Introduction
Reputable companies in the business world are constantly involved in the innovation of products that they manufacture. Such companies frequently introduce new products, modify the existing products, or improve the already existing products. All these activities are done to fulfill the needs and desires of customers. The whole process of conceptualizing, designing, manufacturing, and selling a product is called product development. One prominent company that is involved in product development is the Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is one of the most reputable companies in the world. The company was established in 1976 by three like-minded persons. The three persons are Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak. The company has its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The Company deals with conceptualizing, designing, developing, and selling of some of the global leading products. Such products include: the Mac computers, iPod, iPhones, iPads, and media player. The company is also involved in the product development of two renowned operating systems namely iOS and OS X. The company has retail stores in 18 countries around the world and online stores in 120 countries (O'grady, 2009 p.1-16). Apple has reviewed its product portfolio and is in the process of designing a new type of mobile phone that will be developed.
The new Phone that Apple Inc. is designing
The new phone that Apple is designing will have very great features that are expected to satisfy the demand of the customers. The phone will have some feature that are almost similar to the iPhone 6S. However, the company wants the design of the new phone to be slimmer that the features in the iPhone 6S. The new phone will be less than 7.0 mm in thickness. Though this is the slimness that will meet the customer wants, there is an issue with it because it may affect the battery life of the new phone (McCann, 2016).
The other thing about the design of this phone is that the company wants it to be all-metal. The phone will also have a new screen technology. In the inside, the new phone will be made with fan-out technology that is aimed at saving space so that the phone’s thickness can be reduced. This phone will be waterproof. It will also be possible to use the touch screen with wet fingers because a new technology called pixel eyes will be used in the design of this phone (McCann, 2016).
Importance of the process design on the Phone that Apple is developing
Design can be defined as the act converting a concept or an idea into information that can be used to make a product (Mital, 2008 p.37). Design of any product can involve so many academic disciplines. In the case of the new phone that Apple is producing, industrial designers and engineers can be involved in its design. The result of the design process on the phone that Apple wants to produce is the information that will be used to develop that phone. Over the past years, product design has developed from informal drawing, to formal blueprints, to design drawings, to Computer-Aided Drawing (CAD) (Mital, 2008 p.39).
Process design is very important when developing any product. Apple can use process design to acquire the benefits that the process offers during the process of developing this phone. The first benefit that Apple can reap from a product design is that the company can use this design to specify the activities that should be carried out during the process of the phone development. Apple can also use a product design to specify the materials that the company will use during the process of the phone development. Another use of the product design is that it can be used by the Company to determine the dimensions during the process of developing the intended new phone. Finally, Apple can use a product design to set performance standards on the phone it intends to produce, and also to define this phone’s appearance (International Conference on Manufacturing and Engineering Technology, Sheng & Wang, 2014 p. 115).
Design has a huge impact on the quality of a product. Good product designs achieve the needs of the customers while poor designs do not. Another thing worth noting is that an expensive product design result to a costly final product. An expensive final product can have a negative impact on the market share of a product. However, in the case of Apple, everything is opposite. This is because as it was discussed earlier on in this paper, Apple targets high class customers with its products. Pricing of its products is not an issue because the market segment that Apple targets can afford these products. This means that Apple can afford a costly design for the phone the Company is about to develop.
Stages of the Product Design Process
There are six stages that are involved in the product design process. The six stages are: idea generation; screening ideas; feasibility study; preliminary design; pilot runs and testing; new product launch (Telsang, 2005 p.61-65). Idea generation is the first stage and it is an important step because it enables the product developing company to understand the customers and the needs these customers have. Idea generation is where ideas are sought from various diverse sources regarding the product that is to be developed. In the case of Apple producing a new phone, ideas regarding this issue can be from both the external and internal sources. The internal sources of ideas can be employees, reverse engineering, market research, and research and development (R&D). Apple can also seek ideas from the external sources that include: customers, competitors such as Nokia, legislations, environment, organization’s strategic position, and technology.
