Monthly Archives: October 2016

As many fellow athletes and “sneaker heads” (shoe collectors) can recall, Nike has dominated the shoe and athletic wear market for as long we can remember. However, recently, the world has noticed a gradual rise in another athletic-wear superpower: Adidas. In the past 2 years or so, Adidas has went from a declining company to an insanely popular icon in both street wear culture as well as sports wear. In fact, according to Business Insider, the most liked sneaker brand on Instagram in 2015 was Adidas by a large margin, which goes to show the company’s rapid increase in fan-base, and prevalence.

(http://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-wests-yeezys-helped-adidas-blow-nike-out-of-the-water-as-the-most-popular-sneaker-brand-on-instagram-in-2015-2015-12)

In my opinion, as a sneaker aficionado myself, the driving power behind Adidas’s fame in recent times can be attributed to innovative design, innovative technologies and collaborations. Sneaker design is extremely important in the industry due to the fact that the consumer-base is constantly on the lookout for fresh, stand-out looks while not having to compromise for comfort and performance. Recent popular shoes released by Adidas such as the Adidas Tubular Runner or Adidas NMDs puts both performance and fashion hand in hand by incorporating sport’s technology such as the boost or tubular soles with an innovative, sporty and flashy design. As a result, most of Adidas’s new shoes have a very unique, sleek and athletic look that appeals not only to sneaker fans but also athletes.

(http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/29/adidas-originals-nmd-r1-footlocker/)

Another reason for Adidas’ up-and-coming success is due to their constantly evolving sport technology which they incorporate into their products. One of Adidas’s most popular inventions is the boost technology which is found in many of their popular shoes such as the Yeezy boosts, NMDs and Ultralight Boosts. It uses foam bubbles for the sole of the shoe which gives it a bouncy and cushioned feel. Thus, the boost technology appeals not only to athletes that require the cushioning but also to casual wearers who covet the comfort that the boost gives for everyday walking. Thus Adidas has not only matched their points of parity with competitors but are also setting points of differences with their innovative technologies and designs in shoes.

Finally, Adidas has been evermore-so relevant in modern day fashion due to their collaborations with many influential icons in pop culture. For example, the Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West was met with huge popularity and demand, to the point where the shoes were being sold out within seconds in online stores. This is because Kanye West is one of the most famous hip hop stars in the music industry at the moment, as well as a fashion icon, meaning that people would flock to whatever fashion trend he was representing. This is a smart move by Adidas because it means that they would not only increase relevance for their shoes but also gain popularity and love from the fan base of Kanye West as well.

Works Cited:

(http://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-wests-yeezys-helped-adidas-blow-nike-out-of-the-water-as-the-most-popular-sneaker-brand-on-instagram-in-2015-2015-12)(http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/02/29/adidas-originals-nmd-r1-footlocker/)

Logo from www.Pokemongo.com

Over the summer of 2016, we saw the Niantic produced mobile game, Pokemon Go take the world by storm. People of all ages became enthralled with the concept of this game and its massive popularity resulted in it gaining the title of “Most first-week downloads in history”.¹ There is no arguing the fact that Pokemon Go was a truly groundbreaking and appealing concept for the mobile user base.

I decided to download the game to see what the fuss was about, and I found that even I had become hooked on the game, and found myself taking walks and bike rides specifically to play Pokemon Go. For around the first two weeks, its creative concept as an augmented reality game really pulled me in as it did with millions of other players, and I discovered that it must have been extremely profitable with its specifically Pokemon oriented micro transactions (e.g. 1$ for 50 Pokeballs). Furthermore, it created a sense of community within my neighborhood as well, as dozens of players gathered to play around the community parks and paths.

