TERM PAPER OF

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
TOPIC: I POD the new face of music.

SUBMITED TO

Mr. Sanjay Jindal

Lecturer (LSM) SUBMITED BY

Anubhav choudhary

ROLL NO. B48

Reg.No. 11003564
 ACKNOWLEGEMENT

I would like to thank all those who have encouraged me to complete this
term paper on the topic "I pod the new face of music". I am grateful to
Sanjay Jindal sir who acted as a source of inspiration in making the term
project. I will never forget his support and words of wisdom and also my
friends, who are very helpful to me.

I am also thankful to Lovely Professional University in providing me the

resources which helped me to complete this project.

Anubhav choudhary

Roll no. B-48

Reg. no. 11003564

Section – S1003
 Contents

• Introduction
• History and design of iPod
• Patent disputes
• Market analysis
• Industry impact
• iPods impact on modern culture
• Advantage of iPod
• Criticism of iPod
• Effects of iPod on teenagers
• Reasons behind the success of iPod
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• References
Introduction to the iPod
The iPod is a brand of pocket-sized ultralight hard-drive based audio players
designed and marketed by Apple Computers. Today the iPod comes in a
range of models such as the Nano, Shuffle and Mini (discontinued now).

All of the models in the iPod family are designed to be user friendly, and can
easily be used by young children. Therefore, they offer a simple user
interface and a central scroll wheel to browse the iPod navigation system.
The scroll wheel has been redesigned for the various models, such as with
the Nano.

The Nano is so small the wheel used on the previous iPod's wouldn't fit.
Unlike portable cassette or cd players the iPod stores media on built-in
memory. This means you do not need to insert a cassette or a cd.

The older models like the iPod Classic and Mini use a hard drive, while the
smaller and more modern iPod Nano, Shuffle and Touch use flash memory.

History and design of the iPod

The Apple Corporation first released the iPod on October 23, 2001. The idea
was first brought to the attention of Apple by Tony Fadell. Before this Tony
Fadell had shopped the idea to Phillips and Real Networks. Luckily for Apple
they hired him as an independent contractor, and the iPod project began.

To begin with the one serious flaw with the iPod was the price. The machine
cost $400 in the US, and many consumers simply couldn't afford this price.
The lack of PC support wasn't a strong point to begin with. Steve Jobs soon
noticed this error and PC support was promised soon after the launch.

The iPod was launched only one month later in Europe. This contributed to
Apple selling a massive 125,000 new iPods in 2001. Over the years many
software updates have been released to fix several bug fixes from the
generation 1 iPod's.

One area Apple ran into problems with was Apple Corps, the holders of the
Beatles copyrights. They sued Apple for infringement on previous
agreements for the iTunes Music Store. Basically Apple Computers were only
allowed to use the Apple name in products unrelated to music; the lawsuit
was eventually settled out of court. By June of 2003, Apple had shipped one
million iPod's worldwide.

The iPod has since become the biggest selling portable hard disk player, and
has sold around twenty million units from 2001-2005. A big contribution to
this has been the marketing of the iPod, with some of the best ads seen in
years. All the ads featuring the coolest tunes playing in the background.

From 2005-2008 Apple slowly began to incorporate colour screens into all
their models (except the shuffle). The Touch features the largest colour
display yet to be implemented into an iPod.

The iPhone and Touch model (2007) shows Apple's intention to enter into
further portable multimedia markets. The Touch (launched in 2007) is the
first iPod to use the iPhone's multi-touch graphical touch screen. And the
first iPod which provides access to the Internet via a wireless wifi
component.

The Touch indicates that Apple want to branch the iPod out from solely being
an mp3 player, to a portable multimedia player capable of playing video
games, video files, music files, and network the Internet.

Area serves:

Worldwide, United States, United Kingdom, India, Germany, china, Japan,

Italy and Australia.

Key People:

Steve jobs (CEO, Chairman and Co founder.)

Tim cook (COO)

Peter oppenheiner (CFO)

Phil Schiller (SVP marketing)

Website : Apple.com
Software:

The iPod line can play several audio files formats including MP3, AAC/M4A ,
Protected AAC, AIFF, WAV, Audible audio book and Apple lossless. The iPod
photo introduced the ability to display JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG image
file formats.

