Assignment

Subject: Marketing Management

Q.1 Case study

In October 2017, Apple, Inc. (Apple) entered into a partnership with General
Electric Company (GE) to develop industrial Internet of Things (IoT) apps
that would run on iPads and iPhones. They unveiled a Predix software
development kit (SDK) for iOS. The kit worked on GE’s industrial IoT
platform Predix, which Apple wanted to promote as the industrial IoT
analytics platform of choice to its customers and developers. Developers
were expected to come up with iOS-native Industry 4.0 apps which were
embedded with data analytics insights. The partnership formed part of
Apple’s efforts to make inroads into the industrial IoT space, after it had
made its foray into the commercial IoT and consumer IoT markets.

Apple was incorporated as Apple Computer Inc. on January 3, 1977. The

company was started by Steve Jobs (Jobs), Steve Wozniak, and Ronald
Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer. Following the launch of Apple
II and III, Apple became a significant player in the corporate and business
computing market along with other companies like Microsoft Corp.
(Microsoft) and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

In December 1980, Apple came out with an IPO at US$ 22 a share. In April
1983, Jobs brought in John Sculley (Sculley), formerly a President at the
soft drink giant, PepsiCo, Inc., as the new President of Apple.

The term IoT was framed by Kevin Ashton in 1999. IoT referred to the ever-
growing network of physical objects or things that had an Internet Protocol
(IP) address for internet connectivity, and were capable of gathering and
sharing electronic information. Industry observers stated that till late 2010,
the principal devices accessing the Internet were PCs, laptops, and then
smartphones. Gradually, consumer electronics and industrial devices began
to be connected to the Internet. However, the number of devices in the world
more or less scaled equal to the number of device users.

Apple quickly realized that in the SH space, there was not only a common
protocol missing, but there was also a severe lack of security features in the
various protocols. The company then went about enhancing the security
features of Home Kit in order to gain a distinct competitive advantage in the
SH space. For that, it expanded its MFi (Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad)
licensing program that all Apple compatible products needed to have to
encompass the Home Kit platform.
In 2016, Apple made two sequential releases of the iOS within a few months
of each other. While it launched the iOS 9 in March 2016, the iOS 10 was
previewed in June 2016. Apple’s stringent norms had put off many
manufacturers and developers and as a result there was not a lot of variety
in either the SH devices or apps that worked with Home Kit, even till iOS 10
came into existence. Critics thought that Apple’s push into the SH market
was its softest launch ever into a new technology space.

Despite, having a customer facing solution, Apple failed to make major

inroads into the IoT space. Industry observers pointed out that while Apple
was focusing on making its smartphones i.e. iPhone, the center of control for
SH devices, smart speakers had entered the market. Smart speakers
managed to nudge smartphones aside to emerge as the preferred home
hubs, due to their relative ease of use.

Analysts believed that Apple’s delay in launching the HomePod had helped
other players like Amazon and Google to solidify their position in the smart
speaker market. The apps that worked with voice commands – which
Amazon called ‘skills’ and Google called ‘actions’ – had become another area
where both companies were able to leave Apple behind. Analysts observed
that compared to its rivals, HomePod worked with a highly limited number
of third party apps.

Despite Apple’s focus on security, it found to its dismay that it had not
made HomeKit impervious to malicious attacks. In late 2017, it came to light
that HomeKit had a vulnerability that enabled an attacker to remotely
control IoT devices. The issue prompted Apple to temporarily disable
HomeKit’s shared remote users feature, which was later reactivated after a
security update. However, the issue brought the company negative publicity
about its much hyped security features.

Analysts observed that the US SH market was still small owing to limited
appliance availability, limited value, and the high prices of SH devices.
However, they believed that SH technology was growing fast and an entirely
new spectrum of functional SH devices were being introduced in the market
each day, thereby changing how consumers interacted with their homes.

Questions:

(5 × 4 = 20)

1. What are the issues and challenges in designing and implementing an IoT
Strategy?

2. Identify the opportunities presented by new product development.

3. Examine the customer adoption process of a new technology.

4. Scrutinize the product characteristics that affect the rate of technology

adoption.

5. Recognize the problems in product adoption.