Vodite Products

Recently, there has been industry speculation that a new type of electronic product might emerge, the Vodite. Although no Vodite brands are available at the start of the simulation, industry experts have a pretty good idea of what future Vodite products might resemble.

Vodite products will satisfy entirely different needs from that of Sonite products so that demand for the two products will be completely independent. They will not be complementary in any way and there will not be any substitution from one to the other. It is anticipated that the Vodite market will be quite attractive if the right products is made available at the right price.

The expertise required of potential suppliers is similar for both markets in terms of technology, manufacturing, marketing and distribution. Therefore, your division and your competitors are the most likely suppliers of Vodites. Although the Sonite and Vodite technologies are similar, all firms will have to engage substantial R&D resources to develop their first Vodite product. Recent calculations suggest that an investment of 5 to 10 million dollars may be required for each Vodite.

Experts agree that Vodite products will primarily be differentiated in terms of the five most important physical characteristics described below. Additional details are given in Figure 3.

•      Resolution. This characteristic relate to the sharpness or clarity of the images processed by the Vodite product. A higher level of details can be observed and processed with high resolution products. Resolution should not be confused with definition, which is the total size of the image. Resolution is usually expressed in lines per millimeter (LPM), from 20 to 100.

•      Energy Efficiency. This characteristic, sometimes called efficient energy use, is about using less energy to provide the same level of performance and convenience.  The higher the energy efficiency the less electricity is used. Energy efficiency is usually improved with more efficient technologies such as smaller gates and lower frequency in microcircuits. This characteristic is measured in billion computations per watt-hour (bC/Wh).

•      Carbon Footprint. This characteristic is also referred to as greenhouse gas emission. It weights the carbon impact of the product through its lifecycle: manufacturing, transportation, use, recycling and/or discarding. It is measured in kilograms of CO₂ released in the atmosphere.

Depending on the scenario selected by your instructor, a “greenhouse gas emission” tax may be put in place by the Markstrat government. In this case, you will be notified one or two years in advance of the amount that you will have to pay if you market a Vodite product with a Carbon Footprint level above a certain threshold value (in kilograms of CO₂). This tax will appear as an exceptional cost, proportional to the kilograms of CO₂ emitted by your product above the threshold value. This tax has a fixed amount and will not depend on your volume sales.

•      Connectivity.  This characteristic measures the ability of the product to connect to varying networks and/or databases as well as the speed of the connection. Connectivity is measured by an index between 3 and 10. Higher connectivity indices guarantee that the product will be able to connect to a network in almost any situation and to exchange data at a fast pace.

•      Application programs or Apps. This is the number of application programs that can be set up and used with the Vodite product. Applications allow user to customize the product and to adapt it to their own needs. Although there are only a handful of basic applications that each Vodite product must offer, some products offer a very large catalog.

Figure 3 – Vodite main physical characteristics