BRANDING

Published on September 21st, 2014 | by drkkr

10

BRAND KILL

One thing that remains constant in this universe is change. We all at some point of time, loose something which would have been part of our every day life.

Long time ago Sony revolutionised by making music handy and mobile. Yes, Sony created a storm by launching a portable music player named Walkman. This was a rage in the 80’s and early 1990 and MP3 players started to emerge. Never SONY did imagine they will have a competitor from a computer manufacturing company named Apple.

Apple launched a Tsunami called iPOD.  iPod got first released on October 12, 2001….!! That evening Steve Jobs said, “   “you can fit your whole music library in your pocket. Never before possible.”

Apple revolutionised the way we buy music, store music, listen to music and of course share music. Apple made us to buy music again and it also created its own iTune store.The sales of iPOD as on September 2012, Apple reported that total number of iPod’s sold worldwide was 350 million.…..!!!

In all my lectures in the last few years i used to ask my audience, is iPOD relevant any more…!!  Music is now turned out to be passé. It is in every gadget – iPhone, iPad and from this January 2015 Apple watch.

But now, the iPod is a relic of the past, and everything has changed. The notion of a music collection has been obliterated by the fact that we can stream nearly any song ever recorded and released, for free, instantly. The quiet demise of Apple’s iPod Classic.

Spotify and its ilk have fundamentally changed the way we interact with music again. But the iPod always brings me both those moments and memories of life through the music which i have preserved may be from 2001 can never get replaced by spottily or an iPhone or an iPad or an apple watch.

Now iPod will be missed like those cute little things that we tend to loose with time, growth, technology. But few things in life leave a lasting impression,for me for sure iPod was reflecting my personality with the kind of music i listen to will be missed for ever.

Two thoughts :

Why do you think iPod turned out to be such a great hit ?

Why didn’t sony come out with iPod ? Share your thoughts and views.

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10 Responses to BRAND KILL

  1. Sundeep Parakulangara says:

    Change is a worldly truth, For every invention there is a end and for every innovator there is a space. Lets go in time machine to see how it all started. Macaroni when invented the radio he never knew that songs can come in waves. But that invention made a break through to the world of communication and world of music. The first broadcast happened in 1910 at Metropolitan Opera House were famous opera singers were performing. Regency was the first brand to bring transistor and later on Sony introduced the pocket transistor. Then radio became a part of the life and then it gave a break through to cassette player.

    After a long time gap with radio and cassette, Sony decided to manufacture something more innovative which can store, record, play music and more important its portable and fashion.There cam up the “Walkman” the portable music player. The Walkman made a big change in the world of music, gadget and brand. Its concept was to make it personalize. Sony successfully marketed and sold more than 50 million players and competitors were less and couldn’t with stand in market. Then Sony kept on changing from Cassette to CD to Mp3.
    Then in early 2000 Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs wanted to test some of his technical teams invention on touch and synchronization. Apple had developed with a tie with Toshiba inside and its aesthetic was inspired by the Braun T3 transistor radio design and the wheel based user interface was from the old telephone concept. Then most important the launch, Steve Jobs who took the risk of making a computer manufacturing company to a introduce a entertainment device completed the circle of new era. Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.

    This change made a great break through to the world of personalized music and entertainment, on the other hand it gave a great gate way to Apples another innovation I Phone.

    Some of the points that i think made I pod successful are
    1. Its a integrated system which have a software, computer and device connectivity.
    2. Its design made a super brand owing feel to the holder.
    3. Its I store feature made the users to get a their favorites in a click. You don have to buy a whole Cd for single song

    So Ipode was a great innovative idea which replace and replayed the world of entertainment.

  2. R.Subarnaa says:

    Sony failed to update according to the technology. Obviously Apple updated it’s version according to the minds of people. We admire and run back of difference ever.Steves gave a evolution and change to both his brand and people. Nextly, he have given a change in storage.we people came to know about internal memory and integrated chips.Also the stylish designed handy ipod gave rich look and started showing people brandly. Today,apple is the most richest and stylish best owned brand of people.This was started from the evolution of the ipod. Without any hitch,apple seems the best among other brands and also the logo acts as the point of attraction.

    Sony failed to update because of its name for those past 20-30 years and their ipod without sufficient memory must be updated and upgaraded. Sony may thought of giving their best,yet apple was the unknown and surprising competitor ever.That’s why it was pushed to the next place and till now apple sustained it’s place.Sony would have given the far best product then.so that they would have been the best competitor of apple.Sony went down in customer satisfaction and brand promotion according to the technology. And though they have been updating till date,2001 gave a fall which was a drastic change to Sony.

  3. sajini vijayakumar says:

    Ipod a great hit because- compact,trendy,storage,iTunes,Ipod touch,design,video and finally brand itself !

