The E-Business: Multimedia Industry Report

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Introduction

The current report on the multimedia industry is structured in such a manner to analyze its basic parameters and features both at macro and micro levels of description. Being an industry producing and exchanging a given nomenclature of products it has its own structure, leaders, specialization, and different orientations.

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The niches occupied by different companies also considerably vary and hence the purpose of the first section of the report is to draw the outline and definitions of the multimedia industry on the macro level with a particular emphasis on its priorities, technological and economic challenges as well as relation with other spheres of economy.

The second section of current report provides the analysis of six multimedia companies grounded in identifying key differences and similarities. The technique of such comparison is the analysis of companies’ turnover, the number of employees and other different economical values and parameters.

The description of companies’ past and future activities as well as their ambitions, project and strategies will also be realized as the inherent part of the second section.

In the third section each company will be compared within the framework created and formulated by Collyer et al.

And finally the fourth chapter describes my personal attitudes to these companies in terms of which of them is the best place of work for me. I will try to assess it drawing on examples from its institutional organization, working climate, relation to employees, career possibilities and other factors which are important in terms of choosing the company to work for.

Multimedia industry

Multimedia industry is the diverse sector of multimedia technologies production and distribution. One of its crucial characteristics is a fusion of technology with symbolic and cultural material such as images, texts, audio, communication, gaming and other activities that are connected with symbolical exchange between people. Hence it should be claimed that multimedia industry lies in the centre of modern cultural production embedded in business strategies of different companies.

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The structure of multimedia industry is very polarized with a predominance of American, Japanese and European companies that control the majorities of market niches, products patents and sales.

‘Knowledge industry’ that is how multimedia industry is often called is mainly located in Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. Hollywood provides the content and Silicon Valley realizes it technologically.

The multimedia industry produces large added-value which means that the price set for the produced technological goods is times higher that the cost needed for its production. That is characteristic of all modern technological products which use standard patterns of production and economize on the strategy peculiar to economy of scale.

The main components of multimedia industry sector include markets on which it is realized which are very diverse including education, entertainment, communication, healthcare and advertising and the end products which it realizes which are also very diverse such as distance learning, home entertainment, TV/movies, animation, virtual reality, teleradiology, trainings , presentations, video conferences, computer games, multimedia devices, content providers, internet and information providers, multimedia developers, graphic designers, animators, writers, programmers, designers of interface, the providers of technology, digital carriers, software developers, telephone and the cable lines, infrastructure etc., etc.

Multimedia companies: Similarities and Differences, Challenges and Priorities Sony

Current section deals with analysis of six multimedia companies including Sony, Apple, Electronic Arts, Bird Studios, Nintendo and AOL. These companies will be analyzed paying particular attention to their economic values such as performance, returns, income, levels of employment; management and marketing strategies, new production lines and approaches in the conditions of global market.

The similarities and differences between them will be discussed in terms of market position, competitive advantages, product orientations and business strategies. Finally, the priorities and existing challenges faced by these companies are carefully evaluated to outline the possible directions of their development.

Sony Corporation is one of the leading manufacturers of multimedia products including electronics, video, audio, communication, gaming consoles etc.

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The revenues of this company are among the highest in the industry amounting to $70.303 billion dollars as of 2007.

The structure of the company shows that its business and commercial activities are mainly centered on the production of multimedia products: Sony Pictures Entertainments, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment and some others. The strong emphasis on the production of entertainment products proves the fact that Sony Corporation is multimedia company.

Sony was historically notable for the production of commercial home entertainment including video, audio readers and carriers as well as multimedia players, various disks cassettes. It is famous for its design of Dolby Surround System and Sony PlayStation gaming console which became popular all over the world due its emphasis on entertainment and multimedia. Besides this Sony Corporation has its own Sound Recording studios which collaborate with different artists, film and music makers.

Sony corporation faces many challenges in its future developing. Being a producer of multimedia it faces with a challenge of necessity of pursuing cross-platform designs and policies needed to integrate Sony products with rising tide of Internet technologies (Daily Post, 2005, p. 27).

