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Business Concept: Assignment #1 1

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Business Concept: Assignment #1 1. What problem does this concept solve or what pain does it alleviate and how compelling is the problem? This concept alleviates several things. It reduces the burden of carrying wire charger. It also solves the problem of being worried that you might run out of power while doing some important tasks. This product is very secure, easy to carry and therefore, it’s fun and it solves the problem of battery anxiety. It is very convenient to use and improve customers’ safety. It decreases the frustration of incompatible cables and cracks and chances of getting electrical shocks. The problem is really compelling to certain group of customers including corporate executives, who travel often, college students, and some other normal people, who use the Internet excessively for fun such as playing video games and watching shows. 2. Who is your specific target customer? My specific target customer is Apple, and few other retail chains that carry apple products such as BestBuy and WalMart. In addition, my customers could be individuals, who owns Apple products such as college students, professors, corporate managers and institutions that heavily uses apple computers such as Ischool at Akron University. 3. How do they currently meet this need for themselves (what are the Next Best Alternatives)? Customers are currently meeting their needs by using wire charger that is currently available in the market and there is no next best alternative to it. College students, who often forget to bring their charger, are meeting their needs by renting a charger from the Lab in their school. 4. What is your proposed product or services? Describe what it is and how it works? The proposed product of mine is the wireless charger for Apple computers, and it works for both the MacBook and the iMac. This product has two parts to it such as power receiver, which looks like an USB and the adaptor. The power receiver goes into the one of the USB ports available on the computer and the adaptor should be plugged into the power outlet and it works in the similar way that Logitech wireless mouse works. 5. Explain how your concept is better than the next best alternatives (value proposition) This concept is better than the next best alternatives that are wire charger in several ways. This product is better than wire charger in terms of its performance and the consumer safety. To illustrate, the wire charger for Apple that is currently out in the market has four diodes, transistor, receiver, circuit board, aluminum coil and few other things. This wireless charger will also be designed with same items in it; however, with better performing diodes and receiver than the Apple currently uses in their products. Diodes is simply a small electrical device that converts alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC), and Improving the diodes aptitude results in increase in the rate of charging time. Adding more aluminum coil increase the performance of receiver, which also contributes in getting more power in the short period of time. Next, this charger is designed while considering consumers’ safety; wireless charging provides a convenient, safe, and reliable way to charge and power many devices at home, in the workplace and in industry. While removing the use of physical connectors and cables, wireless technology provide a number of efficiency, better performance, lighter, which is easy to carry, and safety advantages over the traditional charging cable. 6. How many target customers did you talk to about this idea? Explain your methods and process for collecting validation data? I talked with 79 customers altogether and based on that I conducted a survey asking few questions such as what laptop brand they use, whether or not they prefer wireless charger, how much they are willing to pay. My target customers are from variety of backgrounds such as students, professors, health professionals, bankers and other regular people, who use apple computer in their daily activities. [Please find my survey result in the appendix] 7. How large are your markets and how fast is it growing? Cite your sources. Market size or the potential market volume can be obtained by multiplying numbers of users and market penetration rate. Therefore, Apple computer’s penetration rate in the United States: 11% (globalwebindex), and the numbers of Apple computer users are 55 millions (according to usatoday.com 2012 data). So, mathematically my market size is approximately (11% * 55 million) which is approximately with 6.5 million users. Based on yahoo finance date, growth rate for the company is estimated about 7.5% this year and 13% for next year and it is also estimated that the company will grow at 13% per annum for next five years (finance.yahoo.com). 8. What industry or industries will you compete in (include NAICS code in response), and who are your main competitors? At this current stage, there are no identified competitors to me because this product is new to the market; however, I am competing in the PCs industries, the potential competitors could be Apple. The NAICS code of Apple is (NAICS 111331). In terms of my main competitors, Apple, Microsoft, Dell and few other PCs chain could be my main competitors in the future. 9. How large your industry in terms of sales volume and what is the industry growth rate? Cite your sources Based on my market size data, my sales volume would be market size of users in numbers times the estimated average price of my product. Therefore, mathematically, 6.5 million users multiply by average price of $ 51 per charge, which is about $ 3.3 billion. (Numerical date obtained from theusatoday.com 2012). According to the yahoofinance.com, apple computers are estimated to be grow at 13% per annum for next five years; therefore, based on apple users growth, I believe my product market will grow at 5% in the worse case and 10-13% is the best case. 10. Why do you think the idea is viable at this time? Provide primary and or secondary research data that supports arguments? Based on the changing demographics, who enjoys the usage of technology; this idea is viable at this point. In addition, this idea not only offers convenience, but also safety such as less risk of getting electrical shocks, easy to carry, and could help to minimize the frustration of incompetent cable and cracks. Please find my primary research date that supports my argument under the appendix.