Ipod: Leader or Follower

Running head: APPLE and the iPod: Leader or Follower

APPLE and the iPod: Leader or Follower

Robert Connell

Columbia Southern University,

Advanced Marketing MBA 5501-06E-2

Abstract

The Apple iPod has been the leader in the mp3 portable digital media player since its introduction to the public. There have been players before it, digital, am/fm, or tape players that have proven the market is worldwide and open to anyone. The challenge was to build a player that could take the lead in the industry, create and implement a strategic marketing plan, and gain the loyalty of the customer base for years to come.

Apple and the iPod: Leader or Follower

In almost every gymnasium, running track, or airplane that one has the chance to partake in will see a person wearing a set of headphones listening to some sort of digital media. The players are small and easily navigated by the user, showing that they are very easy to manage. The round scrolling touchpad, sleek design, shiny player that is carried in a sleeve worn on the arm or in a case that is worn on the belt is more than likely to be one of Apples iPod digital media player.

The iPod was not always the top player, nor was it the invention that created the craze for portable music and media playing. The following paper will show how Apple was able to take over a market that was created by other big technology companies such as Sony, Dell, Creative Labs, and Rio to name a few. The Strategy for success that Apple brought to the table launched a shockwave that most of the computer manufacturers have been using for years, being an end-to-end supplier, providing both the software and player from the same company.

The introduction of iTunes software took the iPod to another level once the market took off for the iPod and its newer models. The promotion that Apple brought to the fight was a well planned marketing strategy that paid off well by targeting youngsters. The final stage for Apple will be to continue with new products that will lead the community to continue purchasing for years to come

How iPod came to be

The iPod was released in November of the year 2001. It was not the first player to come out by any means, yet it had an interestingly nice looking platform. The previous models of players date back from the 1980’s Sony’s Walkman, to one of the first digital players that Rio and Creative labs put out, were not terribly expensive and at the time, they boasted large enough disk space to play20-40 songs. Once you got into the larger disk drives, the prices would soar, and this is where Apple had problems in the beginning. Apple did not market the player as it has done in the more recent past, using U2 amongst other big screen actors to promote the player.

With the market wide open for someone to take the lead in the digital media industry Apple took control of their destiny by putting the iPod in

Software can make or break you

The introduction of iTunes software with the iPod had some users angry, while others got knees deep into it and were able to navigate through the program with ease. There should have been a user’s guide to iTunes (it is probably in production) for new users of the iPod. The problem was that users were not able to take their mp3 music that they had on their computers and go back and forth with it. The format of .aac for the iPod was stand alone and the new standard for iPod users. You don’t hear people calling their players .aac players like you hear others calling an mp3 player…it is plainly an iPod or an mp3 player. The Dell DJ or Rio Carbon were not referred by users as the name brand, yet an mp3 player, and even worse they were labeled as iPods. That must be a thorn in the side of these businesses.

From Bloomberg.com in November of 2005, just four years after the introduction of the iPod

“Music stocks have declined while Apple soared. Apple shares have climbed to $57.50 in New

York from $9.50 in October 2001, when the iPod went on sale. Fiscal fourth-quarter net income

at Apple, which also makes Macintosh computers, rose to $430 million from $106 million a year

earlier, as it sold 6.45 million iPods, the company said