Vietnam vs. Iraq Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Vietnam vs. Iraq - Essay Example They focus more on the differences and thus any similarity, if there exists any, is rejected off-hand. Instead of juxtaposing Iraq with Vietnam, which serves as a symbol of shameful defeat for the US, these proponents who compare this war instead with Nazi or Imperial Japan that were subdued by US forced during the Second World War. There is yet another group that feels that some similarities exist but there are differences too. for example counterinsurgency operations were involved in both cases but there is no force like North Vietnam present for Iraq. Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnam has been the symbol of failed US policies and bad military choices for many critics. It is seen as the worst possible demonstration of misplaced aggression and has been influencing American voters' attitudes towards war and use of force against a third party. Thus Vietnam analogy was something US couldn't keep out of discussion. It had to enter this debate since Vietnam's example is important and every time, US administration is criticized for its aggressive use of force, Vietnam can serve as a suitable reminder. Apart from that Vietnam also shaped the political awareness of generation that now rules America. When we closely study the case in point however more differences than similarities seem to exist between the two experiences. Vietnam in 1960s was a powerful nation and one that had long resisted against foreign domination. Sense of nationalism was strong, mobilized against the French by communists and thus people took extreme pride in their own political and social structure. They did not need a third party to tell them what was right for them. Iraq on the other hand was a weaker nation plagued by years of warfare and internal conflicts. Nationalism was missing because of extreme religious and ethnic tensions. In Vietnam, United States had adopted a vastly different approach of aggression. It had started out as an insurgency that later bloomed into full scale war. That was not the case in Iraq where it had been a full-fledge war from the beginning though it later transformed into insurgency. Similarly while Vietnam was well trained and its military strength was a force to reckon with, Iraq was a fragmented military power with no support from external sources. Apart from this, we also need to understand United States' global strategic position then and now. In 1960s, there were other powers that could keep United States' military aggression in check. Soviet Union could act as a great restraining force but that was not the case now. United States today enjoys a more powerful position globally and it has greater presence in the world than it had with USSR acting as a formidable force. It was now easier for the US to move ahead and overthrow the government in Iraq which was neither the intenti on nor the result of war with Vietnam.

Cell Phones and Radiation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cell Phones and Radiation - Essay Example From this study it is clear that the technology of cell phone has eliminated the factor of geographical distances and made the general population more socially connected. The acceptance rate of the cell phone technology can be realized by the fact that from the year 1990 up till 2011, the worldwide cell phone subscriptions raised from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating nearly 87% of the world population (MobiThinking). Cell phone technology may not be all that safe. Amidst the life of convenience offered by cell phones, the potential threat the cell phone technology may have to the health of humans can get ignored. On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court in Rome (Italy) gave a ruling wherein a â€Å"causal link† was found to exist between the mobile phone and the illness of an Italian Company’s Director Innocente Marcolini, 60. Marcolini was diagnosed to have developed a tumor (neurinoma affecting a cranial nerve) on the side of the head that he held his mobile phone to for 5-6 hours a day for 12 years.   As the paper outlines Cell Phone Radiations Cell phones use a type of electromagnetic energy called radiofrequency (or simply RF) energy for communication. RF are the radio waves and microwaves. On the electromagnetic spectrum, where the energy ranges from ones that have extremely low frequencies with long wavelengths to those that have extremely high frequencies with short wavelengths, the radio waves and microwaves lie between the two extremes. In the RF region, the frequencies are in the range of 3KHz to 300GHz. Microwaves are a category of radio waves located towards the higher end i.e. range starts from several hundred MHz to several GHz. In medical applications, one supportive use is in chemotherapy where the selective tumors are heated up. Electromagnetic radiations can be ionizing or non-ionizing. Ionizing radiations are high energy radiations that strip electrons from the atoms or molecules. E.g X-rays and Gamma rays. These radiations can cause molecular changes thus damage biological tissue (i.e. can effect DNA and genetic material). The non-ionizing radiations are low energy radiation that are not powerful enough to disintegrate atom structures. E.g. visible light, infrared radiation. RF radiations are non-ionizing radiations. RF energy heats up objects, therefore it has two types of biological effects; thermal and non-thermal. Thermal effects are those where the biological tissue heats up so rapidly that the body cannot manage or dissipate the energy.

