Napster Case Study Essay

Title | Napster Case Study |
Name | Kevin Naicker |
Email | knaicker@mweb.co.za |

Contents
1. How Internet innovations have disrupted “set” markets 3
1.1. Introduction 3
1.2. The case of DVD vs. DIVXTM 3
1.3. The case of Traditional Print Books vs. KindleTM 5
1.4. The case of Voice Telephony vs. SkypeTM 7
2. Existing Market Strategies against the threat of Napster 10
2.1. Introduction 10
2.2. Recommended Strategies 11
2.3. Concluding Remarks 13
3. What could Napster done to become a viable and legal entity 14
3.1. Introduction 14
3.2. Working with Record labels 15
3.3. Become an integrated online record label 15
3.4. Concluding Remarks 18
4. References 19
5. Appendices 22
Appendix 1: History of Amazon Kindle 22
Appendix 2: Timeline of File Sharing 25

  1.
How Internet innovations have disrupted “set” markets
      2.1. Introduction
The following section describes the core basis of three disruptive technologies (DivXTM, KindleTM and SkypeTM) and how they have impact their traditional markets (DVDs, print books and telephony). Through analysis of each case it is revealed that all cases go through a similar pattern of technology inception (birth), the super-normal growth of the technology, the threat posed by the technology on existing markets, the response from the technology providers themselves, the response from the traditional markets, and finally the equilibrium (or aftermath) as the technology / innovations becomes adopted as common-place vesting with the originators or a combination of the originators and the traditional markets who have adapted to the technology. What is also interesting about all three cases, is that they occur during the mid 2000s which is a particular interesting time, as this period became known for the proliferation of broadband modifying both enterprise and consumer behaviour.
      2.2. The case of DVD vs. DIVXTM
The birth of video compression
DivXTM is a popular...