Gemini Electronics Essay

1. What was the business model of Gemini? The business model was to produce TV’s on a just-in-time basis to pass on most of the distribution savings to the consumers. He planned to cater to the big box retailers such as Best Buy and Walmart to name a few, who wanted to cut down their supply chains by sourcing TV’s in North America. By shortening the supply chain you increase reliability making it easier to address uncertainties as well as building lean production to eliminate waste to reduce production time and cost. a. What were the key success factors that determined its past profitability? The key factors that determined its profitability was the reputation for having excellent quality at affordable prices below the competition. b. What are the risks Gemini is facing now? The risk Gemini is facing now is the recessions, the Korean and Japanese competitors lowering their prices, technological trends emerging such as the 3D TVs and video phone capabilities, and difficu lty trying to convince major retailers to carry their product. In order for those products to be carried, retailers pressed for more generous credit terms and no interest on overdue accounts. 2. What is your assessment of the company’s recent performance and current position in the marketplace? Gemini has been grown and holds the U.S. market share at 35% proven itself to be a strong contender in this industry. Through the years 2005-2008 net income increase substantially which could mean that there was sales growth and improved or reduced cost in operating efficiency. With a continuing increase in net income, there are potential opportunities for stock price and market cap increases. This will in turn make Gemini a favorable company for potential investors. In 2009 the net income decrease but that could have been due to the recession occurring in that time frame. Consumers probably didn’t have the money to splurge on TV’s and electronics. There was also the threat of the Sony 3D television and video phone capabilities. Maybe the consumers were more attracted to what was new and trending at that time. 3. Does Gemini need to establish operations outside the U.S. or can it  survive as a domestic company? It doesn’t need to because at this moment the company is very profitable domestically. That would definitely be something to consider in the future after first branding its products as â€Å"made in the USA†. I also agree with Wang in strategically planning to develop Gemini’s product line to be able to complete internally with competitors such as Sony and LG. a. What operational issues is Gemini likely to face if it expends internationally? Issues Gemini could face would be the existing competition, regulations, financial risk such as the exchange rate between currencies could lead to disappointing return on investments. There may be issues with accessibility to supplies needed when dealing with tariffs and fees to ship products in. 4. What is your assessment of Gemini and what strategies do you recommend Gemini to follow. My assessment of Gemini is that the company is operating in a capacity to where, it can generate revenue, cut operational and distributional cost, and still offer savings to consumers without decreasing the price of the units sold or quantity for certain products indicating that the company is continually growing despite the 2009 occurrences. I recommend that they rebrand themselves as a â€Å"made in USA† product and continue to become innovative and technology savvy to develop their product line in order to compete with other big name competitors.

Reading of the modernists involved such a process of disturbance Essay

‘Modernist writers disturbed their readers by adopting complex and difficult new forms and styles’. To what extent has your reading of the modernists involved such a process of disturbance? Modernist literature flaunts difficult, often aggressive or disruptive, forms and styles; it frequently challenges traditional ‘realistic’ style and is characterised by a rejection of 19th century traditions. Literary modernism focuses on breaking away from rules and conventions, searching for new perspectives and points of view, experimenting in form and style. It breaks up and disturbs the settled state of literature and emphasises a re-structuring of literature and the experience of reality it represents. Although art always attempts to ‘imitate’ or represent reality, what changed was the understanding of what constitutes reality, and how that reality could best be represented. Modernist literature is marked by a break with the sequential, developmental, cause-and-effect presentation of the ‘reality’ of realist fiction, towards a presentation of experience as layered, allusive, and discontinuous: using, to these ends, fragmentation and juxtaposition, motif, symbol, allusion. From time to time there occurs some revolution, or sudden mutation of form and content in literature. Then, some way of writing which has been practiced for a generation or more, is found by a few people to be out of date, and no longer to respond to contemporary modes of thought, feeling and speech†¦tradition has been flouted, and chaos has come.1 This process of disturbance can be seen in the experimentation in form in order to present differently the structure, the connections, and the experience of life. The tightening of form puts an emphasis on cohesion, interrelatedness and depth in the structure of the novel. This is accomplished in part through the use of various devices such as symbolism, narrative perspectives, shifts and overlays in time and place and perspective. Woolf uses these methods to explore what lies outside the specification of the real. Woolf draws on an interior and symbolic landscape: the world is moved ‘inside’, structured symbolically and metaphorically, as opposed to the realist representations of the exterior world as a physical and historical, site of experience. The painter Jacques Raverat wrote in a correspondence to Woolf: The problem with writing is that it is essentially linear; it is almost impossible, in a sequential narrative, to express the way one’s mind responds to an idea, a word or an experience, where, like a pebble being thrown in to a pond, splashes in the outer air are accompanied under the surface by waves that follow one another into dark and forgotten corners2 Woolf felt it was precisely the task of the writer to go beyond a linear representation of reality in order to show how people think and dream. Rather than take her characters from point A to point B, Woolf gives the impression of simultaneous connections: a form patterned like waves in a pond. She reveals what is important about her characters by exploring their minds and the thoughts of those surrounding them. Such explorations lead to complex connections between people, between past and present, and between interior and exterior experience. Woolf establishes these connections through metaphors and imagery, and structures the novel using alternating images of beauty and despair, exhilaration and melancholy. These juxtapositions suggest both the impulse towards life and the impulse towards death, which makes the process of reading disconcerting and recondite. Woolf dispensed with conventional beginnings and endings, and the traditional structure of events in time, for example, Mrs Dalloway tells about one day’s experiences for two characters whose lives are not connected with each other, except by the slightest coincidence at the end. Woolf uses perceived time interwoven with clock time to create a simultaneous experience of past and present. The scene is London after the war, but also Bourton thirty years ago. In this commingling of time, the past exists on its own and in its relations to the present. Time is moved into the interior as well: it becomes psychological time, time as an innerly experienced or symbolic time, or time as it accommodates a symbolic rather than a chronological reality. Examining the intersection of time and timelessness, Woolf creates a new and disturbing novelistic structure in Mrs. Dalloway wherein her prose has blurred the distinction between dream and reality, between the past and present. An authentic human being functions in this manner, simultaneously flowing from the conscious to the unconscious, from the fantastic to the real, and from memory to the moment. Throughout Mrs Dalloway the focus continually shifts from the external world to the characters consciousness and how they perceive it. This has the disquieting effect of back grounding observable reality so the details emerge more slowly than when they are presented by an omniscient narrator. However, the London setting is established immediately, the streets and landmarks are real, this verisimilitude of setting seems to give the characters a solidity which is juxtaposed with the fluidity of the depiction of the characters thought processes. Mrs Dalloway supposes that ‘somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here, there, she survived’3 The fact that the narrative takes place on a specific date is disclosed more gradually than the setting is, for example, Clarissa thinks ‘For it was the middle of June. The war was over’4 and then the narrator tells us it is Wednesday on page fifteen. Later still Peter Walsh’s thoughts reveal that it is 19235. There are also references to Gold cup day at Ascot so by naming a specific year Woolf turns what could have been a fictional fact in to a real one. Woolf implies a concept of time as a series of life conjunctures rather than impersonal. These are established by the presence of sensory phenomena in different contexts such as the sound of Big Ben, the common perceptions among unrelated observers, for instance, the prime ministers car. Also, by convergences at occasions of group activities as in Clarissa’s party. Time seems relativistic in the sense it depends on systems of measurement. The clocks divide the day into quarter hours. The loud voice of Big Ben is associated with the masculine. It is described as ‘a young man, strong, indifferent, inconsiderate, were swinging dumb-bells this way and that’6. It marks the movements of the two doctors, Peter Walsh and Sir Richard as they move through their day, making pronouncements. St Margaret’s on the other hand is the feminine. It follows Big Ben’s booming ‘leaden circles’ with ‘ring after ring of sound’ that ‘glides into the heart’ like a hostess, ‘like Clarissa herself’7 thinks Peter Walsh as he hears St Margaret’s peeling sound. Furthermore, The clocks divide time into a pattern, Shredding and slicing, dividing and subdividing, the clocks of Harley Street nibbled at the June day, counselled submission, upheld authority, and