Discussion Forum: Deployment Considerations

In Discussion Forum 6, post your response to the following discussion questions. Your initial posting should include three or more resources, which must be referenced using APA style.

200 words

Historically, there have been numerous successful and failed technology product launches that have taken place as a result of the appropriate or inadequate amount of due diligence and planning that took place to create or understand the need for this type of development. Use the Web to identify a technology or application that had a successful or failed product launch and adoption. Discuss what factors (e.g. such as medical concerns, environmental impact, public opinion, political implications, regulatory implications, etc.) were essential for the success or failure of the technology or application.

Instructors Example:

Electronic media has had a rough and complicated history. From the use of magnetic strips, floppies, CDs, and to DVDs, various manufacturers have always competed to bring their own formats to the forefront to compete as industry standards. Many have therefore failed wretchedly. One such media was the Sony MiniDisc (Greenspan, 2010). The MiniDisc was originally released in 1992 as a music recording platform. It was primarily geared towards a Japanese audience which, due to the high cost of CDs, provided a means of recording digital media in high quality on rewritable media. This was as an alternative to the bulky CD players of the time and was vying to replace the Walkman and cassette tapes. In Japan and across Asia, the format faired decently, selling some 5 million units in 1997, and exceeding sales of CD players in 1998. However, when Sony attempted to bring the platform to the US, the platform failed to find a decent foothold, with a market penetration of only 5% in 2000 (Pastro, 2013). Reason for this failure included the lower cost of CDs in the US, the rise of MP3 players, long recording time(audio had to be recorded/transferred in real-time), low supply and relative obscurity of the technology in the US, falling CD-R(W) media and drive prices, and the high cost of the players themselves. By 2001, with the release of Apple’s first generation of iPods, the MiniDisc had been completely outclassed and outperformed. What Sony failed to fully understand was the cultural difference between Japan and the US, in that the high price of CDs, lead to more prolific need for recording devices such as the MiniDisc (there was a large CD rental industry in Japan at the time). They also initially failed to see the advantage in solid state devices, and so, this platform quickly fell from favor, and as of 2011, the format has been officially discontinued (Greenspan, 2010).

References:

Greenspan, Sam. (2010, August 16.) 11 Famous Sony Products, Ranked From Worst Failure to Biggest Success. 11 Points. Retrieved from http://www.11points.com/Web-Tech/11_Famous_Sony_Products,_Ranked_From_Worst_Failure_to_Biggest_Success

Pastro, Tom. (2013, June 30.) The Failure of the Sony MiniDisc. Retrieved from http://tompastro.com/sony-minidisc-failure/