Sony aims for the audiophile market with the $1100 Walkman

Week Beginning: 19.01.2015

As fortune.com reported, Sony is launching an updated version of the Sony Walkman. The walkman is not making a comeback, because it has been on the market for more than 35 years. 2007 the company launched a Walkman and tried to compete with the Apple iPod, but it did not work out. Last fall, Sony made a fairly quiet move into the world of high resolution of digital media with a $300 Walkman (NWZ-A17SLV). This product promised to play files at a near studio quality. Due to a lack of promotion, the product was not as popular as the company expected. Therefore Sony announced their new luxury walkman at the CES 2015 in Las Vegas. This product is especially geared towards audiophiles that would be willing to pay $ 1119.99 for it. For this price the customer receives a product with touch screen, up to 256 GB storage, Bluetooth connectivity, a 60 hour playback and can download apps from the Google Play Store.  The main feature would be the updated amplifier and wiring mean less signal disruption between the file and the listener’s ears to preserve as much of the original recording sound data as possible. Critics would say that Sony is taking a risk with launching their developed walkman, but they are just one out of many betting on customers getting into the portable audiophile trend. An example for that would be Astell&Kern or Pono. Although technology is developing more and more the old format of the original walkman is seeing new life among trendy music fans.

This article links to the new topic we started last week, the marketing mix. The walkman is a product with a very long lifecycle, not necessarily at its Maturity anymore, but Sony is trying to bring it back into a growth again. The walkman itself has been in a decline since technology evolved, but has not completely vanished from the market as music fans still buy and use them. Right now the product is at a launch. Sony is mainly trying by product development to expand the walkmans lifecycle and increase their sales. 

It also links to Strategy of the CUEGIS, because by developing their product the firm is using an extension strategy to maintain and increase their sales. In this case they are rather trying to increase their sales than maintaining them, due to the fact that the earlier versions of then walkman in the previous years were not a success for Sony. Furthermore it also links to Change of the CUEGIS, because Sony changed their promotion of the Walkman when they introduced it at the CES 2015, changed many features of their product and went for a new target audience. Lastly the article links to Innovation, because of it is an innovated product for Sony as they aim for the audiophile market and made a move into the world of high resolution of digital media, which they were not included in before. 

All in all Sony tried to improve their sales by developing their product and changing their promotion strategies.

The new Spotify for Windows Phone finally catches up to iOS.

 Week Beginning: 12.01.2015

As techradar.com reported, Spotify is one of the best known music apps worldwide. On Monday the new updated version of the app is available for Windows Phone, which has now catched up with the iOS version. Windows Phone users have now received all features like the iOS and Android users. This features include Your Music – for saving albums, tracks and artists on the go and improvements on the browser section. Spotify is the one of the biggest and longest standing top-tier apps available on the Windows Phone. The music app arrived at the days of WP 7.5.

The company also concentrated on changing the appearance and the design of their app available in the Windows store. Now less important details fade into the background, in order for the track and the album to pop out from the screen. The Spotify Team reports this version to be the “Best Looking Spotify Ever” and said that they wanted to make accessing favorite music smoother than ever before. The users of Microsoft’s mobile OS do not have to feel inferior in the company of their iOS and Android pals. New updated app version will be launched this Monday available for all Windows 8 devices.

 This article perfectly links to last week’s lessons, where we discussed primary and secondary research. Windows is a well known software for computers, but is running behind in the smartphone industry as iOS and android are the market leaders. Therefore they also receive the best offers from apps. As spotify is a well known app, which many people use, this collaboration is beneficial for both Windows and Spotify. First of all Windows and/or Spotify might have done primary or even secondary research to find out more about their customers. Spotify might have found out that they did not feature their newest app version for the Windows Phones. On the other hand Windows Phones are known for not having the best access to all apps, as they give their best offers to the App Store for Apple and the Playstore for Android devices. Therefore Windows could have looked at the most downloaded apps and at the average Windows Phone customer, concluding that Windows 8 needs an updated version of Spotify. All in all Primary Research could have been very useful for both businesses to come to such a conclusion.

Adding to that this refers to Change of the CUEGIS, because it is a change for both Spotify and Windows that Windows now has the best update of the app from all of the mobile softwares. At the same time it also refers to Strategy of the CUEGIS, because it is a change of their promotion strategy as they both benefit from the collaboration. Lastly it refers to Innovation, because it is something new to the Windows Phone market. It is not entirely new, but very developed comparing to the older version of Spotify available for Windows 8.


 

U.S. Sales forecast to rise 10% in December on deals due to falling gas prices.

Week Beginning: 05.01.2015


The week between Christmas and New Years Eve is very stressful for most businesses.  As Automotive News states December 2014 was a very pleasing months for the US vehicle industry. Last December was filled with good reasons to buy a new car, like big discounts, very little snow and continuously falling gasoline prices. Forecasters say that the U.S. new vehicle sales jumped about ten percent for the last month. This sums up to 16.5 million for the whole of 2014 and already beats the forecasts for 2015. The U.S. light vehicle sales are predicted to hit 17 million in the next year, which would be the first time since 2001. The December volume is estimated at 1.49 to 1.51 million units and therefore an 11 % increase since 2013, which makes this months the second best December ever. The final report for 2014 is coming out on the 5^th of January.

At Sunnyside Toyota in North Olmsted, Ohio the sales since Christmas were up 26 % from the last week of 2013, which concludes that 2014 was, had a boom in the U.S. vehicle industry. Experts say that this momentum will continue in 2015, because of several reasons. First of all the economy is more stable. Adding to that many car companies are launching new product and this makes customers feel better about buying new cars. Because of the boom in the car industry many businesses including LMC have raised their forecasts for 2015. LMC, for example, raised its 2015 forecast for U.S. sales by 200 000 units to 17 million.

This article relates to our current topic Sales Forecasting, which is a quantitative management technique used to predict a firm's level of sales, in this case the U.S. car industry, over a given time period. Sales Forecasting aplies especially for this, because firms will have to know how their sales were in 2014, to make predictions for the next year. In this case the industry is at the Recovery/Boom of the business cycle and still increasing. Companies would also need to use the 3 point moving averages, to even out the average sales, because in December there might have been more successful than in the summer, which shows that there could also be seasonal differences to the sales. Adding to that the article links to Change of the CUEGIS, because the U.S. vehicle industry is going through a change, which means their sales are immensly increasing, which has not happenend since 2001. Firms have to adapt to this change and need more products/cars if there is more demand from the customers. Lastly this also links to Strategy of the CUEGIS, because sales forecasting is a strategy to predict a company's level of sales over a given time period, which every firm have to use in order to survive in the future. Especially in this time of the year were annual reports of the last year came out and forecasts for the new year were finalized, therefore the topic also fits to the time of the year for the U.S. car industry.