This is in response to Asfvin Pugunisparam’s “Surface entering the market”

Apple has multiple, clearly established product lines. It also has a loyal and growing customer base. Although the sales were projected to drop after Job’s death, the company continued to release products more and more technologically advanced. The recent year of 2012 has been especially busy in terms of releases. Throughout the past few years, Microsoft became less and less known for its products and the only lasting market force is levered through their software releases.

This is why I personally believe that although Surface is marketed as a differentiated product (the touch sensitive keyboard and a tough display) it will fail to compete against the iPad. Apple is simply too well established for Microsoft to become a threat. Finally what makes all Apple devices more differentiated is the App store. It is because of the variety of available apps that their devices are so popular. Together with slick designs, Microsoft would need to come up with a truly revolutionary technology in order to gain a competitive advantage over Apple. So far that has not happened, because Surface cannot offer anything that iPad does not offer. Perhaps if the device was priced at less, it could stand a chance but as that is not the case, I doubt the device will be successful.

This is in response to Helena Lin’s “Directionally confused? Apple’s new maps application”

Apple has replaced the Google Maps application with their own version. Although this could potentially bring generous profits, so far the application has caused nothing but criticism.

Not only has the application caused frustration within the user base of the iPhone 5, but it has also resulted in a number of websites dedicated to the errors of Apple Maps. The software is often inaccurate, misplacing locations and guiding users to wrong places. Furthermore it is also far from being perfectly finished in terms of its graphic display.

Consequently, customers turned away from the application and re-downloaded the original Google Maps application. If Apple is still considering profiting from their “innovative” software solutions, they should consider extensive product research and evaluations before allowing it to become a public joke. In this case, the sales of the iPhone 5 remained unaffected, however most customers remain reluctant to downloading the new software which does negatively impact the brand image after all. It is finally starting to look like Apple tried to out-smart themselves with the new technological “improvements”, essentially causing more damage than benefit to the firm.

Image source: http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/apple-maps-600.jpg

In the article by Karsten Strauss, it is implied that American firms could benefit more by producing domestically. With the increasing transportation costs, outsourcing is becoming less and less desirable. Furthermore, especially in the apparel industry, mistakes in production are often made. With domestic production, those could be easily fixed. Domestic production could also be the solution for new start-ups as their expenditures would decrease by the transportation costs.

The major reason why domestic production has not been practiced is marketing. American factories do not advertise themselves. As Strauss says, “a simple internet search can tell you next to nothing about a factory, let alone if it produces quality work”. This sabotage caused many American brands to extend their supply chains to Asia. Outsourcing became increasing popular, resulting in a decrease of available jobs in the United States.

Furthermore, domestic production is often associated with higher quality products, therefore providing brands with unique selling points (differentiation). Bringing production back to the US would therefore benefit the brand image of many firms and cause a boost for many local economies.

Energy Aware is a relatively young company, promoting energy-measuring devices. Its latest product, The PowerTab, is a portable device displaying the current energy usage within a household. It measures the energy in kWh, released by the surrounding appliances and converts it into monetary value (bills). Once the house owner sees the excessive cost of e.g. leaving the lights on, he/she will have a better incentive to keep them off and reduce the energy usage.

The idea in itself seems simple and potentially profitable. The production costs of the device are relatively low and it does not require installation. Energy Aware sells to energy producers (e.g. BC Hydro) who then distribute the devices to their customers. The customers therefore carry no additional costs and enjoy the benefit of reducing their expenses.

Finally, encouraging their customers to reduce energy usage, makes the energy providers look more favourable and most importantly it increases the corporate social responsibility outlook. It can therefore be expected that with time, the Smart Meters will become replaced with PowerTabs resulting in higher customer satisfaction.