• Apple sells 100 millionth iTunes download

• Apple may sell ‘only’ 7.9m iPhones this year, more than 20% below its target of 10m.

• Apple market share continues to climb, Windows drops.

• With both iPhone and Mac operational software Apple now has 10.41% of the operational software market, whereas Windows OS market share measured 88.26% in January, dropping slightly from 88.7% in December

• Safari's share of 8.3% is a record for Apple.

• Analyst: Apple’s U.S. consumer market share now 21% in the U.S. and 10% in the UK consumer markets.

• After Apple introduced the Intel Macs, Mac sales grew 37% in 2007, more than double the industry-wide rate of 15%.

• Apple’s worldwide market share grew from 2.4% in 2006 to 2.9% in 2007.

• Apple's retail market share is 14%, and 66% (two-thirds) for PCs costing $1,000 or more.

From the information, provided above, it can, therefore, be evaluated, that such that such positive increases in the Apple’ appearance may actually have a positive impact upon my promotional strategy, because when I will be advertising Apple’s new noise-cancelling headphones it might more encouraging for people to try the new product produced by Apple due to its popularity and exceptional brand recognition, so that they will not confuse the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones with any other brand available on the market. It appears, that the only social or cultural factors that may have a negative impact upon my promotional strategy for Apple, are that there might not such a great increase for Apple’ products due to the fact that most people still use Windows, and there might be certain social groups which might prefer Apple’s products and their operational software and other social groups who will continue using Windows due to its reliability and wider variety of products that can be used with it. However, additional research should be carried out on social and cultural factors that may have an impact upon my promotional strategy.

Ethical and Environmental influences

In terms of Ethical and Environmental influences, my promotional methods may actually to a certain extent cause some damage to the environment. Firstly, in order to produce the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones, they will need some plastics as a part of the raw materials, and oil, which is also a scarce resource is needed in order to produce plastics, so there might be a certain degree of damage to the environment during the process of obtaining plastics, and making headphones and wasting some raw materials which are not needed, will cause air pollution or increase in CO2 emissions. Also, in terms of packaging, although Apple claims on their website, that they’re trying their best to reduce the amount of packaging needed and try to use recyclable materials for their packaging as much as possible, it still leads to a certain degree of waste, which causes pollution to the environment. In addition to this, one of my promotional methods involves printing an advert in the in-flight magazine, which will also lead to a certain degree of waste and pollution, as well as the fact that new Apple noise-cancelling headphones will be given out on the airplane, while the airplane will be causing pollution to the environment, and by supplying the headphones to the airplanes, I will be increasing the amount of weight or freight that each airline will have to take on the board, and the more freight each airplane will be carrying, the more pollution it will be causing to the environment. However, the extent to which it will cause environmental pollution is very difficult to measure, because it will be a very small percentage of the overall freight that each airplane will be carrying. In terms, of ethical issues there’s no sufficient evidence provided yet, that suggests that any products produced by Apple would cause any impact upon ethnicity, or ethnicity would cause an impact upon the Apple products and my promotional strategy, because Apple doesn’t carry out any animal testing, neither it causes obesity, affects children or anything similar to that.

Legislative and regulatory influences

These may include some technical tests that may have to be carried out by me or Apple to prove that their noise-cancelling headphones actually do have this feature, which then might lead to some additional external costs of my proposed promotional strategy. It might also have to comply with sale of goods act and trades description act. In addition to this, the headphones might also have to comply with some regulations and legislations upon the weight and dimensions of the product, as well as the quality of the materials used in the product, whether it’s safe to use for people, and whether its power or dB output will not damage a person’s ears.

Pressure groups influences

There’s lack of any evidence provided that suggests, that there are any pressure groups which may affect Apple’s activities, and the way my promotional strategy is run, because Apple seems to comply with all current laws such as minimum wage rate and conditions in which their employees have to work. This, therefore means that it is unlikely that this factor could cause an impact upon my proposed promotional strategy for Apple’s noise-cancelling headphones.