Sony is recognized as one of the most important multimedia companies to promote safe environmental technologies for which it got many prizes. The continuation of these important efforts is necessary for realization of Sony’s social mission and responsibilities and requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders in the process (Sony Global, 2007).

Another great challenge in Sony is interrelation between workers and company’s managements that is the issues of lay-off and retention. The events that happened in 2005 when many employees faced up with the danger of layoff shows that Sony has had the significant problems concerning regulation of social relations in the company (Daily Post, 2005, p. 25-26).

Electronic Arts Company

The EA Company is famous multimedia manufacturers which in contrast to Sony Corporation has more limited sphere of specialization including video and computer games, internet gaming platforms and some other activities connected with video games industry. EA’s overturn and profit is not so much as Sony’s and it can be explained by narrower specialization of EA and its orientation on the specific market. For instance EA received $3,129 billion dollars in its fiscal year as of March 2005 (Thompson, 2005, p. 297). Electronic Arts are famous for their long-running brands like Medal of Honor, NFS, The Sims etc.

On profitability/ performance of EA, it can be noted that the profitability of the Electronic Arts is fluctuating from time over time unlike Sony Corporation which is stable. This is shown by the Gross profit margin, Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and the operating profit margin. In 2000, the ROE increased to 12.6% from 11% in 1999 before declining further to -1.1% in 2001 again it went up to 8.2% in 2002 and year 2003 it settled at 17.8%.

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The net profit margin also increased to 8.2% in 2000 from 6% in 1999. In 2001, it declined to -0.8% and then went up to 5.9% in 2002 before settling at 12.8% in year 2003. In 2000, the ROA inclined to 10% from 8.1% in 1999 before declining further to -0.8% in 2001 before going down to 6% in 2002 and settled at 13.4% in year 2003 (Thompson, 2005, p. 271).

EA was distributing 34 co-publishing and distribution titles. Co-published titles were games conceived and developed by other game developers for which EA provided production assistance and marketing and distribution services. Some of the games were published and marketed under one of EA’s three primary brands (EA Games, EA Sports, and EA Sports Big). The distribution titles were games published by another game developer and delivered to EA as ready-to-market products; EA provided only distribution services for these games.

Electronic Arts have permanent relations with other multimedia companies such as America Online. In 1999, EA and America Online entered into a five-year agreement for EA to be AOL’s exclusive provider of a broad aggregation of online games and interactive entertainment for AOL’s Game Channel. EA managed all of the content of the Game Channel and had the latitude to sell its games to AOL subscribers and users. Permanent commercial and productive relations are also maintained with Sony Corporation which provides gaming console for Electronic Arts. The whole spectrum of companies that operate in EA’s niche of market (suppliers) include the following:

1. The console makers (Sony and Nintendo) that supplied the CDs, DVDs, or optical disks on which EA then installed its video games designed for PlayStation, Game-Cube, and Game Boy consoles.

2. Companies that pressed the CDs, DVDs, and optical disks containing its games.

3. Companies that printed its game instruction booklets

4.Companies that packaged the disks and printed game instructions on the jewel cases and boxes for shipping to customers.

The EA has faced up with a lot of challenges to its business activities. The primary challenge is increased competition and rivalry in this segment of multimedia industry which considerably shrinks the margin of profit. Hence, to be effective Electronic Arts should develop new approaches and strategies to promote their products.

Until quite recently the expenditures on marketing and advertising were not so great but now Electronic Arts and similar companies spend much money on product positioning and promotion (Amor, 2000, p. 67). The second important challenge EA meets is the necessity of entering ever growing market of on-line gaming which means buying and elaborating large gaming servers and new Internet-gaming technologies.

Furthermore, as the population of traditional EA markets such as United States and Europe is aging it is necessary to develop global networks and outlets to successfully disseminate company’s products in East Asia and other regions. Challenges accompanies by this process are evident: the most crucial one is the necessity to compete with Far East companies which use cheap labor which is very difficult but outsourcing should be regarded as an important tool for overcoming these challenges.

To sum it up Electronic Arts was very successful in recent years but growing demands of global markets, changes to management’s strategies, technologies, increased competition impose new challenges on EA which need to be overcome to guarantee the efficiency of this particular company.

Apple Inc.