However, after the first few weeks of playing, as the hype as well as novelty of the app gradually diminished, the game and company’s flaws immediately became apparent to most users. In other words, after a few weeks of playing, most of the user base felt dissatisfied. My reasoning behind the app’s lack of long-term success is due to Niantic’s extremely lacking PR team. I have noticed in the past with many small indie game producers and start-up business, that these sprouting companies usually have excellent PR and customer relationships. This is because they usually have a small group of devoted fans, which makes it extremely easy for them to listen to feedback and communicate with their user base. However, with Niantic, due to the extreme boom in popularity with their app, it is understandable that the communication between the company and users would be strained. Nevertheless, this was not the case because as many people have pointed out: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2016/07/21/niantic-and-nintendos-lack-of-communication-about-pokemon-go-issues-is-inexcusable/#dc0ba8e2e832, Niantic didn’t even attempt to communicate with their fan base at all and instead just decided to roll out updates without even consulting the people. Furthermore, the people have complained for a long time about bugs such as the tracking and gym battles, but instead of Niantic fixing them, they just totally removed those features from the game all-together.

All in all, Niantic’s approach as a company towards the game as well as their user base resulted in a long-term failure of the app. In other words, Pokemon Go will soon die and never be brought up again. This is why I agree with Yash’s blog post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/yashroy/2016/10/02/nintendos-take-on-mobile-gaming/ as I believe Nintendo as a larger and more experienced company would be better suited to produce Pokemon Go and result in a longer-lasting success as a mobile game.

Citations:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/22/12258874/pokemon-go-apple-ios-app-store-record-most-downloads

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/ianmorris/files/2016/01/DSC_3076-1200×800.jpg

As most of us know, the iPhone 7 released a few weeks ago. One trending topic as of late has been the removal of the earphone jack in the iPhone 7. From a business standpoint, this deliberately excluded feature tells us a lot about how Apple incorporates planned obsolescence into their business plan.

As excellently explained in this blog post by Ziyue Wu as to how planned obsolescence relates to the iPhone 7 : https://blogs.ubc.ca/neilwu/2016/09/11/business-ethics-companies-should-impact-consumers-positively/,

Planned obsolescence means that a certain product will “become out-of-date or useless within a known time period.” The iPhone 7 is an excellent example, as stated before, due to its removed head-phone jack. This means that people whom bought the iPhone 7 and happen to lose their earbuds are prompted to buy more Apple specific products, leading to more profits by Apple. Also, people whom don’t have the iPhone 7 are encouraged to upgrade to it, due to the fact that they can be captivated by the exclusivity, and modern, more “current” feel of the new model. All in all, this strategy by Apple will result in people leaving behind their old models to pursue the iPhone 7, as they would believe that the old models are out of date and in need of upgrading. The consumer’s need to stick to buying Apple earbuds exclusively as the old jack no longer exists result in increased brand loyalty and recognition.

Another way that Apple has been applying planned obsolescence in their business model, is with the use of constantly updating iOS versions. The key thing about this is that Apple is constantly updating the iOS firmware so that it is in line with the most current iPhone and iPad models. Furthermore, the current models for the iPhone are improving technologically, which means that older versions simply cannot keep up. In other words, as Apple continues to pump out iOS updates, they ensure that the older iPhone models have a limited lifetime, resulting in customers purchasing more iPhones. In fact, there is even a financial plan for Apple consumers to pay a certain fee each month and then receive the newest iPhone model at the end of each year.

Finally, another example of Apple’s planned obsolescence is that they have implemented tamper-proof screws to Macbooks. This prevents consumers from upgrading their machines themselves, which prompts them to upgrade to the next version sooner. Furthermore, these users would have to rely on expensive Apple repair services as the screws would prevent them from being able to repair the system themselves. All in all, the planned obsolescence business model that Apple upholds no doubt results in massive profits for them, as seen in their Annual reports. However, the downfall is that it doesn’t operate with the customer’s wants in mind, resulting in potential unhappy customers.

(Word count: 439)

References used:

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/planned-obsolescence-is-why-apple-isn-t-a-green-company

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-iphone-7-planned-obsolescence/