Design and innovation management refers to encompass the ongoing processes, business and product development and strategies that enable innovation and create effective design of technical devices for services and communication. Design management is cluster of quality, modification, improvement and consideration of customer needs that helps organization to develop products. Present report will discuss the intellectual property of Xperia that is produced by Sony and identify as well as analyze the product portfolio associated with product. Sony is one of the leading company in telecommunications industry that manufacturing electronic deceives for consumers and professional market. Organization is offering superior technical devices to customer. Sony is an initiator of innovative design and innovation in technology for smart phones and other electronic devices. In the next part, report will carry out FMECA analysis to analyze the problem occurred during the use of Xperia and perform the comparison with other brand products that are equivalent to smart phones of Sony in current situation. Further, it is essential for business to apply house of quality which is a conceptual framework that provides inter functional planning and communications. Also, there are people with different problems and responsibilities that can thrash out design priorities while referring to the patterns of evidence on a house grid.
Intellectual property refers to as creation of mind such as new inventions, design, symbols and operations for developing new products and services. Intellectual property is protected by laws, in which patents, copyrights and trademarks are considered by people to earn recognition for quality and physical property of products of Sony (Cornish, Llewelyn and Aplin, 2013). By striking the right balance between interest of innovators and wider public interest, the main objective of intellectual property is to develop a positive environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish. Through applying house of quality matrix it consists of widely recognized method. It also translates customer requirements based on marketing research and bench marking in order to deign a new product. In telecommunication industry Sony is considered as leading technical device manufacturing company that is producing high quality electronic and communication tools such as smart phones, LED, music system and laptops which having highly integrated function and intellectual property. Sony is one of the premium brand in world that known for superior technical communication devices like Xperia that is performing well in international market and helping organization to sustain position in industry. Following are the key intellectual property of Xperia that is helping organization to develop creative and innovative design and striking features that persuade customer to buy products of Sony.
Copyrights: This is a legal term used for describing the rights that Sony corporation have over their design and innovation for Xperia phones (Landes, Posner and Landes, 2009). Organization holds the copyrights of design of phone which includes body structure, color combination, style and screen size. In that, top management keeps the rights which can not be copied by any other phone manufacturing company in the world. In addition to that, innovative features like camera, OS and applications that are developed and used in Xperia includes intellectual property of Sony's technical device and for that, organization have the copyrights for selling and manufacturing. Key functions like Triluminus display, waterproof body and micro-location, operating bit and sensors that used in Xperia can not be copied in any other brand tills that organization has purchased copyrights from Sony corporation to implement that technology in their technical devices.
Patents: The term patent refers to power of developer in which it holds the rights to prohibit others to use or export the design, creativity and technical specification for phone and other technical innovation that develop by Sony corporation in manufacturing of Xperia (Bently and Sherman, 2014). According to patent rights, other competitor organization like Samsung, Microsoft and Apple that produce technical devices in same industry can not use the specific function or software that has been developed by Sony to promote their new product Xperia. Organization has the patent rights for creativity, applications and graphics that are used in manufacturing of Xperia include their intellectual property.
Trademarks: This is intended for keeping other competitor companies out from confusing people into thinking or trusting other brand. In that, Sony corporation has labeled sign of company logo on all specific software, technical tools and packaging. In addition to that, Sony is making the appearances of a product and specification including color, texture, size and logo on the smart phone like Xperia which company offering in international market (Biagioli and Galison, 2014). Company is using trademark in generic terms to protect the product and services from copying by holding the rights.
Intellectual property strategy of Sony corporation: Organization is dealing in technical device's development and application business, in which Sony is having forth position in all around the world according to brand value and sales of products. In that course, top management of company has established intellectual property protection for Xperia smart phone. For that, organization has performed market research to develop strategy that involve all relevant and applicable rules and regulations which is helping them to protect specific functions and key features from copying from other organizations. In that, top management is following simple strategy as Sony is endeavor to low-cost protection to overcome the financial expenditure that directly influence the prices of Xperia phones. For example, as organization pay for holding the copyrights, patent and getting the specific trademark, management includes that cost in the basic prices of phones according to market as well as demand of devices (Lerner, 2009).
