INF70005 Assignment: Strategic Project Management of Apple iPod Case

This report critically evaluates the strategic project management employed in the launch of the Apple iPod. It begins with an executive summary, highlighting the importance of strategic project management for organizational success, emphasizing its role in optimizing project timelines and budgets. The report then provides an overview of Apple Inc. and the iPod's background, followed by a discussion of standard project criteria and their application to the iPod project. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to identifying and justifying the strategic project management criteria crucial for the iPod's success, analyzing factors like market timing, competition analysis, and user experience. The report also includes a detailed case analysis, examining how Apple leveraged strategic project management to overcome challenges and achieve market dominance, particularly in the digital music space. It stresses the importance of understanding the customer needs and market trends. The report concludes with a comprehensive analysis of how strategic project management was implemented and its impact on the project's overall success.

Running head: STRATEGIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Strategic Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Strategic Project Management technique is extremely essential for an organization. It not just
ensures proper propagation of any project, but also the strategies used for the project guarantees
that the project time as well as budget would be much minimized than projected. It also adds to
the advantageous process of increasing positive response for any project as well as the
organization. Thus, the strategic project management and its advantages have been clearly
analyzed about the immensely successful project like the Apple iPod on the concepts of strategic
project management. This has been identified well with the description about the background for
the renowned organization Apple Inc. and one of its most successful projects of launching the
Apple iPod, followed by discussion of the standard criteria for the project. Further, the report
includes the critical identification and justification for the criteria required for the strategic
project management for Apple iPods and critical analysis of the case. Thus, this presents a proper
insight for the implementation of a successful strategic project management with the help of this
report, which helps in the benefit of the project as well as the organization as a whole.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of Apple Inc. and the Apple iPod............................................................................3
Discussion of Standard Criteria...................................................................................................5
Critical identification and justification of the criteria required for Strategic Project
Management................................................................................................................................6
Critical analysis of the case.........................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Business organizations do not always attain success with all their projects for the clients.
However, the understanding of the implementation of a strategic project management in any
organization can be clearly understood with not just the failure of a project but also with the
success of a project (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Strategic Project management is the intelligent
planning and progression of a project that helps a company in achieving the competitive
advantages. In addition to that, this technique also helps in reducing the operational costs as well
as helps in removing lags in a project and reducing delay time.
Thus, the strategic project management and its advantages can be clearly analyzed when
an immensely successful project like the Apple iPod would be analyzed well on the concept of
strategic project management. This would be identified well with describing the background for
the renowned organization Apple Inc. and one of its most successful projects of launching the
Apple iPod, followed by discussion of the standard criteria for the project. Further, the report
would include the critical identification and justification for the criteria required for the strategic
project management for Apple iPods and critical analysis of the case. Thus, this would provide a
proper insight for the implementation of a successful strategic project management with the help
of this report.
Background of Apple Inc. and the Apple iPod
To take notes about the successful implementations of Strategic Project Management, it
is not only necessary to put forward the notoriously failed projects but also to scrutinize the ways
by which a project has attained supreme success earning a huge positive reputation for the

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organization it has been under (Andersson and Chapman 2017). Thus, it is justified that the
project of launching the product Apple iPod by Apple Inc. be analyzed since it has been such a
hugely successful project and has as a whole worked in favour of the organization Apple Inc.
Since the early 2007, Apple Inc. has riding success with its launch of iPhone ranges and
has become immensely successful both culturally and economically (Vukomanović 2016). The
founder of Apple Inc., late Steve Jobs had tried to strategically use hardware as a vehicle to
deliver further unique creations by the organization since the time of its inception. The
organization had just not focused on manufacturing devices but had also launched uniquely
designed interfaces, services and apps that proved to be one of Apple’s Universal Selling Points.
Apple had implemented the strategy of providing its customers with not only a uniquely
designed device but also with excitingly new software.
However, for the organisation of Apple, it was not the iPhone models that has drastically
changed the business. It was on 23rd October 2001 that Apple has launched its simple yet unique
digital music player call the Apple iPod which has a storage of 5 GB of Music and had a
compact figure of a sleep white box looking in nothing bigger than a deck of cards (Ugonna et
al. 2016). The organisation chose its own campus to launch the first portable digital music player
that the organisation had manufactured. The first time Apple had launched its digital music
player people were sceptical about Apple's future when they started to sell its consumer a
digitized music gadget. However ironically it was the very product of iPod that had become
immensely successful for Apple by the year 2004 (Nagamia 2015). Therefore, Apple iPod had
been successful in specifically breaking all the myths and legends that the critics had pointed out
about its manufacturing and selling from the organisation of Apple. It can thus be said that the