Competitors’ influences

This is the second major factor for me and my proposed promotional strategy for Apple, because the market that I’m entering, although it’s a niche market, it’s very competitive; and there are plenty of various adverts and promotional methods used by Apple’s competitors to promote their product, which may in certain circumstances and depending on the type of product and promotion, out-compete Apple. Apple is currently not a market leader in terms of its shares on the market that can be identified from the source B. However, Apple has recently been out-competing its market leader on the software market- Microsoft, and it has recently seen big growth figures in the sales of all of the products that they currently produce. This, therefore, suggests that my proposed promotional strategy for Apple may well be effective, due to its exceptionally good image and well known brand. It also means, that with my promotional strategy Apple would be entering a slightly new, niche market of noise-cancelling headphones, where it hasn’t tried to produce anything before, and where there are other various, well established and promoted firms and brands such as Bose, Sony, Senheiser and Bang and Olufsen that are well known for producing high quality noise-cancelling headphones already. So, it might be difficult in terms of my promotional strategy to try to convince people, that Apple is no worse at producing noise-cancelling headphones than Bose, and in some cases may be even better due to its high quality, good brand image, and simplistic design. The extent to which, this will significantly influence the effectiveness of my promotional strategy, depends upon the other firms’ promotions and products available on the market at the time, when my promotional strategy is introduced. Also, although it is difficult to say how Apple’s existing competitors will react to my promotional strategy and Apple’s entry on the new market, provided that there’s no information about what type of products current Apple’s competitors on the noise-cancelling headphones market will be producing in the end of the year 2010. However, I predict, that Apple’s competitors will be worrying and trying to introduce a better product or work more on their designs of the noise-cancelling headphones, because although they might produce noise-cancelling headphones which are of a higher quality or in a way more professional, and they’re highly specialised at producing them, Apple has a brand which is better known than most of the brands and firms on the noise-cancelling headphones market, which suggests it has all chances of becoming successful on this niche market, as well as my promotional strategy of being effective at promoting new Apple noise-cancelling headhones and their brand.

Technology’ influences

This is the most important factor for Apple, because it interacts with Apple’s mission statement of ‘offering the best possible personal computing technology, and putting that technology in the hands of as many people as possible.’ Apple has always been in the Hi-tech market, and with my proposed promotional strategy, will be entering a similar market. It is very important for Apple, because not only it needs to keep up with the new technology and products being developed on the market, but making sure it’s ahead of the technological process and its competitors all the time, to make sure it saves after itself its position of the most innovative technological company in the world. In addition to this, Apple products have relatively short life cycles, which is another reason why a technological influence is so important in this case, and why my promotional strategy also needs to be up-to-date and adjusted if necessary, to make sure it is effectively encouraging demand for Apple products and their new noise-cancelling headphones proposed in my promotional strategy in particular. Therefore, the extent to which my promotional strategy and I will be affected by technological influence is great, and implies that extra attention needs to be paid to technology, and all of the new technological products available on the market, before my promotional strategy is introduced, because my promotional strategy might be, for instance, be more effective if it’s used with a new product which will have come out on the market in the end of 2010, because there might be a higher demand for this new product in the future than for noise-cancelling headphones now. However, it is very difficult to judge on this accurately, because it is very difficult to see that far in the future and make accurate forecasts and prediction of what is going to happen and how effective my promotional strategy will be in the end of the year 2010, with the given high growth rate in technology.

Conclusion

To conclude, my promotional strategy will, to a certain extent, be affected by some internal and external influences and in some cases more by some of them than the others. There were some inaccuracies in my primary research, and there could have been more accurate techniques used in my work, particularly in my primary research. This was partially due to my geographical immobility and a long time that it would take me to do a more thorough research in order to get more accurate results. I believe that overall I have provided a sufficient evidence to show that my proposed promotional strategy for the new Apple noise-cancelling headphones can be very effective in various ways unlike some other methods of promotion that are currently used not only by Apple’s competitors but other firms on the market as well. However, due to an economic recession that the UK is currently experiencing, I would rather postpone the introduction of my promotional strategy until the end of 2010 and introduce it later, provided that I have undertaken further research to identify any changes in trends and demand on such niche market as noise-cancelling headphones. This would both, minimise the risk for Apple and increase the effectiveness of my promotional strategy by making sure it is introduced at the right place and at the right time.

