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profilefaith1119

Response 1: 

The product I chose to discus is the SMULE app for iPhone. This app was launched in 2008 to “enabled anyone to create, discover, love and enjoy music.” (Smule.com) Two reasons why this app was successful are as follows: The iTunes app store and understanding why people enjoy music. The iTunes Apps tore was launched in 2008. According to Forbes, Jeff smith stated that during this time his stock broker was telling him to sell all Apple stocks. This is important to note that in a recession there are many things that can be gained at a cheaper cost and even when a company is starting up. The iTunes store allows developers to create new material and push it to different markets for a cut, of course. This takes away some of the hassle of producing and marketing your creative apps. By doing this a developer has access to a multitude of different countries, demographics, and influential people. This was a win win for Smule. I myself have used one if this company’s apps.  This leads to my second point. Smule believes that people use music more now for participatory and expressive reasons, much like how we sing in the shower. By giving people a means to create music and even sing with their favorite celebrities in a app can be both participatory and expressive.  Finally, this ties into #9 on Sugar’s list: “You can find great no money or low money down deals.” (Sugar 2008) For applications and especially for SMULE, the recession of 2008 was the perfect time to make key partnerships with Apple to not only make money but influence the culture. SMULE caught the wave right where everyone else thought it was going down the drain.

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Response 2:

I’m picking Uber because I’m looking for something relatively easy to find information on and I frankly can’t think of many new products other than the iPhone that has had much of an impact on my life. I travel a lot for business, and I find Uber to be incredibly effective in getting around. I’m very curious to see what you all came up with.   By simply using my perception for starters, I would say that Uber has been a tremendous success.  Why?  Because it has transformed what I would refer to as the taxi business.  Not having to hail a cab in the rain and not know in advance what the ride would cost is not an effective way to get from point a to point b.   Furthermore, the entire experience of driving in a cab and wondering if the driver is ripping you off by going the “long way” is truly not fun.  Forget about the idea of wondering if you will be able to get a cab.  One of the reasons that Uber may have gotten off to a good start in what is considered “The Great Recession” is mentioned in Sugar’s article.   Essentially, Sugars thought is that the talent pool is lager in a recession. According to the cbpp.org article below, over eight million jobs were lost between 2007 and 2010.   This unfortunate situation provided Uber with a large pool of potential drivers.   The fact that they don’t pay them is another story (and benefit) entirely.  The point is there were a lot of people looking for work in 2009.   I think the point here is that, as Sugars states, a recession is a good time to start a business.  The second reason I can think of as to why Uber was successful in a down economy simply comes down to cost.  Obviously, prices and costs are top of mind for consumers in a down economy.   In my mind, Uber is less expensive simply because I don’t have to tip the driver.  Plain and simple.  But second, because I can determine the price of the trip before I get in the car.  Rather than find out the cost when I arrive, I can now weigh my options on what mode of transportation I might want to take. Or, decide whether or not the trip is necessary at all.

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