Product Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Product Development - Essay usageSome of the well-informed customers often die hard out what improvements need to be made before different customers are aware. Some thinkings are also arrived at by seeing what the ingatherings lack and rushing to nosepiece the gap.Sony is known for its innovative results. With Apple iPod being a big success with a market grapple of 80% in the digital portable media player market and sold over 30 one million million million iPod devices by 2005. A market research of about 20,000 iPod consumers was undertaken in order to receive a feedback.The exemplification was random and consisted of subjects surveyed in diverse geographical areas of the UK and France. The target segment included current iPod users and future iPod purchasers as well as those who were planning to purchase a home run system or a high-level stereo system within the next year.The fact that emerged most often was that multiple be of speakers were used to show sound in the ro om, and this was slightly frustrating and the positioning required some effort. The adjourn speakers like the Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 standard based speakers, required several wires to be installed and once the speakers were installed, their positions were ameliorate and the sound was confined to the one spot. Portability was an issue. The survey subjects welcomed the idea of a single integrated speaker doing the work of the multiple ones. Idea contemporariesBrainstorming sessions were held to discuss the gap in the market for the Sony Speaker. With the spark for an idea generated, the cross-functional team consisting of manufacturers, market researchers, financial analysts and advertising agencies met to discuss and develop the concept.The benefits of having a cross-functional team were that it brought in expertise from all related departments. The diversity of the team members brought in different cultural viewpoints that added to decision making potential. It helped flash b ack inefficiencies because problems were addressed such as the dimensions of the speaker and the types of possible packaging in the initial process itself, rather than addressing them afterwards, which might have proved costly at the end of the product development process.The idea generation sessions that were on going, specific and involved, resulted in several viable alternatives. These were carefully screened to see if they aligned closely to the goals and strategy of Sonythey were compatible to the existing production and packaging lines could be marketed through the current distribution channels and promotional expenditure that would be requiredConcept Development and TestingCareful analysis of the concept design, product/packaging prototype, justification, feasibility, delivery model was undertaken. The need for an integrated speaker replacing several speakers capable of throwing sound to various areas in the room was an interesting product idea to pursue for the Research an d Development department.The product would be Sonys new spherical speaker that can be placed in the middle of a room to project sound in all directions. This would be instead of the consumer having to buy many speakers to project the sound inwards. It would include the following featuresDelivers, stereo sound using reflector technologyAutomatic adjust receiver for reception up to 150 from the transmitterBuilt-in 4 watt