Monthly Archives: June 2022

by | Friday, June 3, 2022 · 7:42 am

R.I.P.: iPod Comes to the End of its Life

Nothing lasts forever, even things that we love and use. At some point in time, we give up treasured things when we realize they are worn out or obsolete. No matter what it is, eventually it comes to an end. The product gets to the decline stage and it’s time to use those resources for a new product. Time for a burial.

In recent years some of the most popular product burials have included Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer (now being reinstated), multiple Ford car product lines, Bronco (now being manufactured again), BlackBerry phones, the Volkswagen Beetle, Segway, and more.

Today, another beloved product has been added to the gone-but-not-forgotten list, and it’s a sad one. Apple has now officially stopped all production of the iPod. Yes, after stopping the Nano and Shuffle a few years ago, Apple has now ceased manufacturing all iPods and is only selling until inventory runs out.

The iPod was introduced in 2001 when it held 1,000 songs, has 5-gigabytes of storage, and cost $399. The iPod Touch followed in 2007, and the most recent (and last) iPod Touch launched in 2019. Over the two decades of its productive and prolific life, there were more than two dozen iPod models. By April of 2007 Apple had sold 100 million iPods. Today, an estimated 450 million iPods have been sold worldwide! Without the iPod, there would have been no iPhone.

In my humble opinion, the iPod was one of the most revolutionary products of all times. It ushered us into the truly portable music category; we could take any music anywhere, anytime on a small device that fit into a pocket. Revolutionary.

Nice to have known you, iPod. R.I.P.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: What was the first Apple product they got? When? How many Apple products do they have now?
    1. Discuss the stages in the product life cycle. What are the marketing objectives in each stage?
    1. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a product life cycle and place various products and services into each stage.
    1. Next, have students brainstorm on how to reposition or revise products/services to that they can move into an earlier stage of the life cycle.
    1. For fun, play the first iPod TV commercial: https://youtu.be/mE_bDNaYAr8

Sources:  Mickle, T. (10 May 2022). Farewell to the iPod. New York Times; Prang, A. and Stern, J. (10 May 2022). Apple is discontinuing the iPod after more than a two decade run. Wall Street Journal; other news sources.

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by | Wednesday, June 1, 2022 · 7:39 am

Stolen Secrets: Trade Secrets and Corporate Espionage

Many students are surprised to find out that there is significant corporate espionage in America. Corporate espionage (aka corporate spying or industrial espionage) is the use of espionage techniques to steal trade secrets, intellectual property, proprietary information, marketing strategies and the like.

While students may think of corporations as stuffy places only filled with paper and computers, they neglect to consider the enormous costs (including time-to-market) that it takes to arrive at a unique product or service. And how much is customer information and sales worth? Plus, research and technology are serious expenditures and organizations pay hefty fees to protect their institutional knowledge.

One example is a chemist employed at Coca-Cola. She was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison for stealing trade secrets related to a BPA-free coating for the inside of cans and selling them to a Chinese company. Were the secrets a big deal? Yes. The trade secrets in this case collectively cost about $120 million to develop.

Other cases include trade secret thefts worth an estimated $1 billion from a petroleum company, a securities firm robbed of $4.1 million, and lawsuits of trade secret thefts between multiple companies in the technology, beauty, and chemical industries.

Not all corporate espionage is as dramatic or damaging as this example. Many employees or former employees leave companies with proprietary information or customer data. And, as might be expected, Silicon Valley is one of the world’s most targeted areas for espionage. High tech industries in computer software, hardware, automobiles, energy, biotechnology, and more are frequently targeted by thieves.

How much is lost to corporate espionage? Well, estimates vary (and not all thefts are reported) but G4S, a British multinational security services company, estimates it in the trillions of dollars each year.

Watch out!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the difference between laws and ethics.
  2. Ask students to define corporate espionage.
  3. What examples might students know about?
  4. What can be stolen from corporations that might be valuable? How much is that worth?
  5. Show video about corporate espionage: https://youtu.be/nwvwhM54uus
  6. Divide students into teams. Have each team do an internet search for corporate espionage examples. What happened, when, stolen, results, etc.?
  7. Have each team present their example.

Sources:  Ex-Coca-Cola engineer sentenced in trade secrets case. (10 May 2022). Associated Press.; Bloomberg News; other news sources.

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