Marketing Research and Segmentation Problem Paper

Marketing and Segmentation Problem - Research Paper Example Therefore, it can be mentioned in a nutshell that the hospital caters to the general people with a wide range of medical facilities. Research A research on the consumers in the area surrounding the hospital would be carried out with the help of Value and Lifestyles (VALS2) and Potential Rating Index by Zip Market (PRIZM). VALS2 This tool for lifestyle analysis makes an endeavor to contour consumers by categorizing into three diverse orientation groups and they are principle oriented, action oriented and status oriented. Each of the categories is believed to be supported by two dimensions and they are resources as well as self-orientation. The orientation groups are then again sub-grouped into eight diverse lifestyle segments. These mentioned lifestyle segments are known as actualizers, fulfilleds or survivors, achievers, believers, experiencers, strivers, makers and strugglers. The medical facility or rather the hospital is assumed to be located in the United States (US) where the po pulation has been learnt to be alienated into three main consumer kinds as previously mentioned. The principle oriented individuals are the ones whose selection for services is presided over by their respective beliefs rather than their requirement for support from other individuals. The selections of the status oriented individuals are supposed to be guided by the support, action along with the views of the other individuals. The action oriented individuals are measured to be those who get stimulated by a desire for physical or even social form of activity, risk bearing and variety (Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2012). The believers and the fulfilleds have been stated to fall under the category of principle oriented individuals. The actualizers, achievers, strivers and strugglers are learnt to belong to the category of status oriented individuals. Lastly, the experiencers and the makers are clubbed in the category of action oriented individuals or segments. Therefore, the application of this particular model would effectively aid in segmenting the market for the needed kind of service (Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2012). PRIZM The other tool for assessing the lifestyle of the individuals for the intended service is the PRIZM. The intention of this mentioned tool is recognized to be the assessment of the geographic regions along with associating them with the consumption pattern. This form of assessment is supposed to be founded on the assertion that lifestyle as well as consumption remains principally guided by the demographic rudiments. An imperative step with regard to this form of assessment is the ascertainment of the proper base definition in order to appropriately match up with the accurate household base (Scarborough Research, 2012). Market Segmentation The target segment or rather the kind of individuals targeted for the medical facility or the hospital would be the principle oriented individuals and the status oriented individual s. The initial category of individuals are learnt to be quite well educated individuals who are either engaged with professional occupations or are retired. This implies that the age group can be ascertained from middle to higher that is from 40 to above 65 years of age. This particular segment would be the appropriate choice as the target patients for the intended medical facility owing to their age group. The individuals belonging

Persussive Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Persussive Speech - Essay Example I will briefly discuss how adoption of technology, especially in the business sector, influences positive changes. One way is that technology has brought about the innovation if machines and equipment that works automatically. Work automation is a process that seeks to reduce the amount of work done by employees and the time used to accomplish a task (Comin & Miesteri, 2010). By implementing the adoption of technology, work becomes achievable in minimal time and with little labor force. However, technology compares not at all to the need for human labor and is therefore, not a replacement to employees. In other words, automation puts fewer burdens on employees by reducing their workload. As a result, workers focus on other projects and achieve better quality output plus doing so in a shorter time. Consequently, introduction of technology in the organization provides easy storage. With the need to document every single process, the amount of paperwork in the company increases by the day. With limited space, storage becomes a burden. Nevertheless, technology provides a solution for virtual storage of documents in secure clouds. This greatly reduces the need for hardcopy paper work thus saving on storage space. Moreover, the need to hire storage space from outside diminishes significantly saving on costs. Technology also spearheads the organization’s target to improve security of information, a vital requirement in any organization’s success. Information stored virtually, allows access only to authorized individuals through password protection. Furthermore, enhancing security within the network by using protocols that encode classified data diminishes security threats especially during transmission of data. Very importantly, virtual storage of data in clouds creates data backup. Therefore, any information lost or unintentionally deleted becomes retrievable via data recovery methods. This in turn, creates credibility for a firm because of proper and

