Apple Marketing Essays - Steve Jobs, Personal Computers,

Apple Marketing In fulfillment of the periodical paper assignment, I have chosen a recent story concerning Apple Computer Inc. as the topic for the first paper. Summary of Situation: After setting off a storm of consumer complaints earlier this week, Apple Computer Inc tried to make amends Friday by reversing a retroactive price increase for a small number of customers who had pre-ordered its new top-of-the-line G4 PowerMacs. Earlier this week, Apple said it was unable to offer the G4 PowerMac model equipped with a 500-megahertz processor until early next year because of supply constraints at its main chipmaker, Motorola Inc. Apple then ratcheted up the price on the 350, 400, and 450 MHz models that it could supply, trying to offset the lost potential revenues that the 500 MHz G4 would provide. Ethical Implications: I believe that Apple might have broke even concerning this ordeal; however, let's examine the specifics of both sides of what transpired here: When the company determined that the supply of 500 MHz chips was not going to meet the demand requested, they reconfigured its G4 family of desktop computers, offering systems with processors running at 350, 400 or 450 MHz -- but at higher prices -- instead of the original 400, 450 or 500 MHz machines. After the company received numerous complaints from customers, both loyal Apple supporters, and potential new customers, the company retracted its new restructuring, allowing the original pricing and megahertz versions to stay. Apple may have lost the faith of even some extreme supporters. Bill Bryant, who runs a health-care consulting business in Dallas, said he has been a Macintosh loyalist for 20 years. "...I'm thinking of buying a Dell or something. Some people are saying it's time to go to the dark side," he added, referring to PCs running on Microsoft's Windows operating system and processors. On the other hand, at least this was nothing close to the Intel fiasco of the early Nineties. I feel Apple handled this situation much more smoothly; it decided much faster that it could not incur a loss back onto customers. How the Situation Should Have Been Handled: I feel the company made the right ethical decision, despite the fact that this situation should not have happened at all. I think the decision to restructure the G4 line around the lack of the 500 MHz chip, and the corresponding price increase of available models was a very bad business decision, and possibly unethical. The reversal, and reinstatement of original pricing schemes was the ethical decision to make. After realizing the shortage of the 500 MHz chip, keeping everything intact as far as pricing goes would have been the best decision for Apple. Of course, it would have to announce the shortage of 500 MHz model G4, but jacking up the price for the other lines does not make much ethical or business sense at all. In fact, maybe Apple could drop the price on the 500 MHz G4, as a courtesy for the delay in the product. Perhaps this type of strategy wouldn't be best for the bottom dollar at the company, but the publicity and word-of-mouth support for the company would foster trust, confidence, and growth, which, by their very definition, will lead to increased revenues.

Javier Crespo Essays - Physical Attractiveness, Behavior

Javier Crespo Essays - Physical Attractiveness, Behavior Javier Crespo Professor Cronk 10 December 2016 Final Paper Which Facial Features are Attractive For the experiment I chose to partake in, Julia Carlota Batres and Professor David I. Perrett from the University of St. Andrews put me through several stages of questions, followed by hands-on editing of the human face in an effort to decipher which facial features I, or anyone involved in the study found more attractive. The test took no more than 15 minutes, with relatively easy questions surrounding the main experiment, which I was very anxious to try attempt. At first, I answered a few simple questions regarding my information. Some questions were oddly specific (I was asked if I was in a relationship, sexual preference, my race, etc.), so I wondered if this by any chance changed the way I was questioned. I was then asked to put a number, 1 through 5; 1 meaning not at all and 5 being frequently: how often have I felt a specific emotion in the past couple of weeks. Emotions such as excited, scared, happy, lazy, and fearful were among the emotions listed. As I filled out the qu estionnaire, I couldn't help but wonder why a study based on facial preference was asking me questions based on my feelings; but I continued on. The next part of the test was the fun part. I was asked to perform the task of editing the faces of 20 different women until I thought they were most attractive. As I slid the mouse from left to right, the anonymous woman's face would distort. Scroll to the left and the woman's face cleared up of any skin condition, her neck was much skinnier and any slight eye bags would disappear. Slide it back to the right and the woman would age drastically, with heavy eye bags and more masculine facial structures such as a protruding supraorbital ridge, broader shoulders, and more defined trapezius muscles. I scrolled and clicked through the 20 different transforming images assuming I was done; not quite yet. The final part of the test consisted of 30 words with missing letters (ex. R_D_O), and I was tasked to complete the first word that came to mind that successfully filled in the blanks. Again, I was rather confused by the questions at hand. Upon searching up the names of Batres and Prof. Perrett, I came across an article published by Perrett describing the findings of this experiment. The article, published by the journal Ethology, is a comprehensive article describing patterns and discrepancies based on the results of those who voluntarily took the test online and studies on students at an army training camp. It very quickly started to make sense why I was asked personal questions regarding my information and recent emotions. It wasn't very difficult to understand that the personal questions were intended to compare and contrast people with similar answers. For example, I was instantly paired with heterosexual males, and I was then grouped with people who were feeling similar emotions as I was to find connections between emotion, environment, and the influence one's surroundings has on facial preference. This study was ultimately trying to prove that personal preference varies based on surroundings. This theory, h owever, is a major debate with many different theories on what truly influences facial preferences. Does evolutionary preference lose influence with societal standards? Are societal standards too vague of a subject to have such direct influence on facial preference? Through their study, Batres and Perrett have theorized that this question has more to do with immediate environmental and emotional conditions. The results proved that although environmental and emotional conditions do in fact influence facial preference, it was also evident the evolutionary preferences were prominent in selecting facial preferences under stress. This ended up narrowing down societal influence to a much more exact reason. At the culmination of the study, Professor Perrett and Batres came to the conclusion that the students at the training camp preferred more feminine faces for males, hinting that even before the training, students were inclined to pick more trustworthy features (feminine features) for men. An even more precise result was that males in harsher environments showed tendencies of choosing faces that appeared to

