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June 6, 2007

business

Fictional Apple service used for MBA exam

Posted Jun. 6, ’07, 10:30 AM PT by Kate Marshall
Category | Business

town%20square.jpgWhat if Apple really got into the social networking game by launching an online community called “iTown?” For some lucky MBA students at the University of California, Irvine, their final exam involved this hypothetical scenario.

Leonard Lane, a professor at UC Irvine’s Merage School of Business, divided his 41 students into teams representing MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, and Second Life and then tasked them with providing business plans as part of their exam in Competitive Intelligence and Strategy. Lane then instructed his students to show how their companies would respond to the news that Apple was launching its own online community. Students were judged by four business executives, who awarded the following scores (out of 80 points):
Facebook: 62.4 points
YouTube: 61
Second Life: 60.5
MySpace: 57

[Via MacSurfer]


1 Comments

Erik said:

Actually, Apple has done something similar in the past.

In 1996. Apple launched an ISP and portal service called eWorld. It was fashioned after AOL and Compuserve. (Based on Compuserve software, I believe.

It ran for a couple of years and then was abandoned, as the business model simply didn't work. (And Apple was pretty much dying on its feet financially.)

The service had most of the features that we associate with social networking websites today.
Searchable profiles, live chat. The possibility to send each other messages.

Having said that, I'm wondering if Apple were to try to get into the social networking game today, whether it would be a hit.

June 6, 2007 1:21 PM

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