pointed out in chorus the supreme advantages of a sense of proportion†¦8 The ringing of the clock bells radiates from the centre of the city. The sound creates a design in the texture of the narrative, slicing through the characters subjective experience of time and contrasting this with objective, exterior time. In To The Lighthouse many of the characters are preoccupied with time. Mr. Ramsay worries about how his philosophical work will stand the test of time, just as Lily expects her painting to be rolled up and forgotten. The very style of the novel brings time into question as Woolf infuses even a brief moment in an everyday event, such as reading a story to a child, with an infinitude of thought and memory 9 Meanwhile days, tides, and seasons keep up their rhythms regardless of human events, while historical time brings cataclysmic change in the form of war. In addition, time brings loss as well as renewal. Mrs. Ramsay dies, while the children she has left behind continue to grow. In To the Lighthouse Woolf depicts two contrasting kinds of time, the linear and regular plodding of clock or objective time, and the reiterative, non-linear time of human experience. Her depiction of subjective time, layered and complex was, critics have observed, not unlike that of the philosopher Henri Bergson, though there is no evidence of any direct influence. It is in the ‘Time Passes’ section of the novel that Woolf’s interest in the contrasting forms of temporality is most evident. The narrative style of this part is very unusual and is unlike that of Parts I and III. Its effort to narrate from what Woolf called an ‘eyeless’ point of view is strange, it is as if she is thinking of the philosophical problem, the problem with which Mr Ramsay grapples in the novel, of how to think of the world when there is no one there. This is translated into an artistic problem, of how to narrate the passage of time when there is no one there to witness it. The scale of events in ‘Time Passes’ is much grander than the scale in ‘The Window,’ thus throughout this section Woolf employs a different method and uses parenthetical asides to impart important news. Instead of focusing on the thoughts of her characters, she keeps a tight focus on the house itself. Dramatic events such as Mrs. Ramsay’s death could not have been confronted in the style of ‘The Window.’ as the subtle, everyday quality of the interactions between events and thoughts would have been disturbed by the introduction of the tumultuous news imparted here. The ‘airs’ in this section of the novel are like time’s fingers. The constant, regular beam of the Lighthouse is closely allied with time, too, like an all-seeing and immortal eye. Puffs of air ‘detached from the body of the wind’10 pull at the loose wallpaper and the things in the house, the light from the Lighthouse guiding them through the house. Natural time is seen as objective and inhuman, it is destructive and violent in the sense that it has no concern for human purposes. Woolf’s solution to this problem is to invent a poetic style that, ironically, relies heavily upon the devices of personification and animism. The shadows of the trees ‘made obeisance on the wall’, ‘loveliness and stillness clasped hands in the bedroom’, ‘light bent to its own image in adoration on the bedroom wall’ and ‘in the heat of the summer the wind sent its spies about the house again’11. It can be questioned whether these devices are successful. It is as if Woolf wishes to fill the emptiness of inhuman nature with primitive animistic entities and malign agencies. The solution can seem oddly childlike, personification and animism being, as Freud pointed out, typical of infantile thought12. The problem illustrates, perhaps, the difficulty of avoiding images of human agency even when they a re least necessary. In Mrs Dalloway during sections of ‘mind-time’, Woolf sets various time streams loose at once, either in the mind of one character, who retreats into internal soliloquy, collapsing past, present and future, or in the simultaneous perspectives given by several characters recording a single moment. The result of either technique is that plot time stands still.13 Time is not entirely subjective and elastic in this text, however. The novel does take place within a prescribed temporal context marked ominously by the booming of Big Ben: ‘First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air.’ Throughout the novel this chronology is inescapable, cutting through the characters thoughts of the past to bring them back to the present moment Auerbach points out that To the Lighthouse marks the end of the Western tradition of realism. He argues that the novel employs a new fashion of temporality. It is the gap between the brief span of time occupied by exterior events, about two days in ‘The Window’, and the rich, dreamlike realm of consciousness. The exterior events actually lost the hegemony over subjectivity14. The novel proves the insignificance of exterior events by holding to minor, unimpressive things like stockings, while keeping in minimum the descriptions of such great events as death and marriage. To the Lighthouse is thus a disturbing turning point in literature because it discarded any claim to the organic completeness of exterior events and the chronological order. To The lighthouse employs a non-linearity and thus counteracts narrative’s usual form of depicting events in a continuous succession. Synchronicity, evident in the coexistence of multiple perspectives at the same temporal moment, disturbs the narrative’s attempt to render the story world as events in succession. And elision, evident in the stories within the story whose endings are invariably left dangling and incomplete, dissolves the narrative’s attempt to achieve completion. Together, these discordant methods undermine the conventional unfolding of narrative. Woolf’s novel employs these techniques of disruption in order to portray narrative continuity as an inescapable yet unattainable illusion. Plot is generated by the inner lives of the characters. Psychological effects are achieved through the use of imagery, symbol, and metaphor. Character unfolds by means of the ebb and flow of personal impressions, feelings, and thoughts. Thus, the inner lives of human beings and the ordinary events in their lives are made to seem extraordinary. These complex and new methods that attempt to depict the chaotic interior life appear more jumbled and perplexing than the classical realist novel and so seem disturbing. However, Woolf is attempting to create a realistic account of the inner processes of the individuals mind and an expression of the continuous flow of sense perceptions, thoughts and feelings. Woolf also employs the symbolic apprehension and comprehension of reality as a structural approach to experience. It marked a turning away from writing by observation to transforming fact into a symbol of inner experience. In her diary Woolf wrote What interests me in the last stage was the freedom and boldness with which my imagination picked up, used and tossed aside all the images, symbols which I had prepared. I am sure this is the right way of using them-not in set pieces†¦but simply as images, never making them work out; only suggest 15 To The Lighthouse assumes a structure similar to that found in the fictional scene of the painting. In a letter Woolf acknowledges the structure and its unifying symbol as enacted at the end. ‘I meant nothing by The Lighthouse. One has to have a central line down the middle of the book to hold the design together.’16 In To The Lighthouse the Lighthouse has a prominent but fluid symbolic place in the novel. It does not seem to be the key to some hidden allegory since it does not stand for just one thing, each character that contemplates the Lighthouse gives it a special meaning, its significance in the novel evolves as the sum of different parts. For the teenaged James, the Lighthouse is a stark symbol of masculinity, a phallic symbol. For Mrs. Ramsay, the Lighthouse is a watching eye sweeping through her thoughts with a regular rhythm. To Woolf, the Lighthouse seems to serve as an anchor, a unifying image that ties together the layers of time and thought she explores. Like the clock striking the hours in Mrs. Dalloway, images of the Lighthouse act as the ‘bolts of iron’17 holding the different strands of the novel together. The focus of the planned excursion is not named until page eight and from then onwards the Lighthouse always appears with a capital letter. It is conventional to capitalize words referring to abstractions, particularly in philosophical writing. This feature has the effect of elevating the significance of the place, as if ‘Lighthouse’ were an abstract concept like ‘Truth’ or ‘Death.’ The Lighthouse makes its first appearance in the text in very lyrical terms. The domestic metaphors used to describe the scene, which are perhaps Mrs. Ramsay’s associations; the island is in a ‘plateful of blue water,’ and the dunes are arranged in ‘pleats’18. The first influence of the lighthouse is the description of James’s excitement ‘The wonder to which he had looked forward, for years and years’19 The lighthouse already seems to have gained a greater significance than its mere physical existence. It is an object of desire to James. However, his reaction to Mrs Ramsey’s promise shows that there is a separation between his dream of happiness (going to the lighthouse) and his dull, everyday experience of life. Prosaically, the lighthouse is a real thing, yet James has made it into an unattainable dream, which he does not expect to come true. James seems to be in a crisis because there is a prospect that his ideal world and real world will become the same and he will go to the lighthouse. Therefore, the wondrous aura of the lighthouse is attached to mundane things. James endows a picture of a refrigerator with a ‘heavenly bliss. It was filled with joy’20 this implies that fantasies bring relief from the dullness of everyday life, as long as there is the prospect that they will come true. However, James is one of ‘that great clan’21 who live for the future but if future ideals ‘cloud’ the view of reality then there is an implicit suggestion that achieving one’s desire presents a danger in that there would be nothing left to live for. Conversely, people must have some hope of achieving their ideal, or life would become futile. Woolf’s symbol of the lighthouse expresses this paradoxical idea in that it represents both an idealised fantasy while also being a real lighthouse. It becomes a trigger, provoking the reader to think about the human tendency to live for a future fantasy, together with all the paradoxical emotions