    Sony failed because – lack of change and diversification,being over confident and unexpected competitor.

  4. vigneshraj says:

    we need change, In order to build our nation with creative products such as,
    1. For any product that Apple creates, the people who create it have to want it themselves
    2. The products have to be easy to use
    3. Keep things simple
    4. Offer great customer service and in-store experiences
    5. Apple only makes a product if Apple can do it better
    6. Apple stays at least two years ahead of its competitors

  5. R.priyanka says:

    hi sir..
    iPod is a wonderful idea to keep music within us… but everyone expects more than a music. so they moved to more innovative technologies..in future the same condition will happen to iPad, iPhone, Apple watch. “change is the only thing that can change”. iPhone is another innovative idea of apple it made the world to forget iPod..
    Sony tried to do more innovative than i pod but apple introduced i phone before Sony introduced Xperia so Sony cant beat up i pod and apple too,….

  6. Arun Prakash says:

    1.Firstly, I like both the brands Sony and Apple.Ipod was a success due to its simple and beautiful design.And the storage capacity provided in ipod is very much enough to store your music world into it.And it became a huge success due to its lightweight.So these are some of the reasons that
    could have made ipod a great hit.
    2.Sony also introduced ipod like players but two years before the Ipod wad launched in October 2001.The negative impact for sony is that Timing was not perfect for sony.and Apple’s timing gained a success.And the main drawback for sony walkman is that it was provided with large memory sticks and it had only 64 MB.

  7. Jeni Feona Charles.A says:

    Sony being one of the leading conglomerates in electronics in the world was one among the first companies those were started to produce tape recorders. Soon, in 1979, Sony introduced their mobile music player, the Walkman. And also, at this time, Apple Computers were just manufacturers and dealers of computers. The Walkman was a big hit in the electronics market and it earned a huge profit to Sony. The Walkman had its own features when compared to Gramophones and Tape Recorders. And yes, a person with a Walkman then was considered as a super cool person. The only drawback with it was though it was mobile, carrying cassettes everywhere was kind of a headache! Then came the Sony MP3 players. these were more handy than the walkman; also they din’t necessarily need a cassette. However, the memory capacity of these players were very limited. 20-25 songs was how much these players could hold. But at any cost, these were super hit products in the market, as Sony was the only company producing them that time. Apple however by then had tried to diversify and expand their market.

    i) On October 23,2001, the iPod was introduced into the market; and soon this product took over the walkman and Sony MP3 players and became the product of the hour. This was basically because of the fact that the iPod looked more classy than the Sony players and also they can be used to store external data. The memory capacity of the iPod varied from 2GB to 160GB. Also Apple had introduced iTunes by then,which is a media player, where music can be played and downloaded easily. Also video games can be played on iPods. The original iPod had the brick games with few other games.Sooner there were many versions of iPods that had developed fuctions with a lot more games. People were very much satisfied with this product and very soon the iPod and Apple Computers took over the market. And also the iPod was a new product. A product that made people view music in a totally different dimension. When compared to the Sony walkman, the iPod was better in every way. These probably are the reasons why the iPod was a great hit.

    ii) My view as on why Sony did not come up with an iPod would be their lack on consumer study. They understood the need of music and came up with the walkman and tape recorders. However, they did not make their products very user friendly. They thought people were satisfied with the walkman and mp3 players so there was no necessity to develop or invent a new product. They did not expect a competition, that too from a computer company. And one more thought that Sony was a bit over confident and they stagnated themselves from upgrading their product. They could have atleast tried out a new product in the same product line, but they were too ignorant to do so. This is my views on why an iPod was not invented by Sony.

    #apple #drkkr #grd #grdim #grdscib #iphone #iphone6 #mac #stevejobs #sony

  8. drkkr says:

    GOOD INSIGHTS…!!

  9. vignesh says:

    Ipod is succesfull because of its elegant design,Different variety of colors and sleek button, User -friendly,Simple and Elegant. Apple have made their brand register in all minds very easily.

    Sony doen’t know they have a competitior in the same field, But Apple made more comfortable than sony,Its the main cause for sony’s failure! Ipod made a rapid mark in their quality,but sony failed in that

  10. Sakthi keerthana.R says:

    1.Apple is a big hit because it has a great style and cool factor and of course the brand, Branding has become so strong.
    But I always believe that product succeeds not just on hype but on clear business fundamentals .
    And one of things I know that did make Apple successful was their understanding that people would also willingly pay more than what they actually need.

    2. Sony had the tools to create a version of the Ipod long before Apple introduced in 2001. Sony wrestled with how to build devices that let customers download and copy music without undermining music sales or agreements with its artists. But it was incompatible with the fast growing mp3 formats so it dint happen.
    “Sony had all the pieces but couldn’t put the puzzle together”

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