NALSAR UNIVERSITY OF LAW

HYDERABAD

Department of Management Studies

Assignment

On

PRODUCT LIFE CYCYLE OF IPOD

By

Y. Sai Venkata Rami Reddy (51)

2019-2MBA

Submitted to:

Prof. A Vidyadhar Reddy

Instructor: Product and Brand Management

 INTRODUCTION

Product life cycle in simple terms explains the process that a product undergoes from
introduction to exist from the market all these processes are explained in four stages namely

 Introduction
 Growth
 Maturity
 Decline

MP3 player industry was first introduced by south Korean firm Saehan into Asia in 1997.
Later in October 2001, Apple has introduced its first-ever iPod and from then the rest is
history.

INTRODUCTION STAGE:

Apple has introduced its first-ever iPod in October 2001 and from then the rest is history.
Apple has introduced its base model of iPod, available in 10gb or 5gb models, and priced at a
whopping price tag of 300$ although the iPod is overpriced it managed to sell 350 million
devices after the launch of its first-ever iPod. Although the competition for the iPod is more
at that time the Apple has crossed them all with its advanced technical capabilities, “cool”
factors, white headphones, and click-wheel control.

Coming to the strategies Apple has created awareness about its objectives and has created a
reputation as a credible brand. Apple has widely demonstrated usage of its product the
benefits of listening to music while doing workouts, travelling, refreshing by the use of
informative tele advertisement (television Advertisement).

GROWTH STAGE

Apple has launched iTunes in 2003 which has unsurprisingly led to the creation of a second
and third generation of iPods during this period Apple started to see a rise in competition that
aims at its size and features. It's not Apple that has launched the first device which has both a
display and a multimedia player which is small in size named MUVO line from Archos
which is also very successful at that time.

But despite of its growing competition Apple in 2004 Has launched iPod mini in a view of
broadening its market but it has become an instant hit in teenagers and women due to its wide
range of colours, reduced price, and comparatively small size. In the next three years, Apple
has entered the Growth stage and to with the stand heavy competition from Samsung’s YP-P2
and Microsoft Zune Apple has launched iPod nano, Touch and Shuffle.

Coming to the strategies, Apple has started its stores and services in UK in 2004 and also
expanded its distribution channels to supermarkets in 2005 which is beyond electrical stores.
Due to its commitment to the iPod range, Apple has increased its Advertising spend by 60%
and also advertised through outdoor and print camping’s. This helped Apple to achieve a
whopping Marek share of 72.7% in the MP3 player market in 2007

MATURITY STAGE

By 2007 Apple has achieved 72.7% market share and by 2008 iPod has reached a maximum
sale of 54.8 million units and said to have reached the maturity stage. To competition in
mature markets and to increase sales Apple have come with new generation Apple iPods
which broke new grounds of performance and design introduction of, Nike+ functionality,
increased battery life, colour screens and camera/video with a step further Apple also
integrated its ecosystem with iCloud, Apple TV and Mac PC with a cost to shows its
premium pricing.

To sustain in mature markets Apple has adopted Michael Porter’s three key strategies to
achieve competitive advantage and also to differentiate its products from others. undoubtfully
the strength of Apple is the brand itself.

A typical feature of Maturity stage is Shakeout of firms due to failure of implementation of

one of the Michael Porter’s three key strategies, big companies like Microsoft discontinued
ZUNE in 2011 and many others.

DECLINE STAGE

Although Apple has introduced its latest models in 2012 by 2013 its global sales have been
dropped by 26.3 million which shows that the Apple iPod has entered the Decline stage.
Although it is expected as Mr Jobs have introduced the iPhone by saying “the best iPod
we’ve ever made” which caused consumers to own iPod as a separate device which caused
cannibalising of its sales.
The only strategy adopted by companies during its Decline stage is offering discounts but
Apple's main strategy is premium pricing to protect its brand image so Apple haven’t offered
any discounts which caused more decline in sales of iPods.

Thus, iPod has settled as a prime example for ever-shortening product lifecycle in today's
new generation of technology growth and remembered as the dawn of Apples Boom era
which is now led by iPhone and iPad.

STRATEGIES

Coming to the strategies adopted by Apple in each stage of PLC are

INTRODUCTION STAGE

As it is the start for MP3 player era apple has mainly targeted in explaining the product to its
customers. Apple has widely demonstrated usage of its product the benefits of listening to
music while doing workouts, travelling, refreshing by the use of informative tele
advertisement (television Advertisement).

GROWTH STAGE

In this stage, Apple has experienced increased competition but Apple has launched new
generation iPods and Apple has started its stores and services in UK in 2004 and also
expanded its distribution channels to supermarkets in 2005 which is beyond electrical stores.
Due to its commitment to the iPod range, Apple has increased its Advertising spend by 60%
and also advertised through outdoor and print camping’s. this led to an increase of its market
share to 72.7%.

MATURITY STAGE

To sustain in mature markets Apple has adopted Michael Porter’s three key strategies to
achieve competitive advantage and also to differentiate its products from others. undoubtfully
the strength of Apple is the brand itself.

DECLINE STAGE

The only strategy followed by companies in decline stage is to offer discounts to its product
in a view of attracting customers to boost sales but Apple hasn’t followed this trend and kept
its normal and followed its premium pricing strategy which led to the dawn of its iPod era.
The biggest mistake Apple ever did is to promote its iPhone as “the best iPod we’ve ever
made” that led to the loss in iPod sales which eventually led the end of the iPod, the brand
which is good at advertising and positioning its goods had made the biggest mistake which
caused the end of iPods era