Woolf conveys as associated with that tendency. James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it? No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too22 James compares the real and the ideal and decides that the Lighthouse can be both. He provides a useful key for deciphering the symbol of the Lighthouse, ‘for nothing was simply one thing’23. The Lighthouse is the object of striving, some mystical, distant entity with an all-seeing eye. At the same time it is the embodiment of isolation and sadness, linked with James’s desolate image of himself and his father as lonely and apart from other people The fact that the Lighthouse is a frequent subject for artists adds to its symbolic import. The tightening of form puts an emphasis on cohesion, interrelatedness and depth in the structure, Woolf engages both the subject of art, Lily Briscoe’s painting, for example and the aim of philosophy, in Mr. Ramsay’s work. ‘The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening.’24 Mrs. Ramsay incorporates the Lighthouse’s regularly appearing light into the pattern of her thoughts. She recognizes that she is doing this, that she is making the things she sees part of herself, as if the Lighthouse was an eye looking at her. The light strokes also serve to highlight certain cadences in her thought, heightening their meaning by repetition The parallels developing in this section between Lily’s actions and reflections and the impending trip to the Lighthouse suggest that Lily’s revelation, her moment of clarity and ‘stability,’ is her own version of the Lighthouse, the thing toward which she has been striving 25. Woolf builds upon the same metaphors and imagery through repetition and association to give them symbolic value of their own. There are repetitions of key images: water, waves, and sea; webs, ties, and threads; and trees through the novels. In Mrs Dalloway words are used in very certain terms in relation to life. They are used repeatedly throughout the rest of the novel, and built upon as metaphors until they stand alone to symbolize life. The sense of being absorbed in the process of action is inseparable from the fear of being excluded from it and from the dread that the process is going to be interrupted. The metaphor of the ‘interrupter’ and the solemn pause, indicating a fear of being interrupted, are developed throughout the novel. Clarissa’s sewing is depicted in a rhythmic wave of building, creating, and making. These images recur throughout the novel as they gain symbolic significance. Sewing is a metaphor often used to denote women’s creative capacity and symbolizes both artistry and the creation of life. The wave provides both a sense of calm and fulfillment, yet maintains a suspenseful pause before a crash or interruption Mrs. Dalloway has an unpleasant feeling she cannot place. After taking a moment to think, she realizes this feeling is attached to ‘something Peter had said, combined with her own depression’26. She realizes it is her parties. Her unpleasant feeling is attached to the criticism she receives from both Richard and Peter about her parties. Clarissa privately defends her parties. She sees them as an offering, a term she is able to recognize as vague and goes on to define. She is offering a connection. She gives meaning to life by feeling the existence of others and offering a way to bring them together, offering them a chance of connection. While sitting on the couch, Septimus notices a shadow on the wall. ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun.’ This phrase, which acts as a calming device, enters his head. Suddenly, he is not afraid. He sits up and takes an interest in what Lucrezia is doing. She is making a hat. More significantly, she is creating and building Rezia’s creation of the hat, like Clarissa’s sewing, symbolizes not only the creation of life, but also more specifically, the female ability to create life ‘But this hat now. And then (it was getting late) Sir William Bradshaw’27 Woolf uses this one symbolic line as a metaphor for the transition from life, represented in the making of the hat and death, suggested by Bradshaw, the symbol of the soul’s containment and the character who ultimately provides Septimus with the impetus to kill himself. Woolf uses a great deal of imagery; her similes often begin as a straightforward comparison, which is then elaborated. This moves the ideas away from the physical reality of the narrative and towards mental events, emotions and ideas providing a bridge between the plot and the interior consciousness of the characters. The reader is shown the dilemma of how to create a meaningful sequence and the impossibility of essentially finding an explicit formal system of how to represent objects and concepts, that are assumed to exist, and the relationships between them. The cumulative effect of such repeated notions and images is to establish a systematic network of social elements, such as, human time, space, shared symbols, personal relationships, so as to arrive at a vision of modern life on a national scale. This collective existence is apprehended internally, as its participants experience it. It is both the content and the form used to portray that content which makes reading a disturbing process. The question of the reality of experience itself; the critique of the traditional values of the culture; the loss of meaning and hope in the modern world and the exploration of how this loss may be faced are all themes within Woolf’s novels. Subject matter and writing style are the two features that characterise Modernism and this applies to Mrs Dalloway. The themes of Woolf’s novels express the angst of Modernism in a precise way and Mrs Dalloway exemplifies the conflict felt in the modern society that produces this angst. The conflict is played out between two forces, one that fragments and disperses social order and causes chaos, and a more stable impulse that looks for unity. Multiple voices, fragmented narrative and stream of consciousness are the stylistic devices of Woolf that convey the themes of conflict, despair and escape in the novel. Mrs Dalloway can be seen as an attempt to critique modern life, however, the novel can seem overwhelmed by the chaos of characters struggling to find meaning in life when death is such a large presence. Another aspect of this novel that’ is Modernist and can be seen to be disturbing is its withdrawal from the epic novel, the larger historical or temporal frame found in the 19th century novel. In Mrs Dalloway, there is no organising logic from which to draw a secure and comfortable resolution to life’s struggles. The action or plot is restricted to a single day, no large epic journey is possible and while the struggle for life is apparent, there is nothing of the 19th century moral structure to contain and manage the outcomes. Death and despair overwhelm life and its purposes, the narrowness of life is suffocating, and lives are fragmented, anxious, disconnected and misrecognised. To The Lighthouse also undermines what were the conventional expectations attached to novels. Woolf speculated that she might be writing something other than a novel. ‘I have an idea that I will invent a new name for my books to supplant ‘novel’†¦But what? Elegy?’28 Her work can be seen as more poetry than fiction as it occupies itself with abstract ideas and experimentation more than with plot and character development Woolf throws into disorder readers’ expectations of how life can be represented within a novel, and she achieves this through seeking a new mode of expression. It is not that she rejects reality, but rather that she sought to develop a higher type of realism, as if more complex forms would allow for the depiction of a more complex and vivid understanding of reality.    Bibliograph. Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis: the representation of reality in Western literature / by Erich Auerbach; translated from the German by Willard Trask. New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1957. Bell, Q, Virginia Woolf: A Biography. London: Hogarth Press, 1972. Eliot, T.S, American Literature and American Language in Selected Essays. London: Faber, 1951. Fleishman, Avrom, Virginia Woolf: A Critical Reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975. Lee, Hermione, The Novels of Virginia Woolf. New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1977. Naremore, James, The World Without A Self. London: Yale University Press, 1973. Schulze, Robin. G, Varieties of Mystical Experience in the Writings of Virginia Woolf in Twentieth Century Literature Vol.44. New York: Hofstra University, 1998. Woolf, Virginia. A writer’s diary: being extracts from the diary of Virginia Woolf edited by Leonard Woolf. London, Hogarth Press, 1953. Woolf. Virginia, Mrs Dalloway. London: Penguin, 1996. Woolf, Virginia, To The Lighthouse. London: Penguin, 1992. 1 Eliot, T.S, American Literature and American Language in Selected Essays. London: Faber, 1951.p. 73. 2 Lee, Hermione, The Novels of Virginia Woolf. New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1977. p.106. 3 Woof, Virginia, Mrs Dalloway. London: Penguin, 1996. p.8. 4 Ibid. p.6. 5 Ibid. p.55. 6 Ibid. p.35. 7 Ibid. p.60. 8 Ibid. p.75. 9 Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis: the representation of reality in Western literature / by Erich Auerbach; translated from the German by Willard Trask. New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1957. p.529. 10 Woolf, Virginia, To The Lighthouse. London: Penguin, 1992, p.190 11 Ibid. pp.137-139. 12 Schulze, Robin. G, Varieties of Mystical Experience in the Writings of Virginia Woolf in Twentieth Century Literature Vol.44. New York: Hofstra University, 1998. p.3 13 Naremore, James, The World Without A Self. London: Yale University Press, 1973. p.71. 14 Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis: the representation of reality in Western literature / by Erich Auerbach; translated from the German by Willard Trask. New York: Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1957. pp. 351-355 15 Woolf, Virginia. A writer’s diary: being extracts from the diary of Virginia Woolf edited by Leonard Woolf. London, Hogarth Press, 1953. p.169 16 Bell, Q, Virginia Woolf: A Biography. London: Hogarth Press, 1972. p.168. 17 Woolf, Virginia, To The Lighthouse. London: Penguin, 1992. p.5. 18 Ibid. p.23. 19 Ibid. p.7. 20 Ibid. p.7. 21 Ibid. p.7. 22 Ibid. pp.276-277. 23 Ibid. p.277. 24 Ibid. p. 107. 25 Ibid. 270. 26 Woolf. Virginia, Mrs Dalloway. London: Penguin, 1996. p.183. 27 Ibid. p. 178. 28 Woolf, Virginia. A writer’s diary: being extracts from the diary of Virginia Woolf edited by Leonard Woolf. London, Hogarth Press, 1953. p.78.