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Apple iPod has been a game changer for the organisation of Apple which was indeed a very
strategic movement by the organisation.
Discussion of Standard Criteria
As for the organisation of Apple which mainly manufactured software and electronic
devices the Apple iPod has been remarkably different item that was criticized at many points of
time after its launch in 2001 (Hennessy and Najjar 2017). Many people have criticized the
organisation of Apple for launching this product which was nothing more than a digitized music
box. However, there have been few standard criteria for the organisation of Apple which would
be described as below:
Goals of a project: Right from its Inception Apple has been a remarkable company that
had some set priorities and goals. However for any project the standard criteria of making any
project obtain a full-blown success is by making the product and services of the organisation
procreate completion before that time frames or within the time frames with the cost that would
represent the organisations best possible value for the benefit of the customers as well as the
stakeholders of the organisation (Barringer 2015). Similarly for Apple iPod it was also the
similar requirements that would produce the best quality of digital music devices enabling a huge
storage unit for the benefit of the customers. In the similar way any ideal project should proceed
through strategic project management procedures and techniques adopted, Apple also wanted to
complete its project of iPad in the given amount of time that is before 2001 within the projected
amount of money to be spent on it.
Lowest Possible Cost: The Apple iPod was the brainchild of the founder of Apple
Incorporation, Mr. Steve Jobs, who had discovered that along dormant technology that apple had

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invented much before 1999 had a long potential in the near future. This technology is known as
FireWire any to the serial bus standard enable data that happened to be transferred attitude speed
in comparison to the normal time standards. Digital music was found in this time frame and does
within 2001 Steve Jobs wanted to finish the manufacturing of the Apple iPod so that it could
grab the most market of existing and potential customers and have the opportunity to grab the
entire market which was made easier with the launch of its unique and one of a kind compact
digitized music box (Wilson 2018).
Lowering of Cost: Digital music was expensive and easily prone to be plagiarized
providing the least acknowledgement to the original creators. With implementation of the Apple
iPod and its launch Apple incorporation so wanted to nab the illegal file sharing market with its
unique sharing site called Napster (Chikhale and Mansouri 2015). It is also necessary that Apple
Incorporation completed the entire process within a certain amount of budget so that it never
goes overboard. Had that being the situation the price in the market for every Apple iPod product
would not be the same and it could have been a possibility that the products were Limited and
expensive.
Critical identification and justification of the criteria required for Strategic Project
Management
There were many places where strategic project management were used within the
organisation of Apple Incorporated for the launch of their product of iPod. Critically evaluating
the entire situation where apple had launched its digital music system with huge Storage Area it
could be said that Apple incorporation tried to make the most of a situation making equally well
use of time money and market (Kerzner 2018). At that era in 2001, digital music was only

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coming into being and was in its nascent stage. Sharing, acquiring and storing of digital music
files were not that simple and it also caused illegal sharing of files. Apple wanted to implement a
system that would stop the illegal file sharing and that is why it brainchild the idea of Napster.
The way by which Apple had successfully though about the idea of implementing
strategic project management in this case had been the finding of problem in the situation. In
pitiful plight of the market of digital music in the late 1990s had also been the inception of one of
the biggest strategies that Apple had used for setting up an almost monopoly over the market and
potential customers of the digital music (Wyrick and Myers 2016). Although, there had been
portable digital MP3 players since a long time before the iPods were launched, the user
experience was not at all satisfying according to a standard user while scrolling through a huge
number of songs. Neither did the players offered more space than worthy of a CD (Ugonna et al.
2017). This is the opportunity that Steve Jobs utilized in manufacturing their own digital music
players in the face of iPods making them compact in user experience, with the implementation of
a 1.8 inch and 5GB hard drive from Toshiba and for storing the digital music and providing an
easy navigation through the songs (Larson et al. 2014). All of these were strategies that took
advantage of the shortcomings of the contemporary world of digital music. This was done
through a strategic project implementation of surveying and analyzing the competitors and the
market.
The idea of launching a unique and self-made digital music device with a compact body
and huge storage area was proven to be extremely popular. Even before the launch of the iPods,
Jon Rubinstein found that the idea of having an iPod was uniquely satisfying from the
perspective of a user because it provided them with a compact body just like the handheld
computers. Moreover, it was oddly satisfying to navigate easily through the songs easily. In

