Category Archives: Technology

COMM 292: Examining the Halo Effect in Apple

Over the past 15 or so years, Apple has grown into one of the most renown and known companies in the world due to their innovative and applicable products. Their most popular product, the iPhone has sold upwards of 590 million units worldwide from 2007-2014 (from Statista), making it the most used line of cellular phones ever. This has created a crazed stigma in which everyone feels the need to own the newest upgraded iteration, without much regard to the lack of improvements that Apple puts into each successive product. What is happening here is an organizational behaviour and marketing effect deemed the “Halo Effect,” in which consumers feel inclined to buy other products from a brand based on the merit of their previously purchased products. In this case, Apple is riding the success of the revolutionary iPhone 3Gs as an example, in order to sell their new products. This halo effect is a massive strength of Apple, but it has also landed them massive amounts of criticism based on how they essentially resell the same base product, with few upgrades to ream as much revenue as possible. A commonly used phrase to describe each new models features is “having a new camera, and being thinner and lighter.” This trend has continued in their Macbook Pro and Air laptop product lines as well, but not to the extent of the iPhone. At the UBC Sauder School of Business, mandatory classes make owning a laptop of paramount importance, so almost everyone owns an internet enabled device of some sort. The majority of these devices are Macbooks, and every time a new iteration is unveiled people feel inclined to upgrade. Whether or not people will realize the power of the Halo effect within Apple will determine how long they can keep the charade up before having to return to their creative and innovative roots in order to sell their products.

Bibliography (APA):

[iPhone sizes/colors]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from http://images.apple.com/iphone/trade-up/images/og.jpg?201702022216

Apple iPhone sales 2007-2017. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05, 2017, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-3rd-quarter-2007/

Dear iPhone 6 users: Welcome to 2012! [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2017, from http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54117739eab8eaa42925dd35-960/why-iphone-6-should-be-embarrassed-compared-to-the-nexus-4.png

Virtual Reality – Sony’s New Cutting-Edge Product

For those who do not know exactly what Virtual Reality is or what it means: essentially, it attempts to place participants in the body of someone else, in different locations and scenarios, with all the accommodating sights and sounds in their full glory.

On October 13th, Sony released its new Virtual Reality headset, entitled “Playstation VR.” It will set you back $399 USD, if you do not already own the Playstation 4 Console, Camera, Move Controllers and VR worlds (currently the only available game). Including these four necessities, the cost totals to a whopping $799 USD. Standalone, this is the cheapest way to experience VR to date. Its only two competitors available for purchase are the Oculus Rift and and HTC Vive, costing $599 and $799 respectively (Kain, 2016). Reviews for Playstation VR have been incredibly positive thus far. I found this particular blog post on TechRadar to be useful and interesting because it made an all-encompassing and thorough argument for Playstation VR.

The whole VR craze began with the release of the Oculus rift back in March, and in the months leading up to the release of Playstation VR, demand for VR was beginning to slow. As Thomas Westerman stated in his blog post on the subject, many critics throughout that period labeled VR as “an over-priced gimmick,” due to its lack of content and immersion, and its nausea-inducing, inconsistent control schemes. Thomas Westerman is right in his sentiment that it is not a fad. Now, excitement is rising once again as Playstation VR has managed to build off of the mistakes of the two attempts preceding it. Having spent many hours playing as an expert diamond thief, a deep sea diver, and professional luge rider on the Playstation VR personally, I can say that Sony did a great job in that respect. It is fun, engaging, and easy to control. This is not to mention that after playing for long periods of time, I have not felt nauseous at all. In fact, the headset is extremely comfortable. You also do not need much space to set up the system and play.

In terms of sales to date (October 30th), the Playstation VR has done exceedingly well. Operations management definitely projected sales to be lower than what they are, as the product has sold out on US and UK Amazon with shortages in Best Buy, Walmart and Target as well (Brooke, 2016). This is, of course, great news for Sony.

All in all, I will definitely be picking up my own Playstation VR bundle once it is restocked. Sony has really broke new ground in making Virtual Reality accessible in the home.

Word Count: 443

References (APA):

[Playstation VR Bundle (Including PS4)]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2016, from https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8362/30115850755_1df580eb2f_z.jpg

Brooke, S. (2016, October 25). PlayStation VR Has Sold Out on Amazon in UK and US. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2016/10/playstation_vr_has_sold_out_on_amazon_in_uk_and_us

Kain, E. (2016, October 15). Virtual Reality Is Just An Over-Priced Gimmick, Nothing More. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/10/15/virtual-reality-is-just-an-over-priced-gimmick/#5222b0062e0a

Pino, N. (2016, October 24). PlayStation VR review. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.techradar.com/reviews/gaming/playstation-vr-1235379/review

Westerman, T. (2016, October 15). There’s Nothing Virtual About This Reality. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from https://blogs.ubc.ca/thomaswesterman/

Samsung Galaxy Note 7: Exploding Batteries

Samsung electronics has recently fallen under heavy criticism due to exploding batteries in their defective Galaxy Note 7 products. Before they issued a much-warranted 2.5 million unit recall, there were “35 reported incidents of overheating smartphones worldwide,” with one explosion in a young boys hand (Hollister, 2016). Even since this recall, the number of known explosive devices has risen to 140.

pay-exploding-phone

How does this affect where people that are still keeping their phones can go? Definitely not airplanes. A southwestern airlines flight was evacuated 10 minutes before it was set to take off as a phone began to smoke up the entire cabin. As of October 15th, Transport Canada and the U.S. Department of Transportation have announced that these phones will not be allowed to be carried on board, shipped as cargo, or in checked bags regardless of whether they are turned off (Lowy, 2016). Australia, Asia and Europe have all followed suit in enforcing this law as well (BBC, 2016).

