In Natasha Lomas’ article, she predicts that Apple will maintain their dominance in the tablet world until 2017 due to the release of the iPad mini. As well, Lomas estimates that the selling price of apps could fall as low as 8 cents per app, in order to keep the public eye intrigued. And with Windows 8, Blackberry 10, and other operating systems appearing, Apple will need to prepare for sharing their revenue with their competitors.

I think that Apple was always headed for a decline in revenue and attention because their new releases have been far less than spectacular. The iPad mini? iPhone 5? With very minute changes to their old products to create their new and “improved” lines, it’s shocking that RIM, Windows, or Samsung haven’t jumped at the chance to come out with a ground-breaking product.

As for the app price decrease, I’d have to completely agree. Paying one dollar or more for a game/song/tool just feels like far too much money is being given to the designers, given the large amount of people that must download the apps.

All things considered, Apple’s future profitability is going to decrease when they cannot produce another unique product.

I am going to elaborate on Christopher Yim’s post regarding the Canadian decrease in beer consumption over the previous ten years.

My whole family comes from various areas of Italy, all of which drink notable amounts of wine with every meal. However, on a warm summer’s day, there seems to be nothing more refreshing than an ice-cold Corona. Now, my personal opinions as to why the consumption of beer in Canada is decreasing and demand for imported wines and spirits is increasing comes from the fact that beer is relatively expensive in Canada (as opposed to USA, where a can of Coors is cheaper that a bottle of water), and wine can always be found at fair prices.

The range of wine prices varies greatly in the market. All with similar alcohol levels, cheap wine has been becoming more abundant because of the fact that people do not want to empty their wallets for a blood alcohol level of 0.15. This boost in popularity of wine was expected because of how much wine varies. There are specific wines for eating steak, cheese, or pasta, and I have yet to hear of a beer that would go well with filet mignon.

In the first 24 hours after Activision released “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2,” a record setting 500 million dollars was received in revenues. As astounding as this is, the video game industry must deal with one noticeable issue: constantly keeping gamers interested in their games.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Trailer

A very successful game must have an interesting storyline, fluid gameplay, and a uniqueness that sets it apart form the rest of the games. A growing obstacle that always glares in the face of game designers is the process of coming up with new ideas for games which allow consumers to gain a sense of self-reward from the experience. In my opinion, the normal approach to game design is slowly becoming too repetitive, and eventually, the gaming business will suffer losses in revenue.

My recommendation to firms such as Activision or Infinity Ward would be to focus less on originality, and increase the reward players receive. By giving the gamer a vicarious experience, the game will be more prone to get pleasing reviews. This way, the company can cut costs on graphics design, and expect a boom in sales.

Ever since 1930, Hostess Brands has been the sole producer of famous foods such as Twinkies, Ho Ho’s, and Wonderbread. However, recently the company announced that it is going to be liquidating its assets. This opened up opportunities for other companies to take part in the bidding for the rights to produce these extremely popular products.

So far this year, Twinkies have brought in sixty-eight million dollars in revenue. As well, there have been various Hostess products selling on E-Bay for as much as $5000. But how does a little yellow junk food become such a powerful asset to a company?

Twinkie Commercial

Twinkies have become so integrated in American lives because of dominant marketing. By always having clever slogans, and manipulating name-brand association, the Twinkie has become known throughout most of America. This highlights the importance of establishing a strong presence in the market as it’s developing. The junk food market is now well aware of how much potential to sell the Twinkie holds, and companies all desire to own the product. Through effective marketing, it’s possible to make a product live on for any company.

Links:
– http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/twinkie.htm
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/19/twinkies-to-survive-hostess-sale
– http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/twinkie-demise-sends–prices-sky-high-8327365.html 

In 2010, Toyota underwent the process of recalling certain models due to the braking/accelerating issues. As expected, consumers were unsettled. This is when COO Yoshimi Inaba assured that Toyota is taking steps to “restore the trust of tens of millions of Americans who purchase and drive [Toyota’s] vehicles” in a statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Today, there are rarely any car models which are released to the public and prove to have such difficulties. Because of this, the public would expect this recalling to be a one-time occurrence, and that Toyota’s operations department will sort out their problems. However, recently Toyota has had to recall 2.7 million cars due to water pump and steering defectiveness.

Fool us once Toyota….

To consumers it makes no difference that the old problems are fixed if new problems continue to arise. After Inaba guaranteed that “[Toyota] has learned from this experience,” the evidence is overwhelming; Toyota has developed a bad reputation for faulty vehicles that may permanently blotch their image. Unless operations undergoes a drastic change in personnel, it will be a steep climb for Toyota to regain customer loyalty.