The Apple iWatch Launch - Case Study Example

Running Head: The Apple iWatch Launch. Department As technological advancements go a notch higher, the latest competition frontier now will revolve around smart wearable devices. Already tech giants such Samsung, Xiomi and other industry leaders have made debuts in the market with the launch of wrist-warn gadgets. Another expected big entrant in the space of wearable technology with great functionalities is Apple Inc. though late, the American tech giant’s launch of its smartwatch is expected to spur excitement and stimulate competition in the market of wearable technologies. The watch has been poised to catalyse an increase in demand for smart watches globally and leverage on its strong brand to become a global leader in Smartphone sales. In this paper I will be looking at the political, legal and economic factors that will influence apple’s launch of its smartwatch in the United States of America. Apple has strategically positioned the new smartwatch as both fashion accessory and a tech gadget. Whereas the watch was showed off in October last year during the launch of iPhone, not much information about it has been revealed. Consumers who purchase the Apple smartwatch will be able to read their personal mails, make payments are retailer stores and even monitor their health just on the same gadget. This will be the company’s biggest release since the launch of iPad and is expected to change the game in the smartwatch market. The watch will stimulate an upsurge of consumer awareness and uptake of smart wearable gadgets. Just the mere announcement by Apple of the intended launch has seen competitors respond with self-positioning and repositioning moves. There will be even a higher degree of experimentation when the product goes to sale in Apples retail centres globally; companies and consumers will experiment with factors such as form, functional capabilities and operating systems and hence buyers are likely to have a wide variety of options to choose from (Varadarajan, 2010). Political and Legal Influences. The world of technology has witnessed tremendous evolutions from the mainframes through micro-computers to mobile computing, wearable technologies, fitness and even self-driven cars. With this have come the opportunities for technology to meet politics and these opportunities are on an exponential growth. The desire by Apple and other tech companies to protect their consumers’ data through encryption has seen the intersection between politics and technology move a notch higher. The government through law enforcing agencies want to spy on customers ‘personal data through a backdoor on the grounds of terrorism prevention. For the government, by technology firms ensuring data security on gadgets will mean even the bad people are secure when it comes to data and this will make it extremely difficult for law enforcement. The government of the United States particularly is interested in accessing all communications and this has set it at war with Apple and other companies. The Apple smartwatch will not be an exception considering its features and amount of personal data that can be extracted when it is decrypted by government. Considering that Apple has already advertised that with the kind of encryption on their devices, even the company itself can’t bypass customers’ passcodes. This effectively means it is almost technically infeasible to meet government demands of extracting data from devices running on the IOS. The question of data security will therefore play out at the launch of Apple’s smartwatch considering that consumer are increasingly becoming worried of data breaches, theft of identities and other issues that surround data security. The implication of this is that the company must spend some good amount of lobbying with government regulatory agencies. The launch will also be significantly affected by labor laws, issues of foreign exchange and intellectual property. The company has an uphill task of sustaining its stance when it comes to legislations and regulations as well as well as protection of its consumers. These are indeed troubling waters to navigate for Apple as it launch new technologies and gadgets. The congress for instance can pass laws with direct impact on the operations of technology organisations. For a very long time tech companies have gotten along with limited legal supervision: things are fast changing and this means that firms such as Apple must get involved in political on goings. Politics will therefore have a significant influence at the launch of Apple’s smartwatch. Apple also faces intense competition for major industry players in the market of smartwatches such as Samsung, LG and many others. Samsung particularly has already entered the smartwatch market and therefore Apple will be trying to get a slice of its market share. Social groups supporting Samsung and LG could put a lot of pressure on Apple as its launches its campaign in the smartwatch market space. It should be considered that has in the past been criticised for setting its manufacturing plants of the US despite directly creating a lot of jobs. Apple is accused of poor working conditions such as more than 8 hours of work and subjecting employees six days of work in its manufacturing plants. Competitors and social groups could use such issues to undermine the company’s campaign. Competitors will also mount direct competition in terms of sales and market share in the very exciting smartwatch market. Economic Considerations. With increasingly tough global economy, there is no doubt therefore that issues of economics will roll into play and influence the launch of Apple’s smartwatch. The tech giant must therefore consider the current economic situation in terms of market environment, level of competition and customer preferences. Apple has overtime build a strong brand with fans especially in the high end market but it must do more with the launch of its smartwatch. A good marketing campaign for the new innovation must put into account the target market, pricing relative to consumer pockets and the amount of dollars its consumers are willing to invest in the new device. The company will therefore have to carefully plan internal communications to manage the impact of the launch to existing efforts, incentives for consumer to purchase the watch as well as goals and priorities of the launch. One thing that has come out clearly about the