Examining The Definition Of Western Orientalism Cultural Studies Essay

Examining The Definition Of Western Orientalism Cultural Studies Essay Orientalism transfigures the study of Middle East. Edward Said defines, Orientalism as the ethnocentric way Europe approaches the Asian regions.  Europeans looked upon the people of the Orient or the East and Arabic states as gullible and devoid of energy and initiative.   The invasion of European nations proved a radical decline in the natural prosperity of every nation they stumbled upon. The matters of the European sense of superiority and interest in control can also be seen in orientalist scholarship. Backward and barbaric, fundamentally incapable of social, political, or technological modernization, these were the descriptions of the non-western societies given to them by the people of west. Orientalism is the term that signifies the existing dislike and discrimination at the bottom of the political, economic, social and cultural discourses that were created to justify the imperialist Wests invasion and domination over the non-West. In other words, Orientalism was brought o ut as a matter of historical judgment. He illustrates Asian and Islamic Cultures during European imperialism and Europes goals of maintaining power and domination of non-Europeans.He argued that Europe used the Orient and imperialism as a symbol of its strength and superiority. Said suggested that Orientalists are treated as others-in this case, Muslims and Asians-and as objects defined not in terms of their own discourses, but solely in terms of standards and definitions imposed on them from outside. Among the influences underlying these definitions was, in Saids view, a long-standing Western concern with presenting Islam as opposed to Christianity. Said divided orientalism into two categories, one is the latent Orientalism which  is the unconscious, untouchable certainty about what the Orient is. Its basic content is static and unanimous. The Orient is seen as separate, eccentric, backward, silently different, sensual, and passive. It has a tendency towards despotism and away from progress. It displays feminine penetrability and supine malleability. Its progress and value are judged in terms of, and in comparison to, the West, so it is always the other, the conquerable, and the inferior whereas manifest Orientalism  is what is spoken and acted upon. It includes information and changes in knowledge about the Orient as well as policy decisions founded in Orientalist thinking. It is the expression in words and actions of Latent Orientalism. Any humanist would see that before the west intervened, each individual culture followed to their habitat, past experiences, and past knowledge.   Even though they were not modernized they still would have survived on their own just as they had been doing it for centuries.  Ã‚   However, a race of people could not be heartless enough to admit their destruction with a clear conscious and no remorse.   They would not pack their bags and leave a deserted crippled country. Orientalism and Western domination of the rest of the world. Understanding Orientalism is useful in the context of South Asia, as it enables us to understand the relationship between political hegemony and knowledge. Said says Orientalism exposes the European will to domination to create an orderly discipline of study a set of institutions, a latent vocabulary a subject matter, and subject races. It represents the power to make philological distinctions and the institutional force to make statements about Oriental mentality, the inscrutable Oriental, the unreliable and degenerate Oriental. The concept of Orientalism is useful in analysing prevailing literature, generalised and essentialised ideas such as Hinduism and Islam. It is also important in understanding womens movements and feminist discourses in South Asia. Many South Asian women used the criticism of Orientalism to criticise literature, imaginations and situations affecting women. Yet, the idea of Orientalism and the Western imagery of the Orient can be used ideologically by extremis t nationalists and fundamentalists who suppress the freedom of thought under the pretence of defending the Orient and fighting with the West. Misunderstanding the project of Orientalism may increase hostility between people and glorify myths such as West and Orient. It is no longer desirable, in our globalised world, to say that only South Asians can talk about South Asia, or only Hindu can talk about Hinduism and explain Indian religious traditions. For example, Tibetan Buddhism was scorned again during the Victorian period, when Buddhist studies were growing into an academic discipline. As depicted by Prof Lopez, The nineteenth-century constructions of Tibetan Buddhism are part of the heritage of Orientalism, described by Edward Said as a European mode for gaining authority over the Orient, a mode whereby Orientals were controlledpolitically and epistemologicallyby scholars in Europe and colonial officials in Asia. An important part of this scholarship was the self-aggrandizing ab ility of European scholars to write histories of Oriental civilizations that identified their origins, their classical periods, and their decline. The last of these (also called the modern period) was marked by decay and impotence. The modern period was also contemporaneous with European colonialism, one of whose products for the West was knowledge about the East. According to the exponents of this new field of knowledge, the facts and artefacts of the classical period were rescued by the emergent Western scholarship from the custody of the Orientals, who failed to recognize them for what they were and hence lost any