introduced at a much later stage, because Asquith was against the idea of forcing men to fight; it was a breach of civil rights.