Apple is multinational corporation located in the United States and producing wide scope o multimedia and software products. The production of multimedia products constitutes similarity between Apple and already discussed multimedia companies such as Sony Corporation and Electronic Arts.

But unlike these companies Apple is also notable for creating and selling personal computers, computer hardware, software and different multimedia plug-ins and accessories (Apple Inc., 2007).

Apple Inc. has fewer outlets and overseas departments as it is oriented mainly at American market. As of 2007 Apple had two hundred retail departments and store operating in five countries and a very huge online store where different hardware and software products are realized.

Besides this Apple Inc. is famous for its iTunes stores which provide audio books, music, iPod games, different music videos, episodes from television programs and various movies that can be downloaded through Mac and Windows and through special software produced for iPod. So among the company’s most notable products one should mention Macintosh computers and hardware, iPod sales line of the portable multimedia players and iPhone. Besides this Apple’s software production include Mac OS X, iLife multimedia and the creativity software and Final Cut Studio which includes professional audio and film-industry software products. Hence it should be said that Apple Inc. products and market orientations are similar to Sony Corporation strategies and sales line.

Apple Inc. is a big company which employs more that twenty thousand temporary and permanent workers all over the world and had annual sales in the fiscal year 2007 at the level f $24,01 billion dollars which places it in a cohort of world’s largest multimedia corporations.

The efficiency and success of Apple Inc. in 90-s was significantly limited by competition with Microsoft software such as Windows which became the monopolist for the Intel platform computers. Though still was very popular in the United States its global positions were significantly undermined. Hence, Apple concentrated on the production of digital video and audio software for the professional and consumer multimedia – iPod media players which became the most popular in the world (Cantrell, 2007).

Recent developments brought rise to Apple share value which increased twofold.

New priorities for Apple Inc. are now becoming evident. First of all, intensive cooperation with Intel led to launching a huge sales line of Intel-based Macintosh computers in 2006. New orientation at professional audience that is characteristic of MacBook Pro may prove to be important element in promoting Apple Inc. interests and stimulating company’s efficiency and consumers’ confidence.

Using Intel processors and technology has a trend of rising profits for both of the companies. This is particularly true of iMac which uses Intel’s Core Duo technologies. Another priority which promises good perspectives for the company is introduction of the new software called Boot Camp which is used for installing Windows XP together with MAC OS X on Mac computers.

The trends of Apple Inc. development are positive notwithstanding existing challenges. Between 2003 and 2006 years as it was noted the price of company’s stock increased considerably and Apple even managed to surpass Dell. All this can be explained by the fact that Apple managed to diversify its products and capitalize in those multimedia sectors which are the most efficient.

This is particularly true for consumer multimedia products including media players, different multimedia accessories etc.: the niche successfully occupied by Apple Inc. Apple Inc. launched also Apple TV which proves the fact that is expands into new areas of multimedia industry.

The change of company’s name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc. that occurred in the beginning of 2007 shows that Apple considerably reoriented its activities and became even more active in multimedia industry. The popularity if Apple iTunes was guaranteed by an effective marketing decision for Apple Inc. allowed them to be used at every media player notwithstanding its origin.

The investment in Research & Development continue to be a crucial priority and Apple’s entrance to multimedia industry in full scale pose new challenges to R&D making necessary to expand it.

Bird Studios

Bird Studios is British company located in London which specializes in computer animation, standard and web-design and developing visual effects for TV, film industry and digital world. Compared to other companies described above Bird Studios is a company of a lesser scale, overturn and the number of people employed. It is a company of high-quality specialists in computer technologies and multimedia.

The sector of its specialization is rather narrow as it provides design solutions to multimedia industry and does not produce any multimedia hardware and software. This unites Bird Studio with Electronic Arts company which put the primary emphasis on the production of animated video games and considerably differentiates it from such large producers of multimedia as Apple and Sony which were analyzed above.

Among the most widespread nomenclature of service Bird Studios realize are various broadcast title sequences, music video and commercials.

It means that the basic company’s activities take place in cooperation with film industry, mass communication outlets like TV channels and different firms realizing marketing campaigns. Bird Studio has a large number of rewarded music promos such as created for Pet Shop Boys and IMAX as a part of its 3D film ‘Cyber world’. Bird Studios created animation for different films including Sci-Fi TV Film named ‘Mr. Stitch’ (Bird Studios Web Site, 2007).

