Steve Jobs and the iPod Marketing Strategy

July 1, 2006 · Filed Under Sci and Tech · 3 Comments 

I bet you must have read about the short life span an ipod has compare with your other Japanese gadgets. My own ipod just gave me the mexican wave goodbye and refuses to boot up after one year. Well, I have to admit that the ipod is the best deign gadget in the world, in term of marketing and technology wise.

What would you do with your dead ipod? Throw it? be a doctor and explore its internal organs? or simple put it aside? Krikville has an interesting article on “What to do with a dead ipod”.

ipod apple nano

Now, according to him, you can convert it into an external hard disk, which is not what it is meant to be in the first place. Steve Jobs the CEO for Apple is a genius, no I am not saying that he design the ipod for dual purpose, what makes him a marketing guru is that he manage to convince the world that ipod has the cool factor, like smoking cigarates, then build a lousy no quality ipod that can only last for a year or two provided you use it everyday. Like cigarates again, what do you do after finish puffing it? You’ll take another bite. Yes, that is what Steve Jobs wants you to do, you will always want the cool factor and when the ipod dies, you’ll get another ipod because you want the cool factor and if you happen to purchase music from itune, ipod is the only player available.

On the other hand, the Japanese build better and inferior products, products that can last for years and years. Products that will withstand almost every accident. These products are not call quality products, its known as Over Engineered products.

Over Engineered products won’t generate any good money for your company, imagine an ipod that last for 10 years, or your car that won’t break down for 20 years. These big companies would go kaput! Remember, Success lies in innovation and survival lies in not building over engineered products.

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