Apple

Choose an Emirate company of your choice and discuss its supply chain strategy. You need to cover the point while paying attention to the nature of its business; its monitors and future development of the business. . Choose a project of your choice which is related to the company you work for and discuss all important aspects that are associated with its achievement. Underline potential critical path, potential factors that affect the process management of your selected project. Lastly, bring forward your own recommendations in view of successful project management. Assessment criteria Structure: need to pay attention to clearly plan the ideas in logical manner that is insistent with the core topic.The basic parts-introduction, body and conclusion- must be underlined 2. Analysis: must pay attention to discussing all core ideas with appropriate link between theories and practice. There must be a clear link between the case study and the application of information conveyed by theory re lated to the topic discussed 3. Presentation: group involved in preparing the topic must show cohesive involvement in the preparation of all parts of the assignment. Apple Choose an Emirate company of your choice and discuss its supply chain strategy. You need to cover the point while paying attention to the nature of its business; its monitors and future development of the business. . Choose a project of your choice which is related to the company you work for and discuss all important aspects that are associated with its achievement. Underline potential critical path, potential factors that affect the process management of your selected project. Lastly, bring forward your own recommendations in view of successful project management. Assessment criteria Structure: need to pay attention to clearly plan the ideas in logical manner that is insistent with the core topic.The basic parts-introduction, body and conclusion- must be underlined 2. Analysis: must pay attention to discussing all core ideas with appropriate link between theories and practice. There must be a clear link between the case study and the application of information conveyed by theory re lated to the topic discussed 3. Presentation: group involved in preparing the topic must show cohesive involvement in the preparation of all parts of the assignment. Apple * History: * Apple is a company which produces computers and technological products like computers, mobiles . On April 1, 1976, the Apple computer was established . Steven Wozniak, a high school drop-out who worked for Hewlett-Packard, dabbled in computer-design and created what would become the Apple I. His high school buddy Steven Jobs, also a drop-out, worked for Atari and convinced him that the two should form a company to market the new computer, which eventually took off in 1977 with the Apple II. * * By 1980, the Apple III was released and their company employed several thousand workers.It began in Egypt in 1990 and produced their products in 1991. It began to produce the first computer Mac in Egypt but there is a disadvantage that faces the company in Egypt which is the high cost! * * The computers in this time were sold by 60,000 to 70,000 so few people bought it. The owner of the Egyptian company is called Mohamed Medhat . The company also in Egypt began to produce this com puter. In 1991 the company produces approximately by 1500 prices only. The company in Egypt doesn’t correct their wrong and still the high prices of computers raises up. * In 1991 the price of iMac is 35,000 L. E. It is too much. In 1992 Apple Company makes a high loss, because of the high prices. So they began to think in another way to reduce the cost of the company. They reduced the cost to half but they also made a lot of losses. Steve is still thinking how to save the company and began to make profits. * * * Mohamed Medhat followed him in his steps to save the company in the Middle East because in this time the only branch for Apple Company in the Middle East in Egypt only in this time, but now in Egypt and UAE.They began to produce new products by low cost so they can save their company and began to make high profits. Now in 2012 apple makes a great successful product than Microsoft and become the leader of the technological market Apple Company produces a lot of unique products like: Macbook _Macbook ProMacbook Air| Next-generation quad-core and dual-core Intel processors. The 13-inch MacBook  Pro now features a 2. 4GHz Intel Core i5 processor or the fastest dual-core processor available — the 2. 8GHz Intel Core i7. With Turbo Boost speeds up to 3. GHz, these processors allow the 13-inch MacBook  Pro to perform up to twice as fast as the previous generation. 1But we couldn’t leave fast enough alone. The new 15- and 17-inch models bring quad-core power to almost everything you do. The available 2. 5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor — with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3. 6GHz and up to 8MB of shared L3 cache — enables these MacBook Pro models to run applications up to twice as fast as their top-of-the-line predecessors. 2| iPad ( 3G – Wifi)| In work Mail, Calendar, Notes, and Safari in a beautiful, thin and light design, so you stay productive anywhere.With easy, secure integration into business environments a nd a robust platform for app development, iPad is ready to start working when you are. In Education iPad inspires creativity and hands-on learning with features you won’t find in any other educational tool — on a device that students really want to use. Powerful built-in apps and apps from the App Store let students engage with content in interactive ways, find information in an instant, and access an entire library wherever they go. And now, with the introduction of Multi-Touch textbooks, iPad takes learning to a whole new level. iPod (Classic – Touch-Nano)| It used for listening music and people can also watch some movies. | Services: If we talk about the apple’s services . the company give to there customer a good services through selling the product and after purchasing the product . apple’s services contain (warranty on it products for along time (between 1 to10 years ) , hardware services for instance , mousse , keyboards , monitor , track pa d , printers, hard disk and Etc. . the services contain software services also , for instance operating system (OSX ) . that’s some services after purchasing . n other hand the service before purchasing . the sales person give the full information about the products to customers , make an offers to attract more and more customer , for instance in 2011 , there are many offers which the company made ,for example , to buy I phone and get I pod Nano with full accessories . and another one to buy any laptop and get ( software and full applications for free during the offer period) in usually you should to buy them software with 250 L. E and applications with 650 L. E . so it is very attractive and good offer . Apple company provide a good packaging to save it’s products .Vision Of Apple : Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings. Mission Of Apple: Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.Apple campaign for I phone 5: This is the last marketing campaign for the newest product will be in the market next summer . This advertising tell the customer for a new generation of I phone ( I Phone 5 ) with a new feature and quality . the advertising tell the customer . the new I phone is totally different from the I phone 4 , 4S and has a changes in every things . This Advertising show that apple was more interesting and focus on its segment and target it seriously . using the full capacity to stratify the targeting market SWOT analysis for Apple company:Strengths : apple OSX ( op erating system ) is more strengths than PC , the OS of apple no virus can hit it and can work on it for along time , Apple OSX support the graphic programmer so the designers use the Apple OS , because it more professional and fast . OSX is a heavy duty operating system , can use for along time without corruption or errors , and other Strength point is Apple gets to set the specs in detail, and deliver to the customer through a controlled retail experience (Apple Store, Apple On-line Store) that helps them explain the value to the customer and extract a premium for that value.Weakness : Apple prices . the cost of apple products is very high so it can’t compete in the Market . Dell and HP compete it by the same products but with less prices . so it represent a big weakness point face the company in Egypt . other point , the there is a big problem in I pod Nano screen . the production team discover this problem after produce the product , so this problem lead to spend a lot of dollars to solve this problem , In addition this problem led the company to increase the price of music download form I Tunes . this led apple to spend by 10 million dollar to fixed this problem .Opportunity : Apple has the opportunity to develop its iTunes and music player technology into a mobile phone format. The Rokr mobile phone device was developed by Motorola. It has a colour screen, stereo speakers and a advance camera system. A version of Apple's iTunes music store has been developed for the phone so users can manage the tracks they store on it. Downloads are available via a USB cable, ands software on the handset pauses music if a phone call comes in. New technologies and strategic alliances offer opportunities for Apple.Threats : The biggest threat to IT companies such as Apple is the very high level of competition in the technology markets. Being successful attracts competition, and Apple works very hard on research and development and marketing in order to retain its co mpetitive position. The popularity of iPod and Apple Mac are subject to demand, and will be affected if economies begin to falter and demand falls for their products. PESTEL analysis: Economic : apple company effected by the economic situation , the economic crises effect on the company production and company sales . he apple products have a high cost so it has a big related with the economic . ,for example, the company after the revolution , recorded a big loses in its sales and profit . after the revolution people avoid to buy the luxury products like I pod and I pad . apple recorded in 2011 loses in Egypt more than 50 Million . and in the economic crises in USA . apple recorded loses by 700 Million dollar . Technology : apple company strongly effected by technology factor , the company should to has the final technology tools that the world use it in this time . pple company every time develop their products with new feature and technology , for example I phone developed to 3GS t o 4G and finally 4GS and 5G soon . other products like I pad develop it to work with the third generation of communications (3G) . apple now is the best company all over the world use the touch technique in its products and devises . Political : Could be new laws or regulations , for Example in last time the GPS ( Navigation system ) in Egypt is not allow to use so apple stopped this program in Egypt tell 2008 and after this the government allow to use the navigation system In Egypt . o apple supported their devises by the GPS system . Social : Means social trends. If you are a phone company, Apple's entry into the cellphone market created a demand for touch screen phones, (about time! ) for example. Thus Nokia and co. had to respond. (I like Nokia, but they should have been ahead of the game in this one, so I'm glad Apple kicked them). Environmental factors: environmental factors include the weather and climate change. Changes in temperature can impact on many industries including farming, tourism and insurance.Apple may not effect with climate strongly but it may be effected by tourism , this will effect all process of the company ( production process and sell process ) Customer Analysis: Demographic ( Age – Gender – Family size – Life cycle or Income ) Apple company make different products to different ages , for instant they made I pod Nano for the children and youth and after that they made I pad for businessmen and the youth can also use it form 15 to 60 years old , they made also I Mac form grand ages .Apple is completely successful to target different ages with different product . Apple not forget to make a different between gender or sex, for example they made MacBook Air for female and made MacBook Bro for male, and also in colors they produce some laptop’s covers with pink color to target girls or female . Apple produce different products to different age and life – cycle groups . Apple company