Besides this Bird Studios specialization sphere extends to combining photo-realistic 3D computer animations with real action and separate CGI animation as well as designing character animation which has parallels with Electronic Arts animation activities as the part of video games production.

Bird Studios has MTV, Royal Television society, Computer Animation festival and many other awards for its animation and video products.

The recent development of the company saw both challenges and advantages. It is necessary to pay particular attention to those challenges that Bird Studios are facing.

First of all, being a service provider in animation Bird Studios should pay particular attention to current developments in internet and computer technologies to be in touch with modern trends in design and animation. There is no denying the importance of the fact that this means not following in line with existing technologies but possibly invest in the viable development of its own Research & Development efforts, developing new techniques and design approaches.

To be effective in an increasingly competitive animation and multimedia market the company should be centered on attracting new specialists such as designers, internet specialists, programmers and other employers that proves their professionalism and high level of skills. Besides this, permanent communication with clients and partners such as film studios, media companies and video games producers is needed to create demand on the Blue Bird service and expand the scope of its activities. Unless all these requirements are met it is difficult to hope that this company will prove to be competitive in the ever competitive multimedia industry.

America Online

AOL LLC is global media company and internet service provider own by Time Warner which is one of the largest media corporations in the world. Compared to other companies already discussed AOL is unique since it is a world’ s largest provider of Internet services including Internet multimedia services (Cohn, 2006).

Besides this it should be noted that being a global company AOL has international versions of its services tailored for specific cultural and geographic regions which ties it with Electronic Arts which also has specific design departments which create video games according to cultural values of the focus-group population.

The AOL LLC has more than 30 million Internet subscribers all over the world. Mergers with other companies and multimedia institutions made AOL the largest provider of Internet services all the world leaving behind its counterparts.

The total value of AOL share stock amounted $226 in 2000 but due too Dotcom crisis it fell considerably and subsequently the number of internet subscribers had considerably declined.

There is no denying the importance of the fact that AOL managed to cope with these challenges and came back to its previous high level however many problems and challenges are still in place for the company. Now AOL is in difficult transition characterized by a dramatic decline of subscribers’ base. Such multimedia and internet companies as Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft have more favorable conditions on the multimedia industry if compared to AOL.

Currently AOL LLC passes significant changes in business focus. As it was noted above after the merger with Time Warner the value of AOL share stock fell from $200 billion to ridiculous numbers. Besides this it should be noted that this company experienced significant decline among subscription rate to its services.

The answer of AOL’s management to these challenges was repositioning its business to content provision which is characteristic of such companies as Yahoo!, Google and many others. It meant that AOL company significantly reduced the scope of its Internet services provision for subscribed costumers which was inefficient due to dramatic decline in number of subscribers.

For instance, in 2005 AOL realized a broadcasting of 8 live concerts via Internet and thousand of people continuously downloaded different videos and clips from AOL site.

Different options for the users were introduced through the platform AOL 9.0 Optimized including personalized greetings which enabled the users to hear her or his names while accessing mail alerts and basic functions and logging in or out. AOL users could access various greeting accorded by the voices of famous actors and actresses such as Patricia Walden. These innovation considerably enhanced the consumer confidence and made AOL popular again guaranteeing its comeback as one of the leaders of multimedia industry.

AOL also considerably diversified its services to include more multimedia activities, options and services which goes in line with similar policies and tactics undertaken by other companies’ operating in the industry. For instance, AOL announced its plans for offering classic TV programs for its subscribers without any fee but with stipulation that different commercials would be inserted using its IN2TV service. When launched this multimedia service already included vast video and television library of Warner Bros. company including Welcome Back Kotter as its main offering. Besides this other shows and programs were included such as Scarecrow, Growing Pains etc.

The strategy of embedding TV programs without fee in Internet services is characteristic of modern trends in multimedia industry development as it allows combine other multimedia services, advertising, interface managements, consumer options and plug-ins guaranteeing interactivity which is one of the most important characteristics of multimedia products.