Understanding Management Essay Example for Free

Understanding Management Essay 1. How can you prepare yourself to become an effective manager in an increasingly uncertain and global business environment? 2. Would the task environment for a cellular phone company contain the same elements as that for a government welfare agency? Discuss. 3. What do you think are the most important forces in the external environment creating uncertainty for organizations today? Do the forces you identified typically arise in the task environment or the general environment? 4. Contemporary best-selling management books often argue that customers are the most important element in the external environment. Do you agree? In what company situations might this statement be untrue? 5. Why do you think many managers are surprised by environmental changes and hence are less able to help their organizations adapt? 6. Why are interorganizational partnerships so important for today’s companies? What elements in the current environment might contribute to either an increase or decrease in interorganizational collaboration? Discuss. 7. Many companies are â€Å"going green† or adopting environmentally friendly business strategies. Clorox, for example, now offers an eco-friendly household cleaner called Green Works. How do companies benefit from going green? 8. Cultural symbols are usually noticed through sight, sound, touch, and smell. For example, Abercrombie retail stores use music, attractive models, and fragrance to communicate elements of its retail store culture. Why are symbols important to a corporate culture? 9. Both China and India are rising economic powers. How might your approach to doing business with Communist China be different from your approach to doing business with India, the world’s most populous democracy? In which country would you expect to encounter the most rules? The most bureaucracy? 10. General Electric is famous for firing the lowest-performing 10 percent of its managers each year. With its strict no-layoff policy, Valero Energy believes people need to feel secure in their jobs to perform their best. Yet both are high-performing companies. How do you account for the success of such opposite philosophies?