right to them. The Orientalist would henceforth speak for the Oriental through heredity of scholarship whose task it was to represent the Orient because the Orient was incapable of representing itself. This representation of the East by the West carried with it the valuation of what was true and what was false, what was worthy and what was worthless. Furthermore, accord ing to Edward Saids  Orientalism, the texts produced by European Orientalists had the power to create not only knowledge but also the very reality they appear to define by delimiting the object of knowledge. Said argues that Orientalism also had more directly political effects: its representations of the Orient provided a justification for imperialism and a foundation for colonial policies and institutions. (Prof Donald S. Lopez Jr, 1994) Iraq is the ultimate illustration of how Orientalist conventional wisdom had it wrong.   Arguing that this Orientalism has driven America to contempt and discriminate against the Orient, and eventually to invade Afghanistan and Iraq as well as arousing certain public opinion against North Korea, may be criticized for its ignorance or exaggeration, especially when the world has observed the events of September attack (9/11) and the North Korean nuclear weapon issue.During the past two centuries Europe has ideologically constituted Asia in relation to itself with the purpose of putting its hand in it. In the past decade, Asian music and culture has spread throughout the West like poppies. The problem is that this Orientalism is still present, long after the imperialist invasions. Bushs policies are the evidence for the existence of Orientalism. The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming that Iraq had Weapon of Mass destruction (WMD) and that Saddam Hussein was an unforgivable dict ator. As the supposed Weapon of mass destruction (WMD) have not yet been found and as Hussein was the representative of Iraq, chosen by its people, it is natural that the Iraqi people pronounce curse against Bush. With the amount of west intervention in Iraq, it was not possible for the US military force to occupy Iraq forever. During the Bush administration, he announced that the US military force will be withdrawn upon the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq, the US will probably still try to dominate Iraq in one way or another as long as they have an oil interest in Iraq. Their dominance, however, will not last for long, and the US army cannot help but leave Iraq. This is just a matter of time. Americans or people in the world felt over 9/11 attack. Nobody can deny that 9/11 was an atrocity that aroused anger around the world. The world, however, is aware that the broad antagonism of the west especially Americans against the Arab world was one of the main causes of 9 /11, and that the terrorist Bin Laden himself was, in the past nurtured by the US to fight against the USSR. In other words, 9/11 was a trap set by the US themselves then. The war in Iraq, perceptions have proven particularly relevant to the conduct of military operations. However, because Western outlook of this critical region, and forming the personal collection of most Westerners, are predetermined by each individuals experience within his/her culture. This experience is mostly shaped by the images, ideas and impressions retained from exposure to popular culture, media and more or less elaborate programmes or readings, and depending on ones educational accomplishments, personal or professional interests. The common characteristic between all these individual experiences, as far as the Middle-East is concerned, is that they are all immersed in a predominant consensus or discourse about the representation of this critical region of the world. Likewise, the launch of the Arabic lan guage Al-Jazeera satellite channel nearly ten years ago, transformed the television landscape in the Middle East. And over the past three years the channel has gained global reputation and became a name which governments and decision-makers across the world can hardly ignore. Even, In  The Lord of the Rings  film trilogy, the costumes of the Haradrims, a human race who allies itself with the enemy, are Middle-Eastern in style. When children are fed this kind of negative bias against the Middle-East, the subliminal cultural consciousness of whole generations is enduringly and profoundly impacted. The normality of such bad depictions clearly illustrates what several Western intellectuals qualify at best as acceptable political in correctness directed against Middle-Easterner The war declared on terrorism after the massacre of 9/11 in New York, with the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq, revives this tradition of improving interventionism by carrying on the old orientalist-related topic. Far from destroying the Great Divide between the West and the Rest, the wars of a new type support and separate the division between civilized and barbaric in the era of globalization. The explanation of ideology of the American, according to which there would no longer be outside or inside, because no country would now be released from terrorism. What now prevails is a sober vision of globalization, that of a fight to the death between two worlds, extending over all continents, between America, and the Islamic terrorism. But this originality goes back to schemes that are as old as the United States itself, insofar as this self-proclaimed exceptional, autonomous and providential imperial republic has an idealistic or ideal component qualified as es sential. Edward Said also refers to the medias ability to control and filter information as an invisible screen, releasing what it wants people to