In addition to that, rights of intellectual property may vary according to nations and legal framework that influence the decision making process of Sony corporation as company performing business in different countries. Organization monitors the whole process and activities of competitors companies to protect their intellectual property for Xperia products. For design and innovation, company had agreement with strategic partners in which they can not disclose the information and process of development of phones (Yang and Maskus, 2009). Organization holds the copyrights of design of Xperia which includes body structure, color combination, style and screen size. Sony has the patent rights for creativity, applications and visual communication that are used by it in Xperia phones included their intellectual property. Sony corporation is making the visual aspect of a product and specification including color, texture, size and logo which involved in strategy of intellectual property of Xperia smart phone.
Product portfolio is collection of different items that sold by Sony in their targeted market. In that, each item typically make different contribution for organization to develop a good impression of company as well as get the competitive advantage. For Sony, product portfolio is design and innovation that company produce for Xperia phones helps to maintain the brand image of company (Autio and Acs, 2010). By such matrix it helps business to analyze the customer needs and thus provide them products as per their choice so that they can attain results. Broader product portfolio offers more choices to customers which create opportunities for organization to get the attention of targeted customers.
A key decision of Sony for Xperia is developing the technical device in low cost and capture the market growth by placing an effective marketing that increase product demand and help organization to develop more impressive portfolio for Xperia smart phone. According to Boston growth-share matrix, Sony has generated revenue of ¥7.767 trillion in 2014 as compared to Microsoft that achieved ¥73.0 billion. According to analysis of growth-share market, Xperia smart phones are having high-growth, high-market share product. The cost of the product need to be designed as per the requirements and thus it should attract customers to purchase the product.
Portfolio of Xperia: Sony is a leading organization in the world having more than 42 million satisfied customers around the globe. For that, company has worked hard to develop effective and impressive design and applications for Xperia smart phones which is helping company to capture high growth in market by offering superior services and functionality for customer that gives them unique experience of using their products (Branstetter, Fisman, Foley and Saggi, 2011). Sony is offering quality features in their Xperia phones that are as follows:
These are some key functions and features that may vary according to phone that produce by Sony by creating new techniques and applying modification in technology. The top management of organization make decision for designing portfolio and product specification. By applying Boston matrix, it is considered that products of Sony are taken as star category in which Xperia smart phone is having high-growth and high market-share that is attracting customers to buy the products. The associated products of Xperia such as watch and Play Station tools are also working as cash cows for company as the producing low growth and high market-share in targeted market segments. House of quality consists of building technical benchmarking, competitive benchmarking and target values so that product can be designed effectively as per the choice of clients.
Current sales of Xperia and associated products: In the current scenario, Sony has released the latest version of Xperia series that is Xperia Z2 and it is nearing 10 million sales already which consider as best ever for smart phones of Sony (West and Mace, 2010). According to Boston matrix, this product of Sony has created the highest margin of sales for new product which consider as star product of company that gain high-growth and high market-share by starting sales. This kind of performance in international market has motivated Sony corporation to generate more cash cows that refers to fluent sales of products in desired market segments that aid organization to hold top position in market by selling the highest numbers of technical devices in industry.
Now, organization is aiming to deliver 25 million Xperia by end of the year. In addition to that, organization has also launched associated products like watch, tablets and Play station tools for Xperia that help to improve the work of phones. In addition to that, Sony has developed Xperia Z2 by analyzing the major issues of Xperia Z and take customer review for designing more effective smart phone for global market. For that organization has made some specific changes in battery, camera and size of screen to encourage the sales of products. The top management of Sony has effectively analyzed the issues and manufacturing and develop effective product range to meet the customer needs (Cusumano, 2013). In the international market, Xperia has picked up the additional 7.5% of total base while other smart phones of Sony has gained just 4%, as some issues find in the phones which has influenced the sales of Xperia Z.
Organization has effectively analyzed the potential market and developed strategy for marketing and creating awareness about the Xperia which has shown in their sales evaluation. The performance of Xperia Z2 and Ultra is far better than the Xperia Z R/L and Z compact, that indicates that organization is improving the quality, market growth and market share which is good for upcoming products of Sony.
Failure mode: According to analysis, some key issues have been find out in Xperia during the use of that such as heating, camera lens and covered edges that hampering the use of this technical devices. In Xperia Z compact, it was find that phone is generating heat which consider as big failure for Sony company and their product. In addition to that, price of product is very high compare to other phones available in market (Waterson and Doyle, 2012). In the current market segments many other smart phones are considered as better than the Xperia Z2 and plus as they are offering better services and software in android, NFC, video chat and custom key that support for managing speed of 150mbps. In user services, the second major issue find out that is fast drainage of battery that not giving the long-lasting services as organization mention in their statement.