Obstacles to Internationalization of Vietnamese SMEs

Obstacles to Internationalization of Vietnamese SMEs Major difficulties and obstacles to internationalization of Vietnamese SMEs Financing problems Lack of capital to expand production and business are considered as common phenomenon of SMEs. Despite of Vietnamese government’s effort to facilitate SMEs’ process of accessing capital and commercial banks have made great strides in the provision of credit to SMEs, surveyed about the difficulties, more than 60% of SMEs often have difficulty in financing, according to Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment (VMPI, 2009). SMEs usually mobilized capital from relatives, friends or bank loans. Clearly, the poor access and low speed to access to capital is main disadvantage of SMEs compared to large corporations because it stymies the expansion, especially foreign expansion, of SMEs. The fact that only 30% of the capital is borrowed from banks and credit institutions. The main reasons are, most business have insufficient collateral for the institution to borrow money, financial management is not really transparent, and creditors sometimes acquire reputations as credit worthy because of moral hazard and adverse selection problems (TD). Sometimes, in hurry and needing capital, SMEs have to pay for non-financial creditors with interest rates 3 to 6 times higher than common official rates (VMPI, 2009). Difficulties in land and production premises Another difficulties that SMEs have to face is land and production premises. To some extend, it is also another financial problems for them. Over half of SMEs have major operations in the field of trade and most of them use their house as office, or lease small offices (VGSO, 2009). Otherwise, many manufacturing SMEs have to rent the land or premises with high cost. Even when they want to have long-term investment, there still is hesitation due to lack of legal guarantee (TD). Recently, many places have carried out many planning and construction of industrial clusters of SMEs aimed at bringing together the business production business. Some provinces such as Ha Noi, Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Ha Nam, Thai Binh, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh Cityhave built many industrial clusters for production and attracting foreign investment. However, due to rent land with inadequate financial capacity of businesses in small scale, so many SMEs st ill cannot access these zones. SME survey data in 30 northern provinces, showed that 42% of businesses having difficulty in land and production premises. Imperfect information Another disadvantage of SMEs’ entry is their information disadvantages about market such as labor market, materials market, and output market conditions. Besides, customers’ poor information about these new entrants also account for blockade new SMEs have to face in foreign expansion procedure. However, there is argument that steady entry might erode the information barriers because later entrants can learn from earlier entrants’ mistakes. The higher steady flow of new entrants, the less dependence of customers and even workers on established large corporations (TD) Corporate management is not high quality and low quality human resources Level of production and business management of SMEs which are almost private enterprises, is still limited and largely based on personal experiences of business owners, investment with little application of information technology into management. Skilled workers in SMEs are fewer compared to large corporations because of relatively lower and less stable salary. Especially, new market entrants also may find it difficult to attract good workers because employment and contracts with established large firms are seen as less risky. Low level of technology, weaknesses in RD Most SMEs have the backward technology, equipment. According to VMPI, results of survey for small and medium enterprises in 30 Northern provinces, in the nearly 11 thousand industrial enterprises surveyed, there are only 8% of businesses having advanced technology. Surprisingly, there are 50% of businesses said they could reach the average level of technology, and the remaining 42% of enterprises chose the answer of backward technology (VMPI, 2009). Moreover, skilled workers in SMEs are few, so the quality of products, goods and services is not high, thus they have weak competitiveness and difficult to dominate domestic and international market. The level of investment in technological renovation of enterprises is still low compared with development requirements. Most SMEs are lack of motivation on the research for technological innovation. Content of technology and knowledge in goods of Vietnam SMEs are low. In fact, the product is made mainly based on capital and unskilled labors. Only some small firms are innovators. Many smaller firms undertake no innovative activity. Some may be serving local niche markets relying on owner’s control. Still other small firms might be unsuccessful innovators (TD) Awareness and observance of the law is limited A number of SMEs have not followed strictly the provisions of law, especially provisions on taxation, financial management, labors management, quality of goods and intellectual property. The situation of complaint about the laws compliance of enterprises has been popular even in the period of deeper economic integration with various international commitments. This could even lead to conviction because of tax and financial violations. Therefore, limited awareness of law brings greater barriers to foreign expansion because SMEs need to work with not only domestic but also foreign legal system. Survey report The difficulties and benefits to the internationalization of SMEs 1. Difficulties To find out solutions to promote internationalization, research has to point out the obstacles from the environment inside and outside the enterprises. For SMEs, the main difficulties are often referred to as inside and outside difficulties. Inside difficulties of Vietnamese SMEs Inside difficulties: Lack of capital, Lack of quality human resources, Out of date Technology, Difficulties in acquiring land and facilities for manufacturing and trade activities, Lack of knowledge and experiences in international business environment, and Limitation in management capability. 1: Lack of capital 2: Lack of quality human resources 3: Out of date Technology 4: Difficulties in acquiring land and facilities for manufacturing and trade activities 5: Lack of knowledge and experiences in international business environment 6: Limitation in management capability 7: Others Data from our survey shows that Lack of capital, Lack of quality human resources and Lack of knowledge and experiences in international business environment are main difficulties of SMEs. Especially, there are about 50% of SMEs considering the lack of capital is most important reason inside SMEs, which is the obstacle to the internationalization. Other reasons such as Out of date Technology, Difficulties in acquiring land and facilities for manufacturing and trade activities, Limitation in management capability are not higher but each of them also account for more than 10%. Outside difficulties of Vietnamese SMEs Outside difficulties: Highly risky and competitive environment, Unattractive profit, Disadvantages from the Vietnamese Policies, Too many barriers and restrictions to market penetration in many foreign countries. 1: Highly risky and competitive environment 2: Unattractive profit 3: Disadvantages from the Vietnamese Policies 4: Too many barriers and restrictions to market penetration in many foreign countries 5: Others In terms of outside reasons, almost SMEs (nearly 70%) consider highly risky and competitive environment is the main obstacle to internationalization. One of the special features are drawn from the survey is, in addition to concerns about the risks and fierce competition in the business environment, many SMEs consider the inadequacies of government policies in Vietnam and barriers and restrictions to market penetration in many foreign countries are the main obstacles to their internationalization: 2. Benefits The main benefits: Helping innovation technology, Business experience gaining, Improving the qualification for employees and leadership skills for the management, Spreading enterprise’s image, brand and prestige, Providing opportunities to attract and accumulate more capital. Benefits from internationalization: 1: Help with innovation of technology 2: Help with business experience again 3: Improve the qualification for employees and leadership skills for management 4: Help spread your enterprise imagine, brand and prestige 5: Provide opportunities to attract and accumulate more capital 6: Others In terms of positive effects, according to our survey, most SMEs think that five positive effects mentioned above are the main positive impact on their business. Other positive impacts account only 1.13%. Especial thing is, there are nearly 70% of SMEs believe internationalization will help them with business experience gaining. Actually, in a volatile business environment with many risks and challenges, this is a positive and optimistic signal of SMEs. Furthermore, many of them believe that internationalization helps to expand their business, brand and prestige. Moreover, as discussed in obstacles part, lack of capital is significant obstacle to internationalization, but in the chart above, we can see that they also think internationalization as a way to providing opportunities to attract and accumulate more capital (with more than 50% of SMEs believe internationalization as a way to providing opportunities to attract and accumulate more capital). Recommendations The result of this research lead to some recommendations for policy makers and SMEs managers For policy makers Create a favorable business legal environment which is equal, transparent, Continue to further economic reform and open the economy policy; Continue to simplify the regulations to create favorable conditions for business registration, market entry and operations of the firms: Enterprise Law, Land Law (Facilitate access to land and production premises for SMEs), Tax Law, Trade Law (Promote the international economic integration through bilateral, regional and multilateral channels), etc. Create favorable conditions for SME access to finance: Credit guarantee fund, SME financial fund, venture investment fund, get loan from commercial banks, etc. (Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Vietnam, Provinces and central run cities) Support SMEs to improve their competitiveness: technique innovation, intellectual property protection, training on enterprise management and for human resource, market information (Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Education and Training) For SMEs managers In internationalization process, SMEs need take initiative in preparing the necessary â€Å"baggage†, creating a basic capacity of international economic integration and ready to grasp better the opportunities and confront challenges from this process Map out a strategy to internationalize SMEs need to carefully research the market, study the strengths and weaknesses, research opportunities and challenges; clearly define the objectives, benefits and risks of internationalization; find out the main factors and conditions deciding the success of internationalization; choose the suitable methods of internationalization. Take opportunities to attract more capital and innovating technology In terms of technology, SMEs need to promote its inherent flexibility to capture and take advantage of the opportunity to catch new technology. Besides financial aid from the government, SMEs should actively seek opportunities from other resources such as financial support from the joint venture partnership; establish feasible business projects to attract capital from banks, venture capital funds; conduct joint venture with other firms as needed. Apply international standards in production and business One of the challenges or obstacles for Vietnamese SMEs when enter the world market are the technical barriers to trade. Countries have different requirements related to goods and services. When international economic integrating, Vietnam SMEs must also acquiesce by these requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to apply international standards in production and business activities actively, depending on the requirements of markets and depending on the ability of each enterprise. Emphasis on improving human resources quality SMEs should be more emphasis on improving human resources quality, focused training and recruitment of talented and knowledgeable managers about the international market, skilled workers who have ability to grasp new technology. SMEs also need stronger links with educational institution for training and retraining of human resources. Moreover, to organize production and marketing in foreign market, managers need to work with new legal system and social customs. Therefore, sending out expatriate managers and experts is also necessary because managers with inexperienced in internationalization may not have necessary knowledge to be efficient international operators.

