Napster Case

Microsoft has their dominance of the industry at stake. They could potentially come out on top if left to continue their current tactics. They are masterfully “marketing their products” and it is paying off for them (Love, 1997).

In The Wall Street Journal, tech reporter Daisuke Wakabayashi (2014) describes how Apple is expanding its reach into the business market. “The iPhone has replaced the BlackBerry as the mobile phone of choice, as the iPad assumes tasks once reserved for PCs,” (Wakabayashi, 2014). Wakabayashi (2014) noted that “Apple is going mainstream” when it comes to the corporate world, and he profiles multiple large enterprises — including SAP, Nordstrom, and Cisco — that have rolled out iOS and other Apple devices to their

Along with the development of a file format (MP3) to store digital audio recordings, came one of the new millennium’s most continuous debates – peer-to-peer piracy – file sharing. Internet companies such as Napster and Grokster became involved in notable legal cases in regards to copyright laws in cyberspace. These two cases are similar in nature, yet decidedly different. In order to understand the differences and similarities, one should have an understanding of each case as well as the court’s ruling.

price point than the big 3, the company saw this as the perfect strategy to penetrate the saturated

Personally, I am not up on the ITunes as I really am not an apple person I truly just listen to the radio for music. I believe though that ITunes has paved away for music to be purchased and distributed without even leaving the comfort of our homes. It has also paved the way for competition as there are many apps that offer music for free with ads or for a small fee and would be ad free. I believe having music avaible at a digital level is a huge advantage as the music that an individual desires to hear can be taken with them anywhere they go. Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone and pretty much has it with them 99% of the time so permitting music to be purchased through devices like ITunes was a very smart marketing move. Another great factor in my opinion is an individual does not have to purchase an entire CD for just a couple of songs that they enjoy. I recall being a teenager and doing just that and being let down by most of the album but, it worked and in that time we paid for it as there was no other way. As far as disadvantages go I feel it would hurt those in business, if less CD's or albums are physically selling there would be less stores up and running and the ones that were it may cost them a bit more than it had in the past to stay in business.

Issue 02: Apple is a wildly successful company that generates billions of dollars in profits every year. This is one of the strongest examples of how a company with the right strategy, great products, a strong leader and the willingness to take some risks can become vastly successful. The market in which Apple is strong has intense rivalry for market share. Apple is challenged with staying ahead of its competitors and maintaining long-term relationships with its customers. In order to stay ahead of the competition Apple is forced to keep product innovation a top priority. I would maintain a Blue Ocean Strategy to market our product and maintain our competitive advantage (McGraw-Hill Irwin, Page 152). The company has a strong and loyal customer base which will allow Apple to concentrate the focus to highlighting the features of our products. I will not focus on what our competitors can and cannot do; I will focus the attention to the benefits of having Apple products. Strategic marketing campaigns highlighting the different uses and features of the popular iPhone and iPad will headline the campaign.

1. In your opinion, what are the top 3-5 issues with Mobile Music's company governance?

In 2000 the digital music was the next big thing in how consumers listen to music. The technological shift in music changed how the relationship is between the artists, recording companies, promoters and music stores on how they operate today. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks allowed free exchange of music files with companies like Napster and Kazaa was a big step that allowed consumers to store large libraries of music. With the cost of hard drive space going down; it allowed for pocket-sized computers to store more information in a smaller space that open the door for apple to step in with the unveiling of the iPod and iTunes. These systems made it possible for storage and playback that gave consumers the

Since the iTunes music store was introduced on April 28, 2003, gross music sales have plummeted in the United States - from $11.8 billion in 2003 to $7.1 billion in 2012, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (Covert). Counterintuitively, during that time consumers were buying more music than ever. How is that possible? It 's because iTunes had made digital singles popular and was selling them cheap. This would change the music industry forever. In 2000, Americans bought 943 million CD albums (Covert), and digital sales didn’t even make a dent in comparison. But by 2007, those inexpensive singles overtook CDs by a wide margin, generating 819 million sales compared to just 500 million for the CD.

In order to truly understand how Apple operates and what products they offer to consumers in the personal electronics in comparison to other companies in the market. There are many players in the personal electronics industry and Apple is 3rd place for market share capturing 11.1% of the US PC market share. HP is the leading player in the US market accounting for 26.1% share of the market, Dell accounts for 22.3%, Toshiba falls behind Apple with 9.3% of the market share.

Nowadays, Apple has positioned itself to be an innovator in the personal computer industry and Apple has developed by offering modern products compared to its competitors. According to Apple’s mission statement last year, “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.” (Business Management,

Napster was the first, very innovative music technology application that allowed users to download MP3 from the internet and other peers for free, or at a cost. Napster strongly adapted the word sharing and put it their own terms to avoid any copyright infringement but it ended badly on their part. This disruptive technology was leading the market and had over 60 million users by 2001. Although very similar technologies were soon after developed, Napster was still on top and lead the market. Many users knew exactly what they wanted but getting it seemed to be the difficult part once Napster and the RIAA went into a legal battle. More commonly, the industry has been shaped

Based on the background of “the era of the Digital lifestyle”, iTunes 3 target customers are;

In the case of Party Plates they want to use a similar kind of strategy that will take these different ideas into account and incorporate them as a part of their marketing strategy. To determine how this can be accomplished we will focus on: three wireless technologies that would be beneficial to the organization, the pro / cons on incorporating two of them into the company and providing a justification for the decision. This is the point that we can see how these tools can allow the firm to most effectively reach out to the largest demographic of customers.

Target Market: Mostly consists of Laggards who have been loyal to this type of product for a long time and have not moved on to newer products.