User interface:

iPods with color displays use anti aliased graphics and text with sliding
animations.

The user interface for the iPod Touch is almost identical to that of the
iPhone.

Sales:

Since 2004, the iPod line has dominated digital music player sales in the
United States, with over the 90% of the market for hard drive based players
and over 70% of the market for all types of players.

Patent disputes :
In 2005 , Apple faced two lawsuits claiming patent infringement by iPhone
line and its associated technologies. Advanced Audio Devices claimed that
iPods line breached its patent on a “music juke box”. While a Hong Kong
based IP protofolio company called Pat rights filled a suit claiming that
Apples fair technology breached a patient issued to investor Ho Keung Tse.
Market Analysis:

Internal Influences
Management: Effective management is required for the training and
development of employees for the continue innovation of Apple Ipod and for
retraining sufficient funds during competitor introducing new product.

Capital Availability: Competition may cause mishap in the cash flow.

Sufficient funds must be available when competitors unpredictably put
forward their product in the market.

Technological Adoption: Technology must be adopted to improve overall

efficiency. It must be integrated directly into operations (to increase
productivity), as well stay on date with the amounts of iPod ordered, made
and delivered.

External Influences:
Competitors: Competitors will regulate what, when, how and why strategies
will be adopted. The introduction of new products will greatly influence Apple
Ipod.

Overseas Influences: The breaking down of barriers between countries can

increase the sales of the new Apple Ipod, as more people are made aware of
the product.

Demographic Patterns: Males and females from the age of 12years and over
will be in favour of this product because of its new innovation to be able to
not only play music but also books and other literature which would in fact
appeal to them.
Industry Impact:
iPod have won several awards ranging from engineering excellence, to most
innovative audio product, to fourth best computer product of 2006.

Government departments, major institution and international and

international organizations have turned and international organizations have
turned to the iPOd line as a delievery mechanism for business
communication and training, such as the royal and Western infirmaries in
Glasgow, Scotland where iPOds are used to train new staff.

iPOds have also gained popularity for use in education. Apple offers more
information on educational users for iPods on their website including a
collection of lesson plans.

iPods impact on modern culture

The Apple iPod is no longer just a music playing device. It is now an icon of
modern and popular culture. Instead of going out and buying a different
brand of MP3 player, most people are purchasing one of the highly stylized
iPods even though they have no apparent differences. This is due to the
massive impact that they have had on every single person in the Western
world. No other object has had just a large influence, and none other is even
close to matching it.

Since their release in 2001, the iPod has quickly taken hold of the hearts and
minds of all teenagers and even of the majority of the developed world.
People realize that it is cool to own an iPod rather than another type of
music device. The symbolic white head phones tell everyone around that you
are trendy enough to own one. This is strange in itself because even though
it lets people know how fashionable you are, it also blocks any social contact
with nearby people.

Mainly because of Apple’s large reputation and their intensive advertising

budget, the iPod became popular in a very short timeframe. The continual
release of different types guaranteed that they would remain in front of
peoples eyes, retaining their attention for as long as possible.

The evolution from the classic iPod has also taken place in a very short time
frame. Everything from the shuffle, to the mini, and the latest video player
varieties are now available, making sure that there is no other brand that
can offer a feature that Apple has not already installed. Along with the free
iTunes software that comes with every model, there is nothing that can be
suggested displacing the iPod from its high selling place.

It is not very likely that another brand of media player will be able to take
the iPod’s place any time in the near future. Their place as the number one
MP3 and now video player is well cemented and well deserved.

Advantages of iPod:
One of advantage owning an iPod is the grass-roots phenomenon known as
podcasting. Podcasts are radio shows or other audio programs that are
downloadable over the Internet. Podcasting is where someone can record
a discussion and then post the audio file on the Internet.
The great advantage of connecting the iPod movies to the TV set and
playing the videos.

Criticism of iPods:

1)Battery problems: The advertised battery life on most models is

different from the real world available .

iPod batteries are not designed to be removed or replaced by the user.