In 2006 AOL company decided to change its price policies and informed its customers that is going to increase the const for its dial-up services and access to nearly $26. These changes were part of AOL new management strategy to its remaining users of dial-up to the broadband internet since the new price was the same as AOL charged for DSL access to Internet. However, the situation changed when the anticipated transitions had not taken place and AOL had to continue the earlier price policies.

The transition to all-embracing multimedia strategies continued when in 2006 AOL announced that it stops its software and e-mail account which were previously available to paying subscribers which characterizes the shift from its Internet access commercial activities.

This decisions leaves few remaining paying users with a challenge whether to continue their contracts with AOL and hence is perfect conscious decision affected by new technological and marketing challenges. The basic assumption that underlies this decision may be described as following: new free service may draw new customers to AOL web-sites where many commercial and advertisements are placed and hence the AOL competitive advantages will considerably grow in comparison to such companies as Microsoft and Yahoo! which have been offering free services for many years.

Furthermore, AOL decided to cut its operating costs by ceasing to use American call centers for provision of customer support. Thousand of employees were faced up with sudden lay offs which closed all call centers in the United States. These centers were outsourced to the territories with cheap labor conditions such as Thailand, Philippines, Argentina and some others.

To sum it up, the conditions of high competition that are characteristic of multimedia industry push AOL to dramatic changes in its service provision, management and marketing strategies. We saw that this company had to make a sea change to its business activities in order to stay competitive in the global multimedia market and occupy a good niche in it.

Nintendo

Nintendo is another multimedia company which like Electronic Arts specializes on video games but what is more important on developing gamin consoles, content readers and software. Nintendo is large multinational corporation which passed through several stages in its development. After being found it was a company producing hanafuda cards and only in the mid-twentieth century it radically changed the orientation of its activities becoming multimedia company. The marked value of Nintendo is tremendously high amounting $85 billion dollars which is the third largest value among Japanese multinational corporation. Therefore, Nintendo may be compared to such multimedia companies already discussed as Sony and Apple.

Apart from producing some of the most popular and wide-spread video games brands Nintendo owns popular sport teams such as Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Hawks and some others. Nintendo has been for many years the largest console manufacturers which conditioned its many-folded business and commercial contacts and cooperation with companies operating in global video game industry. For instance, Nintendo has firm ties with Electronic Arts.

Recent years in Nintendo’s development were marked with significant success. It launched its Nintendo 64 line which became the third console for video games being sold at the international market. Game Cube, the sixth generation console was also launched in 2000 occupying new niches at international market and leaving Sega, Microsoft Xbox and other rivals far behind.

From then on the sea changed had appeared in Nintendo’ price policies strategies. It decided to orient production at long-standing popular franchises capitalizing on reduction of cost and law price for the customers. It immediately had a positive effect on company’s sales which rose dramatically in several years strengthening company’s positions in stock exchange markets and reputation among consumers, contractors and rivals. As of September 2007 Nintendo has managed to sell about 22 million Game Cube systems becoming a records man in gaming console market.

Wii gaming console which followed after Game Cube was marked with significant improvement of multimedia controls allowing user to play games without touching buttons and joystick. Besides this the console contained speaker and other multimedia devices that allowed the provision of sensory feedback to the user and which could be used to turn off or switch on console.

Such technological innovation are the credo of Nintendo as the company spends more than1 billion dollar for Research and Development every year. The discussed console includes feature that allow it to be connected with Internet through a wireless adaptor and play Nintendo games on its Internet service.

Therefore, there is no denying the importance of the fact that multimedia strategies of Nintendo go in line with the similar endeavors of other companies such as Electronic Arts and Microsoft which make all necessary efforts to integrate their businesses in Internet which is regarded as business paradise for contemporary gaming business.

Cooperation with Sony and various Japanese and South-East Asia animation companies allowed Nintendo integrate new graphic and technological innovation into games making them up-to-date orienteer for other company, that is to say a light in the tunnel of global multimedia and gaming industry serving as a map for rivals and contractors.

Booming sales of Nintendo’s Wii and DS portable resulted in the incomes of the fiscal year growing up to 75% making Nintendo unattainable for its rivals (England and Finney, 2002).