know and blacking out what it does not want them to know. To accomplish his goal Said sets up a methodological argument within which he addresses three main concepts. First, that imperialism is not about a specific moment in history, but rather a continuing interdependent dialogue between subject peoples and the dominant hegemony of the empire. Secondly, through the production of popular western literature authors have maintained a sense of continued supremacy upon subject peoples. This theorization that postcolonial domination has been institutionalized within western literature is a reference to the idea of a continuing interchange of ideas between dominant culture and oppressed peoples. Lastly, Saids comparison of colonialism to racism is integral to his argument about the continuation of oppression in a postcolonial environment. Throughout his analysis of culture, he focuses on the limitations of subjugated peoples within western culture and the reasons for their continued oppression. In Covering Islam (1997), Said postulates that, if knowledge is power, those who control the modern Western media (visual and print) are most powerful because they are able to determine what people like or dislike, what they wear and how they wear it, and what they should know and must not know about themselves. Said claims that untruth and falsehood about Islam and the Muslim world are consistently propagated in the media, in the name of objectivity, liberalism, freedom, democracy and progress Conclusion In this contemporary world, there is at least more than fifty percent intervention of the west towards the rest of the world. Edward Said argues in Orientalism, his landmark 1978 study of the relationship between the production of knowledge and the exercise of imperial power, the attitudes and images created by this tradition compose a closely bound system of created knowledge, of willed human work, about the Eastern other which the imperial powers of Europe and North America have historically used to invite and justify political and economic intervention and imperialism. Critics who have studied Orientalism in Europe, especially in nineteenth-century literature, have pointed out that there is much that can be learned about the Wests image of itself through the way Western writers have depicted the Orient. The influential popular magazine, The National Geographic, established in 1988 used to represent a window on the world for millions of middle class Americans at a time when movies and televisions were either not yet invented or in their infancy. The plain picturesque coverage of the Middle-East, by this magazine, showed the Arabs as exotic Orientals Mass media and movie industry developed throughout the twentieth century to become the main spreader of information, images and attitudes about the region to the public at large. The Arab Muslim progressively became a figure in American popular culture. No one can deny that orientalism has made great contributions to the study of Arab culture and history, and to the religion of Islam. Orientalists were and still are standing as experts in Arab-Islamic culture. They accumulated very rich knowledge and experience in this field of inquiry. In fact they made tremendous contribution to research, translation, and ultimately to the preservation and indexing of Arab-Islamic heritage.

Lightrail Is A Good Idea :: essays research papers

The installation of a light rail transit system in Austin would be a step in the direction of progress for Austin’s traffic problem. Austin’s present traffic situation is atrocious. There seems to be no real plan on how it will be fixed and paid for. The Capital Metro buses are the only form of mass transit in Austin. The buses run for college students and go around campus and off campus. The buses that only travel on campus never have a very high ridership, where as the buses that go off campus always tend to be overfull. This is where light rail comes in. Light rail is a term that come into being only in the last thirty or forty years. It refers to an electric railway system, constructed in the 1970s or later, characterized by its ability to operate single or multiple car consists, trains. It travels along exclusive rights-of-way track at ground level, on aerial structures, in subways, or in streets. It can board and discharge passengers at station platforms or at street, track, or car-floor level. Light rail can also refer to an electric railway with a "light volume" traffic capacity, as opposed to heavy rail. Light rail may use shared or exclusive rights-of-way, high or low platform loading and multi-car trains or single cars. Also known as "streetcar," "trolley car" or "tramway.† Opponents of Austin’s proposed light rail system usually say that a better solution to Austin’s traffic problem is to add more lanes to the highways and add more miles of road. They also say that the city needs to maintain the current streets better. Houston is a good example of what good roads can do to help traffic problems. Houston Metro, Houston’s transit agency, spent $700 million on 88 miles of carpool lanes in Houston. Carpool lanes, or high occupancy vehicle(HOV) lanes, are lanes that are separated from the main highway by barriers and require that a vehicle be carrying at least two people to use them. The extra HOV lanes have reduced Houston’s overall traffic congestion by six percent. In Katy, southwest Houston, the HOV lanes have reduced congestion by 14 percent. Houston has done a good job with improving their highways, but there are some downsides. Even though the HOV lanes have helped to reduce traffic congestion in most places by up to six percent, they are now carrying more people than designed for.