Scholarship Appeal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Scholarship Appeal - Essay Example I eventually found the load to be highly demanding; as such, I withdrew from the class to avoid generating a low grade. Regardless of the course withdrawal, the challenging academic requirements caused my inability to meet the GPA requirements of my scholarship. I am hereby appealing to the committee to re-consider sustaining my scholarship with the firm commitment that I would work fervently to meet and maintain the required GPA. I am hereby providing the details: Other confounding events and circumstances apparently rationalized my inability to meet the GPA requirement. One of the main reasons that I attended the University of Louisville was because it was in close proximity to where my parents lived. My parents understood that I was going to College at a younger age than all my peers and they believed that I still needed a support system at least for my first full year at the University. However, because of great job opportunities in Texas for my parents, they decided that since I obtained a good GPA during my first semester, I was stable enough to be left in another state by myself. I got a job as a hostess at Griff’s restaurant to augment the financial resources I had to support living alone and studying, at the same time. With the time allocated for work, there was evidently lesser time allotted for studying and going to REACH sessions. As soon as I started to see my grades suffer detrimentally, I decided to stop the job. I gradually improved over time with my test grades but the first two test scores were way too low for me to eventually make at least a B in the class. As such, the significantly low test scores evidently caused my GPA to drop. Transportation was also a big issue for me because my parents used to accommodate my transportation requirements. With their relocation, I had no way of attending deaf events for my ASL class. ASL students were required to attend 10 hours of deaf events but I was only able to attain 4

Understanding the Behaviour of Organisations in their Market Essay

Understanding the Behaviour of Organisations in their Market Environment - Essay Example In general, there are four basic types of market structure, namely perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly. Perfect Competition: Perfect competition is a situation when numerous firms are competing in the market (Machovec, 2002). For example, FMCG and FMCD sectors are perfectly competitive ones. The biggest advantage of a perfectly competitive market is that firms produce optimal output levels at a low cost. However, the biggest disadvantage is that companies earn minimal profit and there are no economies of scale. Monopoly: A monopoly is a market situation where only firm is operating and there are no competitors (Lele, 2006). For example, the local water electricity service providers are often considered to be operating in a monopoly market. The advantages of monopoly are no risk of overproduction, efficient use of resources, price leader, focuses on the production of a particular product or service. The labour cost is also low. On the other hand, the disadvantages of a monopoly market are that the company can exploit customers by charging more or offering low quality products. There is huge restriction in choice of customers resulting in a low buyer power. Furthermore, the absence of competition often leads to inefficiency and lower productivity. Monopolistic Competition: A monopolistic competition in an industry is characterised by the presence of several competitors, but their offerings differ (Solow, 1998). The restaurant industry is the best example of monopolistic competition. One of th e biggest advantages of monopolistic competition is that it promotes competition which, in turn, greatly helps in enhancing the efficiency and productivity of the industry. From the point of view of consumers, it offers them greater choice and variety. Moreover, customers get quality products and services and turn out to be more knowledgeable about the product features. Technological innovation and research and development are highly visible. The disadvantages of monopolistic competition are that it leads to higher price. Oligopoly: An oligopoly market is characterised by the presence of only a few firms (Tucker, 2008). For example, gas service providers are considered to be operating in the oligopoly market. The biggest advantage is that prices remain fixed and competition is high resulting in a higher efficiency. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that there are less research and development works and less innovation. Figure 1 – Market Structure PESTLE and Cultural Envi ronment The external business environment in which an organisation operates plays a significant role. Before formulating a business plan or formulating a strategy for business, organisations carry out in-depth analysis of the business environment. The external business environment includes the political, legal, social, technological, environmental, demographic, economical and cultural factors. Nowadays, business houses operate in a changing business environment and as a result, they are required to offer products and services that match with the needs of customers. According to Taloo (2007), there are no businesses in the world that can survive without having any interaction with the external business environment. The factors of the external business environment have a strong influence on the business operations and therefore, businesses need to be aware of the external environment. For example, a change in the economic environment of a country can strongly impact the sales of a com pany. Therefore, organisations are

