Amazing iPods

I have also written an analysis paper on The Tipping Point that I did Wednesday, February 1, 2006, which I have chosen as my revision piece. The assignment was to think of something that recently tipped using the lens of The Tipping Point theory, and discuss whether it supports or denies it. This is by far not the best paper that I’ve ever written. My first major problem was that I couldn’t fully understand the assignment. Because of that, I couldn’t organize my thoughts correctly. I have good ideas and have a lot to say, but my thoughts are kind of all over the place and don’t really seem to connect well. To fix this, I would read the prompt as many times as it will take me to understand it. If I won’t completely understand it, I would to ask a friend or a teacher to help me. One of my other weaknesses in this paper is my thesis: “The Tipping Point focused a lot on best ways to advertise, make your product more attractive, and iPod has used a lot of those suggestions.” It is not a strong, clear thesis. To improve it, I would add clarity and tension. One of the things that I did well on this assignment is that I supported my statements with statistics. “Apple said in 2003 it sold about 1.79 iPods a minute. In the fourth quarter of the 2005, the holiday season, 14 million iPods were sold and which helped Apple earn $5.7 billion.” Having information like this often helps to more strongly support my case.

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Amazing iPods
“I want an iPod, I need an iPod, and I have to have an iPod! Everyone has an iPod, why can’t I???? I’m not much different from them and I see no reason why you can’t get one for me.” That’s what I heard when I opened my bedroom window to get some fresh air. The neighbor’s son was arguing with his dad so loud that I could clearly hear him in my room. I would have to agree that a lot of people have iPods these days. In the first 20 days when iPod first came out, one million were sold. Apple said in 2003 it sold about 1.79 iPods a minute. In the fourth quarter of the 2005, the holiday season, 14 million iPods were sold and which helped Apple earn $5.7 billion. IPod has many awesome new features that are extremely attractive to the younger generation, which also relates to The Tipping Point a great deal. The Tipping Point focused a lot on best ways to advertise, make your product more attractive, and iPod has used a lot of those suggestions.

So, what makes everyone want these iPods? IPod is a very eye-catching item. Using your iPod you can watch video podcasts, music videos and your favorite TV shows. You can also consult your calendar or look up an email address, phone number, set up alarm clocks and timers. 30GB and 60GB models can hold up to 15,000 songs, 25,000 photos, and full-color album art. IPods support for up to 150 hours of video when battery fully charged, with a 2.5-inch color display. ITunes also provides over two million songs, 25,000 podcasts, 2,000 music videos, as well as ABC and Disney television shows. All those can be downloaded then to Mac or PC and then to transferred to the iPod. Using an additional audio cable, music from the iPod can be played on the home stereo. The Tipping Point gave suggestions on how to make your item more attractive, more popular and iPod has used those suggestions to make their own product popular. Indeed, they did succeed!

How did this amazing iPod got to be so popular so fast? Would it be equally popular if it had terrible advertisements? It would still be a great product, just not such good advertising. The stickiness of their advertisements plays a big role, which is one of the things that made it tip. The stickiness factor is how memorable, how catchy their ads and products are. They had informative and memorable ads. Such as “iPod nano looks great, feels great and works great!” The law of the few played a very big role to help them tip as well. Many wanted to have an iPod to show it off to their friends. They want to be the first ones to have the newest products. Many people sacrificed their own personal things just to have an iPod. I have known kids that weren’t eating lunches because they were saving up for an iPod. There were garage sales where the money they would make would go toward an iPod of their choice. Some people always want to be the first ones to have the newest product. Some others hear their friends talking about the iPod and love it so much that they go out and buy their own iPod. The more the iPods were becoming popular the more people wanted them. This is where the law of the few played its role.
...In a given process or system some people matter more than others. This is not, on the face of it, a particularly radical notion. Economists often talk about the 80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the “work” will be done by 20 percent of criminals commit 80 percent of crimes. Twenty percent of motorists cause 80 percent of crimes. Twenty percent of beer drinkers drink 80 percent of all beer. When it comes to epidemics, though, this disproportional becomes even more extreme; a tiny percentage of people do the majority of the work. (Gladwell, 19)
There were a lot of people that have iPods, but not all those people like to talk about them. Some just want to be in their own world and listen to their music. Fewer people are brave enough to announce to everyone about their awesome iPod, which is the 80/20 principle.

The people that had the iPods, often times were the ones that knew more about it than those that didn’t have one. Those people were the mavens in this case. People that had the iPods loved to talk about them because it was something they already had. They didn’t have to dream of that tiny 4.1 x 2.4 with a 2.5 inch screen, it was already in their hands! Weak ties was another small contributor that helped the iPod tip. People that barely knew each other were talking about the newest iPod that the other person already had. Talking about how much they enjoyed them made other people really want to have one of their own. School is one of the most common places to see iPods and many kids wanted to be like the cool people and have an iPod to show off as well. The Tipping Point gave another example of teenagers wanting to be cool.
... You come up with an almost perfect definition of the kind of person many adolescents are drawn to. Maggie the au pair, and Pam P. on the school bus and Billy G. with his Grateful Dead records were all deeply cool people. But they weren’t cool because they smoked. They smoked because they were cool. The very same character traits of rebelliousness and impulsivity and risk taking and indifference to the opinion of others and precocity that made them so compelling to their adolescent peers also make it almost inevitable that they would also be drawn to the ultimate expression of adolescent rebellion, risk taking, impulsivity, indifference to others... (Gladwell, 232)
Some teenagers had the same reason to buy an iPod as others had to smoke. Teenagers weren’t cool because they had an iPod, but they had it because they were cool. They want to keep up with everyone else and keep their “cool”.

IPod popularity had a connection with The Tipping Point. Apple used a lot of those strategies that were talked about in the book to make iPods as popular as possible. First of all, they made them as thin and as lightweight as possible. They also added a lot of the little things, such as various colors, games, pictures, alarm clock, timer, phone/email book, and skip protection. Successfully, stickiness factor and the law of the few were used to advertise the iPod. They had an audience they were targeting, mostly teenagers. They achieved their goal! The younger generation owns more iPods than any other age group.

(http://www.anders.com/cms/130/Video.iPod/Apple/Sales)
(Www.macminute.com/2003)