A World Without Water Essay

Water is one of the essentialities of life on earth, without water life will not exist. Water is everywhere, we can find it from the foods we eat and beverages we drink. It has also many uses in our daily lives like cleaning ourselves, washing the clothes, watering the plants and others. Water can also refresh us during hot days of summer, like swimming. When we go to supermarkets we see different products which contain water. All living organisms need water, without it, they will die. Humans, being a living organism need water to survive; we do need water but it must be clean and sufficient in supply. But what if there is access to water but the water is too contaminated? Or there is really no sufficient supply? Or the place where there is water is too far from home? That will be a big problem for those who will or currently experiencing this kind of situations. Water is a need and not just wants; clean water is needed in every community not only to survive but also to function well . Each one of us whether rich or poor has the right for available clean water. The film â€Å"A World Without Water† is an eye-opener. It shows how rich survives and poor tends to die because of dirty water, lack of supply and accessibility. Too sad to see people of a certain community being deprived by their own land’s water supply, they become envious while looking at a clean fountain of water in a certain company as shown in the video. The worst, big companies that are abusing their powers seem to have no considerations to the people of the community being affected by their operations; their only concern is to gain money. Those people that have money to buy their products do not know how others suffer just for them to drink a bottle of coke, and watching this film might change their mind. This kind of privatization is just too greedy, they own what they must not own, safe water is becoming scarce and those companies just had a selfish idea that is worst than water pollution. Safe water is a right. Moreover, I can be an advocate in the future that will regulate or at least control privatization and support the right of each one of us to clean and safe water. But for now, as a student, what I can do is to conserve water, appreciate its importance to us, and minimize consumption of bottled drinks like canned softdrinks; I can also encourage my friends to do the same thing and spread it through social networking sites. I could say that I am more than lucky that I have easy access to clean and safe water from birth and up to now. How I wish that Bolivians and other people suffering from deprivation of their own right of safe water will also have easy access to clean, safe and sufficient water.

Competition in video game consoles Essay

Competition in Video Game Consoles: The State of the Battle for Supremacy in 2008 1. What are the strategy-shaping business and economic characteristics of the console segment of the video game industry? What is the industry like? 1-1 Segmentation: The industry was segmented into console hardware, console software (both sales and rentals), handheld hardware, handheld software (both sales and rentals), PC software (both sales and rentals), broadband, interactive TV, and mobile phones. 1-2 Market Size: Table 1: Size of the Global Video Games Markets, by Sector, 2000, 2003, and 2005, with Projections for 2010 ($ in millions) | 2000| 2003| 2005| 2010| Console hardware| $ 4,791| $6,047| $3,894| $5,771| Console Software (both sales and rentals)| 9,451| 16,449| 13,055| 17,164| Handheld hardware| 1,945| 1,501| 3,855| 1,715| Handheld software(both sales and rentals)| 2,872| 2,238| 4,829| 3,113| PC software (both sales and rentals)| 5,077| 3,806| 4,313| 2,955| Broadband| 70| 497| 1,944| 6,352| Interactive TV| 81| 249| 786| 3,037| Mobile phones| 65| 587| 2,572| 11,186| | 24,352| 31,370| 35,248| 51,292|. Source: Informa Telecoms & Media, â€Å"Games Market to Score Big in 2007,† press release, October 24, 2005, and â€Å"Games Industry Boom Continues,† press release July 24, 2003, both at www. informamedia. com (accessed September 8, 2006). As we can see the table above, the market size has grown from $24. 352 billion in 2000 to $51. 292 billion in 2010. In other words, the video game market becomes bigger and bigger. 1-3 Market growth rate Table 2 Compounded Annual Growth Rates For the Video Game Industry 2000 – 2005 and 2005 – 2010 (projected) | CAGR (2000-2005)| CAGR (2005-2010)| Console Hardware| -4. 1%| 8. 2%|. Console Software (both sales & rentals)| 6. 7%| 5. 6%| Handheld hardware| 14. 7%| -14. 96%| Handheld software (both sales & rentals)| 10. 95%| -8. 4%| PC software (both sales & rentals)| -3. 2%| -7. 3%| Broadband| 94. 4%| 26. 7%| Interactive TV| 57. 5%| 31. 04%| Mobile Phone| 108. 7%| 34. 2%| Total| 7. 7%| 7. 8%| CAGR is compound annual growth rate. The formula is(VtnVt0)1tn-t0-1. V (t0): start value, V (tn): finish value, tn ? t0: number of years. The numbers above are calculated from table 1. 1-4 Entry/Exit barriers The three existing companies are one of the entry barriers of other potential companies that would like to enter this market. Video game industry needs huge capital to invest on research and development department. Also, the entrants need to recruit skillful engineers and other talent staff to develop the products and make efficient marketing strategies. Combinations of all the entry elements, the entry barriers level is high for the perspective entrants. However, the software development is easier to enter this market than the hardware part. Potential entrants only need to focus on the software for the existing companies’ hardware products. This will have less cost than develop entire hardware and software. 1-5 Scope of rivalry. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are the three main companies in the video game industry. Before 2001, there was one more competitor, Sega, in the market. It tried to compete with Nintendo and Sony but it finally was out of the industry in 2001. After 2001, video game industry has entered new war. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft compete with each other by gaining sales and increasing installed base. Play Station 2 from Sony has significant unit sold in $299 each; however, its newest generation, Play Station 3 has not successful result in the market. Play Station 3 was beaten by Xbox and Wii which are from Microsoft and Nintendo respectively. As the result, Nintendo and Microsoft were substitute Sony to compete the leadership position in recent year. In addition, the retails which those three main companies sold their products in are in the price competition. Furthermore, console technology, online gaming, and mobile gaming has gradually changed the competitive situation. The impressive technologies become important for the competitive companies to develop new generation console. Also, game software enter new world which the internet is common, so the online game is on the trend that is expected to continue to increase in market. According to the mobile phone using population increasing, the games are installed in the mobile phone are in the increasing trend also. In short, the video game industry rivalry has become fierce. 1-6 Scale economies According to produce the entire console hardware, a company cannot manufacture all components by itself. Therefore, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would like to produce large amount of console hardware to reduce the costs. They choose to ally with IBM, maker of GPUs or Intel to get components to assemble their console. Because those ally companies need to offer not only one buyer, they can produce large volume for the buyers. Thus, the price would be reduced by huge amount of production. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo can through this way to reduce the production cost and reach the economy scale. 1-7 Consumer characteristic. There are 300 million population played video games which include console system, handheld devices, and mobile phone all over the world in 2008. Most of them are preteens, teenagers, and young adult who are between 20 and 40 year-old. In 2005, the average age of players is 33 in US and there are 25% of gamers who were over 50. In addition, there are 31% of all gamers are under 18 and there are 44% of players were 1 to 49 year-old in 2005. Moreover, there is 62% of players are males. 2. What is competition like in the video game system industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest? Which is weakest? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness and the potential profitability of new entrants? 2-1 * The bargaining power and leverage of buyers—a __weak_______ competitive force First of all, retailers almost do not have bargain power because they only can buy the products in those three companies. A retailer cannot buy the product from other companies and they may need to sell more than one brand to attract different customers taste. Therefore, they only have low bargain power. * The bargaining power and leverage of suppliers—a ____moderate_____ competitive force Although it is easy for video game companies, such as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, to switch the suppliers, the large suppler still contain bargain power. The bargain powers come from special technology, unique parts, and risk of quality control. The small suppliers cannot guarantee the quality of products. Moreover, if those video game companies require unique components, then the suppliers may have bigger power to bargain. In short, the hardware component suppliers have bargain power but the video game companies have ability to change suppliers also although it is not very easy. In addition, video game software suppliers are in the different situation which compares with hardware suppliers. Software suppliers may have bargain power if they make a very wonderful game or they can bargain for the sales of hardware volume. If the sales of hardware console are not good, the software companies may not be willing to produce the software games. However, those video game companies have abilities to produce the software. They can publish their own game software. Therefore, software suppliers may not have bargain power as strong as hardware suppliers. In short, integrate hardware and software suppliers’ competitive forces. Suppliers have moderate bargaining power. * Competition from substitutes—a __weak to moderate______ competitive force Video game is for people to spend their leisure time. Except video games, people can do outdoor activities, board games, watching TV, seeing movies†¦etc. for their free time. Those activities may not instead of the feeling of playing video games but this depends on how video game players like to play video game. According to the data, video game enthusiasts can spend 6 hours per week to play video games. Therefore, those people usually do not do other activities in their free time. In short, there is no activities totally the same with video game but there are still other things that players can do to instead video game. Thus, the substitute force is low to moderate. * Threat of entry—a __weak_______ competitive force. Due to the entry barriers, it is not easy to enter this industry. The requirements of entry are high. In order to enter video game industry, entrants need to invest large capital and possess enough technologic skills to compete with the existing companies. Furthermore, the existing companies have higher ability to stay in the industry and have strong competitive products to threaten new entrants. Consequently, the threat of new entry has weak competitive force. * Rivalry among competing video game console producers—a __Strong_______ competitive force There is strong rivalry within the industry. As we can see, Sega was forced to withdraw from the industry in 2001. The existing three companies have started competing with each other keenly. They continue to develop their products, to compete sales volumes and price. As long as one of them does not pay attention to each other action, they may lose a lot. Therefore, the competing within video game console producers is strong. 