The Game Boy is another recent development which is recognized as major sales priority. This console is designed as handheld and portable device with low weight, easy interface and interactive interface. It quickly became one of the best-selling game systems in the with sales amounting to 188 millions units of hardware.

The success of this game console model should be understood in terms of Nintendo’s revisited approach to consumer policy and marketing. The launch of Game Boy productions line was preceded by careful market examination and children and adolescent focus-groups analysis.

The research showed that creating compact and portable gaming console would be particularly advantageous for these categories of consumers since they would play games everywhere and not just in their homes.

Portability and compactness thus became the main reasons for increased returns on assets invested in Research and Development and production (Nintendo Company Limited, 2007). Beginning from 2004 Nintendo started production of its DS handheld gaming console which was distinguished by the availability of two displays one serving the role of touch screen. Among the multimedia innovations introduced one should mention built-in microphone and various supporting wireless standards and protocols such as IEEE allowing consoles to interact with each at the distance. Besides this Wi-Fi wireless technologies were introduced to install communication between DS gaming consoles through the Internet using browser system which was sold separately.

New system was created to enhance creativeness among programmers and designers since it left a wide space for innovation and not standard patterns of games design (Wingfield, 2007).

The diversification and glocalization managerial policies for this gaming console were realized through regional innovations and custom-tailored decision. So for Europe and the United States Nintendo issues DS Lite gaming console which was tailored for the specific needs of American and European customers. These new gaming consoles were sold at the amount of about 48 million units allowing Nintendo to occupy comfortable market position vis-à-vis Sony Play Station and other gaming consoles producers. Therefore, as the facts suggest Nintendo has significant priorities and perspectives in this segment of multimedia industry which results from its successful marketing, R&D and sales policies and managerial decisions.

To sum it up, this section provided the analysis of six important companies in global multimedia industry which have both similarities and differences.

First of all, the companies differentiate on their scale, overturn, number of workers’ employed, nomenclature of products and specific niches they occupy in global multimedia market. Some of the companies analyzed are not purely multimedia such as Apple as they produce hardware and some other additional equipment though they also have significant positions in multimedia market and hence shouldn’t be disregarded. Such companies as Bird Studios located in London specialize on the narrow spectrum of multimedia services as products thought that doesn’t mean that they are not effective.

Each company has its own priorities which are realized according to available resources and strategies. Such company as AOL shows that radical transformations and restructuring which sometimes means dramatic changes to the scope and types of business and commercial activities may be needed to maintain competitive advantages in tremendously competitive multimedia market.

There is no denying the importance of the fact that modern globalization and technological developments also pose significant challenges to the discussed companies since they should search for decisions and policies designed for capitalization on the conditions of globalized markets and its trends. This is particularly the case for the companies which operate in the areas with high salaries and social responsibilities for they automatically become less competitive vis-à-vis Chinese and South-East Asian companies which capitalize on cheap labor. Besides this permanent innovation, research and development and effective costumer solutions are indispensable for multimedia companies’ strategies. Marketing strategies and internet business activities are also crucial for creating favorable business conditions for these companies.

Comparison of multimedia companies using Collyer et al. model

The first value of comparison is the number of the workers employed by the companies. First of all it characterizes companies’ size and indirectly the technical orientation. We divided six companies under discussion into three groups to determine which of them fall into a given group.

Permanent Employees in the companiesBelow 500500-1000More than a thousand
Name of companyBird StudiosElectronic Arts, AOLSony, Apple,
Nintendo

We see that the majority of the companies analyzed fall into the larges category with a number of employers higher than thousand. This situation can be explained by the fact that we consciously chose such companies that would help us best to assess the contours of multimedia market and trends that exist in it.

Years in Business1-10 years20-40 yearsMore than 40 years
CompaniesBird StudiosAOL, Electronic Arts, AppleSony, Nintendo

We see that the youngest company operating in multimedia industry is Bird Studios which should be regarded as the creature of multimedia boom in its own right. It appeared when the trends for developing multimedia sector were already in place and initially oriented itself at specific sphere in multimedia. Such companies as AOL, Electronic Arts and Apple are also the product of this reorientation but to a smaller extent. At last Sony and Nintendo are the oldest companies.

