Product Life Cycle for Iphone 6
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Product Life Cycle for Iphone 6 The Iphone 6 was built from the ground up starting with a generic idea that grew into something that not even Steve Jobs would have predicted. The product life cycle of almost every consumer item can be categorized within the same general format. It starts at the drawing board thinking of an idea, researching it, and then developing it. Next the steps of advertising the possible products to get the hype up of the general population. Judging by how much the product was liked the company then determines how much of the product to make, how the product will be packaged, and how it will be distributed to the consumer population. This leads to the main purpose of the product besides making profit, how the consumer will use it. This step is usually thought of during the research phase, but implemented after the distribution phase. The final step of the cycle is the most overlooked. It is the final disposition of the device and is usually ignored by most consumers. This is debatably the most important step in the cycle because this determines how the product’s waste is either reused or left to rot. The best option is to reuse or recycle every part and or material possible. Every product is born in a stroke of genius that happens in a split second, or in months or years of deliberation and well thought out planning, or maybe something in between. The Iphone was created by a research team that code-named the project Project Purple 2. The entire idea for the Iphone started back in the 1980’s with sketches and ideas coming together. It was not until 2005 that the specific Purple 2 or Iphone project was born. The original sketches were made detailing a glass screen with a multi-touch display capability. Although purely ideas then they achieved their goals and them some looking back on the entire operation. Apple has been a fierce competitor in the smartphone market and has helped pave the way for many other popular phones used throughout the world today. A fundamental component in Apple’s success over the years has been the way they market their products. Apple uses simple yet elegant commercials displaying the design and functionality of the iphone. They target a wide range of consumers from businessmen to children with the phones multitude of functions. Apple has spent $42 million on iPhone 6 advertising which just shows how confident they are in their products. So far they have sold 183 million phones and that number is still rising. In order to sell so many iPhone 6’s, Apple had to have a massive overhaul in manufacturing. They essentially needed a faster, more efficient process in order to produce the quantity of phones demanded by the consumer market. Apple’s manufacturing company, Hon Hai, deployed an army of 10,000 assembly-line robots that helped speed up the process. This was the first time robots were used on the assembly-line for Apple’s iphones but they still needed more help. Foxconn (another one of Apple’s manufacturing companies) had to employ an additional 100,000 workers in China to the 1.2 million workers they already had to work alongside the robots. Because of the additional manufacturing facilities, Apple wanted to reduce their carbon footprint so they used solar energy to power some of the plants used in production. Without these improvements there is no way Apple would be able to turn out so many phones and continue to stay ahead of the competition. Apple has been making a strong effort to reduce their environmental impact by sourcing paper responsibly and using it as efficiently as possible. Currently, over 99 percent of the paper used in their packaging is recycled or sustainable. Some ways they are improving their efficiency is by reducing the size of their packaging, creating technologies that use paper more efficiently, and using recycled paper whenever they can. The retail packaging for the iphone 6s is 20 percent lighter and consumes 34 percent less volume than the packaging for the first-generation iphone. Last year in effort to protect and create sustainable forests they partnered with The Conservation Fund. Together they have protected 36,000 acres of forests and responsibly harvested 13,000 metric tons of wood. Their goal is to transition up to one million acres of forest by 2020 and eventually protect and create enough responsibly managed forests to cover all of their packaging needs. This is what every company waits for when a product is finally coming together and is ready to be sold. This is the sales that come after all of the hard work. Steve Jobs projected that the first Iphone would produce around $10 million of sales. Moving forward past multiple models of the Iphone this leads to the latest Iphone that has been released and sold, the Iphone 6. After only about one year of being on the market it sold around 13 million phones. With the average price of a phone being $561 and 13 million of them being sold, simple multiplication allows a calculation of around $7.3 Billion of sales for just one year after its release date. Of course how do all of these phones come to the consumer is a question that rings in the mind of every distribution manager's mind. Apple charters freight planes and ships their products all over the world. The Iphone 6 was shipped to the U.S.A., U.K., Australia, China, Japan, and many more countries around the world. After the planes landed the phones were then shipped by truck to distribution hubs that then shipped out the specific number of phones needed to each and every store that wanted the hot new item. The Iphone is such an iconic device Apple needed to be able to keep this reputation all while providing a brand new phone to the consumer population. They decided to release the Iphone 6 with a few new specifications such as the normal larger screen, better screen quality, and better camera, but they also added a few new distinct features. The phone was beginning to thin and flatten around all of the edges as well. This means that the old box-like design of the past Iphones was just that, in the past. This sleek new design fit much better in the consumer’s hand. They solved the dreaded smartphone battery dilemma by increasing the battery’s capacity as well as they improved the keyboard’s functionality. The biggest improvement of them all came with the boosted processor which allows for all around faster use of the phone. Every time a new Iphone comes out consumers rave about the possible new technology and design that will follow all of Apple’s other revolutionary products. That is why this is debatable the second most important step besides final disposition. Without the consumer’s love for this product it would never have made it to the Iphone 7 and still counting. All of these improvements that were made were to improve how consumers view and use Iphones and more specifically the Iphone 6. The newly keyed word E-waste is a large factor in the life-cycle of any product in modern years. The final disposition of a product can sometimes determine how liked the company is, and it is crucial to the company to ensure that the consumers are happy with the product even before it enters their house. Apple has an entire website dedicated to how they treat their E-waste and what the consumer can do to make sure their used Iphones do not make it into a landfill. They offer E-waste drop-offs in-store for their products. This works at almost any Apple store and more specifications about what store takes what is listed on their website. For anyone who lives a large distance from an Apple store or simply does not want to have to make a special trip to dispose of their Iphone, Apple offers a pre-paid mail in opportunity. During this step Apple allows its consumers to request a free E-waste disposal package. They can simply put their used, broken, or out of relevance iphone in the package, seal it, and mail it back to Apple. They do the rest. So now after taking an in depth look at the life cycle of an iPhone we are able to appreciate all of the work that goes into this product. It took a lot of effort researching and developing the phone. Then Apple had to advertise it in a way that made the consumer want to buy it. With so many consumers desiring the iPhone there had to be a faster and more efficient way of manufacturing it as well as a way to dispose of the phone when it has reached the end of its product lifecycle. Every cycle in this process is crucial in order for Apple’s success as a producer. Not only do they make beautiful phones but they wouldn’t be where they are today without their ability to create a seamless lifecycle for their products. Works Cited http://mobile-review.com/articles/2010/iphone-history3-en.shtml https://financesonline.com/how-iphone-is-made/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2014/03/25/without-much-fanfare-apple- has-sold-its-500-millionth-iphone/#178425bf5a52 http://bgr.com/2014/07/10/apple-iphone-6-production/ http://www.apple.com/environment/ .