2-2 The strongest competitive force is rivalry among competing video game console producers. The weakest competitive force is threat of entry. The competition from substitute is the greatest effect on industry. Because there are no substitutes which can provide totally the same experience for consumers, this is the greatest attractiveness and the potential profitability of new entrants. 3. How is the video game system industry changing? What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those driving forces individually or collectively change competition in the industry? Driving forces will include: * Product innovation The development of software and hardware of console is an important driver to push the industry to change. New technologies can attract individual buyers to purchase. The enthusiastic consumers may want to obtain newest games, so they may be easy to change their favorites. Also, new development can force other producers to improve their products. A new innovation product can be success in the industry. Then, it may give pressure to other competitors to improve their products. Therefore, product innovation is a driver of change. * Emergence of new video game devices The new video game devices are a driver to let the producers to change their products because new devices may improve the products and may be a trigger of consumers’ willing to buy. When a new device comes out, a producer does not catch up the trend and then it may be kicked out the market. Moreover, a new device may become a trend in the industry and may trigger a new competition war. * Emergence of internet-based video games Internet-based video games allow multiplayers at the same time. Also, the players may change their purchasing pattern. Internet is convenience for the consumers to purchase new games and has accompanies to play games device so it will enhance the products become more vivid and convenience to possess. Therefore, internet-bas video games become a trend in the industry. The major players of industry have started to develop their products to allow users to player through wireless networking. Therefore, the producers are making change to fit the consumers’ new using and purchasing pattern. * The buyer characteristics The players characteristics are gradually change. There are more young adults and female to become players. This trend attracts the producers to consider the buyers age and gender. They have started to design the console and games to match those buyer segment needs. For example, the goal of Wii is even mom can know how to play it. Therefore, the consumers’ segment change can impact the industry trend and push the major industry players to change the design to feed the different segment of players. * The aspect of society The aspect of society is change in this decade. Parents are willing to accompany their kids to play video games. They think some video games can let people to use their brains to think and some video games can help people to do exercises. For example, some games may use particular barriers that push players to figure out what element they need for enter the other stages. Moreover, many sport games of Wii are required users to move their body. Thus, many people think that video games do not only require users to stick in front of the screens and just move the fingers but also require users to operate their brains and move their bodies. Therefore, many video game console producers have started to change their design to fit more potential customers’ needs. 4. What does your strategic group map of the video game industry (all segments) look like? Which strategic groups do you think are in the best positions? The worst positions? Types of Video Game Suppliers/Distribution Channels. Strategic Group Map of the Video Game Industry Arcades Machine Arcade operators Home PC game suppliers Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo Home PCs Video Game Consoles Several online game site: MSN game zone†¦etc. Online Video Game Sites Low Medium High Cost to Players of Video Games Arcade operators can distribute for the arcade machine and little part for home PC use. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo produce games that can be use on home PC, video game consoles and online games. The online video game supplier may distribute the games to online use and may have little part for video game console use. Arcade game costs players very little. Sometimes it just cost few coins to play and players do not need to buy the machine back to homes. Home PC game players have to buy PC and they just can play the games or they may need to go to some Internet bars. Therefore, the cost is highest. Video game console cost players around $100 to $400 to purchase a hardware console. For the online video game sites, they may just cost few dollars from players to download the games. 5. What key factors determine the success for video game console producers? Factors that are necessary for competitive success in the console segment of the video game industry include: * Large installed base While the installed base is getting more and more, the producer company could be profit from the increasing installed base if the producer develops its internal game capabilities. Nintendo and Microsoft have this strategy. Nintendo has published many popular games and those software operating profit margins contribute around 35% to 40 % of Nintendo’s profitability. Also, independent game publishers also benefit from the large installed base because they can have increasing continuous sales. * Technological capabilities According to the improvement of technologies, every industry players are eager to develop the new products that the new technologies ameliorate them. This is because consumers have required more and more functions and quality of the products. They want high definition, easy to use†¦ etc from the products; therefore, every producer is entering the technological capabilities war. The technological abilities