Apple Watch following its launch on the 9th of March is uniqueness. Apple executives said that having to wear the watch will enable consumers to get information and perform tasks that previously needed the grabbing of a Smartphone from their pockets. This means that access information and completing tasks has been made faster and easier as many of the tasks are now on the wrist. The watch also comes with superior features and functionalities as compared to any other watch in the market at the moment. Other than helping wearers keep track of their time, the watch is capable of processing voice commands from the individual and thus enable convenient completion of many tasks. The watch is able to measure and monitor the wearer’s heart rate and therefore customers will have important information regarding their health right on their wrists. Other unique functionalities of the Apple Watch include serving as a credit for making payments at retail stores and alerting wearers of calls & emails as their come in. the watch also supports most apps popular with Smartphones e.g. social networking apps and has an 18 hour battery life (O’Sullivan, 2007). In terms of producing the Apple Watch in a manner that is financially sound, the tech giant has always the strategy of not owning manufacturing facilities. Apple partners with manufacturing companies especially in China to carry out most of its production work. This is because China has a lot of labor and raw materials available cheaply which makes it cheaper to for production work. Secondly the company shifts the costs of setting up and maintaining production facilities to third parties but still manages to create employment in huge numbers in the United States of America. The company is also able to use its own cash through the bank of Apple and advance loan facilities to its production partners making economically sound. The same model has been applied with the production of the Apple Watch with different vendors and suppliers having contracts to manufacture different parts of on behalf of Apple. This makes it financially sound for the company to produce and distribute the watches without straining (Jeong & Phillips, 2001). Apple has successfully established a very strong brand when it comes to tech devices for the high end market. The company has also studied its market in terms of demographics, preferences and purchase drivers hence constantly releases products that further tie its customers to its products. As such therefore Apple has established a niche and managed to develop an intimate relationship with consumers in its niche which is largely high end technology device consumers. Having studied and understand the Samsung smartwatch, Apple has launched its iWatch which is less restricting to customers. A customer does not necessarily need to pair their iWatch with an apple device since the watch is capable of functioning on its own even though there is the option for pairing with other devices to provide added features. As for target market the company is remaining consistent with what is has done in the past by advertising to persons in all age groups. The company will reach the different age groups through a variety of communication media with content tailored to appeal to the different target groups. The young generations will be communicated to by displaying the variety of games coming with the watch in TV commercials, while their messages will be conveyed via radio and print media with description of features such as simplicity, functionalities and compactness. The message for the middle aged will also sell simplicity, functional capacities and compactness of the gadget but mostly on social media. The strategy at Apple when marketing its new and innovative iWatch will therefore follow segmentation and convey different messages tailored for different age generations with their preferences in mind. All customers’ ages are targeted with the Apple Watch but through different communication media with different messages. This is particularly important in the marketing of the product as group psychology plays a very important role in informing consumer behaviours when it comes to preference and ultimately purchase decisions (Lynn, 2011). In conclusion the Apple Watch is the next biggest product launch after the iPad. Despite late entrance into the smartwatch market, the company should not be hindered by tardiness in staging a very successful launch. Competition will be major consideration in the launch since other industry leaders such as Samsung have already entered this particular niche of wearable technology. Politics will also come into play with a significant impact on the on goings. Consumers of Apple products are very concerned about data security and Apple has even advertised as having encrypted their devices in a manner that makes it particularly difficult to decrypt and hence may not meet the government’s requirements of backdoor access to customers’ data. At the same time the US government through the FBI and DOJ is very passionate about collecting customer data in order to facilitate law enforcement and counterterrorism measures. Labor laws should also impact the launch when it comes to health and fitness as well as consumer tracking will also have significant influences. Economics will play the most important role in influencing the campaign for Apple Watch. Affordability and functionality should be commensurate and at the same time considerate of the consumers’ pockets. References. 1. Du, R. Y., Hu, Y. & Damangir, S. (2015). Leveraging Trends in Online Searches for Product Features in Market Response Modeling. Journal of Marketing, 79 (1), 29-43. 2. Jeong, K. & Philips, D. T. (2001). Operational Efficiency and Effectiveness Measurement. International Journals of Operations & Production Management, 21(11), 1404- 1416. 3. Lynn, M. (2011). Segmenting and Targeting Your Market: Strategies and Limitations. In M. C. Sturman, J. B. Corgel, & R. Verma (Eds.), The Cornell School of Hotel Administration on hospitality, 1, 353- 369. 4. O’Sullivan, K. J. (2007). Creating and Executing an Internal Communication Plan for Knowledge Management Systems Deployments. Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(2), 102- 108. 5. Varadarajan, R. (2010). Strategic marketing and marketing strategy: domain, definition, fundamental issues and foundational premises. Journal of the Academic Marketing Science, 38 (10), 119–140. Read More