Source A:

• February 2009

Rates hit historic 1%

P ound rises after Bank of England cut interest rates to lowest levels in 315-year history

• February 2009: Base rate to 0.5%

• January 2009: Base rate to 1.5%

• December: Rates cut to 2%

• November: City in shock as rates slashed to 3%

• October: Rates cut to 4.5%

• September: Rates held at 5%

• August: Bank of England holds rates at 5%

• July: Rates on hold for third month in row

• June: Interest rates left on hold

• May: Bank holds rates despite turmoil

• April: Interest rates cut to 5%

Unemployment

Unemployment seen to reach 12-year high

By Andrew Taylor, Employment Correspondent

Published: February 9 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 9 2009 02:00

Official figures are expected to reveal on Wednesday that the total number of unemployed people topped 2m at the end of last year, the highest figure since Labour came to power in 1997.

The number of jobless had climbed to 1.92m in the three months to the end of November and is expected to rise more steeply in the first half of this year following a spate of redundancies since Christmas.

Economists expect the total number of jobless to rise to 3m by next year to equal the heights of the early 1980s and 1990s recessions. That would mean unemployment could peak in 2010, just as Labour might be facing a general election.

Almost 40 per cent of employers have made contingency plans for redundancies over the next year, says a survey of almost 900 employers published on Monday by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the consultants KPMG.

More than a third expect to cut staff in the first three months of 2009. This is in spite of the fact companies are working hard to avoid making redundancies by freezing recruitment and cutting shift times. Some 18 per cent of employers had introduced short-time working, CIPD/ KPMG said.

Andrew Smith, KPMG chief economist, indicated that interest rate policy shortcomings created an urgent need for alternative monetary policy measures, such as “so-called quantitative easing” to prevent a grim recession becoming “something even worse”.

Deterioration in the labour market was breathtaking, he said. “Higher unemployment will weaken demand which in turn will lead to higher unemployment.”

Job prospects were “deteriorating at an alarming rate”, said John Philpott, CIPD chief economist. “The labour market outlook is clearly even worse than expected at the turn of the year ... it now seems sadly inevitable that UK unemployment will top 3m before the jobs market finally starts to recover.”

About 45 per cent of manufacturers and more than 35 per cent of private sector service companies expect to shed jobs in 2009’s first quarter. This compares with less than 20 per cent in public administration and defence.

Employers “intend to keep a much tighter rein on pay increases in the coming months”, CIPD/KPMG said. Some 13 per cent had “no intention of carrying out a pay review this year”. The average annual pay rise expectation had fallen to 2.6 per cent from 3.45 per cent last autumn.

Source B

Apple sells 100 millionth iTunes download

OUT-LAW News, 13/07/2004

Apple announced yesterday that its iTunes music store has sold a landmark one hundred million downloads, confirming the growing popularity of licensed on-line music sites in general, and the iTunes site in particular.

"As we cross this historic milestone, we want to thank our customers, the artists and the music labels who have embraced our dream for iTunes," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

The US iTunes store launched at the end of April last year and quickly became the most successful fee-based service for authorised music downloads. The company sold one million downloads in its first week, but missed its target of 100 million downloads by the end of the first year by around 30 million songs.

Late on Sunday the target was finally met when Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas, downloaded Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero7. The lucky 20-year-old gets a PowerBook, an iPod, a voucher for 10,000 iTunes songs and an invitation to create his own Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store, in addition to the phone call he has already received from Steve Jobs.

Apple's iTunes opened in the UK, France and Germany in June, offering single downloads for a price of €0.99, or £0.79 in the UK, and a catalogue of 700,000 songs. The new stores sold over 800,000 songs in their first week of operation, 450,000 of them in the UK.

Apple may sell ‘only’ 7.9m iPhones this year, more than 20% below its target of 10m, warns Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, quoted in Barron’s. Sacconaghi’s estimates are based on sales of the iPhone for Dec, when Apple sold about 180,000 iPhones per week. There are also taken into account seasonal factors and “particularly disappointing” European sales, where the iPhone is available in France, Germany and the UK. Sacconaghi is not the only one to cast doubts over iPhone sales. Overall, analysts identify two challenges: a demand that has failed to meet expectations, and the problem of unlocked iPhones, which are preventing Apple to cash in from revenue-sharing deals with network providers.