Seinfeld :: essays research papers

Seinfeld It was a warm September Thursday night in 1991. I was engaged in my favorite past time of "channel surfing" when a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Displayed on my favorite, "20 inch friend", (also known as my usual Saturday night date), appeared a remarkable treasure. There before my eyes was a sitcom called Seinfeld. From that moment on I was astounded to find that not even great sitcom's such as my beloved Mash and I Love Lucy were as captivating or enthralling. There is only one show that could have started Must See TV, only one show that could be the anchor for new sitcoms year after year while continuing to hold it's position of number one in the rating wars, only one sitcom is this grand, this superior, and this notable, Seinfeld. The zenith of television sitcoms. Season after season, Seinfeld has provided non-stop laughing, excellent acting and original scripts mirroring real life. One of the major factors contributing to the overwhelming success of the show is its cast of unstererotypical characters. The main characters refereed to as the "Fab Four", consist of Jerry Seinfeld, Elaine Benes, George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer. Jerry Seinfeld, known by his own name on the program, is the central figure of the sitcom and the catalyst for almost everything that happens. He is involved in the antics revolving around Kramer, George and Elaine. On one episode George, Kramer and Jerry are spying on the naked lady across the street all day to see who can win a bet. The twist at the end of the show is when we see George and Jerry peering through the window and gasping, " Is that Kramer in her apartment? Wow he is naked!" Another episode involves Jerry who is mistaken for a Nazi leader arriving in town to speak at a meeting. He continues the charade in order to secure a limousine ride home after the frustration of his own ride not being there to pick him up. As the main character, he is most often the straight man allowing the other characters to play off of him. One of his common lines is, "wait a minute here, you mean to tell me-----", then recapping the situation, action or blunder the other character was involved in. This in turn allows the supporting actor or actress to verbally and almost always physically respond with exaggerated gestures and eye movements. Jerry reflects the single male, quasi yuppie, New Yorker, with the bicycle hanging in the apartment, the security system to "buzz" guests in, and the 12 boxes of cereal

