Tung Zhang Product Development

Apple iPhone The iPhone product line has been a tremendous success for Apple, bringing in incredible revenue year after year while strengthening Apple's brand name and reputation at the same time. The success of the iPhone may appear its elegant design, and the image that the phone gives to people using the phone. But in order for this product to have been so wildly successful, the iPhone also had to go through the rigorous process of the mar eting mi!, which includes the strategies for implementing a product, its price, its promotion, and its distribution. The iPhone product strategy is to dynamically innovate the cell phone such that it becomes the industry leader for producing the world's most popular phones. "tarting from the iPhone # all the way up to its newest release the iPhone $s, Apple has continued to impress its potential customers with every release. %ts features include access to the smartphone's most populated app database, where users can virtually search any good and download apps that relate to their needs. &e also have the lu!ury of ta ing high'(uality photos with the iPhone's )'megapi!el resolution, or the ability to record videos with the *+)+,D (uality. Apple also designed the iPhone such that even a baby can use it, and its ease of use deserves much credit for the iPhone's success. -asy to use applications li e .acetime allow users to connect with their friends or family over video chat. Another popular and user'friendly app is Airprint, where users can wirelessl print documents or photos over &i'.i. Apple's pricing strategy for the iPhone can be considered to be a pricing /s imming/ strategy in that they first set a very high price, then lowering it 0ust a couple months later to drive up demand. &hile this is sometimes considered price discrimination, this strategy has wor ed well for the iPhone since there has been significant demand for the phone the day it was released. The enthusiastic momentum that the media often builds for Apple can be a credit to the iPhone's success since the media is responsible for the built up suspense of when the ne!t release of the iPhone. &hen any new iPhone is first released, the price usually hovers around 1$++, eventually drifting to 123+'1#++ after a couple months of sales. 4sers also have the option of paying more for a phone if they want more storage li e 5$6B instead of *56B. The ne!t part of the iPhone's success comes from its promotional strategies. "urprisingly enough, Apple doesn't put a lot of pressure on potential customers to buy its products. %nstead, anyone wal ing into an Apple store will freely brow7e around, finding the hottest trends in phones and laptops so irresistable that a large percentage of people come bac sometime in the future to buy the products. %n addition to the store design, the iPhone is often advertised in popular shows where Apple believes is the best group of potential customers. And a lot of Apple's target customers are considered

to be 6en 8 consumers, they invest a lot of their promotions online in sites li e 8ouTube because we are more li ely to visit such sites than others. 9f course, the best part of Apple's promotion of its iPhone product line is during "teve :ob's presentations of the iPhone itself. ,is presentations of Apple products, particularly the iPhone, ma e consumers feel that this item is something that everyone must have in order to loo more sophisticated and tech'savvy.

The fourth part of Apple's mar eting mi! involves where they sell their iPhones and derive most of their profit. Today, the iPhone can be sold almost anywhere, but the locations where the demand is greatest for the iPhone is in ;hina. &ithin the countless number of countries where people can buy iPhones, ;hina has emerged as one of Apple's biggest B2; mar ets for the iPhone. ;hinese teenagers save up a lot of their earnings to buy the iPhones in order to impress their peers and to eep up with the latest trends. This leads me into the fact that Apple's iPhone product line is generally a Business'to' ;onsumer business model. <ost of the buyers of iPhones are typically 6eneration 8 customers who see sophistication and trendiness. Although Apple sells its iPhone mainly to customers, there are a few companies that use iPhone products, which would ma e up for its small mar et share of Business'to'Business sales for the iPhone. Their position in the mar et allows them to en0oy prestige pricing, such that they can actually sell more phones if they are priced higher because they are considered to be lu!ury goods. This type of position within the cell phone mar et also ma es others perceive the iPhone as a lu!ury brand that continues to innovate with each and every newly released iPhone. 9ne e!ample would be the iPhone's first release in 2++=. The starting price was set at 1$>> for a $6B model and 13>> for a )6B model, which immediately told consumers that this phone is at the top of its class for the price it is as ing for. After four years of relenteless advertising, many public relations events, and "teve :obs' presentations, the iPhone product line can officially be considered to be in the maturity stage where the goal of the mar eting and product development teams will be to stabili7e profit. Today Apple continues to e!ecute the best mar eting strategies to sustain the iPhone's tremendous revenue figures (uarter after (uarter. The challenges now that Apple's iPhone will face is the loss of its leader "teve :obs, and of course its rival in the smartphone industry''Android 6oogle.