not forget to target income . they are produce a different products with different prices to be fit to any individual depend on his income , for xample there is I pod classic with 2000 pound and there is one with 3500 pound for I pod touch so any one can buy any thing from Apple depending on his income. Psychographic ( social class and life stile or personality) If we divide the market to class A – B – C , Apple target one or two from this segments . Apple will target the class A , because they provide a high quality and good products with high cost so the class A is the more segment will use apple’s products after that class B a few of them will use apple’s products .Behavior ( User Status – User Rate – Loyalty – Benefit – Occasion ) User statue : apple market divide into ex-user , who use apple’s products from along time , and first –time user who is the first time to use apple products , and potential user and we have a regular ap ple user how is use apple a lot of times . User rate : apple market divide into light , medium and heavy product user of apple . Loyalty : divide on completely loyalty that is mean some one buy all brands form one company . or example, buy I phone I pod , I pad that is mean he buy all things he want form apple , he/she very loyalty to the company Some-what loyalty , buy two or three products from apple and them go to buy any thing form different brand , for example , some one buy I phone and I pod then he shift to buy Nokia and HTC. and we have finally no loyalty , who didn’t buy any thing form apple . Target Market : There are a lot types of market targeting (undifferentiated – differentiated – concentrated – micro ) market , apple use differentiated market ( segmentation ) .It is produce different products to one or more segment (class A and a few of class B) . Differentiation and positioning Competitive advantage : apple have a lot of competitors in it ’s fields for example , Mobil phone there are a lot of competitor (Nokia – Samsung – HTC , Blackberry ) , in computers the biggest competitor is ( Microsoft ) in entertainment field there is ( Mp3,4) . so apple should to have an competitive advantage to be able to compete the other and should to have a unique feature in it’s product to be different . it should to have a good sales offer and this give it is to make a high profit and attract a lot of consumers .Apple now a days try to produce a products with a low prices to attract more and more and gain a more profit , so it can compete all competitor . Position strategy : Apple should to know the consumer the place of there products and where they sell it’s product . they are make perceptions of consumer about place . next step they try to give him a good impressions about products and serves and features , the third step is feeling , to give the consumer the feeling to buy the product of apple and give him the special feeling this product is the best one between the other product in market Market Share of the company :Apple in Cell phones ( I phone ) A the chart show to us the I Phone is not the market leader in cell phones only 13% of the market ,Nokia 20% and Samsung 31%,so Blackberry is the market leader. Questionnaire: Gender : Male†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Female†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Age: *18-20†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ *21-30†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. *40 and above†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1) Did you hear about Apple I phone 5 ? Yes No 2) Can you remember the ad ,? Yes No 3) Where did you see or hear about the ad? a. Internet b. friend c. Magazine d. billboard e. Conference -other, please specify†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. ) How you think about Apple I phone 4 ads and campaign? 5) Did you purchase the I phone 5 after watching the AD? Yes No Evaluation of product in cutomers,s eyes: First of all, these questionnaire was distributed on 38 students in MSA university ,20 of them was females and 18 was m ales aging from 18 to 22 years old In first question, when we ask people about do they hear about the I phone 5 ad ? about 75% of target audience answers by yes, that they hear about I phone 5 adMost of students answer by yes said that they already have I phone products so the company itself send them direct mail to them to know about product ,others said that they know about I phone from their friend whom they attend an event for company. In second question, when we ask about do the ad was memorable or not? About 20% of audience cannot remember it but majority do remember it The 80% students who are member the Ad ,they said they remember it as it was very simple ,also it looks with dark background that reflects the highly selective style. In third question, when we ask where did you see the ad ?Most of people see it on the internet whether face book or twitter, others access the apple website itself, other people answers by they know about the AD from their friends as Apple has pos itive word of mouth and company itself depend highly on the positive WOM, very rare people answers by they know about it from conference. In question four, asking about the opinion of customers in the campaign of apple I phone 5, people said that it is creative, unique, also some people really like the usage of white and black colors, people said that this is normal as we always expect the best from Apple.In the last question, people answer by yes that they purchase the I phone 5 after the ad about 65% bought it as they see it high technology and satisfy all their needs Expert interview with company: We made an interview with Mr. Samir Galal the general sales manager in Apple company-Egypt asking him about the tools of IMC they used, the budget, also about Apple opinion in using celebrities, as well as ask them also about who are their competitors. 1) How do you distribute the budget on IMC tools?Mr. Samir galal tell us that they use the internet and public relation the most tools t hey use as they have a website from the best websites in the world as they do a lot of updates to their website and put all their new products on it. According to the budget assigned to the internet they pay about 5 millions on these tool every 6 months ,however for the public relation tool, they pay about 600 thousands Egyptian pound every 6 months, they use interviews ,conferences as a tools of PR .As well as ,they use direct marketing by using mails ,if there is any problem facing customer ,they use skype for direct interaction. 2) Which tools from IMC are the most effective tools working with Apple? He tell us that direct marketing and public relation tools are most effective as they are most targeted tools as Apple targeting only A class ,however if they make a TV Ads it will be useless and high costs without return as mass market will view it however they are not targeted so direct marketing and public relation are the most selective tools that goes forward for the targeted cu stomers. ) Do you use celebrities at promoting for your product? Mr. samir answers that they don’t use any celebrities as they don’t need as Apple Word of mouth is already positive so why they will think of using celebrities and they already have a positive brand image and the brand is already highly positioned in the customer’s mind, but Apple do care a lot for their customers as they take their contact information so to make a conference inviting customers to show them the new products ,new technology. 4)who are apple main competitors in all product segments?In computer segment ,he said that Microsoft operating system is the main competitor as it has high quality but with low prices, however in mobiles ,Nokia consider high competitor as they copy everything from Apple and with moderate prices lower than Apple so a lots of people can afford it for example when Apple launch the touch option Nokia launch the same touch option with lower prices than Apple, also No kia is targeting the mass market so they make intensive distribution but Apple has only few stores as they have a problem in distribution . 5) What is the SWOT analysis of the Apple company ?Strengths : apple OSX ( operating system ) is more strengths than PC , the OS of apple no virus can hit it and can work on it for along time , Apple OSX support the graphic programmer so the designers use the Apple OS , because it more professional and fast . OSX is a heavy duty operating system , can use for along time without corruption or errors , and other Strength point is Apple gets to set the specs in detail, and deliver to the customer through a controlled retail experience (Apple Store, Apple On-line Store) that helps them explain the value to the customer and extract a premium for that value.Weakness : The company has not cover the market and not has a perfect distribution . the company can’t cover the hole market , in this case , the bad distribution lead to a lot of loses toth e company and can’t help it to chive its profit and not give it the ability to make good sales to its product. other point , the there is a big problem in I pod Nano screen . the production team discover this problem after produce the product so this problem lead to spend a lot of dollars to solve this problem , In addition this problem led the company to increase the price of music download form I Tunes . this led apple to spend by 10 million dollar to fixed this problem . Opportunity : Apple has the opportunity to develop its iTunes and music player technology into a mobile phone format. The Rokr mobile phone device was developed by Motorola. It has a colour screen, stereo speakers and a advance camera system.A version of Apple's iTunes music store has been developed for the phone so users can manage the tracks they store on it. Downloads are available via a USB cable, ands software on the handset pauses music if a phone call comes in. New technologies and strategic allianc es offer opportunities for Apple. Threats : The biggest threat to IT companies such as Apple is the very high level of competition in the technology markets. Being successful attracts competition, and Apple works very hard on research and development and marketing in order to retain its competitive position.The popularity of iPod and Apple Mac are subject to demand, and will be affected if economies begin to falter and demand falls for their products IMC Tools that Apple uses Advertising:- In fact Apple Company uses advertising a lot but not too often mainly it uses product placement, most movies of mission impossible can be said that it was sponsored by apple all actors were using laptops, I pad and I phone apple. They succeeded by doing this a lot because mission impossible is one of the most seen movies worldwide, 50% of the pie chart.Public relations:- Most of the time consumers would like to know what you are selling in your company if it’s easy to use or so complicated if it’s going to help them or not, apple communicated directly with its customers with only two simple words that changed their minds upside down and be interested more in trying new products†¦. â€Å"Think Different† apple earned customers trust and acceptance only by these words because it did change their way of thinking when purchasing a product, 30% of the pie chart is public relations. Internet:-The website of apple that apple provide flow mutual benefits and information with the company and its customers, the company benefits from understanding its target market more can be able to know their needs and wants and what they usually ask and look for on their websites, how can they help them in order to spread word of mouth as well, according to customers they can know everything about the product they are searching for details and prices and feel the difference between apple, Dell and Samsung, 50%of the pie chart is internet.Direct Marketing:- Customer service of apple is always available to their customers over the internet, they communicate directly with each other through internet if there are any complaints or anything that needs an explanation they will answer them immediately, in direct marketing apple uses only the internet to interact directly with its customers, 50% of the pie chart is direct marketing. Personal selling:-Apple products is not in a need of persuading or convincing their customers to buy them as they are most qualified with its applications and software, the huge campaign of apple made people talking about apple most of the time when it comes to technology best features as apple also can tailor specific shapes and orders depend on individual needs, also the flexibility