Analysis of effectiveness: By comparing the functionality of Xperia Z2 with the other technical devices, it is considered that Samsung has more effective features like 5.5 high resolution retina HD display with more interactive features and dual-core 1.4 GHz processors. In addition to that, high-tech camera with HDR and Panorama app is also a great feature of Xperia Z2 which estabilsh it different from other compamy's devices (Gerpott, Thomas and Weichert, 2013). Company is offering high quality ram, sensor, graphics and application which pleasing their customers and helping to sustain top position and market. In the effectiveness of Xperia Z2, the security function Sony is offering with Xperia series is far better than other smart phone. User can manage their private information and important data for other people.
Critical analysis: There is no doubt that Sony is most preferred brand in the world and offering quality technical products and services to customer with unique features like touch ID, watch, Sony store, phases detection auto focus camera that works brilliantly in all conditions. In spite of that there are some issues in the Xperia Z2 like data transferring, bugs, Android and less use of operating system based application (Sharma, 2011). However, organization is producing the best technical devices for all types of users but still this product is not for all users like South and East Asia where people giving preference to Android smart phone. In addition to critical review of all these services and legal rights, Sony has the patent rights for creativity, applications and visual communication that used by Sony corporation in Xperia are their intellectual property. Sony is making visual aspect of a product and specification including color, texture, size and logo which involved in strategy of intellectual property on Xperia. In spite to that, organization is being claimed for piracy and copay of patent rights for the various operation and functions that is used in development of products.
In sales organization has craft improvement by involving local culture as well as determining price according to income level of targeted market (Depken. and Gregorius, 2010). However, organization has improved market share by effective marketing with specific activities but organization still need to work on the policies and functions to encourage the sales. In that, manager assigns and explains the task to employees in which planning, monitoring, testing and implementation of process of product development and delivery will be mentioned. In addition to that, it is responsibility of employees to understand the process and make appropriate decision according to condition to meet the objective of Sony.
In the following report, 'Xperia' has been taken as product 'A' against which a new product has to be developed. The criteria for development mainly depends on a QFD analysis. QFD is defined as a Quality Function Deployment to bring out the personal interface and uniqueness in its product. It is followed by some basic functions that a company has to follow while commencing QFD analysis. They are:
As per the regulations mentioned under QFD analysis technique, a new product shall be made with some innovative features. The significant elements that a new product may possess in order to compete with Xperia Z2 may include the following techniques:
A survey should be conducted to get user's views. It could be in various forms such as questionnaire, electronic mail survey and various other methods depending upon the choice of concerning associates. A particular amount of population is taken to get the respondent's opinion.
The positive quality features have been determined which were lacking in Xperia Z2. Those features have been considered as the key hold to make the new product unique and different from the existing competing product. The key features that have been analyzed which make both the products distinctive and makes the new product unique are:
Including the water proof facility has been observed that influence in providing waterproof function to its user. In addition to that NFC provided to allow easy transfer of data from one device to the another. This function is added in the new product which is more user friendly as compared to the existing item. Removable battery is another advantage which is provided in the new product. It is not available in Xperia Z2 which creates a chance for consumer complain. The new item has observed and analyzed such complains and created more convenient model for the user to operate.
Budgetary range is the key feature where Xperia Z2 is lacking far behind the other products. The series of Xperia is very costly that it is not affordable to middle class person under society. Focusing on the same issue, the new product series provides budgetary range which is easy to be purchased by every class of person. Hence, the target market of new product is more wide which eventually increases sales of the new product.
A strategy has been made by observing the policy of Xperia Z2 It is analyzed that company offers product as a sign of status symbol. It makes the product unique and sophisticated than other phones. Hence, the new product could be made in two variants. The low end variant is introduced for the middle and lower class people while the top end version will target the royal class people being the sign of status symbol. It will eventually increase the sale potential of the new product in the market.
An intelligent plan has been made to market the product. According to the QFD analysis, certain parameters have been analyzed to make the product successful against Xperia Z2. The parameters that may prove to be necessary may includes:
From the above report, it is considered that intellectual property of Sony is helping organization to maintain and sustain market position as well as prohibiting the competitor organizations from copying functions, apps and design of Xperia. In the next part, report has explained key sales statics of Xperia and associated products offered by Sony to their services user. In the end, report has performed FMECA analysis to evaluate the performance of Xperia Z2 in different markets. Report has also developed a new product specification in comparison to Xperia Z2.