Buchi Emechetas Ona :: essays papers

Buchi Emechetas Ona "Ona" is as Much a Love Story as it is a Tale of Ritualized Beliefs and Cultural Behavior Patterns often stories in a particular culture take into account, and capitalize on symbols of that particular culture for thematic effectiveness. Many indigenous stories thus contain generalized patterns of beliefs that serve as the backdrop which enables readers to relate to the stories and the content thereof. Buchi Emecheta's "Ona" is a powerful love story that centers around ritualized beliefs and cultural behavior patterns of one African tribe. The story is legendary in nature, alluding to its cultural import. It is about Abagdi, a very wealthy local chief, who is love with Ona, one of his mistresses. Agbadi is head over heals for Ona despite the fact that he has many wives. Agbadi is particularly crazy about Ona because, unlike the other women, she is not submissive as she was the daughter chief Obi Umunna. The cultural theme in the story is that man enjoys hunting, taming and conque ring even in matters of love; Agbadi finds a special thrill in trying to win the unconquerable love of Ona. Ona is a woman ahead of her time, unwilling to be controlled, even by the strong and powerful Agbadi, not only because of her individual desires, but because of her respect for the cultural norms of her society. From the onset of the story we learn that Agbadi proposes marriage to Ona. Since Ona's father, Chief Obi Umunna, had no sons, he raised Ona to be very assertive and assume what is considered boylike traits. Thus, like a man, her father raised her never "to stoop to any man". Does this mean that women and men are not considered equals in this society? Evidently, it seems the only reason Ona was thought not to stoop to any man was because she was raised essentially to behave like a man. Men and women are therefore not considered as equals in this culture. Nevertheless, Chief Umunna maintains that Ona "was free to have men, however, and if she bore a son, he would take her father's name thereby rectifying the omission that nature had made". Two important deductions can be made here: first that men are free to be promiscuous (she is free to have men) and that having a boy child asserts a man's manhood.