in apple stores between buyers and sellers allow for more profits and target marketing, best prospects which is known as â€Å"creme de la creme† are niche markets apple make huge efforts with them to have them more for long periods of time a s they are very loyal and extremely profitable, 150% of pie chart is personal selling. Sales promotion:In fact due to the perfect image of apple they feel that if they added any sales promotion to their IMC programs they will lose their picture in consumer minds, as its considered to be more luxury one of the most expensive equipments, they can see that although they are expensive there are a huge demand on their products and they see that there is no need to make sales promotion because they are not targeting the whole segments, they know exactly their target audience and can satisfy them more than any other companies also exceeding their specific details that vary from one person to another so that they feel delighted and special and will not think of shifting to another brand of technology equipments. Recommendations for IMC tools that apple can use it for better reach and sales: Advertising:-Apple doesn’t need to advertise much as it is already grabbing large segments of customers and when doing product placement every now and then it’s very important to do it but the problem here is increasing the percentage of demand by more advertising not just through product placement, it would be better if they increased the billboards around to remind people about their products and keep themselves in consumers mind for example if they added more billboards on way of malls were there are many electronic stores if someone was thinking to purchase specific type of laptop and find apple billboards they will shift to it and it will grab their attention more. Public relations:-Apple doesn’t concentrate much on public relations as it fails a lot to make any event or to sponsor more events for example north coast events or charity events they don’t share in anything of it which can allow the press to make negative image in consumer minds about apple that would affect the publicity as well so it’s better to think more about taking care of their image because the image of the company can drag you down or pull you up also it will add public value. Internet:- According to the internet apple focuses in it a lot and put aside the idea that internet is not a mass medium and fails to reach all segments and niche markets orders only the tailored products but other half of the segment have the ability to buy apple products so apple shouldn’t focuses much on internet as not all its customers have an access to the internet. Direct marketing:-Only direct selling is available with apple its better if they add catalogs and send it to their customers and their customers would give them the telephone number of their friends and family to contact them telemarketing also send them the same catalogs to see more categories of apple products, that would make apple more spread, dominant an unique in the market. Personal Selling:- Apple is not in need to increase its personal selling because it is perfect on it but it’s extre mely expensive and it’s so difficult to tailor products and deliver it to customers with the same consistency each time, its more applicable make things more reliable and equal so that if they keep doing this and once something happened by not delivering the needed tailored product they will fail and in 1 minute the customer perception of apple will change totally also I depends on every customer privileges. Sales promotion:Apple is one of the multinational companies that if they made any sales promotion they would gain new customers but loses the old ones as it is not preferred to do it because it will hesitate their image in the market because its known that apple is for special segment and sales promotion wouldn’t add anything new simply it will be switching segments they will gain part and lose the other part and according to profit it will decrease badly and the company will keep losing and will suffer a lot in order to get its image and old customers back. Genera l Recommendations:- Its more applicable that apple make all tools work together in harmony so that to be differentiated more from any other companies and keep the uniqness of its products but still keeping themselves away of sales promotion, as it’s known the benefits of IMC tools when they all work with each other it will save time, money and stress, also will boost them up to profit, finally it will have competitive advantages like no other company. Apple * History: * Apple is a company which produces computers and technological products like computers, mobiles . On April 1, 1976, the Apple computer was established . Steven Wozniak, a high school drop-out who worked for Hewlett-Packard, dabbled in computer-design and created what would become the Apple I. His high school buddy Steven Jobs, also a drop-out, worked for Atari and convinced him that the two should form a company to market the new computer, which eventually took off in 1977 with the Apple II. * * By 1980, the Apple III was released and their company employed several thousand workers.It began in Egypt in 1990 and produced their products in 1991. It began to produce the first computer Mac in Egypt but there is a disadvantage that faces the company in Egypt which is the high cost! * * The computers in this time were sold by 60,000 to 70,000 so few people bought it. The owner of the Egyptian company is called Mohamed Medhat . The company also in Egypt began to produce this com puter. In 1991 the company produces approximately by 1500 prices only. The company in Egypt doesn’t correct their wrong and still the high prices of computers raises up. * In 1991 the price of iMac is 35,000 L. E. It is too much. In 1992 Apple Company makes a high loss, because of the high prices. So they began to think in another way to reduce the cost of the company. They reduced the cost to half but they also made a lot of losses. Steve is still thinking how to save the company and began to make profits. * * * Mohamed Medhat followed him in his steps to save the company in the Middle East because in this time the only branch for Apple Company in the Middle East in Egypt only in this time, but now in Egypt and UAE.They began to produce new products by low cost so they can save their company and began to make high profits. Now in 2012 apple makes a great successful product than Microsoft and become the leader of the technological market Apple Company produces a lot of unique products like: Macbook _Macbook ProMacbook Air| Next-generation quad-core and dual-core Intel processors. The 13-inch MacBook  Pro now features a 2. 4GHz Intel Core i5 processor or the fastest dual-core processor available — the 2. 8GHz Intel Core i7. With Turbo Boost speeds up to 3. GHz, these processors allow the 13-inch MacBook  Pro to perform up to twice as fast as the previous generation. 1But we couldn’t leave fast enough alone. The new 15- and 17-inch models bring quad-core power to almost everything you do. The available 2. 5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor — with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3. 6GHz and up to 8MB of shared L3 cache — enables these MacBook Pro models to run applications up to twice as fast as their top-of-the-line predecessors. 2| iPad ( 3G – Wifi)| In work Mail, Calendar, Notes, and Safari in a beautiful, thin and light design, so you stay productive anywhere.With easy, secure integration into business environments a nd a robust platform for app development, iPad is ready to start working when you are. In Education iPad inspires creativity and hands-on learning with features you won’t find in any other educational tool — on a device that students really want to use. Powerful built-in apps and apps from the App Store let students engage with content in interactive ways, find information in an instant, and access an entire library wherever they go. And now, with the introduction of Multi-Touch textbooks, iPad takes learning to a whole new level. iPod (Classic – Touch-Nano)| It used for listening music and people can also watch some movies. | Services: If we talk about the apple’s services . the company give to there customer a good services through selling the product and after purchasing the product . apple’s services contain (warranty on it products for along time (between 1 to10 years ) , hardware services for instance , mousse , keyboards , monitor , track pa d , printers, hard disk and Etc. . the services contain software services also , for instance operating system (OSX ) . that’s some services after purchasing . n other hand the service before purchasing . the sales person give the full information about the products to customers , make an offers to attract more and more customer , for instance in 2011 , there are many offers which the company made ,for example , to buy I phone and get I pod Nano with full accessories . and another one to buy any laptop and get ( software and full applications for free during the offer period) in usually you should to buy them software with 250 L. E and applications with 650 L. E . so it is very attractive and good offer . Apple company provide a good packaging to save it’s products .Vision Of Apple : Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings. Mission Of Apple: Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.Apple campaign for I phone 5: This is the last marketing campaign for the newest product will be in the market next summer . This advertising tell the customer for a new generation of I phone ( I Phone 5 ) with a new feature and quality . the advertising tell the customer . the new I phone is totally different from the I phone 4 , 4S and has a changes in every things . This Advertising show that apple was more interesting and focus on its segment and target it seriously . using the full capacity to stratify the targeting market SWOT analysis for Apple company:Strengths : apple OSX ( op erating system ) is more strengths than PC , the OS of apple no virus can hit it and can work on it for along time , Apple OSX support the graphic programmer so the designers use the Apple OS , because it more professional and fast . OSX is a heavy duty operating system , can use for along time without corruption or errors , and other Strength point is Apple gets to set the specs in detail, and deliver to the customer through a controlled retail experience (Apple Store, Apple On-line Store) that helps them explain the value to the customer and extract a premium for that value.Weakness : Apple prices . the cost of apple products is very high so it can’t compete in the Market . Dell and HP compete it by the same products but with less prices . so it represent a big weakness point face the company in Egypt . other point , the there is a big problem in I pod Nano screen . the production team discover this problem after produce the product , so this problem lead to spend a lot of dollars to solve this problem , In addition this problem led the company to increase the price of music download form I Tunes . this led apple to spend by 10 million dollar to fixed this problem .Opportunity : Apple has the opportunity to develop its iTunes and music player technology into a mobile phone format. The Rokr mobile phone device was developed by Motorola. It has a colour screen, stereo speakers and a advance camera system. A version of Apple's iTunes music store has been developed for the phone so users can manage the tracks they store on it. Downloads are available via a USB cable, ands software on the handset pauses music if a phone call comes in. New technologies and strategic alliances offer opportunities for Apple.Threats : The biggest threat to IT companies such as Apple is the very high level of competition in the technology markets. Being successful attracts competition, and Apple works very hard on research and development and marketing in order to retain its co mpetitive position. The popularity of iPod and Apple Mac are subject to demand, and will be affected if economies begin to falter and demand falls for their products. PESTEL analysis: Economic : apple company effected by the economic situation , the economic crises effect on the company production and company sales . he apple products have a high cost so it has a big related with the economic . ,for example, the company after the revolution , recorded a big loses in its sales and profit . after the revolution people avoid to buy the luxury products like I pod and I pad . apple recorded in 2011 loses in Egypt more than 50 Million . and in the economic