Nintendo started its activities in the mid-19th century as the producer of the playing cards and became multimedia company through a difficult pass of transformation and development. This is also true of Sony which started its pass as a radio company which started to produce the first commercial radio sets in Japan.

Activities of the companies discussed also vary considerably.

Types of ActivityName of company
Software, mediaApple, Sony
Internet, mediaAOL, Apple, Sony
AnimationBird Studios
Video GamesSony, Electronic Arts, Nintendo

We see that the activities of the majority of the companies under analysis considerably intermingle. Such powerful corporations as Sony and Apple engage in different types of activities including production of software, media and even hardware as in the case of Apple corporation. Hence they fall in the majority of the categories that we classified.

Bird Studios being a specialized service provider and producer of animation is presented only in Animation table and Electronic Arts and Nintendo being video games and gaming consoles manufacturers par excellence are presented in video games’ column along with Sony Inc. which is famous for the production of its Sony Play Station gaming console.

The discussed companies differentiate considerably on the issue of strategies and approaches used to foster better economic performance.

Number of Companies
Order of MentionCommitmentClient FocusTechnical CompetenceCreativityBusiness AcumenReputation
Name of CompanyAll companiesNintendo, Electronic ArtsAOL, Bird StudiosEA, Sony, AppleAOLAll companies

We se that all companies regard commitment as important factors. Video games manufacturers such as Nintendo and EA pay particular attention technical competence. EA, Sony and Apple believe that creativity is a crucial parameter of effective business. AOL as a company that recently considerably transformed its priorities realizes the importance of business acumen and finally all companies understand that reputation and consumer confidence are among the most importance factors of success.

What company I would like to work for

There is no denying the importance of the fact that all multimedia companies described in this report have significant advantages that can be motivating factor of my employment. But to be more precise in my choice of a multimedia company to work for I will try now to outline the reasons and orienteer for my decision. AOL company is not stable now since it radically transformed the direction of its business activities and the type of service it provides to its costumers. Recent decline in its stock values and grandiose lay offs in that took place in the United States postulates the fact that it is not a proper place for me to work.

I have considerable qualms concerning working climate in this company and its future prospects of development. Such companies as Sony, Nintendo and Electronic Arts are prestigious companies that pay a great emphasis on the career growth and developing of human capital. But the last two being specialized in video games productions are not appropriate to me in terms of my professional orientations as I am more interested in software and media content design. Among the companies left in the list I regard Apple as the highest priority for my future employment. It can be explained by several crucial factors.

First of all, Apple has managed to overcome different hardships which characterized the development of this company through the nineties. Now economic performance of the company are very good notwithstanding some skeptical remarks from the representatives of other companies. Apple managed to occupy new niches in multimedia market starting the production of iPod and launching its Internet services. Hence, I regard Apple as the most perspective company among all that were discussed here and hence I choose it as the future place for my work.

References

Amor, D. 2000, The E-business (R) evolution: Living and Working in an Interconnected World. New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR.

Apple Inc. 2007, . Web.

Bird Studios Website. 2007.

Cantrell, Amanda. 2007, , CNN. Web.

City’s Sony Workforce in Dark over Factory Future; Firm to Cut Jobs and Close Factories, 2005, Daily Post (Liverpool, England).

Cohn, Cindy. , EFF, 2006. Web.

England, E. and Finney, A. 2002, Managing Multimedia, Addison-Wesley, London. Holahan, Catherine, 2006″Will Less Be More for AOL?”, Business Week.

Markoff, John, 2007, The New York Times. Web.

(PDF) 8. Nintendo Co., Ltd. , 2007. Web.

Power, T. 2001, E-Business to the Power 12 – the Principles of Competition, Pearson Education.

Sony Global. 2007, External Awards and Recognition.

Thompson, A. Arthur. 2005, Electronic Arts and the Global Video Game Industry, McGraw Hill, New York.

Wingfield, Nick and Yukari, Iwatani Kane, Wii and DS Turn Also-Ran Nintendo Into Winner in Videogames Business, Wall Street Journal, 2007.

Yang, Catherine. 2005, “Has AOL Met Its Match?”, Business Week,.

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