After this criticism Apple company announced a battery replacement

program on 14 November 2003.
2)Reliability and Durability: iPods have been criticized for their short life
span and fragile hard drives. In 2005 survey conducted on the Macln Touch
website found that the iPod line had an average failure rate of 13.7%.

It concluded that some models were more durable than others .In particular,
the failure rates for iPods employing hard drives was usually above 20%
while those with flash memory had a failure rate below 10%, indicating poor
hard drive durability.

Effects of ipod on teenagers

The teenagers dominate the consumer market for ipods. Children and adults
too contribute towards the consumers list for this product teens take the
cake. There may be many reasons to associate ipods and teenagers but the
most common being style and status symbol. In addition, the second most
common reason is peer pressure.

There has been lot of contemplation over the impact of ipod on the
teenagers. Though ipods can be beneficial for the teens, as they not only
help them get over their boredom but also facilitate in strengthening their
concentration power. There are certain features available in ipods that assist
in education too. Teens can master diverse languages and gather
information on varied topics through Podcast.

ipod has also negative influence as studies have shown that teenagers
alienate themselves from the social scenario once ipods come in their lives.
Ipods fulfill their need for a companion. Moreover, studies too get affected
as playing ipod while studying leads to disturbance in concentration power.
Ipods are also believed to incur hearing loss. Plugging in earplugs for longer
hours at a high volume gradually reduces the hearing power and finally leads
to permanent hearing loss. Prolonged hearing of music also leads to headach

Any product when wisely and moderately used becomes a boon and at the
same time becomes a curse when misused. Thus, it is essential for parents
to keep an eye on their childrens.

Reasons for the succees of iPod

1. Total integration

Before Apple unleashed the iPod, no scompany really did a good job of
integrating the player, the computer, and the software that connected the
two.

Apple brought the iPod right along with the trend and Apple smartly chose
to use the technology with a wider adoption.

2. The interface

Apple designed a product that was drop-dead simple to use, even if it

sounds decidedly deficient when you lay it out on paper. A click wheel, five
buttons, and a sparse hierarchical menu system to navigate your music
library. The elegance and simplicity of the device was stunning. It was so
easy to get to a singer, a song, an album, a playlist. The way that the
volume control worked was brilliant, as was the way you turned it on and
off. Nothing got in the way of the music, because it was all about the music.

Apple thought about the way that most of us listen to music and squeezed it
down to its essence. The company also used admirable restraint to keep
from loading up the iPod with features.
3. Windows support

For the iPod to succeed it was crucial that Apple make the device available
for PCs . Not only did it have to run on a PC, that iPod/iTunes combination
had to be as easy to use . The fact that Apple did it so quickly—iPods for
Windows arrived less than a year after the iPod’s debut—showed that Apple
was committed to the iPod as a platform. That’s what really opened the iPod
up beyond its initial market . The curve of iPod sales, the first big spike
happened after Apple made the iPod Windows-compatible.

4. The iTunes Store

Making the iPod Windows-compatible set the stage for the thing that really
kicked the iPod into the stratosphere: the iTunes Music Store. And, like the
integration of the iPod with the computer, the integration of that ecosystem
with an easy place to fill the gaping maw of 30GB of available storage was
nothing short of genius.

5. FairPlay

Including Apple’s Digital Rights Management technology as a reason for the

iPod’s success is sure to be a controversial factor, but it can’t be discounted.
Fair Play is fairly innocuous, and it’s generous as well.
Conclusion:
From the above analysis, it becomes clear that the iPod is really the new and
emerging face of music.

Since their release in 2001, the iPod has quickly taken hold of the hearts and
minds of all teenagers and even of the majority of the developed world.

iPod is become a status symbol for the youth. Now a day’s along with the
music and entertainment, iPods have also gained popularity for use in
education.

It is not very likely that another brand of media player will be able to take
the iPod’s place any time in the near future.

Recommendations:
iPods faces some criticism regarding battery life, therefore it become
necessary to improve the battery life to sustain demand among customers.

iPods reliability and durability should be improved.

The features and design of iPods must be keep changing according to the
demand of people.

References:
• www.scrbd.com
• www.managementparadise.com
• www.oopaper.com