Product Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Product Assessment - Essay Example A product could therefore be rendered obsolete due to its inability to meet the technical, functional or other aspects whereas other products in the same line of operation may be consistently meeting these conditions. This paper will assess this idea with relation to the market of compact cassettes in the US. 2.0 Compact Cassettes Commonly known as cassettes with some even calling them audio cassettes, they use a format of recording where the utilization of magnetic tapes. The sales for this product has constantly been going doing in the US market as very few people are becoming more and more modern. The target market for audio cassettes has always been the young generation who spend most of their life time in the rural areas. According to the demographic data of the US released in April 2013, the total population is slightly above 315million people. Out of this populace, about 82% are inhabitants of the cities leaving other people approximating about eighteen percent in the rural ar eas. These therefore are the ones that are targeted by the compact cassettes due to the fact that the technology in the rural areas has not been escalated to higher levels as seen in the urban areas. Additionally, those who aren’t in a position to access compact discs are even better suited to use the compact cassettes. Another dimension on the same issue is that the compact cassettes use common gadgets like radio cassettes which are not wholly dependent on technology (Lee & Winzenried, 2009). Others like the CDs require complicated machines and depend on the technical ability and aspects of the user. The rate of unemployment in the USA, according to the same statistics, has crossed the 7% mark which means that most of these people will opt for cassettes in larger scale to cut on their costs. The disposable income for this fraction of the entire population is low thus should devise other means of survival whereby low cost products will be sought for. However, the market for t hese products has been going down considerably and the same may face an imminent decline. The sales being registered have gone down tremendously and although these products are still performing well, peoples’ interest in them is becoming scarce by day. This has been rendered true by a myriad reasons, most of which the cassettes have failed to satisfy. Technical obsolescence takes the center stage in the whole affair. The advent of CDs and other gadget that purpose to serve the same line of business coupled with technology has superseded the old audio cassettes in spite of them being still in functionality. For example, introduction of multimedia of high quality including the DVDs have rendered the compact cassettes useless due to their unreliability and lack efficiency (Kalb, 2000). To therefore remain consistent with the advancing technology in electronics, many people today in the US have opted for other alternative means to augment their music thirst and needs. Many other version which are newer in the industry has been introduced which also gives a blow to the usage of audio cassettes. Furthermore, the technologies available in the market have gone a series of transformation thus are no longer in a position to produce the cassettes or even repair them. The cassettes