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another case, Apple had put forward the iPod to somewhat compete against the digital music
launcher product for Philips, called the Audible (Svejvig and Andersen 2015). Therefore,
strategy behind the project progression had been the complete market analysis and proper time
for the launch, providing huge market grabbing opportunity for both the product as well as the
organization.
Critical analysis of the case
Critically analyzing the Strategic Project Management technique that Apple Inc. had
implemented in the launch of their digital music device called the iPod, presented how strategic
project management is necessary to implement for the success of a project. The organisations
and made it happen by utilising the proper timing of the launch and a proper and successful
market analysis before making the project public. Of all the market research that has been
conducted by the organisation for the launch of the Apple iPod it was also considered that the
latest digital music revolution was still in the market and devices to store and play the music files
when not new to the customers (Abushova, Burova and Suloeva 2016). Therefore Apple Inc.
utilised the negative features of the contemporary digital music devices and utilise them to
manufacture the Apple iPod keeping in mind all those negative features and producing area wise
model which did not possess those flowers that the contemporary music devices had.
However, there also has been one negative impact of the strategic project management
technique that Apple Inc. had used and that is the market price for the device. It is a known fact
that Apple Inc. always use is quality product and Hardware for their software or devices but for
an average user it becomes impossible to get hold of an Apple device (Heagney 2016). The

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product have been extremely successful as a whole from all aspects only if it had been more
reasonable in pricing.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the above report about the successful implementation
of the strategic project management technique of the Apple iPods that a Strategic Project
Management technique is extremely essential for an organization. It not just ensures proper
propagation of any project, but also the strategies used for the project guarantees that the project
time as well as budget would be much minimized than projected. It also adds to the
advantageous process of increasing positive response for any project as well as the organization.
Thus, the strategic project management and its advantages have been clearly analyzed about the
immensely successful project like the Apple iPod on the concepts of strategic project
management. This has been identified well with the description about the background for the
renowned organization Apple Inc. and one of its most successful projects of launching the Apple
iPod, followed by discussion of the standard criteria for the project. Further, the report includes
the critical identification and justification for the criteria required for the strategic project
management for Apple iPods and critical analysis of the case. Thus, this presents a proper insight
for the implementation of a successful strategic project management with the help of this report,
which helps in the benefit of the project as well as the organization as a whole.

10STRATEGIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT
References
Abushova, E., Burova, E. and Suloeva, S., 2016. Strategic analysis in telecommunication project
management system. In Internet of Things, Smart Spaces, and Next Generation Networks and
Systems (pp. 76-84). Springer, Cham.
Andersson, T. and Chapman, R., 2017. Project strategy for product innovation: the strategic
project management framework. International Journal of Project Organisation and
Management, 9(4), pp.328-349.
Barringer, B.R., 2015. Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Pearson
Education India.
Chikhale, M.M. and Mansouri, M., 2015. An agile and collaborative framework for effective
governance to enhance management in large-scale enterprise business systems: The case of
Apple Inc. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 16(3), pp.283-293.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Hennessy, J. and Najjar, A., 2017. Apple Computer, Inc.: Think Different, Think Online
Music. Kellogg School of Management Cases, pp.1-24.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2018. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley
& Sons.

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Larson, E.W., Gray, C.F., Danlin, U., Honig, B. and Bacarini, D., 2014. Project management:
The managerial process (Vol. 6). Grandview Heights, OH: McGraw-Hill Education.
Nagamia, N.K.A., 2015. Apple Inc-A Marketing Analysis Case Study. MacEwan University
Student eJournal, 2(1).
Svejvig, P. and Andersen, P., 2015. Rethinking project management: A structured literature
review with a critical look at the brave new world. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(2), pp.278-290.
Ugonna, C., Ochieng, D.E., Matipa, W. and Shah, R., 2017. Strategic project management
(SPM): An empirical perspective on the practice in public research organisations.
Ugonna, C., Ochieng, D.E., Matipa, W. and Shah, R., 2017. Strategic project management
(SPM): An empirical perspective on the practice in public research organisations.
Vukomanović, M., 2016, January. Strategic Project Management. In Future Trends in Project,
Programme and Portfolio Management 2016.
Wilson, E., 2018. Apple's Key Success Factors in the UK that Could Be Learned and Applied by
Other Companies from the Same Industry.
Wyrick, D.A. and Myers, W., 2016. Strategic Project Management to Use the Grand Challenge
Scholars Program to Address Urban Infrastructure. Frontiers, 3, p.004.