Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Case Study Diffusion of Innovation, Apple, iPod 1/25/12


Diffusion of innovations describes the way consumers adopt a new technology. The presentation I will be giving will discuss the diffusion of innovation, convergence and how these two principles are affecting the economy today. I will be using the Apple company as an example as well as their well-known and diffused product, the iPod. 
Several factors affect the way a product diffuses into today's market place. Some of these include, the market and what barriers to entry are involved and the need for it. Does a new technology make life simple for the user or more difficult? These are all things a company must take into consideration before releasing a new media. The company is constantly trying to capture the client whether they are an innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority or laggard.
Convergence is multiple medias coming together into one media. A common example of this is a smart phone or tablet. Many economists and researchers are interested in finding out how convergences of medias are affecting the market today. Will people continue to buy products? Will there be multiple products for people to buy if they have all converged into one?
Upon doing some research, I argue that yes, there will always be a market for new media. In some cases I believe there will always be a market for some pieces of old media. Old media tends to be the foundational context for a lot of new or converged media products today. People have unlimited wants. It is a basic economic principle. When people have unlimited wants they will constantly be looking forward to the next new thing. For example, I have come across friends that refuse to buy the iPad 2 because they know the iPad 3 is just around the corner. There is nothing wrong with the latter but in a few months it will not be the biggest or the brightest.   

1 comment:

The Ranch said...

After giving my presentation today and participating in class discussion I have a new sense of clarity pertaining to the question posed this week. My belief is that new media convergence influences new media markets by constantly pushing them to change. The market cannot stay stagnant because convergence means that it will need to be frequently changing to keep up with the change and competitors. I also thought the point classmates raised about the generations of today having different influences on the future of technology convergence was also very interesting. I tend to agree with the point raised that the age of children getting convergent technologies will become earlier and earlier and eventually the need for technologies that only do one thing will become obsolete.