crises in USA . apple recorded loses by 700 Million dollar . Technology : apple company strongly effected by technology factor , the company should to has the final technology tools that the world use it in this time . pple company every time develop their products with new feature and technology , for example I phone developed to 3GS t o 4G and finally 4GS and 5G soon . other products like I pad develop it to work with the third generation of communications (3G) . apple now is the best company all over the world use the touch technique in its products and devises . Political : Could be new laws or regulations , for Example in last time the GPS ( Navigation system ) in Egypt is not allow to use so apple stopped this program in Egypt tell 2008 and after this the government allow to use the navigation system In Egypt . o apple supported their devises by the GPS system . Social : Means social trends. If you are a phone company, Apple's entry into the cellphone market created a demand for touch screen phones, (about time! ) for example. Thus Nokia and co. had to respond. (I like Nokia, but they should have been ahead of the game in this one, so I'm glad Apple kicked them). Environmental factors: environmental factors include the weather and climate change. Changes in temperature can impact on many industries including farming, tourism and insurance.Apple may not effect with climate strongly but it may be effected by tourism , this will effect all process of the company ( production process and sell process ) Customer Analysis: Demographic ( Age – Gender – Family size – Life cycle or Income ) Apple company make different products to different ages , for instant they made I pod Nano for the children and youth and after that they made I pad for businessmen and the youth can also use it form 15 to 60 years old , they made also I Mac form grand ages .Apple is completely successful to target different ages with different product . Apple not forget to make a different between gender or sex, for example they made MacBook Air for female and made MacBook Bro for male, and also in colors they produce some laptop’s covers with pink color to target girls or female . Apple produce different products to different age and life – cycle groups . Apple company not forget to target income . they are produce a different products with different prices to be fit to any individual depend on his income , for xample there is I pod classic with 2000 pound and there is one with 3500 pound for I pod touch so any one can buy any thing from Apple depending on his income. Psychographic ( social class and life stile or personality) If we divide the market to class A – B – C , Apple target one or two from this segments . Apple will target the class A , because they provide a high quality and good products with high cost so the class A is the more segment will use apple’s products after that class B a few of them will use apple’s products .Behavior ( User Status – User Rate – Loyalty – Benefit – Occasion ) User statue : apple market divide into ex-user , who use apple’s products from along time , and first –time user who is the first time to use apple products , and potential user and we have a regular ap ple user how is use apple a lot of times . User rate : apple market divide into light , medium and heavy product user of apple . Loyalty : divide on completely loyalty that is mean some one buy all brands form one company . or example, buy I phone I pod , I pad that is mean he buy all things he want form apple , he/she very loyalty to the company Some-what loyalty , buy two or three products from apple and them go to buy any thing form different brand , for example , some one buy I phone and I pod then he shift to buy Nokia and HTC. and we have finally no loyalty , who didn’t buy any thing form apple . Target Market : There are a lot types of market targeting (undifferentiated – differentiated – concentrated – micro ) market , apple use differentiated market ( segmentation ) .It is produce different products to one or more segment (class A and a few of class B) . Differentiation and positioning Competitive advantage : apple have a lot of competitors in it ’s fields for example , Mobil phone there are a lot of competitor (Nokia – Samsung – HTC , Blackberry ) , in computers the biggest competitor is ( Microsoft ) in entertainment field there is ( Mp3,4) . so apple should to have an competitive advantage to be able to compete the other and should to have a unique feature in it’s product to be different . it should to have a good sales offer and this give it is to make a high profit and attract a lot of consumers .Apple now a days try to produce a products with a low prices to attract more and more and gain a more profit , so it can compete all competitor . Position strategy : Apple should to know the consumer the place of there products and where they sell it’s product . they are make perceptions of consumer about place . next step they try to give him a good impressions about products and serves and features , the third step is feeling , to give the consumer the feeling to buy the product of apple and give him the special feeling this product is the best one between the other product in market Market Share of the company :Apple in Cell phones ( I phone ) A the chart show to us the I Phone is not the market leader in cell phones only 13% of the market ,Nokia 20% and Samsung 31%,so Blackberry is the market leader. Questionnaire: Gender : Male†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Female†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Age: *18-20†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ *21-30†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. *40 and above†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1) Did you hear about Apple I phone 5 ? Yes No 2) Can you remember the ad ,? Yes No 3) Where did you see or hear about the ad? a. Internet b. friend c. Magazine d. billboard e. Conference -other, please specify†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. ) How you think about Apple I phone 4 ads and campaign? 5) Did you purchase the I phone 5 after watching the AD? Yes No Evaluation of product in cutomers,s eyes: First of all, these questionnaire was distributed on 38 students in MSA university ,20 of them was females and 18 was m ales aging from 18 to 22 years old In first question, when we ask people about do they hear about the I phone 5 ad ? about 75% of target audience answers by yes, that they hear about I phone 5 adMost of students answer by yes said that they already have I phone products so the company itself send them direct mail to them to know about product ,others said that they know about I phone from their friend whom they attend an event for company. In second question, when we ask about do the ad was memorable or not? About 20% of audience cannot remember it but majority do remember it The 80% students who are member the Ad ,they said they remember it as it was very simple ,also it looks with dark background that reflects the highly selective style. In third question, when we ask where did you see the ad ?Most of people see it on the internet whether face book or twitter, others access the apple website itself, other people answers by they know about the AD from their friends as Apple has pos itive word of mouth and company itself depend highly on the positive WOM, very rare people answers by they know about it from conference. In question four, asking about the opinion of customers in the campaign of apple I phone 5, people said that it is creative, unique, also some people really like the usage of white and black colors, people said that this is normal as we always expect the best from Apple.In the last question, people answer by yes that they purchase the I phone 5 after the ad about 65% bought it as they see it high technology and satisfy all their needs Expert interview with company: We made an interview with Mr. Samir Galal the general sales manager in Apple company-Egypt asking him about the tools of IMC they used, the budget, also about Apple opinion in using celebrities, as well as ask them also about who are their competitors. 1) How do you distribute the budget on IMC tools?Mr. Samir galal tell us that they use the internet and public relation the most tools t hey use as they have a website from the best websites in the world as they do a lot of updates to their website and put all their new products on it. According to the budget assigned to the internet they pay about 5 millions on these tool every 6 months ,however for the public relation tool, they pay about 600 thousands Egyptian pound every 6 months, they use interviews ,conferences as a tools of PR .As well as ,they use direct marketing by using mails ,if there is any problem facing customer ,they use skype for direct interaction. 2) Which tools from IMC are the most effective tools working with Apple? He tell us that direct marketing and public relation tools are most effective as they are most targeted tools as Apple targeting only A class ,however if they make a TV Ads it will be useless and high costs without return as mass market will view it however they are not targeted so direct marketing and public relation are the most selective tools that goes forward for the targeted cu stomers. ) Do you use celebrities at promoting for your product? Mr. samir answers that they don’t use any celebrities as they don’t need as Apple Word of mouth is already positive so why they will think of using celebrities and they already have a positive brand image and the brand is already highly positioned in the customer’s mind, but Apple do care a lot for their customers as they take their contact information so to make a conference inviting customers to show them the new products ,new technology. 4)who are apple main competitors in all product segments?In computer segment ,he said that Microsoft operating system is the main competitor as it has high quality but with low prices, however in mobiles ,Nokia consider high competitor as they copy everything from Apple and with moderate prices lower than Apple so a lots of people can afford it for example when Apple launch the touch option Nokia launch the same touch option with lower prices than Apple, also No kia is targeting the mass market so they make intensive distribution but Apple has only few stores as they have a problem in distribution . 5) What is the SWOT analysis of the Apple company ?Strengths : apple OSX ( operating system ) is more strengths than PC , the OS of apple no virus can hit it and can work on it for along time , Apple OSX support the graphic programmer so the designers use the Apple OS , because it more professional and fast . OSX is a heavy duty operating system , can use for along time without corruption or errors , and other Strength point is Apple gets to set the specs in detail, and deliver to the customer through a controlled retail experience (Apple Store, Apple On-line Store) that helps them explain the value to the customer and extract a premium for that value.Weakness : The company has not cover the market and not has a perfect distribution . the company can’t cover the hole market , in this case , the bad distribution lead to a lot of loses toth e company and can’t help it to chive its profit and not give it the ability to make good sales to its product. other point , the there is a big problem in I pod Nano screen . the production team discover this problem after produce the product so this problem lead to spend a lot of dollars to solve this problem , In addition this problem led the company to increase the price of music download form I Tunes . this led apple to spend by 10 million dollar to fixed this problem . Opportunity : Apple has the opportunity to develop its iTunes and music player technology into a mobile phone format. The Rokr mobile phone device was developed by Motorola. It has a colour screen, stereo speakers and a advance camera system.A version of Apple's iTunes music store has been developed for the phone so users can manage the tracks they store on it. Downloads are available via a USB cable, ands software on the handset pauses music if a phone call comes in. New technologies and strategic allianc es offer opportunities for Apple. Threats : The biggest threat to IT companies such as Apple is the very high level of competition in the technology markets. Being successful attracts competition, and Apple works very hard on research and development and marketing in order to retain its competitive position.The popularity of iPod and Apple Mac are subject to demand, and will be affected if economies begin to falter and demand falls