Apple discontinued ipod
The iPod was one among Apple’s most iconic and successful products. Making up almost 40% of the company’s revenue at its peak, and selling over 400 million units since its release in 2001. So with all this success, why did Apple discontinue the iPod? Well, it decreased to at least one of Steve Job’s core principles. “If you do not cannibalize yourself, somebody else will.” In other words, Apple needed to make the following big thing that might replace the iPod, because if they didn’t, their competition would. And that’s exactly what Apple did with the iPhone. Jobs even advertised iPhone on stage as “A widescreen iPod with touch controls.” And, “the best iPod we’ve ever made.” Those phrases effectively made every iPod model obsolete.
With the iPhone positioned to be its replacement. And slowly, one by one, every iPod was discontinued over an eight year period. The iPod classic in 2014, the shuffle and nano in 2017, and at last, the iPod touch in 2022. While it took almost fifteen years after the iPhone’s introduction, the iPod lineup was eventually cannibalized by iPhone. And if you’re wondering why Apple didn’t attempt to continue selling iPods together with smartphones so as to maximise revenue, you’d must consider something called profit potential. Or the potential for a product to get revenue that ends up in profit. Because at the top of the day, one thousand thousand dollars may sound sort of a lot of cash, but it’s not as impressive if all expenses amounted to $999,999. Leaving only one dollar in profits.
Apple recognized the profit potential of a smartphone was much over an MP3 player, since it offered crucial capabilities that the final population needed. Like communicating with family and friends, taking photos, answering work emails, and browsing the net. These were extremely valuable features that customers would pay more for, especially compared to a tool that simply played music. So it wasn’t a matter of Apple not having the ability to sell iPods alongside iPhone, but a matter of preventing customers from buying iPods rather than iPhones. resulting in more profit than ever before. Just consider that despite the iPod’s sales success, it didn’t spike Apple’s revenue a major amount. It wasn’t until 2007 with the first iPhone that Apple’s profits soared and catapulted them to becoming the richest company within the world by 2016. So while the iPod was an enormous success, it had been best for Apple to discontinue the merchandise. And we’ll likely see the identical phenomenon again when Apple releases the subsequent big thing to switch iPhone.