can help producers offer better products to attract customers to purchase. * Partnerships with independent software developers. Those software developers are important for the hardware game console producers because there is no fun without game software. Many players have â€Å"must have list. † This is just like the fashion world. People who pay attention on fashion trend know what should be had. Thus, â€Å"must have list† is the fashion trend in the video game industry. Therefore, partnerships with independent software developers are one of key factor that can push the video game console producer to succeed. Those partners can develop the popular software to urge the sales of video game console producers. * Acceptable development and production costs The price of the console should be reasonable for consumers. If the price is too high, the product may be like PS3 to fail in the market. Because Sony spent a lot on developing the better technologic component for PS3, it priced PS3 in $499 and $599 each to charge customers. However, the new design of PS3 did not completion yet at the launched time because PS3 had only 24 PS3 game title can backward compatible with PlayStation and PS2. The development of PS3 is not acceptable and blue-ray technology was too expensive. Therefore, the incompletion development and high production costs are transferred to consumers. The result is PS3 fail. In short, acceptable development and production costs are one of the factors can determine video game console producer will succeed or not. * Access to distribution Retailer distribution: this is the common distribution channel of hardware and software console. Those retail stores, such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best-Buy, Flyer’s and Amazon, have high consumers’ density. Due to the development of internet use, online retailers become popular and contain powerful sales. Online download: Because of internet-base becomes a trend, many console producers have developed the online gaming. Hence, internet becomes a potential way to distribute the online game products. Product variety: Some video game producers have variety products. For example: Nintendo produces hardware console and software console game. The software console game cannot only use in Wii but also can use in PC, PS2, or other hardware console. Thus, as a software game publisher, Nintendo access to more than one distribution for its software game. In short, how to access to more distribution is also one successful factor of video game console producers. 6. Which console makers seem to be best able to perform the industry’s key success factors and other measures of competitive strength? What ratings do Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo merit in a competitive strength assessment? | ImportanceWeight| SonyStrengthRating| SonyStrengthScore| MicrosoftStrength Rating| Microsoft StrengthScore| NintendoStrengthRating| NintendoStrengthScore| Large installed base| 0. 25| 7| 1. 75| 6| 1. 50| 9| 2. 25|. Technologicalcapabilities| 0 . 15| 9| 1. 35| 9| 1. 35| 7| 1.05| Partnership with independent software developer| 0. 15| 8| 1. 20| 8| 1. 20| 8| 1. 20| Acceptable development and production costs| 0. 25| 6| 1. 50| 7| 1. 75| 8| 2. 00| Access to distribution| 0. 20| 8| 1. 60| 8| 1. 60| 9| 1. 80| Sum| 1. 00| | 7. 4| | 7. 4| | 8. 3| (Rating Scale: 1=very weak; 10=very strong) General speaking, Sony with PS2 has performance very well in the industry. However, Xbox had beaten Sony’s PS3. Then Nintendo’s Wii has very strong performance to become industry leader. Thus, Nintendo seems to have best performance in the industry. The table above shows the ratings and scores of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft have the same score, 7. 4 and Nintendo has higher score, 8. 3. Although Nintendo do not have strong technological capabilities, it has powerful marketing strategic and variety products to access more distribution. Its product can reach more population to use and weaker technological capabilities become its strength to increase the sales volume. Therefore, I gave rating 8 for the acceptable development and production costs which is higher than Sony and Microsoft. Therefore, the overall rating of Nintendo shows that it has best performance in the industry. 7. What recommendations would you make to Microsoft to win the next generation battle in the video game console industry? to Sony? to Nintendo? Microsoft According to the revenue data, we can see Microsoft has less revenue than Sony and Nintendo. Also the sale unit of Microsoft products are not as mane as Sony and Nintendo. Therefore, I recommend that Microsoft should increase sale volume of its products. Xbox may be popular in America but how about Asia? Asia is a potential place to increase the sale. Therefore, Microsoft may need to create the new generation product can fit more population taste. Sony Sony should remember the lesson of launching PS3. Although it had pressure to launch PS3 earlier, the product was not ready yet to public. This situation can drag more profit down than launching PS3 later. Therefore, I recommend that Sony should make the marketing plan well and prepare more than one back up plan to face the rivals’ new products. Sony should have ability to predict or estimate actions of competitors. Nintendo Nintendo has strong performance of its Wii. Wii is design to reach more population so the key features of Wii are not as strong as Sony Play Station and Microsoft Xbox. Now, Wii has been successful to reach more population, and then I will recommend that Nintendo should figure out how to improve its technological abilities. The consumers cannot be always satisfied with the simple designs. Moreover, Nintendo has famous software game such as Mario Brothers. The game is many people childhood memories. Nintendo could make serial products for the special anniversary of Mario Brothers. Many people would like to collect the serial products, such as the first generation Mario Brother game. This is Nintendo’s strength and Nintendo should use it.