Abstract
The product life cycle (PLC) is one of the most crucial methods describing the processes of development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline of a product. When entrepreneurs are leading their products through these five stages, they often apply the 4P method that stands for product, price, promotion, and place to create an effective business plan (Sradersmar, 2019). Further, each stage of the PLS of the iPhone, applying the 4P method will be described.
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Development
- Product: Interestingly, the development of the iPhone started as a part of a project aimed to create an alternative for a PC mouse.
- Place: The US-based project had the codename Project Purple, and in its framework, the Model 035 was developed, which included a touchpad allowing its users to pinch, scroll and zoom without pressing any keys (Jones, 2020). After the iPod appeared, the developers made sure that consumers will never give up their mobile phones for anything (Jones, 2020).
- Promotion: Hence, in 2005 Apple released the Rokr E1 in partnership with Motorola (Jones, 2020).
- Price: This new mobile phone was quite a chip and compatible with iTunes and allowed to store and play the music but had severe technical limitations.
Introduction
- Product: The company moved on and finally presented the first iPhone.
- Promotion: It happened on 29 June 2007; the device had a thick, unbreakable Gorilla Glass screen and excellent technical specifications (Jones, 2020).
- Price: Although the initial price was high – $499 for 4 GB and $599 for 8 GB memory storage, by the end of the year, Apple sold 6 million units (Jones, 2020).
- Place: The product was mainly being sold in the US, UK, and Germany, and somewhat later, it reached consumers from the Netherlands, Belgium, and France (Jones, 2020). It had overwhelming success and instantly conquered the market.
Growth
- Price: Several months after the release, the initial price for the iPhone was lowered dramatically.
- Promotion: A discount of $200 was a good move, even though Apple had to give $100 gift vouchers to its fans who bought the phone for $599 (Jones, 2020).
- Product: Besides, the introduction of 3G in 2008 was another wise decision (Jones, 2020).
- Place: Apple was striving to reach its targets – make the iPhone faster, cheaper, more compatible with third-party apps, and available in more countries.
Growth Continuation
- Product: Therefore, the company introduced the iOS2, App Store, and new software, allowing third-party apps.
- Price: The price was lowered once more when the iPhone 3G was released on 11 July 2008 – to $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB storage space (Jones, 2020).
- Place: Now, it was sold in 21 countries throughout Western Europe and North America (Jones, 2020).
- Promotion: Next month, countries from South America and Central Europe expanded this list.
Maturity
- Place: In 2010 the device could be purchased worldwide, and the price was set and remained unchanged.
- Price: Now it was $199 for less storage memory and $299 for more (Jones, 2020).
- Product: Besides, the product was still gaining new features, like 4G, Wi-Fi, Siri, more memory storage, and longer battery life (Jones, 2020).
- Promotion: The price went higher only for iPhone 7, iPhone X, and iPhone Pro models in 2016-2019 (Jones, 2020). The product had never reached the decline stage, mainly because the developers tumbled to start raising the price while introducing new features to engage wealthier customers.
References
Jones, M. (2020). iPhone timeline: The history of every generation in chronological order 2007-2020. History Cooperative. Web.
Sradersmar, A. (2019). What is the product life cycle? Stages and examples. TheStreet. Web.