We discussed in our tutorial how it is extremely important to examine how a company reacts to an issue rather than just look at the issue itself. Samsung’s overall response to the problem was far less than stellar. They created a quick fix by artificially limiting maximum battery charge to 60% (in order to maintain their projected profits), yet this did not guarantee that the battery would not explode (Orf, 2016). Their customer service in dealing with refunds within the recall has also been atrocious, described by many as slow and inefficient.

Clearly, the negative implications of this issue are massive (to almost all stakeholders) and have dealt a severe blow to Samsung’s brand image. This is not to mention the barrier it has created in their revenue streams, with their opportunity costs amounting to 17 Billion Dollars by some analysts calculations. These losses originate mainly from a decrease in the market value of their shares and decrease to 0 in sales. In other words, their fixed and variable costs in production all ended up yielding minimal revenue.

As Mike Schellenberg stated in his blog post, this entire issue is amplified by the fact that Apple has just launched their iPhone 7. This means that “if Android users decide to make the switch to the iPhone 7, they may never go back.” I completely and utterly agree with Mike Schellenberg’s insightful commentary.

Samsung’s lack of product testing and care in production both created an easily avoidable problem which would have saved their profits and their marketability.

Word Count: 417

References (APA):

[Exploded Galaxy Note 7 Smartphone]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.allword-news.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1458340684_Samsung-Galaxy-phone-expl_1.jpg

Hollister, S. (2016, October 10). Here’s why Samsung Note 7 phones are catching fire. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from https://www.cnet.com/news/why-is-samsung-galaxy-note-7-exploding-overheating/

Lowy, J. (2016, October 15). Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones banned from Canadian, U.S. airlines over fire concerns. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://business.financialpost.com/fp-tech-desk/samsung-galaxy-note-7-smartphones-banned-from-canadian-u-s-airlines-over-fire-concerns

Orf, D. (2016, September 13). Samsung Is Limiting Note 7 Batteries to 60 Percent to Avoid More Explosions. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://gizmodo.com/samsung-is-limiting-note-7-batteries-to-60-percent-to-a-1786570629

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 banned by more airlines over fire risk. (2016, October 16). Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37674170

Schellenberg, M. (2016, October 15). Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Recall. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from https://blogs.ubc.ca/mikeschellenberg/

Elon Musk and his Vision for Planet Mars

On Septemeber 27th, Visionary and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk, publicly announced his legendary plan to begin a human colony eventually amounting to 1 million people, on Mars. His thoughts are as follows “What I really want to do here is to make Mars seem possible — make it seem as though it’s something that we could do in our lifetimes, and that you can go,” (Wall, 2016). Clearly, this is a massive undertaking that will require meticulous planning and a lot of money, which Musk states will total to approximately 10 Billion USD (Wall, 2016).

The Interplanetary Transport System model works as shown in the image, which also shows the targeted re-use per vehicle (an aspect which will shed billions in costs).

untitled-article-1475007670-body-image-1475008040The ticket to board the repeated ITS trips, set to undergo their first journey in the next 10 years will cost you anywhere from $100,000 – $200,000. This is not to mention the fact that losing your life is a possibility and a probability to some extent. One of the most important factors of the project to take into account is the fact that it will not be a one way trip. “The ITS spaceships will be refueled on Mars and will launch back to Earth from there, meaning prospective colonists don’t have to stay on the Red Planet forever if they don’t want to.”

martian-20th-century-foxIn  his statement, Musk only touched upon the first step towards colonization after transportation. This is the plan to build a Solar powered factory, which will use both carbon dioxide in the air and ice beneath the surface to create methane and oxygen.

Personally, I am a huge fan of this endeavour and commend Musk and SpaceX for their efforts which will eventually benefit us all. Yet in terms of the logistics and feasibility, the plan is a hollow shell which needs to be filled. The 10 year goal is basically impossible due to current technological constraints on the size of ships, and the massive amounts of undiscovered variables that will require additional time, money and planning. In other words, more and more unforeseen problems will arise throughout planning, and they will not require simple solutions. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said: “One, it is very expensive. Two, it is very dangerous to do it first. Three, there is essentially no return on that investment that you’ve put in for having done it first” (Plenke, 2016).

The plan has many critics, and only time will tell how Musk and SpaceX will respond and resolve tribulations that will arise.

“The objective is to become a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanet species,” (Wall, 2016) Musk stated.

Word Count: 440

References (APA):

[Mars]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2016, from http://www.seti.org/sites/default/files/martian-20th-century-fox.jpg

[System Architecture]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2016, from http://www.space.com/images/i/000/058/672/original/spacex-mars-interplanetary-transport-mission-profile.jpg?1475006320?interpolation=lanczos-none&downsize=*:1400

Plenke, M. (2016, September 29). Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars. “Good luck,” say critics. Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://mic.com/articles/155485/elon-musk-wants-to-colonize-mars-good-luck-say-critics#.VXhjm2RlG

Wall, M. D. (2016, September 27). SpaceX’s Elon Musk Unveils Interplanetary Spaceship to Colonize Mars. Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://www.space.com/34210-elon-musk-unveils-spacex-mars-colony-ship.html