Market of alcoholic and non alcoholic products Research Paper

Market of alcoholic and non alcoholic products - Research Paper Example Hence products with low sugar carbonated beverages and health drinks will help the industry to witness quick survival.In order to survive in this marketplace, Pepsi must consider the recent market trends that will shape the performance in the forthcoming years. The marketing mix of Pepsi is described below:-Product: The products of Pepsi contain all the similar ingredients that are also found in other soft drinks. It includes carbonated water, caffeine, phosphoric acid and other required elements. The major brands of Pepsi are Mirinda, Mountain dew, Slice, Pepsi Max, Pepsi etc. All the mentioned products are available in different quantities. Price: Pepsi prices its product according to the price of the competition. In other words, the company undertakes competitive pricing. The company is also very flexible in case of their pricing. It can readily decrease the price when needed. Though price lowering helps the company to attract customers but covering up the cost of production will take time. Place: Pepsi has a worldwide presence. In order to enter a new country, it either merges with a company or looks for a partner. The company mainly distributes by retailing. It has distributors appointed at various places for distribution purposes. Promotion: The Company mainly promotes its product through television advertisement. Nowadays Pepsi has appointed brand ambassadors in many countries in order to connect with the target audience with ease. However, the company mostly promotes by sponsoring cricketing events.

Designing a Plant Cell Model

Designing a Plant Cell Model Advanced Biology Cell Project   Ã‚   Cell Wall The cell, a complex yet basic part of our existence. Unlike humans, one of the most important parts of a cell for a plant cell is the cell wall. The cell wall gives the plant shape, strength, and enables communication to adjacent cells. This essential portion of the cell was initially found by Robert Hooke, though he named it simply wall. Other scientists, such as Karl Rudolphi and J.H.F Link, added to Hookes finding. What they found was that cells had their own individual walls, and that cells interacted through holes, later named the plasmodesmata. Before this discovery, it was thought that cell walls encircled large masses of cells, and that was the way that cells interacted. There are many different arrangements for cell walls, and certain parts (such as the secondary cell wall) do not show up in different types of cells. The most basic cell wall consists of two main layers, with the plasma membrane directly beneath it. The first layer is known as the Middle Lamella. This is the outermost layer of the cell wall. This layer mainly consists of a large amount of pectins, along with many other parts. The middle lamella is responsible for gluing the walls of two adjacent cells together, providing the stability to create plasmodesmata between the cells. The primary cell wall is mainly made up of cellulose microfibrils, which are what provide the structure and shape of the cell wall. This layer is also made up of little bits of hemicellulose, which is a polysaccharide responsible for adding extra strength to the cellulose microfibrils. If you happen to have a cell that does have a secondary cell wall, it is there to add extra rigidity and strength, so the cell likely would belong to a larger plant. This layer is primarily cellulose, lignin, glycoproteins, and polysaccharides. This layer also has three other layers (S1, S2, and S3). These layers each have more cellulose microfibrils that alternate in directions. These parts of the secondary cell wall are what allows trees to exist. As wood cell walls mainly consist of secondary cell walls, which provide the structure that they need to stand up against gravity. Cell walls are formed in an odd way. The middle lamella is laid down first, which originates from the cell plate during cytokinesis. In other words, the middle lamella is formed while the cell is splitting off from the mother cell, after the nucleus has split into two. The primary cell wall is then inserted into the middle lamella. The cellulose microfibrils, located in the primary cell wall, are created in the plasma membrane by a process known as cellulose synthase complex. This process is not fully understood, but it is thought that all cellulose-synthesizing organisms have cellulose synthase proteins, which are catalysts for the polymerization of glucan chains. This essentially all boils down to the cellulose synthase proteins kick starting the reaction that allows for the glucan chains to become cellulose. The way that I have designed my model of the cell wall, is I have spent about 5 hours going through iteration upon iteration in CAD. When I finally decided on a simplistic, yet fully informational model, I exported all the 3D models as an STL (or stereolithography file), which is a dot-matrix of the solid. My slicer software (Cura 15.04.6) then took the file, and turned it into a series of coordinates, and other commands (such as the temperature to heat up the print nozzle/bed the print speed extrusion rate). This file I then exported this file to my SD card as a .gcode file, which my 3D printer is able to understand. The SD card was then plugged into the printer, and printed. Overall, I exported 3 different .gcode files (one for the cellulose, and two others for the middle lamella and plasma membrane) as they all wouldnt fit on the build plate as a single print. All three prints took me about 4 hours combined of print time. The way that I designed my main plant cell model was similar to this, but also very different. The first thing that I had to come up with was my wiring diagram, which consisted of me figuring out what value of resistor I needed to not let the 9v battery blow out my LEDs (every color of LED requires a different value of resistor), and how I would wire everything. I then had to design the cell in CAD. The wiring diagram probably took me about an hour, as I was trying to lay everything out the most efficient way possible on a mockup of my proto-board (done in circuit design software). I then spent about 10 hours total designing each individual part in CAD (I also ordered all the parts and got them 2 day shipped). Once all the parts arrived, I was just finishing up with the CAD, so I started the prints on the parts (the base board alone took 3 hours as I set it to a higher infill (50% instead of 10%) as I wanted it to be more substantial, and sturdy. The other parts took about 4 and a ha lf more hours to print (I printed excess of the organelles in case one broke while drilling). Bibliography Cell Wall. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Feb. 2017. Web. 19 Feb. 2017. Cell Wall. Cell Wall Biology-Online Dictionary. Web. 19 Feb. 2017. Cellulose Synthase (UDP-forming). Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Feb. 2017. Web. 19 Feb. 2017. Cytokinesis. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Feb. 2017. Web. 19 Feb. 2017. Li, Shundai, Logan Bashline, Lei Lei, and Ying Gu. Cellulose Synthesis and Its Regulation. The Arabidopsis Book / American Society of Plant Biologists. American Society of Plant Biologists, 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2017.