Iproject

MBA 504 – Managerial Economics (W. Troost) * Case study about the iPad Mini by Justin Sellers Kimberly Gadsden Krista Pauly Marjorie Venus Baliog Paulus Mirtschink Rob Hicks I have read the Student Academic Code of Conduct and this Assignment complies with the Code. 8th November 2012 * Table of Contents Table of Contents2 List of Figures3 1INTRODUCTION4 2FIRM, BRAND, LIFESTYLE4 3IINDUSTRY5 4COST8 5CONCLUSION9 APPENDICES11 A. Price Comparison of Generic Android Tablets12 B. Price Comparison of Premium Brand Tablets2 BIBLIOGRAPHY3 * List of FiguresFigure 1: Monopolistical pricing10 Figure 2: Technology life cycle11 Figure 3: VMP and MC in the US compared with China12 * INTRODUCTION Apple has clearly established itself as a market leader in the competitive market of consumer electronic products. Recently, the company released a smaller sized version of its highly successful tablet: the iPad. The launch has come under widespread criticism as many industry pundits believe the prici ng strategy may be incorrect and there are fears that the new product will cannibalize sales of other merchandise.Even the late Steve Jobs was strong in his view that Apple would never offer a smaller tablet product to the market as he felt it would provide less benefit to consumers. To properly assess whether or not Apple did in fact make the correct decision, the rationale behind the decision must be analyzed. As part of the analysis: the market structure, cost factors, competitive position, nature of product demand, and strategic vision will be scrutinized. FIRM, BRAND, LIFESTYLEUnder the direction of one of the most visionary CEOs of the modern era, Steve Jobs, Apple was able to completely revolutionize the way that consumer electronics are perceived, purchased, and manufactured. It started with a completely different concept of consumer preferences and has ultimately ended with the most valuable company in the world. Apple has a long history within the computer industry with a focus on building units for sale to the consumer marketplace. After success during the early 1980s with the launch of the Macintosh line of computers, the company failed to gain significant market share until the launch of the iMac in 1998.From the late 1990s Apple began a prolific campaign of acquiring other companies with specific technological expertise, which it began combining in both software and hardware components included in its subsequent line of products. Apple released the first of many important revolutionary products, the iPod, in 2001. The iPod became the ‘quantum leap’ the company had long been striving for and allowed the branding of Apple as a company with the Apple logo to become an industry heavyweight. The advertising that Apple used helped to produce an emotional response that resonated with consumers.Being seen with the iconic â€Å"white headphones† became as much about fashion and image as it was about the actual enjoyment of listening to mp3s on a personal device. Due to the vertical integration between devices, software and design based on a platform of â€Å"ease of use,† the company began to create immense brand loyalty. â€Å"Once you go Mac, you never go back,† is a phrase used to describe that once someone made the decision to purchase an Apple product (phone, computer, etc. ) the cost of switching becomes high.Apple intuitively created an opportunity cost for not purchasing newer Apple products because of the way their devices communicate with one another. Apple has gained such a significant brand following that demand for their products is much more inelastic than comparable firms. Demand for competitor’s products Demand for Apple products INDUSTRY There are significant numbers of manufacturers of tablet devices, but it can be argued that there are only several key players. The tablet marketplace is very interesting because of the dominant effect that Apple, Samsung, Google, and Amazon have on consumer behaviour.There is a significant split, both from a consumer and producer standpoint, between the ‘premium’ tablet devices and the ‘generic’ devices. In effect, there are two different marketplaces in operation simultaneously. In the generic market it is a competitive market, firms are essentially price takers as what they are offering is a standard tablet with limited features. In the premium market however, there is an oligopolistic situation where the major firms dominate both, market share and brand recognition. Please see Appendix A and B for Price comparisons of generic and premium brand tablets.The pricing strategy for the premium products is therefore very different than for generics. In the premium market, the products are seen as more inelastic based on their brand power, and thus a higher price can be charged in order to generate a higher economic profit. Apple uses the concept of â€Å"Prestige Pricing† for its product li ne. Prestige pricing happens when a firm charges a higher price for its products in an attempt to be seen as a ‘status’ item. Apple separates itself even from the other premium tablets by charging a price that is actually 2-5 times higher than some of its closest ivals. The reason that Apple has decided to launch at such a high price dates back to their theory of brand image and loyalty. With respect to the technology adoption lifecycle developed by Joe Bohlen et al. , Apple seeks to â€Å"reward† loyal customers by charging a high price so that only technologically conscious innovators and early adopters will have the product for a period. It is valuable to the innovators and early adopters to have the newest Apple product ahead of the vast majority of people and price point is a way to discriminate between groups.Once a product has been on the market for a sufficient amount of time, Apple will then drop the price to gain a larger amount of consumers that are wi lling to pay for the product at the given price. Graph Rob Directly related to the high price point that Apple charge is its monopolistic position within the industry. It is strategically beneficial from a firm standpoint to charge a price that causes the intersection of the marginal cost and marginal revenues when represented graphically. Figure 1: Monopolistical pricing For Apple, they experience higher economic profits when they charge a higher price initially.Only when they are about to release an updated version of the product will they drop the price to gain the additional consumer demand. When considering the product lifecycle, Apple seeks to have a different product in each section of the cycle. Rather than having different versions of the same model, the company simply relies on releasing a newer product, but still offering the old product for a period. When considering their new tablet the strategy will be as follows: 1) New tablet is released: iPad mini 2) After a designa ted amount of time, (typically 3-5 quarters) a new version will be released.Likely, it will be called the iPad mini S. 3) Following the same release schedule a bigger redesign will occur and the product will come out as the iPad mini 2. Figure 2: Technology life cycle Apple prices the tablet in #1 high in order to experience profits from the innovators and early adopters. By the time the newer version is announced, the company will drop the price in order to gain access to the early majority. When the new product is actually released #2 it will have a premium price point to again gain access to the innovators and early adopters.Product #1 is moving from early majority to late majority as the price drop has opened up a wealth of consumers willing to buy. When product #3 is announced the price of both product #1 and product #2 will be dropped. By this time product #1 will be 2 editions old and is likely to be purchased by the tail end of late majority and laggards. Product #2 will tak e its place in the early majority and innovators will desire product #3. When considering Apple’s brand loyalty it is also likely that by the time product #3 comes out some people that purchased product #1 will deem that it is time to upgrade. COSTAnother major consideration in the pricing of Apple’s products is the associated cost of producing them. Each item has a large array of inputs ranging from: hardware, software, development, advertising, testing, management, transport, and legal issues. Apple has sought out areas of the world where it is cheaper to assemble their units because the relationship between manufacturing and transportation costs results in higher profit. Figure 3: VMP and MC in the US compared with China Apple has formed a coalition of manufacturers that it uses to outsource many of the components that it uses within its products.In some cases the firms that manufacture parts for Apple are actually direct competitors within the same market. If you l ook at the decision to manufacture internally or outsource to another company it is very similar to the trade theories of competitive and comparative advantage. When considering the iPad mini, Apple had to decide whether to make the computing hardware themselves or have someone else make it for them. Apple deemed that they have a competitive advantage in software development and that Samsung and Intel have comparative advantages in production of hardware, thus they made the decision to have the parts made for them.Each iPad that Apple sells generates a large amount of profit for the firm because their total cost is significantly less than the price point at which it is sold. Generally, Apple sells their products for at least 3 times as much as their total cost, resulting in a huge amount of revenue. You guessed it†¦ a graph What the fuck Justin?!? CONCLUSION * APPENDICES Price Comparison of Generic Android Tablets Price Comparison of Premium Brand Tablets * BIBLIOGRAPHY *