Economics Chapter OneLink: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080922/memory_cards_080922/20080922?hub=SciTech
Summary
The article I read is actually found on the CTV website which talks about how SanDisk Co., Best Buy Co., WalMart Stores Inc. and other technology companies are presenting the new music format called “slotMusic”. SlotMusic are 1-gigabyte microSD cards that are filled with new music albums in mp3 format. The article states that although albums are being sold in CDs, their popularity has been decreasing and in 2007 the amount of album CDs sold dropped almost 19%. Unlike the CDs, slotMusic works in any devices that contain a MicroSD slot such as cell phones and computers. As a result, these companies are pushing to introduce this innovative idea into the States, Europe, and possibly other countries.
Connections
The connection between the article and the concepts in chapter one is direct cost and opportunity cost. The companies that are willing to design and present slotMusic would have to deal with advertise expenses to get this latest design to the public and including all the equipments and materials needed to create it. However, the opportunity cost would be the amount of money that they could have used to do a better job in advertising album CDs. Companies would lose more sales in album CDs (as they already have been) and also possibly eliminating album CDs presence in stores if slotMusic were successful.
Reflection
There is a possibility that album CD sales will drop if slotMusic were out in the public because I think slotMusic are more useful than album CDs considering that it does not require an extra device (a CD player) to play it. Also, slotMusic seems interesting in a way because its small and handy and new cell phones and computers now have MicroSD slots that can play it. However, I’m not quite sure if it would be extremely successful because we still have mp3 players and iPods that can fit up to 8G of music. Even if slotMusic is successful in the future, a newer device may be introduced after it since technology is constantly changing and improving.
Summary
The article I read is actually found on the CTV website which talks about how SanDisk Co., Best Buy Co., WalMart Stores Inc. and other technology companies are presenting the new music format called “slotMusic”. SlotMusic are 1-gigabyte microSD cards that are filled with new music albums in mp3 format. The article states that although albums are being sold in CDs, their popularity has been decreasing and in 2007 the amount of album CDs sold dropped almost 19%. Unlike the CDs, slotMusic works in any devices that contain a MicroSD slot such as cell phones and computers. As a result, these companies are pushing to introduce this innovative idea into the States, Europe, and possibly other countries.
Connections
The connection between the article and the concepts in chapter one is direct cost and opportunity cost. The companies that are willing to design and present slotMusic would have to deal with advertise expenses to get this latest design to the public and including all the equipments and materials needed to create it. However, the opportunity cost would be the amount of money that they could have used to do a better job in advertising album CDs. Companies would lose more sales in album CDs (as they already have been) and also possibly eliminating album CDs presence in stores if slotMusic were successful.
Reflection
There is a possibility that album CD sales will drop if slotMusic were out in the public because I think slotMusic are more useful than album CDs considering that it does not require an extra device (a CD player) to play it. Also, slotMusic seems interesting in a way because its small and handy and new cell phones and computers now have MicroSD slots that can play it. However, I’m not quite sure if it would be extremely successful because we still have mp3 players and iPods that can fit up to 8G of music. Even if slotMusic is successful in the future, a newer device may be introduced after it since technology is constantly changing and improving.