for their products IMC Tools that Apple uses Advertising:- In fact Apple Company uses advertising a lot but not too often mainly it uses product placement, most movies of mission impossible can be said that it was sponsored by apple all actors were using laptops, I pad and I phone apple. They succeeded by doing this a lot because mission impossible is one of the most seen movies worldwide, 50% of the pie chart.Public relations:- Most of the time consumers would like to know what you are selling in your company if it’s easy to use or so complicated if it’s going to help them or not, apple communicated directly with its customers with only two simple words that changed their minds upside down and be interested more in trying new products†¦. â€Å"Think Different† apple earned customers trust and acceptance only by these words because it did change their way of thinking when purchasing a product, 30% of the pie chart is public relations. Internet:-The website of apple that apple provide flow mutual benefits and information with the company and its customers, the company benefits from understanding its target market more can be able to know their needs and wants and what they usually ask and look for on their websites, how can they help them in order to spread word of mouth as well, according to customers they can know everything about the product they are searching for details and prices and feel the difference between apple, Dell and Samsung, 50%of the pie chart is internet.Direct Marketing:- Customer service of apple is always available to their customers over the internet, they communicate directly with each other through internet if there are any complaints or anything that needs an explanation they will answer them immediately, in direct marketing apple uses only the internet to interact directly with its customers, 50% of the pie chart is direct marketing. Personal selling:-Apple products is not in a need of persuading or convincing their customers to buy them as they are most qualified with its applications and software, the huge campaign of apple made people talking about apple most of the time when it comes to technology best features as apple also can tailor specific shapes and orders depend on individual needs, also the flexibility in apple stores between buyers and sellers allow for more profits and target marketing, best prospects which is known as â€Å"creme de la creme† are niche markets apple make huge efforts with them to have them more for long periods of time a s they are very loyal and extremely profitable, 150% of pie chart is personal selling. Sales promotion:In fact due to the perfect image of apple they feel that if they added any sales promotion to their IMC programs they will lose their picture in consumer minds, as its considered to be more luxury one of the most expensive equipments, they can see that although they are expensive there are a huge demand on their products and they see that there is no need to make sales promotion because they are not targeting the whole segments, they know exactly their target audience and can satisfy them more than any other companies also exceeding their specific details that vary from one person to another so that they feel delighted and special and will not think of shifting to another brand of technology equipments. Recommendations for IMC tools that apple can use it for better reach and sales: Advertising:-Apple doesn’t need to advertise much as it is already grabbing large segments of customers and when doing product placement every now and then it’s very important to do it but the problem here is increasing the percentage of demand by more advertising not just through product placement, it would be better if they increased the billboards around to remind people about their products and keep themselves in consumers mind for example if they added more billboards on way of malls were there are many electronic stores if someone was thinking to purchase specific type of laptop and find apple billboards they will shift to it and it will grab their attention more. Public relations:-Apple doesn’t concentrate much on public relations as it fails a lot to make any event or to sponsor more events for example north coast events or charity events they don’t share in anything of it which can allow the press to make negative image in consumer minds about apple that would affect the publicity as well so it’s better to think more about taking care of their image because the image of the company can drag you down or pull you up also it will add public value. Internet:- According to the internet apple focuses in it a lot and put aside the idea that internet is not a mass medium and fails to reach all segments and niche markets orders only the tailored products but other half of the segment have the ability to buy apple products so apple shouldn’t focuses much on internet as not all its customers have an access to the internet. Direct marketing:-Only direct selling is available with apple its better if they add catalogs and send it to their customers and their customers would give them the telephone number of their friends and family to contact them telemarketing also send them the same catalogs to see more categories of apple products, that would make apple more spread, dominant an unique in the market. Personal Selling:- Apple is not in need to increase its personal selling because it is perfect on it but it’s extre mely expensive and it’s so difficult to tailor products and deliver it to customers with the same consistency each time, its more applicable make things more reliable and equal so that if they keep doing this and once something happened by not delivering the needed tailored product they will fail and in 1 minute the customer perception of apple will change totally also I depends on every customer privileges. Sales promotion:Apple is one of the multinational companies that if they made any sales promotion they would gain new customers but loses the old ones as it is not preferred to do it because it will hesitate their image in the market because its known that apple is for special segment and sales promotion wouldn’t add anything new simply it will be switching segments they will gain part and lose the other part and according to profit it will decrease badly and the company will keep losing and will suffer a lot in order to get its image and old customers back. Genera l Recommendations:- Its more applicable that apple make all tools work together in harmony so that to be differentiated more from any other companies and keep the uniqness of its products but still keeping themselves away of sales promotion, as it’s known the benefits of IMC tools when they all work with each other it will save time, money and stress, also will boost them up to profit, finally it will have competitive advantages like no other company.

Post-Lab Report Variation and selection in a population of wood lice Lab

Post- Variation and selection in a population of wood lice -rollie pollie - Lab Report Example rve how the natural selection acts upon variation in a population, this experimental set up entails documenting variations among several traits of wood lice and determining how and whether certain traits confer some survival advantage when subjected to simulated foragers. It also entails testing whether such survival advantages are depended on the forager used. In this case, the traits which included animal length, sprint speed, the number of dorsal plates, and the animal mass for multiple individuals of the isopods population were measured. Measures of central tendency (Means, and range), measures of dispersion (standard deviations, and variance) as well a t-test was conducted to ascertain this connotation. The total number of isopods was 50. This was divided into two portions victims and survivors (Tables 1 and 2). The length, sprint speed, number of dorsal plates and weight of placed measured are also shown on tables 1 and 2. Additionally, the measures of central tendency (mean) and measures of dispersion variance) and the t-test value between the victims (variable 1) and the survivors (variable 2) were calculated. Tables3, 4, 5, and 6 shows the measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, and the t-test value between the victims and survivors. Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6 clearly indicate that at a significant level of 0.05, in each case, using a 1-tailed, Tstat= 1.165103 and T critical = 1.681952, it is apparent that Tstat 0.05. This indicates that the null hypothesis that variations in traits of an isopod do not confer a survival advantage in presence of simulated foragers is accepted. Therefore, it is with 95% confidence that variations in traits of an isopod do not confer survival advantage in the presence of simulated foragers. As for the case of the length, from the tabulated value for df ÃŽ ½ = 48, in each case, using a 1-tailed, the 95% confidence level, tstat = 6.408633 and T critical = 1.677224. It is clear that

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How will electronics fit into your professional life - Assignment Example It is amazing to how electronics have changed for the past ten years (Aubusson, Schuck & Burden, 2009). New technologies are coming up each day making my professional life more exciting and easier. Various professions are in need of constant communications. Mobile devices such as smart phones have made communication possible. My devices have made it possible to communicate with colleagues, friends and other professionals. Social media and electronic communication have developed new ways of extending and promoting working life. From blackberry phones to iPhone, technology continues to change after day (Aubusson, Schuck & Burden, 2009). We are aware that new technologies are emerging as a result of innovation that is in various parts of the world. We all depend on technology and utilize it to accomplish certain tasks in the day to day activities. Technology is being initiated and implemented in all circles of life (Eschenbrenner & Nah, 2007). They are everywhere, in our offices, hospital, transport system and the other spheres of life. It is indeed true that we can’t perform well in the absence of technology. Technology has become a priority in many companies and organization. It is, therefore, important for us to learn how to utilize the various technological devices at our disposal. As the world continued to develop, it is of essences to be updated with new technology since technology keep on varying. In the business, for example, technology is important in saving and withdrawing money. The use of technology in business has resulted in extensive benefits yet fewer human resources are in the process. Technology has also been of the essence in storage of the day to day information. Some of this information are vital and is often protected by the same device. Unlike in the past when communication was done by sending letters and waiting for the postal services to deliver and retrieve information, current technology has made it easier for professional to

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Role of ICT in Improving Patient Care - Essay Example The World Health Organization highlights the primary objective for health information systems as; the need to collect, analyze and package date and impart the outcomes to others to aid in policy making. In one hand, this implies enhancing nurses access to lab results and diminishing hindrances between perceptions made by various medicinal services suppliers. On the other hand, policy making can be expanded through the execution of a healing center wide clinical choice emotionally supportive network that recovers packs of information and educates the fitting people at the proper time. A good example of such system is Electronic Health Records Ahima (2011) defines an Electronic Health Record (EHR) as a modern version of patient’s medical history, that is updated and maintained by clinicians over a given period of time. Liang (2010) further acknowledges that the contents of EHR are a lot and may encompass all important records on the administration and clinical data that are key to patient’s welfare. Such may include; patient’s progress notes, demographics, ailments, medications, laboratory data, medical history, radiology reports as well as immunization records. All these tons of information show why it is important for nurses to have a modern and integrated system that automates access to information. Some of the basic benefits of EHR include streamlining clinical workflow, quality management and many more as discussed in this paper.