Problems with The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb Essay -- Geopolitic

The world changed June 6, 1945 when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and then again, Aug 9, 1945 on Nagasaki. The actions by the United States evoked a cataclysmic spiral in the morals and methods of how warfare is carried out. Officials within the United States government through both memorandums and meeting voiced their concerns with the use of nuclear technology. They worked tirelessly to persuade President Truman that the atomic bomb was a weapon of destruction far beyond the span of normal warfare. Truman and Japan were looking toward peaceful resolutions under their own separate terms, but each struggled with the definition of â€Å"unconditional surrender†. The decision to drop the bomb was faulty and skewed judgment on the part of President Truman, which cost the lives of innocent civilians in Japan. The recourse in not dropping the atomic bomb was made available to President Truman and the leaders of America; unfortunately no one can go back and disentangle what was done that day in Japan. Even after the first bomb was dropped, U.S. Army Chief Staff General Marshal met at the White House on June 18, 1945, with President Truman and brought to light three alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb; â€Å"1) destruction already route by air bombardment and sea blockade, coupled by 2) a landing on Japan indicating the firmness of our resolution, perhaps coupled with 3) the entry of threat entry of Russia into the war.† General Marshal also stated that the entrance of Russia into the war might be just the leverage needed to bring the Japanese to terms of surrender, rather than the use of the bomb. This memo displayed that President Truman had alternatives to consider, but yet decided to go against the ideas that ... ...mmanding General’s File, 24 Tab D ,Document (a). Henry Stimson, Memorandum discussed with the President, April 25, 1945, Henry Stimson Diary, Manuscripts and Archives, Henry Lewis Stimson Papers, Yale University, (New Haven, CT.), Document(b). Joint Chief of Staff, "Minutes of Meeting Held at the White House†, 18 June 1945†, RG 77, MED Records, H-B files, folder no. 76, Document 20. President Harry Truman, Truman's Potsdam Diary, Barton J. Bernstein, "Truman At Potsdam: His Secret Diary," Foreign Service Journal, July/August 1980, Document 38. Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, Diary Entry, April 25, 1945, Henry Stimson Diary, Sterling Library, Yale University, Document (d). Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, Diary Entry, July 24, 1945, "Japanese Peace Feelers", Naval Historical Center, Operational Archives, James Forrestal Diaries, Document 23.