Innovation: Apple Ipod

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Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer) has always been said to be a forward thinking company with a reputation for innovation (Linzmayor 2004). Initially involved with the ‘Macintosh’ (or ‘Mac’) computer, the company found fierce competition from rivals Microsoft. The company, facing declining sales, needed to find a new revenue stream. Since the introduction of the MP3 player, the digital music player has been a highly competitive market with large multinational corporations like Sony, Samsung, Philips etc. all major players in the field. An upgrade on the Walkman Cassette and CD player, this new type of audio equipment has the ability to hold numerous amounts of songs with no physical disc or tapes (that previous devices had relied on), which meant the MP3, with increasing popularity, was fast becoming a must-have accessory (Mintel 2005). However, with little differentiation or innovation within the marketplace, many companies were competing fiercely over small pieces of market share. With the introduction of the Apple ‘iPod’, this all changed. Apple were infact one of the slowest to react to the “application of the millennium” (Linzmayer 2004, p300). Released in 2001 and weighing at just 6.5 ounces, the iPod held around 1000 songs. What set the iPod apart from its competitors were a number of key features. With a sleek, stylish design, innovative navigation system and fast data transfer, the iPod was a significant improvement over the competition. Allowing for simple navigation was the ‘click-wheel’, an update on the 1st generation iPod ‘scroll wheel’, which is an innovation in itself. Seff (2004) describes that, as well as controlling volume, the wheel contains the standard ‘Play/Pause’, ‘Fast-Forward’, ‘Rewind’, ‘Menu’ and ‘Select’ buttons and with a slight push, these touch-sensitive positions act like a button click. These clicks let you control playback

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