SUMMARY
When one mentions the word technology which company comes to mind first? Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past decade the company Apple should sound familiar. A recent survey done by Piper Jaffray's "Taking Stock With Teens" suggests that American teenagers are more hooked to the brand Apple than ever before. Apple products such as the iPhone, iPod, and iTunes were still dominate in the music and cell phone buying preferences of around 600 surveyed teenagers from middle to upper middle class families. The statistics showed that 15% of the teens surveyed owned an iPhone and 22% plan to purchase one within the next six months. 87% own an iPod and of the 40% planning to purchase MP3 payers in the next year, 74% plan on buying an iPod. Most teenagers download their music from peer to peer networks, Limewire being one of the most popular, but the ones who buy their music online, 93% of teens use iTunes.
CONNECTION
Apple products are no doubt a demand factor. Consumers are craving for the next best thing apple has to offer. In chapter 2 we were introduced to the factors and elasticity of demand and supply. The demand factor for Apple products would be taste and preferences. Apple invests a lot of money into their marketing and advertisements with attractions such as celebrity endorsements and eye catching commercials in the media. They have even gone to making limited edition iPods with themes based on the style of the artist or band for a higher price. Besides Apple’s mainstream advertising, consumers are referring their products within their family and peers which means that they are helping to advertise their products as well. Apple products such as their iMac, iPod, and iPhones are all luxury products. This places them under the demand elastic category since it is not a necessity
REFLECTION
It seems that Apple is unstoppable with their ever growing products and franchises across the world. Every so often, newer versions of their popular products are emerging into the market. In the end it all boils down to the question: is Apple worth it? There are many alternative products for much lower prices out there. A good example would be the market for laptops. The majourity of laptops today run on Microsoft’s Windows platform while the rest run on Linux, or Apple’s operating system. Consumers can buy a laptop with more powerful hardware and bigger screen size for a lower price compared to an Apple laptop. But what attracts consumers into buying Apple laptops is their simplicity and ease of use. Actually the main target of Apple’s advertising is on how their products are simple and user friendly. Back to the laptop example, Microsoft Windows XP or