Apple can acquire ideas from the competitors through benchmarking, perceptual maps, and reverse engineering. Perceptual maps are used to compare different perceptions from different customers regarding the company’s products and those from the competitors. On the other hand, benchmarking refers to a company using the best quality products from another company and using these products as a measure against its own products. Based on these measurements, a company can make a resolve to either improve the quality of its products, or maintain the same level of standards. Finally, reverse engineering can be used as a method of generating ideas through taking a competitor product, and dismantling it to view how it is designed. The design features of the dismantled competitor’s product can help a company to understand the areas it need to improve when designing its products (Telsang, 2005 p.61).
In the screening ideas stage, ideas that do not seem to have a huge impact in the development of a product are eliminated. The ideas to be eliminated can be identified using models, graphics, and an outline specification. Ideas are eliminated if they are deemed to have a low impact on sales and profitability of the company; they can have a negative impact on the firm’s survival; they cannot fully utilize the available processes and capabilities.
The third stage is the feasibility study, and it involves conducting a market, economic, technical, and strategic analysis. Marketing analysis involves taking the customers’ needs that were identified during the idea generation step, and also new ideas. Market analysis is very important because it helps accompany in making a decision as to whether it is viable to invest in a particular product line. Apple can use market analysis results to understand whether the market demand is sufficient to produce the new phone. On the other hand, economic analysis establishes the cost of production and development of the product that a company wishes to produce. Economic analysis also compares this cost with the expected sales volume so as to identify the product’s profit potential. The profit potential can be identified using four measures that include: cost benefit analysis, net present value (NPV), decision theory, and internal rate of return (IRR). Finally, the technical and strategic analysis is aimed at identifying the viability of a product with regard to technology, availability of materials, manufacturing process among many other factors (Telsang, 2005 p.62).
In the fourth stage, preliminary design, design engineers use general specifications to form a technical specification. This is where a prototype is formed, the prototype is tested, design revised, retested among other activities. All these activities are aimed at attaining a viable design. There are two types of designs that are incorporated in the preliminary design. The two are form design and production design. Form is the physical appearance of the product that is to be produced while production design mainly deals with the way the product is to be developed (Telsang, 2005 p.63).
In the pilot runs and testing stage, the prototypes that were developed in the previous step are tested using several iterations, and a pilot run of the process of manufacturing is conducted. Though the stage is mainly involved in testing the performance of the product, market testing is also conducted. The fifth stage is the final design and process plan, and it is in this step where detailed drawings and the new product specification is done. These drawings and specifications are accompanied by process plans. The process plans are instructions to the developer of the product, which include the required tools and equipment, job descriptions, computer programs, and work instructions. The final stage is the launch of the new product. The new product should be refined and free of errors and defects. The launch of the product should be done in a systematic manner. Low volume of the product should be released into the market first, and then as the confidence develops, the volume should be increased. Another thing that is worth noting is that the release of the new product should involve a coordination of two departments within an organization. The two are the supply chain and the marketing department (Telsang, 2005 p.63).
Aim and Objective of the New Apple Phone using the Design Process
A successful product design is reflected by its success in the market, which can be measured by the amount of profit such a product yields to a company. Though a the profitability of any product that is introduced in the market takes time to be realized, a product should be produced in a way that assures the manufacturer that profit will be realized within the shortest time possible (Chaudhari & Gokhale, 2009 p.32 ). In the case of the new phone that Apple wants to develop, some factors needs to be considered in its design. As it is widely known, Apple practices the policy of exclusivity when designing its products. The policy of exclusivity means that only few people in the society should have the ability to buy Apple’s products. This is achieved through pricing of this Company’s products. When it comes to pricing, Apple’s products are targeted to middle class and upper class category of buyers. The company’s products are highly priced because they are only targeted to the economically stable people in the society. For this reason, the design of any product that Apple is at developing the most unique product possible. This is because owning an Apple product is a symbol of social identity. For this reason, the pricing of the new phone that Apple wants to produce is obviously expected to be high. The quality of the new phone is also expected to be high (Cooper & Kleinschmidt, 1990 p.39).
References
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