University of Phoenix Product Life Cycle Management Analysis: Apple Ipod
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
Product Life Cycle Management Analysis
Cindy Lueskow
University of Phoenix
Product Life Cycle Management Analysis: Apple IPod
The Product Life Cycle Management Analysis is based upon the Introductory, Growth, Maturity and Decline stages of the Apple IPod, a portable player launched in 2001. Objectives here were to give the program shape, provide intent and target strategies to reach the consumers. Apples strategy was to release a fun product wrapped in a small package in which consumers have a sense of belonging. The iPod is a way to enjoy vast amounts of music.
Apple’s introduction phase started slowly in 2001-2004 with sales between 100-200 thousand units per quarter. We can see their worst decision was lack of advertising in the early years. Apple expected word-of-mouth, considering this the single largest contributor to the first three years of the iPod’s struggle. Apple’s advertising budget for their products has quadrupled for new product launches. The first change in the iPod was launched in 2002, the second generation iPod. IPods were compatible not only with the Mac operating systems but with Microsoft Windows operating systems; the next contributor was to see iPod succeed.
By Aug 2004 iPod sales began rose dramatically as it entered its growth phase. The iPod made from the fortune of Apple was the major turning point in the company growth. Apple was constantly adding functions and features including color display, photo viewing capability video playing capability, improving battery life, improving the user interface, slimming down the player size, and increasing the storage capabilities. They also introduced new models such as the iPod Mini which were cheaper and smaller in size and in storage capabilities making it affordable to more consumers. Next, they introduced the iPod Nano with acquired flash memory storage instead of hard disk. They kept improving the iTunes counterpart making an abundance of deals with reluctant record companies. Apple was impacting the business market significantly enough and stopped pursuing new deals with more record companies. We know where the iPod stands, and that it is a remarkable product being sold at more than three hundred retail stores, online stores with various hardware and software sold.
